The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-14
1t
Seems
to
Me
BY HeyHood Broun

bUJ IL SetIIlS " Hle lildt illo
cousin, Franklin D, has distanced
him in the matter of making the
best available use of the press for
his own purposes. To put it blunt
". President F. D. Roosevelt has
managed 10 include the entire week
in his front-page domain. 1 haven't
actually measured the space, but
confidently venture the assertion
that our present chief executive
has won more newspaper columns
for his words, his deeds and his
intentions than any previous
President.
And if anybody suggests that
this is merely because of the fact
that we have been living through
exciting times l would reject this
explanation as not at all sufficient.
Franklin D. Roosevelt is by in
stinct and training a newspaper
man.
At A dinner of the Albany cor
respondents two years ago the
truth came out in a skit in which
it was proclaimed, In his youth
he edited the Harvard Crimson,
and he's been a little red ever
since"
Be that as it may, think this
fact explains many things. For
instance, 1 know now why failed
to get into congress while Mr..
Roosevelt attained the White
House. I tried thrice for the Har-
ward Crimson and was cut down
each time.
A SIDE from his undergraduate
"A experience, I believe that the
President never has participated
actively as a working newspaper
man. And yet he knows all the
catchWOrds. A group of repreSen-
tatives from various newspaper
guilds chatted with him informally
at the White House yesterday and
found that he was familiar with
lobster tricks slot men and
eight point Caslon."
He probably reads more news
papers than any other man in
America today. The papers watch
him closely, and he repays the
compliment. Naturally he doesn't
go thumbing through the second
section in search of the editorial
page, where there is a very fair
chance that his name will be men
toned.
Upon his desk Is laid, each
morning, the comment of the coun-
try. Sometimes the article is clipped
for him in full, and, again, he
gets merely a digest. It might
read, l suppose, that old one
Form 81 Ion the freedom of the
press" But hot or cold, he gets
them.
And after a mornings meeting
with all the journalists from Maine
to Texas, who have their own ideas
of how to save the country. l i'm
agine that Franklin D. Roosevelt
should be allowed a certain par
donable puzzlement at some of the
outcries that the press of the ma
ton is being muzzled.
Not long ago one critic of the
administration pictured the occu-
pant of the White House as a Sc
Guided individual shielded from all
contact save that of yes" men.
And yet there must be mornings
when so many editorialists are
pleading for a return of the good
old fundamentals of Benjamin
must be moved to shake his head
sadly and murmur, Perhaps 1 had
better give myself up quietly and
plead guilty"
DUT yourself in the Presidents
Il place. How would you like it
if every morning with the break
fast egg you had handed to you a
clipping from Kalamazoo saying
that YOU were not Thomas Jeffer-
son. Alexander Hamilton or Char
lC Corday.
have 81 distinct suspicion that
a number of readers are beginning
to suspect that l am neither
Shakespeare nor Flaubert, but
they keep these flabbergasting
facts to themselves and never men
ton them
If 1 ever become President, I
will do two things which are likely
to be Eag2gely criticised in the
c. cage Tribune First of all, 1
III throw all the Gilbert Stuarts
out of the White House, and, next.
l will announce that, in spite of
the treasured freedom of the press,
nobody can point out more than
twice in any one month that I am
not really George Washington. I
will admit it as soon as I am in
augurated and then punch in the
nose anybody who keeps harping
upon this Singularity.
But, on second thought. I don't
want to be President It would
Neive me a dizzy feeling to read,
THE trouble with Haywood Brown
S that he listens to too many
counselorS; the last person who
reaches him always gains the
point" and Immediately afterward
be handed another clipping which
said. The fault of Broun is that
he is just another MuSsolini. who
wants TO run the whole show with
out getting advice from anybody"
Still, 1t is pleasant to know that
public men may sometimes see the
things obscurely set down about
them. All too often I have grinned
after writing mean crack about
somebody, only to be checked bv
the thought: "Oh. what's the use?
He probably won't have it called to
his attention"