Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-05-24

The announcement Of the Pulitzer
prize awards is, as usual. the signal
for much discussion by the press as TO
the relative merits of the choices.
Comment this year is largely divided
between criticism of the drama award
The Old Maid" and universal
approval of the prize biography Of
Robert E. Lee by Dr. Douglas Freeman.
General satisfaction with a literary
prize award is about as customary as
immunity of presidential administra-
ton from criticism after it has run
two years of its course" observes the
Newark Evening News so with the
newly announced Pulitzer awards. In
the historical and biographical Sec
lions, where the prizes went to an
accurate study of the Colonial period
and a four-volume life of Gen. Robert
E. Lee, the committee of award seems
to have been safely scholarly The
play award, however, has already
started a controversy"
Regardless of arguments which have
arisen. it seems to the ASbury Park
Evening Press that: "All in all, the
Pulitzer committee showed judgment
and maintained the public interest in
literature and journalism. which was
the goal of the former publisher of
the New York World who founded
the annual awards. If there is dis
pute over the first rank awarded all Of
the Judges selections, it will hardly
be gainsaid that every piece it chose
NAV be used as a standard of achieve
ment. That, We presume, is what Mr..
Pulitzer intended
mot even a trustee of Columbia. or
a member of the advisory board is in
fallible." reminds the Jersey City
Journal, defending the awards. He
doesn't pretend to be. He has only his
own best judgment and if it differs
from that of the man in the street, that
is Just too bad. But the men on the
street could not agree among them
selves this year, and they could not
agree in many previous years, about
just which play, which novel, which
book of verse, which biography. which
newspaper deserved the awards. All
that the men on the street seemed able
to agree on was that the judges were
all wrong"
A similar opinion is held by the
Columbus (Ohio) Evening Dispatch,
which saws: I'm the main, the judg-
ments appear proper" 1t seems to
the Minneapolis Star that 1.-THE winner
usually represents a compromise" and
the Charleston wv. Va Daily Mail is
of the opinion that none of the awards
will alter at all the general feeling
about Pulitzer awards-not too good,
not too bad, sound enough perhaps,
but not exciting" To the Buffalo Eve
ming News the job seems a thankless
one. since, patiently the judges cannot
begin to please all and must inevitably
end by offending many"
1.-The principal immediate conten-
ton is over the choice of the prize
play, The Old Maid by Zoe Atkins"
explains the Miami Fla) Herald,
and this paper asserts that an adap-
tation of a novel hardly meets its idea
of an Original play" The st. Louis
Post-Dispatch, however, describes the
play as "a profoundly moving drama
of woman's sacrifice of herself for
her child" The Philadelphia Eve
ming Bulletin is convinced THE Chill
dren,s Hour" "is the most important
and absorbing play Of the year." but
suggests that Its controversial sub
ject matter. while treated with the
utmost decency and restraint, ap-
parently affected the judges de-
cision." On the other hand. the pro-