Evening star., 1935-08-07
AUTHOR ON WAY
TO COVER WAR"
Laurence StalIings Takes d
Cameramen for PeriIous
Work in Ethiopia.
BY IRA WOLFERT.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

BY IRA WOLFERT.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. August (NAN.A).-
Laurence Stallings. newspaper man,
novelist and playwright, motion pic
ture writer and editor, is en- route to
Ethiopia to write and photograph for
The Washington Star and North Amer
ican Newspaper Alliance the story Of
the ominous events that are expected
to occur there when the rainy season
ends.
He is taking with him four crack.
sharp shooting photographers. men
who for the last 10 years have made
the picture history of the world. 5O,-
900 feet of film packed in sawdust. a
feet of motor trucks and motor cycles
and handsome collection of Ameri-
can flags.
The American flags, Mr.. Stallings
said in his soft and tranquil manner,
are to warn bullets to keep of, this
means you," and in addition the
trucks will have their roofs covered
with huge, luminous U. S. AS for the
urgent, attention of the bombs that
may be dropping overhead.
For further protection, Mr.. Stallings
added, he win lean heavily on the
old, hope true. adage that lightning
never strikes twice in the same place.
He was seriously wounded in the World
War, in which he served as lieutenant
and captain in the 47th Company,
Sd Battalion, 5th United States Ma
rines.
Dangers to Be Faced.
The reason for all these precautions.
Mr.. Stallings explained. is the terms
of his assignment. 1T does not in
clude," he said. covering events while
playing poker with the general staff.
We've got to go out and point our lit
tile boxes at shell holes in the act of
creation, at bullets on their way to
work"
Associated with the North Ameri-
can Newspaper Alliance in this enter
prise is Fox Movietone News. of
which Mr.. Stallings is editor. This
company has detached its ace camera
men to assist Mr. Stallings in bring
ing home the tragic story. The crew
is made up Of Len Hammond of New
York. who travelled with the 18th
Route Army in China and photo
graphed an air raid from one of the
bombing planes; Georges Mejat Of
Paris, whose pictures of the assassi-
nation of King Alexander of Yugo-
slavia and Foreign Minister Barthou
of France we're voted the best news
reel shets of 1884; Alfred waldron of
New York, for 10 years Fox's chief
White House man, who shot" the
rout of the bonus army and the at
tempt to assaSsinate President Roose-
welt which resulted in the fatal
wounding Of Mayor Cermak Of Chi
cago; and Ercole Granata of Rome.
who was official photographer for
Gen. Italo Balbo during the spectacu-
lar mass flight from Rome to the
Chicago World Fair.
Granata is already on the scene in
Eritrea. He sailed from Genoa with
% Va AIdlAdl4 oOldAClo.
Il don't want to give you the idea"
said Mr.. Stallings, that we'll be leap
ing gayly from shell hole to shell
hole, camera in one hand, pencil and
note paper in the other, and an Amer
ican flag Tapping brightly from g
pole stuck in the vents of our dashing
sun helmits. But this is a story that
can't be covered in the maddening
terms Of general stats, in terms of
electives and strategy. What we're
likely to be up against out there is the
story of a great and fearful imperial
adventure. the story of one of the
last unsubjugated primitive societies
matching its bone and muscle and
cunning against all the machines
civilized man has invented for taking
the lives Of his fellows.
Results Demand Effort.
I'VE can't get pictures of white
robed warriors putting their fur-gar-
landed shields up against a dense
packed cloud Of machine gun bullets
by reading a general staff release to
the effect that a flank attack by Col.
So-and-So eliminated 5000 enemy ef-
fectively end advanced the front line
IT inches"
Mr.. Stallings in What Price Glory"
1.-The Big Parade" "Plumes" and
"The First World War" gave readers
Humanity at War" He says this is
what he'll try to do in Ethiopia.
General stats are too busy grind
ing their axes" he said, ito let cor
respondents in on the truth. So we'll
have to let the history books pick up
with the strategy and go out and get
the real war for ourselves.
1T will be easy for me. I'll have
a typewriter to poke and a little
camera to point. It's these Gamer
men who have the job-setting a stop,
calculating an exposure, focusing, Sc
lecting a lens, plotting q field while
blood is dripping around them and
the ground shakes under their feet"
'Oh, 1t won't be so bad" said Len
Hammond, who had been listening.
IF it's anything like China. all we'll
have to hope for is that they keep
their guns pointed straight at us.
Then we know we won't get hit"
Work With Two Armies.
Mr. Stallings will work with both
the Ethiopian and Italian armies. His
headquarters will be in Adds Ababa,
Ethiopia's capital city. Hammond and
Waldron will work out of Djibouti,
French Somaliland, from which the
only railroad penetrates Halle Selas-
sees empire. Mejst will start from
Mosadiscio, italian somalilane, and
work his way inland. Granata's base
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