The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-12-31

Charles Lindbergh. With charac- teristic and justif1able disinclina- tion to take the world into his confidence no word of explanation for the exodus has come from Col. Lindbergh himself. Innumer- able reasons have been given by that vague Journalistic creation known as "a friend of the fam- ily" but none of them bears the mark of authoritativeness. Police Commissioner Valentine of New York expressed the thought that the trip was inspired by a natural reluctance to being in the country when the man found guilty of murdering their baby goes to the electric chair. The consensus of newspaper opinion, however, is that the Lindberghs departed be- cause life in the United States had been made intolerable for them and unsafe for their son Jon by the unrestrained American criminal world. It is theory for which there may be some founda- ton but that 1t tells the whole story is open to doubt. My own conviction is that the Lindberghs were driven away, if driven they were, not by the underworld of crime but by the underworld of the press. Their terror was not so much of crooks as it was of cam- era men.
 No Let-Up
 Unquestionably the peace of mind of the Lindberghs had been destroyed by the Hauptmann trial as well as by all that preceded and followed that spectacle. But Colonel Lindbergh has never been accused of being man afflicted with nerves. His exploits in the air and his daily presence in the Remington courtroom demon- strated unusual and remarkable self control. He must have ex- pected the flood of crank letters which followed Hauptmann's con- viction and rated them at their proper importance. But nothing could be more horrifying having lost one child than to have his hv- ing ones existence made a hell of fright by newspaper photogra- phers who dogged every step he took. Hauptmann's execution would take place and the flood of crank letters would subside after a time, but there was no assurance that the race of camera men would disappear, or that the ed- itors of the newsrags employing them would develop @ sense of common decency.
 The Last Straw
 It is reliably reported that two recent occurrences provided the straw which broke the back of Colonel Lindbergh's endurance of the terrors to which his boy was being constantly subjected. On one occasion a sedan load of pho- tographers was emptied out in front of the child as he was corn- ing from school and snapshot him into a panic. More recently from 8 curtained truck something which looked like the muZzle of g gun was poked through the cur- tains at the terrified lad as he was walking with guardian. The sub- sequent chase and halt of the truck by New Jersey state police men disclosed the presence not Of murdering kidnappers but of two fiash-gun operators who had been ordered by their editor to go out and get a picture of Jon Lind bergh and not to come back with out it. The identity of the paper sponsoring the outrage is known to every informed newsman in New York but none of the other journals dare publish the informa- tion. The savage irony of the sit- uation lies in the fact that the most vociferous raging against crime conditions, which are al- legged to have prompted the Lindbergh flight, is being done by the very sheet which hired the truck photographers.
 
 No Escape
 A reading of the editorial corn- ments and a study of the letters of editorial correspondents is most iIi,,nninaffva Almost without eX-