The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-03-20

| n of their viewpOint).
 item of city advertising which has not been bestowed. None of these things however, justify the Amer ican in its role of the persecuted one. Even a Democratic hand may get tired of feeding news or advertising to those who bite it in season and out, not with reason but because 1t is their nature to do so.
 Fire! Fire!
 The Americans misplaced at- tack on the writer contains Q typ- ical example of the papers news policy.
 Finally, who knows but that
 the mayor has 1t in the works
 to depOse the fire chief and slide
 FitzPatrick into the job. The
 story is going the rounds but 1t
 may arise out of nervous expec-
 tatlons. Maybe FitzPatrick can
 ket us an official correction
 that is, of course providing 1t
 really isn't SO"
 Who Knows?
 No one knows better than the author of this clumsy addition to the Americans funny page that the "story" is not going the rounds" anywhere except in his own rattle-pate. If any such fan- tastic yarn were in circulation generally, as the American states, 1t is probable that 1t would have reached these ears long ago. As 1t happened did not learn of 1t un- til someone silly enough to read the American called it to my at- tention. If I did not know the misunderstanding proclivities Of the office boy editor l might be- lieve that the gag was printed for the laugh it could not fail to get. But in view of the Americans ad- mitted policy of printing rumors, because it is denied access to the facts, no such belief is tenable. am not the mayor of Waterbury. l have not turned my back on the 100000 or more readers of the American and Republican as Hiz- zoner is accused of doing. It was possible for the American to have asked me about the rurnor that was to be slid under Fire Chief Lynch. No such query was made. The American printed the story which no one in Waterbury be- lieved for an instant was true. But no attempt was made to find out whether 1t was true or not. The point is that what happened to me is nothing different than what happened to the mayor and other members of the city admins istration. The Americans pro- cedure obviously is to print the lie and defy the truth to catch up with 1t.
 Readers, Attention!
 Not content with besmirching itself the American tars its read- CTS with the same stick. "our readers, says the funny page makeup man, prefer news or what city hall is doing as our col- umns print 1t despite the difficult ties placed in the way of reporters who gather it." It is difficult to believe that the citizenry of Wa terbury is 50 low as to accept as fact what the American prints as rumor. All that, however, is be- tween the paper and its hundreds of thousands or more of readers. If the readers are willing to take the rap 1t is all right with this commentator. After all, like seeks like.
 Personal Issue
 For some strange reason the American seems to think that the writer will be frightfully upset be- cause he is written down in its columns as an actor and "crony" of Mayor Hayes. Both statements are true except, that 50 far as Hizzoner is concerned, the word which should be used is friend not crony. Long before the may or entered politics he and the writer were friends. The char acter of that friendship is alto- gether incomprehensible to the American which cannot conceive of any relationship out of which personal capital may be made. It could not dream of friend whom Hizzoner was not trying to slide" into a job at the expense of the taxpayers expense. So far as l am concerned I wish there was some truth in the Americans fairy tale that deep dark plot is "in the works" to slide me into Chief Lynch's berth. But not for reasons which the American would consider real. I'd love to be chief
 of the fire department for a day just so that l could order Fire Marshal Lahey to shin down a pole in the dead of night. Not because it would be worth ten cents to be the boss. Not even despite the fact that the marshal and have been life long friends. But just because in the past he was a reporter on the American (when 1t was 8 real newspaper and because J, for my sins, was in my innocent youth @ reporter on the Republican. I doubt however, whether all the fire apparatus and all the hose of the fire depart ment could wash away the ig- nominy of that association.
 By Ed Reed