Evening star., 1936-04-20
Sy the Associated Press.
= Ew YORK, April 20.-Here Is
the text of an address today
] by H. L. Mencken Of the Bal

There Is probably no younger man
on earth. either In outward aspect or
interior FIRE than Frank B. Noyes, and
yet the sworn records show that he
has been president of the Associated
Press for 36 years. Dizzy years indeed
and full of revolutions. am allowed
only three hours for my sermon this
afternoon, so can't rehearse all the
changes that have gone on, but there
Is at least time to mention a few of
them. When Mr.. Noyes took office
as head of this little club. there was
not, in all the world. jazz band. a
radio crooner or a movie star. Nearly
a million veterans of the Civil War
were still alive, and only a few hardy
pioneers had ever had their tonsils
cut out. Mckinley was President,
Henry Ford had just quit a nice job
with the Detroit Edison Co. and was
being laughed at for trying to build
automobiles, and the first flight of an
airship was three years of. Men
fiocked into theaters to see women S
legs, and women sneaked into depart
ment stores, blushing and looking back
over their shoulders, to buy powder
puffs. Here in New York prohibition
was heard of only as far-off and
incredible hobgoblin. like the Dalai
Lama or cannibalism.
First A. p. Copy.
1t was about the time Mr. Noyes be-
came president that saw my first
piece of A. p. copy. 1t was small
sheet of fimsy. reporting that some
eminent criminal had been hanged
maybe 10 lines, no more. Not word
from the lawyers. No interviews with
the wives or spiritual advisers of the
deceased. Even the name of the
hangman wasn't mentioned. The
whole thing might have been engraved
on a 10-cent piece. 1t went on page
4, which was about equal to page 81
today, and got spot pretty far down
the page No art The only picture
on that page was half-tone of BIZ
cycle racer engraved on copper with
screen Of about 100. In those days no
one believed seriously that half-tones
could be stereotyped. They were bev-
eled along the edges, curved in little
press, fastened on the mat. and cast
! into the plate-one half-tone for each
! plate-that is, if it was big paper
and needed more than one. l remen-
Der the bicycle racer because one of
his half-tones got loose that night,
wrecked a new GoSs press. set the
managing editor and the foreman OF
the press room to fighting with
monkey-wrenches, and provided
swell show for us young reporters.
Certainly we have seen lot OF
! progress since that primitive era.
/ What the full Associated Press report
| now amounts to on busy night !
| don't know precisely. and neither, !
! suppose. does any one else. not even
Kent Cooper. All I am sure Of is
that down in the Baltimore Sun
! Office it is now common to get more
news from KitZmiller. Nd, or Omsk,
: Siberia, than we used TO get from
New York or Sing Sing. The sport
ing department alone occupies more
space works more men and uses more
different kinds of type than the whole
news section of 36 years ago. Taking
all the American dailies together, they
print more stuff about a good. juicy
murder than their predecessors OF
1861-65 printed about the entire
Civil War. Lindbergh's clipping book
is four times as thick as George
Washington's. When the President
makes a speech We not only print il
in full: we also print two-column
summary of it. summary of the
summary in a 10-point lead, and a
summary of the summary Of the
summary in a first page box.
Progress in Letters.
But it isn't only in news-gatherine
that the newspapers of the United
States have forged ahead. They have
| also made enormous progress in ART
and beautiful letters. I well remem-
ber how, as a young Sunday editor,
had to concoct my own colored comics
First had to find an idea that hadn't
been used for at least two weeks, ther
I had to find an artist sober enough
to make the drawings, and then hac
to see them through the engraving ant
stereotyping departments and the press
room. If the blue eye of a red-facec
character got anywhere within the
limits Of his face we called it good
register. But now there are great
factories turning out comic mats by
the bale, and they print as beautifully
as banknotes and are full Of the same
nourishing boloney. The column boys
do almost as well for literature. Some
time ago colleague told me that hs
had counted no less than 10 columns
in one issue of New York paper.
columnist had been put to work be-
tween the am. noon edition and the
pm. absolutely last final, with clos.
ing stock market quotations. That
night read all 19 columns. Nine OF
them were devoted to denouncing the
other 10. The other TO- I should ado
in justice. were free from this vituper-
alton. Their authors gave over al
their space to stroking and scratching
| themselves.
But now. having recalled some OF
| our triumphs in our chosen art, hope
I'll be forgiven for mentioning our
grandest and gaudiest failure. al
lude, of course. to the editorial page.
1t has been going downhin steadily
| for so years. No one thinks Of great
American editors any more; every one
, thinks Of great sports writer's, comic
artists and columnists. Yet it seems
to me-and in fact admit it in a
whisper as one who has performed
principally on editorial pages for a
generation past-that no other page
on the newspaper Of today is better
manned. It enlists good men, and
sometimes brilliant men, and they
work hard and faithfully. On even
the worst paper, the editorial page
offers the best stuff on tap in the
ofice. 1t shows more careful writing
than any other page, and not infre-
quently it shows wider information
and sounder judgment.