Evening star., 1938-04-25
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

While the American Society of News
paper Editors was in annual session at
Washington last week. the countrys ace
molders of public opinion ran into plenty
Of evidence that the press, like economic
royalists. is in wrong" with the New
Deal. They encountered an impression
that some of the present arbiters of
the Nations destinies feel they are not
being treated fairly by the men who de-
termine the direction in which printers
ink flows through the columns of news
papers. 1t was apparently because Of
this peeved state Of mind that Grove H.
Patterson, editor of the Toledo Blade
and past president of the Society of
Editors, took the floor at one of the
meetings closing sessions to re-state in
vigorous fashion the organizations code
of ethics, adopted in 1922, and to re-
affirm, with the society's demonstrative
approval, that it is the compass by which
free American press still steers. The
editors platform" admonishes all con-
cerned, no matter how eminent, that
the newspapers and newspaper men of
the United States propose to exercise
without fear or favor. and in complete
devotion to the public interest" the
right of criticism of public men and
measures, in accordance with the oldest
and proudest tradition of the craft.
incidentally, the editorial society's men,
bership pledges implacable resentment
of governmental propaganda, developed
to fine art-and an expensive one
during the Roosevelt regime.
Washington correspondents would give
a good hunk of their pay this week to
be under the table or behind the curtains
OF the Presidents Office on Wednesday,
during his of-the-record luncheon
tete-a-tete with Henry Ford. The Duke
of Dearborn insists he's not coming to
the White House to give F. D. r. any
advice" but anybody who knows Uncle
Henry Is persuaded that, whatever it
may be called, the squire of the New
Deal will get an earful before the confab
IS over. Mr.. Ford fails to see eye to
eye with Mr.. Roosevelt on any guam
tity of the reforms inflicted upon the
country since 1888. Industrial regi-
mentation, in particular makes the
Detroiter see red. His open defiance of
Gen. johnson and the Blue Eagle was
one of the high spots Of the late and
unlamented N. R. A. era. On one score,
Mr.. Ford and Mr.. Roosevelt view things
through the same color Of spectacles.
Wall Street and all it's works-and
workers-are mutual aversion.
X
Probably the D. A. R. committee
which invited Chicago Lawyer William
D. Saltiel to speak at last weeks con-
gress wasn't aware that the Daughters
would hear from brilliant young bar
rister who once upon time rated as the
notorious William Hale Thompsons one
man brain trust. At the height of big
Bills" reign as mayor of Chicago, Mr..
Saltiel was assistant corporation counsel
and later city attorney. The colorful
politician who once threatened to tweak
the nose of King George v, should he
ever poke it into the Windy City, relied
heavily upon Mr.. Saltiers legal and po-
litical advice. The latter panicked the
D. A. r. with his two-f1sted attack on
the New Deal and the bemedaled and
beribboned descendants of rs gave him
the most rousing ovation bestowed upon
any of their spellbinders. Mr.. Saltiel is
a World War naval veteran and founder
of the nonpartisan Political Education
League of the United States Junior
Chamber Of Commerce.
X X X X
Senator Vandenberg of Michigan ex-
torts a laugh from current newsreel
audiences with his brief remarks slam
ming the lending spending program.
The candid camera of the movies caught
tho Wolverine presidential aspirant