Montgomery County sentinel., 1938-05-12

Washington.-In the midst of all
of the politics and planning in the
~. - national capital,
Bitter RoW there has lately
Develops come to the sur
face one of the
deepest and most bitter rows that
has developed incident to the admin
istration of Franklin D. Roosevelt,
1t is the controversy, long shoulder
ing, between the President and the
newspapers of the country. 1t is out
in the open now, and the struggle is
a desperate one.
To 60 back few years, it will be
remembered how Mr.. Roosevelt was
described as having a very friendly
press when he entered the White
House. He continued to maintain
the most pleasant relations between
his office and the newspapers of the
country, and especially with the
Washington correspondents, until
doubt began to develop in the minds
of some editors as to the soundness
of New Deal policies in 1885. The
number of opposition editors in
creased and in 1885 it was generally
said that the President had only
about one half of the newspapers
supporting him. But even then,
Mr.. Roosevelt continued to have ex-
ceedingly cordial relations with the
corps of correspondents who report
on national affairs under Washing
ton date line.
The Washington correspondents
and columnists who found little or
no fault with the New Deal began
to dwindle in numbers eventually.
Now, as guess, would say that
probably only about one-fourth of
the five or six hundred writer's be-
ieve heart-and-soul with New Deal
policies. This does not mean that
those who observe weaknesses or
vulnerable points in the New Deal
do not write their commentator
when they believe it is due. The
difference is that they are no longer
completely "sold" on New Deal
statements or propaganda without
digging further into every situation.
AS result, obviously, attention is
directed daily to those weaknesses,
as well as the strong points, of the
New Deal; the news is no longer all
ballyhoo for the New Deal.
Another result is that White House
press conferences no longer are the
jovial, carefree meetings filed with
laughter, good-natured jibes and ex-
changes, friendly shots back and
forth between the President and the
correspondents. On a number of
occasions, quite the contrary has
been true. The President has spok-
en- some very harsh words now and
then about news dispatches from
Washington by certain writer's. He
has not minced words when some
Republican writer, like Mark Sulli-
van of the New York Herald Trib-
une syndicate, for instance, wrote
his observations of a critical nature.
Altogether, believe it can be said
that the newspaper criticism at
times has got under the Presidents
skin and has made him quite irasci-
BILE and squeamish. do not mean
to say that this condition obtains
every time the President meets with
the press, but it has happened with
greater and greater frequency of
late that Mr.. Roosevelt has found
fault with what the correspondents
were writing.
Such things, generally, are not
written. Newspaper men usually do
not inject themselves into rows, nor
do they consider that they are more
than the eyes and ears for their
readers. That is to say, they con-
slider their work impersonal and for
the reason that it is inpersonal sell