Evening star., 1939-01-07
Not So Simple

Not So Simple
At her press conference Thurs
day Mrs. Roosevelt discussed the
unlimited call at the White House
by boy and girl who obtained
the Presidents and her own auto
graph.
She attached considerable i'm
portance to the statement Of a
White House attendant that
about 11::35- o'clock Saturday
night the Washington Post tele-
phoned the White House to OBJ
tain verification of the story in
The Star.
AS The Star had not at that
time heard anything about the
story and as The Star had not
gone to press when the White
House attache said he received
the message from the Post, The
Star invited the Post to explain
where it got the story.
This the Post did as follows:
The answer is very simple.
"The Post has covered the
White House for go years and
always prints what is happening
there when it is properly a mat
ter of public concern.
The Post has the benefit of the
most alert news staff in WASH
ington, plus the Associated Press,
the United Press, and the Herald
Tribune News Service. All WASH
ington knows that all the news is
always in The Post"
Mysterious Telephone Call.
This simple answer, however,
is not a full explanation.
For the mysterious telephone
call to the White House from the
Post at IL: :35 remains unexplained
and The Star has been forced to
do some investigating of it's own
to establish the facts which
follow:
When the autograph bearing
youngsters walked into The Star
city room (between HAS and
midnighD they brought to The
Star the first news of their esca-
pade and said they had come di-
rectly from the White House.
The story was written and pic
lures were taken of the children.
The Star news editor telephoned
the bare facts to the Associated
Press and later sent to the Asso-
cited Press a carbon copy of The
Star story.
The Associated Press marked
its own story ''WX Locals Out
which means that it is not to 60
to any other local paper-and put
it on the wire at 1:35 am. In
the meantime, the Associated
Press says, one of its reporters
had telephoned the White House
(about 12:4O and sought with
out success additional details on
The Star story.
"A Leak OCCurS.
Through an error in its trans
mission system the Associated
Press version of The Star story
was delivered to the Post city
room. According to the Asso-
ciated Press, which investigated
the matter, a Post employe saw
the story before the Associated
Press employe on duty at the Post
had, in accordance with instruc-
tions, destroyed it.
About o'clock, according to
Joseph Measell (the autograph
getter), Mrs. Measell, and a friend
of the family, member of what
the Post calls the most alert news
staff in washington telephoned
the Measell home to verify an
Associated Press story of the au-
tograph hunt and young Measell
told all.
The Post printed the story in
a part of it's final city edition.
Now, back to that mysterious
telephone call, which the White
House attendant says came from
the Post at 11:35.
The Star has investigated this
report carefully. In support of it,
the statement was made that
Secretary Morgenthau was stand
ing nearby when the telephone
call was received and was re-
ported to have asked how the
Post could have known in adj
vance what The Star would print.
The Star, after investigating this
reported statement, is convinced
that Mr.. Morgenthau said moth
ing of the sort and knew nothing
of any telephone call from the
Post. The Star suggests that the
Secret Service be asked to solve
the mystery of the mystifying
telephone call.
The Plot Thickens.
Some light may be shed on this
intriguing affair by a curious
statement in the Posts account
Of the incident Sunday morning:
From the home of his father,
Clarence j. Measell, 4121 Con-
necticut avenue NV, Joseph to-
day told the story to a reporter
who had seen the couple make
their unprecedented midnight en-
trance at the most carefully
guarded home in America" "
What happened to this reporter,
presumably member of the most
alert news staff in Washington
(Which has been covering the
White House for go years. be-
tween the time he saw the couple
enter the White House and the
time The Star story leaked into
the Post city room?
To sum up:
An alert reporter, according to
the Post, saw the couple enter
the White House at midnight.
A White House attendant re-
ported he received a telephone
ro11 fr0yV, a nNck .nr