Evening star., 1939-10-02

writes tbs StOry
Frederic William Vile
Sums Up 40 Years
In q New Book
NEWS IS WHERE YOU FIND IT."
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
BOBBS MERRILL.
Forty years of service in the front line
Of journalism as reporter, foreign cor
respondent, Washington correspondent,
pioneer news commentator on the radio
and as columnist and editorial writer on
The Star have provided Frederic William
Vile with a wealth of fascinating ma
terial, intelligently preserved in scrap
books and clippings and skillfully shaped
by his vigorous pen into one Of the best
newspaper books" yet written. "News Is
Where You Find It," released by the
publisher today, should find receptive
host of readers, not only in the United
States, where the author is so well
known but in Europe, where many of its
exciting scenes are laid.
The title is carefully chosen and Is
peculiarly apt. News is where you find
it. But news is most apt to be found
where people are making it, provided the
finder is skilled enough to recognize 1t
as news when he sees it. Fred Vile has
spent a great part of an unusually active
newspaper life, not as editor, or COM
mentator or as columnist, but as front
line reporter, blessed with an instructive
nose for news and an inexhaustible
energy in running it down and sending
it into type. The book is more than
highly interesting personal memoir, but
in these days especially, read against the
rapidly shaping background Of the Sec
ond World War, 1t is well recorded and
highly important history. Some of the
eveIlUS VI lWCllUy -AAtC dAAO WILL ~ ySoAo "oo
of which Vile wrote as a correspondent
in Berlin and London were even then
casting the shadows before them which
are taking such tangible form today.
Some newspaper men are born and
some of them are made. Some Of them
never wanted to be anything but news
paper men and some Of them were acci-
dentally thrown into newspaper work
and swim as they would against the
current, were never able to escape It,.
Fred Vile is a born newspaper man. AS
youngster in La Porte, Ind, he owned
and published hand-written, One-man
newspaper-"The Vile Evening Journal"
which recorded the intimate news of
the Vile household in manner that
Walter Winchell-applying the same
technique to the community of Manhat-
tan-made famous and highly remunera-
tive several generations later. Fred Vile
never wanted to do anything other than
newspaper work. 1t was his first love,
and those who have had the pleasure of
working with him today know that his
ardor has never cooled. From the first
day he timidly asked for an assignment
from the skeptical city editor of the old
Chicago Record, and turned in story
that required no rewriting or editing,
Fred Vile has followed his nose for news
wherever it has taken him and found a
zestful, unflagging enthusiasm in do
ing it.
In it's chapters dealing with Mr.. Wile's
experiences as newspaper man, the
book covers the history making epoch
which began with the dawn Of the Goth
century-and according to today's head
lines-is still progressing feverishly in
various directions After an unusually
short and successful trial as a cub on
the Chicago Record, Vile went to Lon
don, later to Berlin as one of the early
members of the famous corps of foreign
correspondents marshaled by the late
Victor Lawson. Filling in" for vaca-
tioning correspondent of Northcliffes
London Daily Mail, Wile's American rep
ortorial technique plus the willingness OF
visiting British minister to talk" pro-
duced story that attracted Northcliffe S
attention, who made a proposition suf-
ficiently attractive for Vile to switch al
legiance from the Chicago Daily News
to the Daily Mail.
There are interesting chapters on pre-
war Berlin and exciting chapters on how
the war came to Germany-and to Fred
eric William, especially, arrested as a
spy, and thrown, for few hours, into
Jail. This precipitate action of an ex-
cited bureaucracy incidentally, was later
to cost the infant German republic some
$4,000 as indemnity to Mr.. Vile, and in
the reviewers opinion represents one OF
the few instances on record where re-
porter really got revenge in the form
that to reporters, is the sweetest of ALL
hard cash.
The book covers Wile's work in Lon
don during the war, first for North
cliffe (there is fine chapter on "the
Chief') and later-after Americas entry
into the war-on special duty for CO o1
Pershing's staff. After his return tc
America, Wile's brief but happy expert
ence as Chautauqua lecturer led to his
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