The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-05-08
United Press Writer,
 Webb Miller, Is Killed
Continued From Page D

VCOnunuou ! For the last week he had been as- sembllng equipment for a trip to Norway, having been notified by the government that he would be in the first group of reporters to be taken north with the British forces.
 His last war front assignment was in Finland where he covered the Russo Finnish fighting around Lake Iadoga. Before the war broke out in Finland he was with the British ex- peditionary forces In France.
 Reportorial Exploits
 Although he was best known for his personal reportorial exploits, which began with his assignment to the Mexican border in 1916 and in- cluded practically every major in- ternational conflict from then until the present war, Miller was also a top ranking news executive, He was the general European manager of the United Press, with headquarters here, but was always prepared to leave hls desk for Q front-line as- signment.
 In recent months he had obtained credentials to enter numerous Euro- pean countries where the war might spread, but had notified his New York office that he would remain in London temporarily on 6e chance that the next big story A the war might be in the British Isles.
 Tn his war kit" were maps of front line positions which he had kept since 1918 when he was on the western front and which he believed would be useful again should he have to return to France.
 90 Years of Reporting
 Webb Miller's 90 years of newspa- per reporting carried him from a Chicago police beat to the capitals of the world and to front lines of wars, career which earned him a reputation as the ace of war corre- Sponolcnts.
 His by-line stood for accuracy and brilliant reporting and many of the great news beats of our time came from Miller's portable typewriter un- der date lines on the Ethiopian from tier. in India, Morocco the Soviet Union, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the British Isles.
 Miller saw kings and dictators rise and fall; he saw the start and finish of wars and revolutions; he saw peace made and scrapped. His ca- reer was summarized in 1886 in his book T Found No Peace," and auto- biography regarded as one of the best of it's kind.
 Miller was born and attended school in Dowagiac, Mich. He de- scribed himself as a timid lad im- pressed with the works of Henry David Thoreau. In Thoreau's Wal den" he found a pattern for human peace and happiness. As a man he once said, "The philosophy of Thor eau is impractical as 6 rule of hfe," but he always carried copy of Walden in his pocket.
 Ills Boyhood Days
 Dcause of what he called his "colorless personality" as a boy, Miller cultivated a "bold front" After graduating from high school he got Job working on a paSSen- ger steamboat on Diamond Lake, Mich. Then he became a rural school teacher and later, determined to fulfill his ambition to De a wrlt- ler, went to Chicago and became Q police reported in 1912.
 In his first year he covered 8 murders and six executions by hanging.
 In 1918 Miller went to Mexico to cover the Perishing expedition against the bandit, Rancho Villa. It was while on the border that Miller started to work for the Uni. ted Press.
 After Q year there, he was sent to Mexico City, thence to Chicago, New York Gnd Washington, where he was assigned to report the sen- ate and the state department.
 Tn 1917, the United Press sent him to London and 1t was there during the last World War years, that he had his first taste of reporting from q city under the constant threat of air raids. He went to Ire- land often during the Sim Fein uprising and visited the British front.
 On American Front
 A year later he Joined the Paris Bureau of the United Press, and was e war correspondent on the American front during the battles of the summer and fall of 1918. He was the only correspondent to wlt- ness the aftermatch of the Armis- tice from an airplane which carried him over the front lines as the fighting ceased.
 During the four years after 1921 l.e was manager Of the Paris United Press Bureau. At the Cannes con- ference, in January, 1922, he met a man who later was to become Q dictator-Benito Mussolini. MuSso. Iini and Miller were fellow report ers covering the conference. Ten years later Miller intervlwed Mus solini in the Palazzo Venezia in Rome.
 Tn 1925, Miller went 70 Morocco to cover the Riff revolution, and met another dictator, who became