The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-25
Man bout
Manhattan
By George Tuekec

NEW YOHh, Mdy If.-11 you are
interested in foreign affairs-and
if YOU aren't there must be some
thing the matter with you-then
you will want to know something
more about Mr.. Raymond Gram
Swing. the ablest analyst of foreign
affairs on the air today.
MIR. Swing is able because he is
lucid and coherent, and because
he has spent % years in covering
wars and the European news
front, and also because he has a
profound understanding Of the
European economic structure,
without which there can be no real
understanding Of the continent as
it is today.
PEOPLE who have heard him on
the radio but who have never seen
him may be a little surprised at his
appearance. Before I had seen him
I imagined him to be not too tall,
and perhaps a little gray and a lit
tie stout-say about IS years old.
Raymond Gram Swing is six
foot. with wide shoulders and a
lanky frame. He has brown, I'M
ruly hair that is just family
tinged with gray, and he wear
heavy horn-rim glasses. All in all,
he looks more like a midwest
college professor than a student OF
current events. At So he has come
into his own IS an authority on
world events, and today his voice
is more eagerly awaited than that
of any other commentator.
Mr.. Swing talks to the nation, or
the greater part of it, five nights a
week, from 10 to 1918, E. S. 4.
These talks are a%ppraisals of what
has happened in the world during
the previous "a hours. He arrives
at his office, which is at l44o
Broadway, each day around noon.
From then until six o'clock he
reads the newspapers, the inter-
| ccpted foreign broadcasts, and the
dispatches and communicates.
From these tangled, conflicting
threads he pieces out the signia-
cant trends in the news. Then he
sits down and writes his broadcast,
a script of approximately 1000
words. After this is written he
edits it, reads it aloud, alters its
wording for precise S a d e S OF
meaning. If nothing happens to
change these trends, he carries
this script to the air.
Ii you check back on MIR.
Swings career you will find he is
the son of a Congregational min
lister, that he studied piano at the
Oberlin (Ohio) Conservatory OF
Music, that he worked as a report
err on numerous dailies, and that
once he was managing editor OF
the indianapolis Star.
During the World war he was in
Berlin for the Chicago News, and
he scooped the world on the story
of Germany's big Bertha" AS an
active correspondent he witnessed
the Smelling of the Dardanelles.
Once he was aboard a Turkish
freighter when a British submarine
suddenly bobbed to the surface and
commanded the ship to halt. When
one ship asks another, who are
YOU" the information required is
the name of the ship, but when the
submarine captain demanded OF
the freighter "Who are your
Swing stood up and replied, Il am
Raymond Gram Swing of the Chi
cago News" This was an incident
that went into the subs log, later
to be picked up and used by the
late Rudyard Kipling, and today 1t
remains a part of the Royal British
Navy's legend.
When Mr.. Swing first began to
broadcast some two and a halt
years ago, many radio editors,
under the influence of the times,
listed his name under the popular
dance band programs as Kay
mond Gram, swing"
But it is safe to conclude thai
few editors fall into this error now