Evening star., 1941-04-17
Haired for Figures
Led Tom Wallace
To Editorship
Wotterson's Tuteluoe
Nodded Career After
Disgust in Business
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

commercial jobs, which included
running tooth powder factory, de-
cided to give up business career
He didn't like business, because il
was ciuttered with figures anl
charts.
He decided, since it was the leas
mathematical thing he could thinl
OF, to try newspaper work.
Today this man, Tom Wallace
called to order at the Willard Ho-
tel an organization of which he Ii
president-the American Society Of
Newspaper Editors.
Mr.. Wallace, who is editor of the
Louisville CKy) Times, related, ir
an interview, how he happened te
get into the occupation in which he
has achieved such prominence.
Native Town Floats Away.
He was born at town in Western
Kentucky called Hurricane.
"The last any one saw of Hurri-
cane" he recalled. "it was floating
down the Ohio toward the Missis-
sippi."
But a successor village grew on
the site. 1t was called Tolu, named
Mr.. wallace explained, after a brand
of bitters which had hefty wallop
and served quite we'll to brace up
the inhabitants of dry community
Mr.. Wallace seemed destined for
business He attended a business
college. He was employed as book
keeper for a life insurance company
in Virginia. Everything went well
until he submitted balance sheet.
1T showed" he said, that the
company had gone busted. The
directors, who in those days were
dignif1ed gentlemen with long white
whiskers and long frock coats, were
Mortified. But it was discovered
that I had placed a SO where a SO
should have gone. Actually the COM
pany was rolling in money
Into Tooth Powder Business.
Mr.. Wallace went back to Ken
tucky. For a time he kept books for
q grist mill at Shelbyville, but there
were always those terrifying balance
sheets to get out, and one never
knew what they'd show. A man
wired him to go to New York City
and take charge of tooth powder
factory, and he agreed on condition
that he wouldn't have to do the
bookkeeping. Making tooth powder
was all right for a while But Mr..
Wallace got tired of it-there were,
inevitably, reports of a statistical
nature, graphs and kindred things.
I'D always hated anything mathe-
matical," Mr.. Wallace confessed.
He drifted into Louisville-he was
26 then-and offered to wrok for
nothing at first. But, ironically
enough, the first job they gave him
was to add up baseball box score.
81 think I had the wrong team
winning" he recalled, land told
them I'd quit newspapers too If I
had to add or subtract"
So they let Mr.. Wallace run a
column which he called Little
Dreams of the Police Court" and
the first thing he knew he was on
the pay roll And at last he's found
trade at which he was willing to
stick.
Guided by Watterson.
For II years Mr.. Wallace wrote
editorials for the Courier journal
under the sage tutelage of 'Marse''
Henry Watterson, one of America s
great editors. Mr.. Wallace cherishes
the memory of the colorful Mr..
Watterson and has written of him
for national magazines and else
where.
"Mr. Watterson," Mr.. Wallace
pointed out, was interested pri-
marily in the editorial page and in
the fem of writing. He wrote with
a s, nse of rhythm which he at
tributed to his training and skill
as a pianist"
Mr.. Watterson stressed accuracy
in quotations. but he was no advo-
cate of the terse style of modern
journalism and wrote rather long
editorials, Mr.. Wallace said. Mr..
Wallace feels that he got much out
of close association with "one of
the most vivid and forceful per-
sonalities of the age" and absorbed
much professional wisdom from
this contact.
The 1941 president of the organi-
yation that represents editors of
metropolitan newspapers all over
the country sees no danger of CEN
sorship.
Sees Confusion on Issue.
There has been, in his opinion,
much confusion of the issue. 1t is
not censorship, he pointed out, for
a Government department to re-
quest the papers to refrain from
printing certain information in the
interest of the national defense or
for Federal officials to withhold
other facts.
"It is nothing new for a news
paperman to find certain news given
out and other information which he
considers news withheld" he pointed
out. Every city hall reporter has
encountered this. But it's not CEN
sorship."
Censorship, he emphasized, is or
dering paper to print or refrain
from printing certain things, a
drastic exercise of governmental
authority which is denied by the
United States Constitution and was
not even invoked during the last
war.
Mr.. Wallace sometimes has left
his editors chair in recent years to
return to the reportorial work he
followed for many years. He took
q trip around the world for a syn
dicate, covered the Huey Long die
tatorship in Louisiana and other
outstanding stories.
He still thinks reporting is the
most interesting end of a paper.
Edifore