The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-09-24

Not so very long ago it was good
sport to snarl at newspaper reporters.
The left wingers talked about "the
kept press" and others thought that
reporters were either wild men on a
constant drunk or that they were uni
form in cupidity
movie called "The Front Page
made the star reporter look like a
cross between a depraved hound dog
and a burlesque galoot.
Since most folks never see a real
newspaper man they cannot be blamed
for whatever impressions they get from
the critics of newspaper men.
Well, we have been at war long
enought to bring forth a pretty fair
crop of real heroes among newspaper
men.
j. B. Powell, an American newspaper
man, editor of the China Review, re-
Gently repatriated, via the liner Grips
holm, is just one of a number of brave
men who have helped make their ma
ton and their profession proud.
x 4 4
After Pearl Harbor Powell was
thrown in prison by the Japs. Nal
nutrition sent him from $50 pounds
down to Is. Gangrene set in and he
has lost both feet, except for his heels.
In Shanghai he stood for truth. He
battled Jap Imperialism. He became
their Public Enemy No. 1, proud dis
tinction. SO they treated him with spe-
cial brutality.
Now in Presbyterian hospital in New
York, Powell is being slowly rebuilt,
a goal which never can be more than
partially reached.
And the National Press Club in
Washington, to it's credit, is raising a
fund to help him regain what health
may be in store and also to express
admiration for the moral and physical
courage of this American newspaper
man.
Powell is one of many to show cOur-
age of the first order. Read the news
stories written by men on battleships
and on battle fields. Do you remember
the one Quentin Reynolds on the COM
mando raid on Dieppe? Real men, these
writer's!
Floyd Gibbons was perhaps the out
standing star of World War I. He had
great courage, some good luck and
fair for carrying off the role
Gibbons looked the part of star war
correspondent.
But nothing came out of World War
to compare with the simple heroism
and absolute fidelity to truth of j. B.
Powell.
1t isn't what he has written before or
since his Imprisonment. 1t is that, put
to the supreme test, he just didn't
prove false to his trust.
The japanese We're willing to reward
any American writer who would
espouse the Japanese cause. Every one
within their reach was tempted.
Perhaps if Powell is the Outstand
ing hero thus far it is because the
brutal japanese vented upon him their
most vicious punishment
Not one of several within the Jap
y
win freedom from torture by espous-
ing the cause of the enemy. Not one.
X X x
Labor men often have had a low
opinion of reporters. Sometimes there
has seemed to be Justification
Often there has been an ineptness
and a stupidity on the part of labor
officials, dealing with reporters, we'll
calculated to win hostility. Not all of
that ineptness and stupidity is cat
logued in the past tense.
But however that may be, the great
furnace of war is proving to us all
that newspaperdom produces just about
other walk of life.
Not only heroism do we find but
magnificent and inspiring devotion to
country-true patriotism of the highest
order.
All newspaper men will be proud of
the men from their ranks who are thus
nObly acquting themselves under fire
and under torture.
Those who remain at home will find
new inspiration in the record being
made on foreign battle fields, in alien
prison camps and on the blazing decks
of warships.
Perhaps everywhere and among all
men we shall have new ideas of what
is noble and what is ignoble-CMW.
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