The Wilmington morning star., 1944-05-14


responsibility for the personal views of MI Peger,
and often disagree with them as much as many Of
his readers HIS articles serve the good purpose OF
making people think
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK, President Roosevelt's personal
relations with the reporters who cover his
press conferences have changed considerably
since his first Inauguration. Thus, Mrs. Eliza
beth May Craig, representing a number of
newspapers in Maine, challenged a misstate-
ment by Mr.. Roosevelt in his discussion Tues
day of the Montgomery Ward case and the
New York Times account of the interview
added that Mrs Craig Frequently engages in
pointed exchanges with Mr.. Roosevelt" In
this instance, Mrs Craig insisted that she
had heard over the radio and read in the
papers facts of the seizure which the Pres-
dent said the press and radio had concealed
from the public.
This may be an unWise liberty for, after
all, reporters are not there to debate with
the President but to elicit information and
present it as given. If it is false, whether
by intent mistake, it is then subject to dis
cussion edtorially. However,, Mr. Roosevelt
himself has encouraged reporters to take lib
critics for he has always taken liberties with
them; as for example when, in reply to a
respectful question as to his third term, he
told the reporter to put on Ounce cap and
|
asked one man to rssent for him a German
iron cross to a reporter who had already left
Xle room. This was tantamount to per-
sonal accusation of treason against a victim
who certainly would have been justified in
giving the President of the United States a
good going-over had the insult been delivered
to his face
When the RooSevelts first went to the White
House the press corps was almost wholly with
| l, N,,z "a tho 1oh pont
tiger, then of the Chicago Tribune, who was
sparkling the Presidents daughter and dining
with the family but writing with vehement
| blast against the man who was to be his
father in law Boettiger's politics changed
when, after the marriage, he given a
job running the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
There was spirit of gaty in those early
press conferences. They were sharply different
from Mr.. Hoovers dull sessions in which he
selected the questions that he would answer
and was suspected of planting some of those.
| Mr.. Roosevelt had bantering way with the
reporters, called most of them by their first
names and often INDUCED in his idea of humor
which, though family Fauntleroy and distinct
| ly corny, always drew uproarious laughter
even from the individual victims of his wit,
who appeared to feel flattered Mrs. Roose-
welt had press corps of her own which
amounted really to cult, although there were
some hard boiled girls in the troupe who
revealed sales resistance One such once re-
ported that she had to leave a conferenc
untimely and get the air when one of the
more rapturous sisters, greeting Mrs. Roose-
welt back from trip, exclaimed, land did
90 Diet lots and lots of pity dwesses?" an
other said she had turned down an invitation
to send her child to and from school in a
White House as a regular thing because
she suspected that she was being patronlzed
and might feel an obligation.
The Presidents way with his crew I'm.
mistakably patronizing and, in that way, snob-
bish and that sense was revealed on Tues
day when, discussing the law in the Ward
case. he doubted the reporters ability to I'M
derstand it's intricacies because not many law
yers were to be found Longing around press
rooms. This was a way of impugning their
intelligence and calling them loungers, anoth-
err way of saying loafers, but it was sharply
inconsistent with one hot contention offered on
behalf of the court packing plan, years ago,
to the effect that man needn't be a lawyer
at all to be good justice of the Supreme
| Court. 1t also was a suggestion that the peo-
pie a whole were just too ignorant to I'm
derstand an issue affecting their liberties and
their right to property.
| The President was certainly on controver-
sial ground when he said that the total per-
centage'' of strikes had been very low. How
ever, it was not for reporters at press con-
ference to dispute him. although it would have
been fair to try to get statement explaining
what he meant by ''total percentage term
which offers no basis for comparison. Ac-
tually, Mr.. Roosevelt rarely is disputed and
invariably is treated, with a dignity which he
does not return but the press corps distinct
ly has ceased to be the clique that it was,
with few exceptions, when he first took office
On reason for the change has been that
the more intelligent Americans among them,
men without theological prejudices and con-
scious of their responsibility to the people
as agents of the last really free press on
earth, long ago began to believe that an at
tempt was being made to use them.
Tipsy quartets are called Ginatras, by a
Toronto newspaper There's this difference
their efforts are never met by squeals of
sheer delight.