The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-05-17

II
accept no responsibility for the personal
views of Mr. Pegler, and often disagree
with them much as many OF his read
ers His articles serve the good purpose
of making people Think
BY wEsTBROOK PEGLER
copyright, 1915, BY King Features Syndicate.
LOS ANGELES, Among the jargon and
the morals which our country has imported
Il from continental Europe in recent years is
the word 'rationalize'', meaning process
by which an obvious wrong can be made right
Usually, the argument is made that the wrong
was committed to redress or Illustrate worse
wrong Hitler rationaliZed his most atrocious
acts as historic justice and leaders of the CLIO
so justified mob violence.
This is the process that was invoked in the
case of Edward Kennedy's dispatch to the
Associated Press on the signing OF the first
German surrender at Rheims. Kennedy's col
leagues, who took with MIN pledge to with
hold the news, denounced his conduct as the
most disgraceful, deliberate and unethical
double cross in the history of journalism" In
| Kennedy's defense the argument ran that the
| censors had no right to impose such pledge
! and that therefore it was not binding And
besides the surrender ended the war and the
! justification for military censorship and the
American people had right to the news
without delay.
| 10 all OF winch, OIL COURSE tlle OlAy IIOLcSL
| answer must be that reporter did not have
to take the pledge and accept the confidence
but having done so, could release himself only
at the risk of his own honor. The issue of
whether the censor was justified in imposing
the restraints is another question entirely.
The man who violates his word of honor
has the advantage of initiative and surprise.
1t is as though two men were sleeping togeth-
er in room and one should 60 through the
/ of fba ofte in 10 nj n U
away. There is no protection against betrayal
of trust, the first time.
| These things do happen in the newspaper
business but SO. seldom that the men who OBJ
| tain momentary advantages by such acts pay
| for their little triumphs as long as they live.
In a historic case that occurred during the
Russian famine after the First World War, a
noted American reporter of the adventurer
| type violated an agreement with the rest of
a group by which they were to wait until
they reached central point and then all file
at once. It was big story and those who kept
| the agreement discovered later that their stor-
les were no news but their colleague had
sneaked off and found wire and filed his
piece days before they arrived at the point
agreed on.
The hero of this episode was a repeater
for he had double crossed the bunch many
years before back in the United States when
he was just cub. In that case a large band
of reporters were camped in tiny settlement
in the back country covering the brave stand
of a single-handed settler against the lumber
| trust which was trying to fault his title to a
claim of timber land.
There was only wire into the village
and the crowd drew numbers out Of hat to
determine the order in which their stories
should be filed. The cub drew No. l, wrote
a fairly long story, filed it and disappeared.
Soon after it cleared, the wire went dead
and the others, going out along the line, dis
| covered that someone had climbed pole and
cut it. This exploit had not been forgotten at
the time of the Russian famine but the others
on that expedition apparently reckoned that
their colleague had now matured and learn
| ed better at any rate, to their great regret,
! they trusted him. To the day of his death,
long afterward, he was remembered more
for these two betrayals than for his excel
| lent featS of coverage and writing.
| The New York reporters of few years ago,
| at any rate, if not the reporters OF today with
whose methods l am less familiar, had a
very strict code. The morning paper people
ran in one pack and the afternoon people In
another The two groups were competitive
and did not exchange material. However, with
| in the groups there was entire cooperation.
They would meet at central points on return
| ing from their forayS on various angles OF a
big story, compare notes and fill in the blanks.
This was very helpful to the cubs for the
veterans freely helped them and enabled them
to hold their jobs in competition with report.
ers of long experience. City editors resented
the practice and tried to break it up but never
quite succeeded. The attitude OF the reporters
was something like that of wise ball-players
after the rough and tumble days were over.
The ball players saw no reason to cut one
another to pieces with their spikes and cut
short careers. After all, they were all working
for their living. Similarly, one reporter had
nothing to gain by feeding false information
| to another or scooping him.
In the case of an exclusive tip from the
office or from some private source, the code
made an honorable exception. That reporter
usually would disappear on his investigation
and simply wouldn't show up. It he did come
around he would declare that he was work
ing on tip and the understanding was that
whatever he got was his own, exclusively.
Kennedy's scoop on the Armistice contained
less power than one would have expected a
year ago. In the absence of military music
and Ribald soldier songs, and the vigorous
and daring participation of generals and jour.
nalists on both sides and the capture OF many
of them in the field, this an unorthodox
war and so it was to the end when the ac-
tual surrender had been foregone conclusion
for many days and the Germans, themselves,
scooped their conquerors and Kennedy, too
with their admission of surrender.
u 0T1N" A T<T0N1C