Arizona sun., 1948-06-11


DAY ARCHDUKE FERDINAND
WAS ASSASSINATED AT SARAJE-
VO?" We do not. We find this:
JUN
20. Lundi S. Pierre, S. Paul
Bought Berlitz Greek
Rustem Bey
The book was purchased In
Paris, where the years record
began. The entry was made in
WashingtOn.)
While the ancient throne of Haps-
burg was receiving the blood bath
that was to sweep a half dozen
rulers into oblivion I was buying
a Berlitz textbook for the purpose
of studying some foreign language
Il have no idea which one except
that it was one I never learned.
Rustem Bey, I remember was the
Turkish ambassador whom had to
interview.
In all justice, it may not be en-
tirely the fault of my diary-mak-
ing that I didn't record the assas-
sination of the archduke. Nobody
in America took the tragedy very
seriously. At that time few Amer
leans expected much else from
Europe's royal families but as
sassinations or less respectable
peccadillOs.
1 ought to have known better tnan
that since I had been helping cover
the French foreign office for the
two years preceding. But / had
been drenched with war talk over
there and had shaken it off when
I returned. Europe almost imme-
diately shrank into a dreamy do
main of picture-book memory with
no connection whatever with my
work-a-day world.
Later on, to be sure, there is evil
dence that !, on second thought
felt hadn't. done my diary justice
insofar as Ferdinand was con-
cerned. But I always was feeling
that way about my diary and never
doing anything about it.
This, as / said, keeps my diaries
from having the slightest value
other than to exude a somewhat
conscious-stricken odor and re-
mind me that the good young days
were no better than those bad old
ones insofar as my habits and con-
duct were concerned, for an honest
diary certainly has to be well edit
ed to conceal ones true character.
You note in its pages some high
resolve or noble undertaking which
was more important to you at the
moment of recording than the opens
ing of the Panama canal or the re-
suit of presidential election. In
a short year you read it over and
are utterly unable to recall the
slightest thing about the events
chronicled.
Sometimes my old diaries, even
though they record no event OF
great historical significance, sound
quite timely. For example on Oc-
tober 8, 1914:
sNot much doing. I don't seem
to be able to save my money"
October 8: 1.-THE Belgian
secretary appears, we consume
quantities of beer and tells me his
life story - bore, but business.
(just the weary routine Of the
hard-working reporter)
Fortunately my space is running
out. Nothing is more interesting
to write or read about than oneself.
Nothing is less interesting to anyone
else. But I wish to prove my point,
namely, that no matter how impor-
tant diary-keeping may have been
for the Churchills, the Marco Polos
or the P1utarchs, and perhaps
therefore as harmful as important,
mine was neither.
And 1 marvel that any news
man, press or radio, who lives
in the midst of alarms, who "was
there" when most things hap
pened and told all in breathless
detail via the copy-desk or micro
phone to millions of wide-eyed
readers or listeners would ever
think of writing 1t down after
ward.
Note for instance a recent diary
entry for June S, 1947, which a
brittle clipping of even date de-
clares not only vibrantly but with
perfect inexactitude may go down
in history as the day of the begin
ming of the real peace after World
War IL" Gest you have forgotten,
that was the day Secretary Of State
George C. Marshall proposed at
Harvard university new approach
to European rehabilitation which
later became the Marshall plan,
then E.R.P. and finally the eco
nomic cooperation administration }
Note my diary for that date:
"a meeting Of the Association
Of Radio News Analysts. KaIten-
A. Ga.-~w