Evening star., 1949-10-30
21 Authors Combine
to Make History
Interesting
By Corter Brooke Jones

Ilc NdGlOIld1 { lCoo SlQb WdS 1O
years old-mature enough to have
attained . certain wisdom, a pom
derable dignity. but still young
enough for wassail and badinage.
1t had lived through cataclysmic
years.
AS it began its 41st year. look
ing hopefully toward half CEN
tury, those members who bother
about such things began to Won
der If the club shouldn't do more
than it did on the anniversary
date last year, when there was a
big blowout and President Tru-
man presented charter members
with gold cards. A book? Just the
thing. So the matter was turned
over to special publications COM
mittee and dismissed from the
minds Of others.
The committee pondered, in one
of the private rooms on the mez-
canine that tops the 18th floor of
the big National Press Building at
Fourteenth and F streets NV. Was
not a club that was more than
a collection of newspapermen,
former newspapermen and some
of their friends in other pro-
feSsionS-a club whose members
informed the whole country OF
happenings. so often fateful, In
the news capital" of the world
a club that has become the meet
ing place of the great and the
merely travelled from all over the
world-worthy of more than a
house publication, a puff and
mugg" book? The committee
thought 50. After all, history of
the National Press Club also was
. history Of national legislation,
Of wars and armistices, Of inter-
national conclaves. Of visiting
kings and prime ministers. Surely
there was general interest in the
story Of a club with such wide
implications - which, in the final
analysis. was not the story Of a
club, but Of a Capital under the
stresses Of the most momentous
decades In any history.
The result of this cogitation
takes permanent form this week
with the publication Of Date
line: Washington" edited by
Cabell Phillips doubleday: 50 g,
subtitled: 1.-The Story Of National
Affairs Journalism in the Life
and Times of the National Press
Club" The book goes on sale to-
morrow in bookstores over the
country.
II Pool Their Stories
In telling this story. the 81
club members, most Of them
journalists Of national repute,
who have written chapters. neces-
sarily have told the wider story
Of the development Of journalism
In general-not only from the be-
ginning of their club In 1908, but
from the earliest days Of the Re-
public. And this narrative inevi-
tably had to take account of in
ventions, wars and socio-economic
upheavals which should make the
first half of the Goth century an
italicized chapter of history.
Not that the writer's have tried
to weigh the significance Of all
they've seen or heard from an
older generation. But it's there
for the reader who takes stock.
In a preface, John C. O'Brien.
1949 president of the club, points
out that "Dateline Washington"
was designed ito make a worthy
contribution to journalistic his
tory, useful not only to the clubs
members, but to newspapermen
generally, to schools of journal
ism, to public men and women
and to students of public affairs"
But the appeal of such a vol
ume, breezing instead of plodding
through its topics, should be even
wider. Any one interested in an
"inside" view of Washington and
of public affairs in general should
find it informative and engaging.
Mr.. Phillips, Washington cor
respondent for the New York
Sunday Times, had as associate
editors Duncan Aikman, author of
1.-THE Turning Stream" and other
books; Homer Joseph Dodge. cor
respondent of the Committee for
Constitutional Government; VIII
liam C. Bourne. of the State De-
partment's International Service,
and William A. Kinney, chief of
the news bulletin service of the
National Geographic Society. The
editors also wrote chapters.
Notes Government Growth
The swift growth of the Federal
Government since 1918 and the
consequent effect on newspapers
is traced in an Introductory note
by Arthur Krock, chief CORE
spondent Of the New York Times.
The Government, he points out,
was "a small affair" in 1918,
though even in that peaceful
era problems of foreign policy
distracted the attention of a few
politicians from the fevered
struggle in the Republican party
that produced the Bull Moose
split in 1912 and the minority
election of Woodrow Wilson as
President"
It wasn't many years after the
income tax and other measures
became law, Mr.. Krock explains,
until the Federal Government,
which had been "incarnated for
the sole person of the mail carrier
route" turned into "a thousand
regulators of his existence who
called on him every day." And
so news Of its activities became
"hiS vital fare and this was the