Evening star., 1950-02-17

human and transparent man with
a touchy temper. Reporters tend
to be creative and imaginative
else they would not be reporters
and while they are usually con-
genial as individuals, they can be
hard to handle collectively.
But superseding questions of
public interest stem from the un-
precedented press conference yes
terday where a cocky President
baited the press and the press
stood it's ground.
What is eating the President?
Does the secrecy which is the
order of the day regarding paths
to peace hide some dreadful rev.
elation that is still to come?
Or is it that power has tended
to corrupt the once humble man
who closed his first message to
Congress April Is, 1945, with a
prayer for IAN understanding
heart for who is able to Judge
this Thy so great people? I ask
only to be a good and faithful
servant of my Lord and my
people,"
Not Battling Owners.
1t is important to the under
standing of why Washington asks
these questions to realize that
President Truman this time was
not battling and belittling news
paper owners. Many of them
perhaps a majority Of the most
important ones, prefer the Re-
publican party.
President Roosevelt, this being
so, skillfully created the illusion OF
a deathless feud between himself
and newspapers in which report
ers secretly sided with him, but
were helpless to interfere. Presi-
dent Truman has retouched this
pretty picture along the same
lines. At his 20oth press confer
ence recently he said he liked the
conferences and reporters as dis
tinct from their bosses.
But the President first robbed
then sought to bulldoze: /. His real
friends among the rank and file
with whom he was more popular
than any President since T. r.
2. By-line writer's who can take
Harry Truman or leave him alone
but who support his aims and keep
them in perspective before the
public.
What the President did was to
break a White House rule by CIV
ing an exclusive interview to Ar
thur Krock, head of the Washing
ton bureau of the New York Times
Like everything Mr.. Krock writes
it was lucid, beautifully written
story and it explored the state OF
the Presidents mind with respect
to our present cruel dilemmas.
Mr.. Krock concluded it with a
bread and butter letter in the
form of tribute to the President
which is one Of the very few good
notices that the Democratic Party
the Fair or New Deal or the last
two Presidents have got under his
signature in years. What Mr..
Krock's favorite statesman, Sem
ator Byrd of Virginia. said when
he read it is, unfortunately, not
on record.
Great Journalistic Feat.
1t was a great journalistic feat
and reporters who are not still
too Speechless with rage are beg
ging Mr.. Krock for lessons on
how to butter man so gracefully
that he will beg you to accept the
Kohinoor diamond.
When the story broke Wednes-
day irate reporters pounded
Charles Ross, the Presidents
press secretary, regarding it. Mr.
Ross. who never permits syllable
OF news to pass his lips until it
has first been printed in the
World Almanac, Tended them of
as best he could. At the same
time, puzzled Democratic poll
ticians were asking how come.
At this point versions vary
Some reporters profess to know
that Mr.. Krock had the idea OF
synthesizing what he had heard
the President say at social gath
erings, that Mr.. Ross helped fix
up the interview, that the Presi-
dent saw Mr.. Krock Monday and
approved it.
7 A politician who saw the Presi-
dent is authority for the state
ment that the President did not
authorize the interview as printed
that he had consented to have
his views expressed socially print
ed without direct attribution but
that calling it an interview and
the @. and A. form employed were
unfair to him.
In any case, the President was
spelling for a fight when the press