Milford chronicle., 1959-07-17
A THINKERS BOOK

Hugh Baillie, son of a great political re-
porter and grandson of another and president
of the United Press for many years, has
written book entitled High Tension" 1t
is forty-fve years of current history, and is
top-notching reading, from every angle.
There are only few top reporters in the
world today. Baillie dedicated his book to
the reporters of the free world, and he gives
them an inspiration and an example which
will do much for the reporting trade.
We recommend this book, not just to re-
porters, but to every thinking American, for
it tells a story-without prejudice or bias
as nearly as this can be done-about people,
things and news events, and it tells the story
straight AS Baltic says in his preface
There is no photography, because | saw and
heard all this stuff myself"
That sentence best expresses the tone
and value of the book, which begins with
Baillie as a reporter in Los Angeles in 1910,
and continues on right up to the Eisenhower
era. He covers the story of major news
events from the time of Clarence barrow,
fighting for his professional life, continuing
with the Wilson era then the Depression era,
then the era of Hitler and World War II,
which he watched and reported from Europe,
the post-ward period, and up to the present.
For those who like to think, and for those
who care, little bit, about what the world
is all about, and what is really going on, the
reading of High Tension" is highly recon-
mended Only report can write current
history as it is written in this book Only
a newspaperman, usually, can be as objective
and as fortnight, and as truthful. This
great book, High Tension" should be read
by millions of Americans, and it should be
must" reading in many colleges and in all
journalism schools.
~&@~
HOT TDAY DEATHS
Every holiday-such as the recent July
4th holiday week-end-brings forth a num-
Der of wire-service stories about the accident
toll on the highways.
This is tragic accompaniment to the
holidays of the year.
On the other hand, there is a little hokum
mixed in with this lead news story, and we
might as well face it. For example, when two
or three hundred people are killed over hol-
iday weekend, newspaper headlines-usual-
ly the largest headline on page one-play up
this fact as something extra-special
AS matter of fact, between thirty-five
and forty thousand persons are killed each
year on the highways. This means that some
where between 500 to 1000 are killed every
week of the year, on the average. This also
means, if one will think just bit, that on
many ordinary weekend several hundred
persons are killed.
It is true that on holiday week-ends a
larger number of drivers take to the roads,
and it is probably true that a larger number
of fatalities occur on the holiday week-ends
as a usual thing. On the other hand, we
would not be bit surprised if study of vital
statistics showed that many ordinary week
ends produced more deaths than some holi-
day week-ends. "a
All of which goes to prove that the wire
service reporters with their habits of max
ing a big story out of the accident totals on
every holiday weekend, are in something of
rut While the net effect is probably good
to keep the danger of highway fatalities
before the public-it is difficult to realize
whether the stories actually mean anything,
or whether highway fatalities are out of line
or not. This example shows that news is
sometimes made, and sometimes isn't even
news.