"Monster"

British bigwigs amused themselves and their countrymen last week with the ancient and honorable (in England) sport of shouting hard names at each other in the newspapers. To the U. S., often justly accused by Great Britain of lacking dignity, untidy squabblings in the press by its wise, important people are rare curiosities.

George Bernard Shaw, irate because Dean William Ralph Inge described Shaw's Saint Joan an apology for the Inquisition, screamed rudely back:

"In all Dean Inge's writings there are passages which portray a dangerously uneducated man, by which I mean, of course, not the natural man who has never been to school, but a monster who has been elaborately uneducated at Eton, Cambridge, Oxford and in the Church of England.''

The Tennessee Lea

Last week Col. Luke Lea, onetime "baby of the U. S. Senate," bought the Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal. Abetted by Rogers Caldwell, Nashville capitalist, Col. Lea is looked upon as a special strongman in journalism and politics of the middle south. His papers: Nashville Tennesseean (morning and evening), Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Evening Appeal, Atlanta Constitution* Knoxville Journal. He tried to buy the Kansas City Star, but his $12,000,000 bid was rejected.

Tennessee is pleased with itself over Luke Lea; the things he says in his papers, the politics he professes and practices; his background of notable social tradition; his vitality. He stands six feet four, is inclined to athletics, has lived on earth some 50 years. Tennessee sent him triumphantly to the U. S. Senate some ten years after he was graduated from University of the South in 1899. Col. Luke Lea is a great public personality.

Yet there is one aspect of his career which his papers and other southern papers print most sparingly. When commander of the 114th Field Artillery in France he nearly kidnaped the Kaiser, Dec. 1919.

Col. Lea, southern Democrat, found himself in an awkward position just before Christmas that year. He was far from home and had been so busy with his Field Artillery, which he organized and shepherded through the St. Mihiel offensive, the Meuse and the Argonne, that social duties slipped his mind. Probably there was no book of etiquette at hand in his spare military headquarters. Possibly it would not have helped him anyway. A delicate question faced him. A great Democrat, he had no Christmas present for the greatest Democrat, President Woodrow Wilson. The shops around Luxembourg were bare. He particularly needed a notable present, different from anyone's else; intrinsically rare and of great value. He decided to give Mr. Wilson Kaiser Wilhelm.

Taking four officers and three non-commissioned officers he crossed the Dutch border in automobiles and swept up to the gate of Count von Bentincks castle. Guards objected. Col. Lea's eloquence and the irresistible atmosphere of the Americans prevailed. The great gates opened. Within the castle a shrewd secretary appeared. Parley. The Kaiser was not immediately available. Would the Americans mind waiting just a little? The Americans were disinclined to wait, but already they had delayed too long. Dutch guards, grimly armed and in increasing numbers, tramped in from the chill night. Col. Lea and his supporters were forced reluctantly to leave without their Christmas present.

What Col. Lea proposed to do with the dissolved Monarch is not clear. Perhaps he had a Lindbergh to play his Santa Claus and whirl the gift across the sea. Col. Lea did not discuss this matter for publication. Nor did Coblenz at the time. Col. Lea was separated from his regiment for several weeks while sundry generals explored the merits of the matter. He narrowly escaped court martial.

Such astounding attempted larceny may indicate the fearless independence expressed in the quiet blue eyes of Col. Luke Lea. Yet he is no senseless fire eater. His papers spout no redhead scandal. He does not salt the wounds of race prejudice, nor wail for war with Mexico. His papers are sound samples of able, shrewd, quiet surfaced journalism. On the outside he displays what readers of news require. With even greater thought, the inner columns are devoted to the doings of local lodges, local churches, local society, local baseball teams, of local statesmen, local fishermen. Himself born to wealth and all that aristocracy in the South denotes, he is wise enough to tickle the vanities of lesser men and women who love to see their names in print. Successful newspapers sell to the sweating masses. Col. Lea's six newspapers sell to a mass of 266,595 southerners every day,--307,812 every Sunday.

The thousands have grown quietly over a quarter of a century. A treacherous exciting period of their growth followed the shooting of Editor Edward Ward Carmack of the Nashville Tennesseean some 20 years ago. Lea was fighting Gov. G. M. Patterson on prohibition, Patterson pro local option, Lea pro state control. Viciously sarcastic, Editor Carmack was pinching Gov. Patterson's tender spots. A Patterson camp follower against whom special sarcasms were written shot to death Editor Carmack. The shooter was pardoned by Gov. Patterson. Soon Col. Lea launched an insurgent, fusion party and exploded Gov. Patterson off the political waters of troubled Tennessee.

* Lea and Caldwell bought the Constitution last July but the title is unsettled, there being now in progress a suit over the purchase price.

* This field covers four thriving southern towns, Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville, Memphis. The sum is only slightly more than the total sales of, for example, the Cleveland Press.