Indian-Giving Judge

The promotion men who write virile advertisements ("Little Dramas in the Life of a Great Newspaper System") depicting the exploits of Scripps-Howard newspapers, had cause for rejoicing last week. Their chain's Columbus, Ohio Citizen had performed exactly the sort of feat on which Scripps-Howard prides itself most highly: ousted a probate judge for "gross immorality, moral turpitude and misconduct in office."

The Columbus judge, Homer Z. Bostwick, 55 and married, had given a $2,300 diamond ring, an automobile and other presents to one Opal Walker, 24. When Opal Walker married another man, Judge Bostwick demanded back his gifts. Opal Walker refused to surrender them, whereupon Judge Bostwick extorted them by having her threatened with imprisonment for perjury because of a technical flaw in her marriage license. The Citizen dug up the story, opened fire on Judge Bostwick. circulated a petition, brought him to trial. The judge's ally, Publisher Harry Preston Wolfe's Columbus Dispatch, accused the Citizen of blackmail, gave battle by slashing its price from 2-c- to 1-c- (TIME, Aug. 24).

The Citizen hired Lawyer Newton Diehl Baker of Cleveland to prosecute the complaint against Judge Bostwick before three nonresident judges. As the case drew to a close last week it crowded nearly all other news off the Citizen's front pages. Lawyer Baker's summation was printed in full for more than eight columns. Then came the verdict of "guilty." The Citizen, and all Scripps-Howard, crowed proudly. The headline of a typical S-H Little-Dramas advertisement began to suggest itself, something like: "The Judge Who Gave Like an Indian. . . ."

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