Johnson v. Meyer

"A capital without a Thunderer" is what Oswald Garrison Villard likes to call Washington, because it has nothing remotely resembling the London Times. Its press, rarely quoted and hardly ever read outside the District of Columbia, includes: 1) a morning and an evening Hearstpaper which look like Hearstpapers everywhere; 2)a Scripps-Howard paper which differs from others only in its tabloid size; 3) the fat old Washington Evening Star which bulges with more advertising than any other sheet in the country and never dares to say "Boo"; 4) and the Washington Post. The Post attracted little serious attention while irresponsible Edward Beale ("Ned") McLean was running it into the ground. But since Eugene Meyer snapped it up at auction last summer (TIME, June 19) it has been doing things.

Eugene Meyer, Herbert Hoover's Governor of the Federal Reserve Board, is a potent GOPartisan. While rehabilitating his paper's editorial staff, prestige, circulation and advertising Publisher Meyer missed no opportunity to take pot shots at the New Deal. Last fortnight he stepped boldly out with a series of critical articles called "The New Dealers--the Low Down on the Higher Ups." Chapters of a book yet to be published by Simon & Schuster, the sketches were signed "By the Unofficial Observer."

General Hugh Johnson plumes himself on his capacity to withstand public criticism. Last week he was inviting the country to step up and find fault with his NRAdministration. But the series in the Post, against which he has long nursed a private grudge, was more than he could stand. Last week in a radio address he flung out this handful of barbed words:

"We have sought and entreated criticism of our methods and results. . . . The greater part has sped dying and fallen dead. Of late, professional criticism has degenerated into scurrilous and personal appraisements of, and assaults on, officials. A conspicuous recent instance is by a writer who dared not sign his name. . . . With a little less than libel, a trifle more than backstairs gossip, this writer in whose veins there must flow something more than a trace of rodent blood, exalts some who are weak and throws mud at some who are strong. . . . All this is published by a dying newspaper, recently purchased at auction by an Old Dealer--a cold-blooded reactionary--who was one of the principal guides along the road to the disaster of 1929."

Bald, studious Publisher Meyer knew General Johnson was talking about him. But what annoyed him most was the reference to the Post as a "dying newspaper." In a front page editorial Republican Meyer snapped back:

"In fairness to the Post it must be stated that since it passed under its present management on June 12, 1933, its circulation has increased 37% (to 71,000) and its increase in advertising lineage for the six months, ended Dec. 31, 1933, was third largest for the entire country. . . .

"The Washington Post has a high regard for the ability, energy and devotion to the public interest of General Johnson. It is a matter of regret that it cannot, also, admire his self-control or temperance in public utterance."

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