Cut Columnists

Outstanding journalistic phenomenon of recent years has been the emergence of the syndicated columnist. The boys and girls with a by-line have popularized personal journalism to such an extent that columnists have largely taken the place once held by the anonymous editorial page. Unlimited in subject matter, smart if not wise, knowing if not learned, the commenting columnist seems to the reader the ultimate in iconoclastic independence. But many a newspaper reader, bedazzled by cinemas in which journalists invariably go clothed in glamor and independence, fail to realize that, while their favorite three-cent philosophers are free to write as they please, the publishers and editors who buy their untrammeled words are also free to print what they please. Many a reader, noticing the occasional absence of his favorite columnist from his daily paper, is more likely to attribute that fact to a spree than to everyday editorial excision.

Newspapers of the Scripps-Howard chain, allied with United Feature Syndicate, make much of their columnists. The World-Telegram has a dozen, but is particularly proud of four: ex-Sports Commentator Westbrook Pegler, ex-NRA Administrator Hugh S. Johnson; American Newspaper Guild President Heywood Broun; Eleanor Roosevelt. Of the four, Mrs. Roosevelt and her discreet diary encounter the least editorial difficulty. Labor Leader Broun usually escapes drastic editing, but not always.

Fortnight ago one of Westbrook Pegler's columns was dropped completely by many of his regular customers, including the World-Telegram. This missing column, criticizing the Catholic Church and Rebel war practices in Spain, was printed last week by the New Republic. The censored column began: "I cannot see why the working-class Catholics are expected to be indignant against the government side in Spain . . ." ended with: "If I were a Spaniard who had seen Franco's missionary work among the children I might see him in hell but never in church."

Three weeks ago, Hugh Johnson, generally a sharp critic of labor, turned in a column of unstinted praise for Labor Leader John L. Lewis. For thus flying in the faces of his friends, the World-Telegram yanked Columnist Johnson's piece out of the makeup, filled the space with Raymond Clapper's column. Columnist Johnson's unpublished estimate of Lewis: "One of the best in public life. . . . We would be better off if more of our leaders in both political and business life were more like John Lewis." Next week General Johnson's column (carried in full by the World-Telegram) further clouded his position as a columnist: "In the freedom of the American press, which still prevails, and the liberalism of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, of which I am an exponent, I am permitted to say whatever I please."

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