News for Miss Tillie

One helper President Truman needed badly was a press secretary to replace Franklin Roosevelt's seasoned Steve Early.

As they had for two of his other appointments in nine days, his thoughts turned toward the men of Missouri. A Missourian was available.

His choice: tall, stooped, scholarly Charles Griffith Ross, 59. Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a discerning and fair-minded news veteran who has long had the respect of Washington's critical, competitive correspondent corps. In the decades since he was graduated from the Independence (Mo.) high school with Harry Truman, Charley Ross has served 16 years as chief of the P-D's Washington bureau, handled almost every kind of story, and specialized brilliantly in political reporting.

In 1931 Charley Ross won journalism's Pulitzer Prize for his thoughtful inquiry into the depression era and the remedies applied by the Hoover Administration.

In 1934 his boss, Joseph Pulitzer, called him home to edit the editorial page, but Ross missed Washington. He went back in 1939 to stay. One of his constant readers was Truman.

Last week, Charley Ross was both elated and worried by the abrupt offer of his boyhood chum. If he accepted, he would have his finger on an exciting piece of history. Still, the job was a well-known heartbreaker, and it paid only $10,000 a year (Ross gets $35,000 from the P-D). Besides, Publisher Pulitzer was dead against his leaving.

But Harry Truman's mind was made up. He called in Ross, convinced him, then called Pulitzer long-distance and convinced him. Truman agreed to let his new press secretary cover the San Francisco Conference for the P-D before coming to the White House. Together, they agreed to keep the appointment secret until Ross's return.

Then they decided to call Miss Tillie.

Moments later, a telephone rang in Independence, Mo. Sprightly Miss Matilda Brown, 75, who had taught high-school English to Harry Truman and Charley Ross, answered it, heard an operator say: "The President of the United States is calling." Said the President: "You'll be glad to know that Charley Ross has agreed to work with me as press secretary."

Fairly bursting with pride, Miss Tillie promptly spilled the beans to the local papers. Next day, the President made it official in an announcement to the press.

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