$1 Scoop

Under the wing of Holding Carter, Mississippi's forthright Pulitzer Prizewinning editor, three 28-year-old veterans last month launched the Greenwood (Miss.) Morning Star. In their maiden issue they offered readers some pin money: $1 for each week's best news tip.

Last week they got their money's worth. A tipster called the editors, whispered "There's some Greenwood men going to be charged with the murder of a nigger," and hung up. Four days later, after checking the lead through three Delta counties, Managing Editor Charles Pou ran it down, got it confirmed by Prosecuting Attorney Pat Barrett.

Pou and Editor James Alsop barely made their midnight deadline, gave Delta citizens an eye-opener of a banner headline: Two GREENWOOD MEN JAILED ON MURDER CHARGE. It was the first news the U.S. had of a suppressed lynching--and of the Southern prosecutors willing to jail whites for it. As new clients of the United Press, the Starmen passed their exclusive along to U.P., gave it a 24-hour beat on the lynching story of the week.

To keep the story sewed up, Pou drove to Lexington, Miss., manned Prosecutor Barrett's telephone during his absence. When frantic newsmen telephoned for details from the West Coast, New York and other parts of the U.S., he purred that the prosecutor would be "back tomorrow" and would be glad to talk with them then. At week's end, the Morning Star was still holding a dollar for its tipster. He had not left his name.

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