Headline of the Week

In the New York Times:

POPE DISSATISFIED WITH FIGHT ON EVIL

The Low-Down

On sale in bookstores, newsstands, and drugstores all over the U.S. last week went a book which its publishers trumpeted as an alltime bestseller. There was a seed of truth in the claim. The first printing of 125,000 had been snapped up by booksellers in advance of publication date. The book, U.S.A. Confidential (Crown; $3.50), was blurbed as the real "lowdown" on sex, crime and politics in the U.S. But for newsmen, politicos and other early readers of the book, it was more sharply described by the Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, which called it the most "scurrilous . . . outrageous and libelous collection of garbage we have ever seen in print."

The authors: Jack Lait, aging (69) editor of Hearst's New York Mirror and onetime topflight Chicago reporter, and the Mirror's 47-year-old Nightclub Columnist Lee Mortimer, who had a brief brush with fame when Frank Sinatra knocked him down, supposedly because Mortimer had called him names.

Editor Lait, who has been subbing for Columnist Walter Winchell,* is an old partner-in-letters with Mortimer. In their first three "Confidential" books, they gave a tabloid-eye view of New York, Chicago and Washington, landing on bestseller lists with two of the books and picking up at least 14 threats of libel suits. U.S.A. Confidential may do even better. It is a city-by-city shotgun blast at the whole country, with special treatment for Chicago ("captive to the mobsters and political thieves"), Los Angeles ("a hokum-happy haven for psychopaths and confidence workers"), Milwaukee ("loaded with deadfalls, joints, clip-dives") and Galveston ("America's liveliest, naughtiest, least-inhibited city"). It is also an outstanding collection of inaccuracies, big & small.

How to Be a Reporter. A San Francisco brothel is described as being at the corner of "Jackson and California" streets, which actually run parallel. Kansas City's Green Hills, where gambling is "open," has been closed for months. Billie Bennett, billed as one of Los Angeles' leading madams, has been dead for six months. The names of many streets and people are misspelled; some are even nonexistent. One reporter, to whom Lait mailed an autographed copy of the book as a reward for a tip, complained that Lait wrote his name wrong. Chicago's Democratic Boss Jack Arvey was amazed at the charge that he profited from public projects while "County Commissioner," since he has never held the job. Said Arvey: "I can hardly believe it --especially knowing Jack Lait . . . It's pathological lying."

Milwaukee, notable for its clean government, is described as a city where "you can buy a judge for $200 and an alderman for $50. Socialists take at standard prices." Milwaukee newsmen pointed out that the mayor is the only Socialist official, and no one has ever questioned his integrity.

Newsmen might find one explanation of the errors in Lait & Mortimer's unusual method of reporting, as they described it. "We get our information," said Lait, "mostly from people who don't like the people we write about." Mortimer, who did most of the leg work for the book, flitted about the U.S., mostly in one-and two-night stands, talked to some retired officials and sifted through gossip and tips. Explained Mortimer: "Find a smart cab driver and you're set." But the best sources for leads in any city, says Lait, "are bell captains. With them you don't need to use any finesse. Just hand them a $20 bill."

Suits. After one look at the result of such reporting methods, the Dallas Times-Herald fired off a wire to Hearst's King Features Syndicate: "We have been accepting Jack Lait's column as a substitute for Winchell, and we do not want it ever again. We do not countenance inaccurate, slipshod, muckraking reporting." The Arkansas Gazette and the Nashville Tennessean followed suit. Dallas' elegant Neiman-Marcus store notified Lait, Mortimer and publishers that it will file a libel suit on behalf of its "1,300 decent, loyal" employees, who were sweepingly maligned.

In Massachusetts, where Boss Daniel I. Murphy of the "venal" state police is described as a stooge of the governor, Paul A. Dever, state troopers marched into bookstores, threatened libel action against anyone who sold the "foul, libelous and obscene" book. The book was withdrawn by many stores. In Seattle, "a regimented and restricted town owned by the multimillionaire mikado of the A.F.L. Teamsters, 58-year-old Dave Beck," the powerful union boss warned every bookseller in the state that he would be subject to libel action if he dared distribute the book. Tulsa is described as a "practically lawless" city where "nothing goes . . . unless Sheriff George Elaine says so." Elaine, state Bible secretary of the Gideons society, prepared to file libel suit. Said Milwaukee's Mayor Frank P. Zeidler: "In addition to being obscene and untrue, this book reeks of race hatred, concentrating on the Negro, Italian and Jew."

As the uproar increased, many booksellers said they had changed their minds about pushing the book. Some of them took what copies they had off the shelves and put them under the counter. One of Chicago's biggest booksellers, Joseph W. Faulkner, sliced his order in half, refused to mail out ads for the book. Said he: "It's vicious, nasty and hypocritical . . . We've got to supply the demand, but we'll not recommend the book or circularize it."

* Whose Sunday-night broadcast and Mirror column began again this week after Winchell had a "complete rest . . . ordered" by his doctors. The New York Post resumed its attack on Winchell (TIME, Jan. 21), which had been suspended until he was "in a position to answer back."

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