Washington Monument

In the pundits' pontificating that followed the Wisconsin primaries, readers of The New York Times were given their analytical druthers. In a single issue appeared 1) a general analysis by Washington Correspondent William H. Lawrence,

2) a Catholic and farm-vote analysis by Washington Bureau Chief James Reston,

3) an analysis of Republican cross-over voting by Chicago Correspondent Donald Janson, 4) a sidebar analysis by Chicago Bureau Chief Austin Wehrwein, 5) an analysis of New York Democratic reaction by Political Reporter Leo Egan, and 6) a New Jersey reaction analysis by Reporter George Cable Wright.

But to those who stood the gaff, perhaps the most rewarding appraisal came on the editorial page under the byline of a Washington monument: Arthur Krock. With tongue tucked tightly in cheek, Krock made it plain that he, like an old friend and news source named Harry Truman, thinks presidential primaries are so much eyewash.

Close to the News. At 72, Arthur Krock is seven years away from his prestigious post as the Times's Washington bureau chief, which he voluntarily gave up to make way for Reston. "I didn't retreat," says Krock. "I merely withdrew to a previously prepared position." In that position he turns out his editorial-page column four times a week, and he does it in precisely his own way, drawing on a background of nearly four decades of political reporting and tapping a lode of sources equaled by few in U.S. journalism.

"I still have a good telephone and a couple of legs," says Krock--and he uses them for every column. He intensely dislikes being called a pundit: "I am more concerned with the reportorial quality of what I write than with any other aspect. The reporter is the sine qua non of a newspaper. If the reporters are good, the newspaper is good."

Arising each day at 8:30, Krock reads the Washington Post and Times Herald, the New York Herald Tribune, then the Times. At about 11:30 he leaves his Northwest Washington home for the Times office at 1701 K Street N.W. There he reads his mail, follows up on ideas generated by conversations or by his reading, goes to lunch, returns to the office at about 3 o'clock. "I never make up my mind what I'll write about until then " says Krock. "I try to keep close to the news so my piece will be as fresh as the news story on Page One."

Gathering information for his column Krock may call as many as a dozen top level government sources, as he did in a recent piece on the pros and cons of atomic-test suspension. "But," he says I often now deliberately play down new angles because I am not trying for beats but for understanding. I don't want to have the reputation of a 'scoop' artist That is tiresome for a man who wants to be a solid reporter."

Arthur's Style. In his literary style with long sentences filled with subordinate clauses and qualifying phrases, Columnist Krock often requires his readers to wear hip boots. Says "Scotty" Reston the only Timesman in Washington who calls Krock by his first name: "It's not your style or my style, but it is Arthur's." As such, it is generally worth the effort of wading through. For Wilsonian Democrat Arthur Krock, who has known and reported on every President since William Howard Taft, remains a calm perceptive voice in U.S. political reporting.

'I am quite dispassionate about politics," says he. "I have been writing about public affairs for so long that all politicians look alike to me."

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