The Ghost at the Graduation

At each of about 1,000 U.S. high school graduations this year, it is quite likely that an earnest salutatorian will implore his classmates to learn "intellectual honesty " defined as "the degree to which we say what we think." At the same time, about an equal number of valedictorians will praise "romance" because ' it still the muscles, adds endurance, freshens the eyes and tinges life with a bright hue of great expectation." In a vast chorus ot identical phraseology, class presidents wi cite Columbus and Alexander Graham Bell to evoke the. "thrilling experience in our lives when we find that we can make practical use of facts which we have discovered " And a thousand school principals will say: "You should not forget that self-interest and patriotism go together. You have to look out for yourself, and you have to look out for your country." Why this stirring oratory should be identical at 1,000 schools is readily ex plained. All of the speeches come from the same source: the high-speed mimeo graph in the Seattle basement of the ghost who writes and retails them by mail at $2.50 apiece. The ghost is Dr. Bryan Newsom, 65, a genial general practitioner, whose happy boast it is that he is "putting good words on those kids' tongues, and good ideas in their heads." Newsom's enterprise began 40 years ago when he was working his way through the University of Chicago. He recalled his own speech-pothered term as senior-class president in Munday, Texas, saw "an unsupplied demand" for "model" high school speeches. He wrote four of them, sent soliciting postcards to 100 schools in Iowa ("If it sells in Iowa, it will sell anywhere in the U.S."), and business has boomed ever since.

Newsom now writes seven new 1,000-word speeches a year, sends 100,000 tick ler postcards to 25,000 high schools in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, sells mostly to small high schools. This year Newsom expects his "pleasant diversion" to gross $9,000 and net $6,000. He gets many let ters of thanks for his services, even from schools in the same town that find them selves with identical graduation speeches.

Most of his orders are signed by school principals, and more than half the checks he receives are drawn on school funds. In fact, his principal's address, a ringing charge to "quit yourselves like men," is one of his bestsellers. Says Physician New som : "Most high school students get help with their speeches. Is it a sin when they pay someone?"

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