Ear on Chicago; Tribune Foreign Service #2

This is Hugh Hill, speaking from the wire room of the Chicago Tribune Press Service. And this is part two of the story of the Chicago Tribune's Foreign Service, told by its correspondents and by its editor Don Starr. Don is standing right next to me now and in just a moment I want to talk to him about some of the things we'll discuss on this program. Last week, as you'll recall, we had a phone conversation with Jules Dubois, who is located down in Cuba. We also had an interview with one of the America's great foreign correspondents and one of the oldest in the business, Henry Wails, who was in Chicago at that time on a trip from Paris. Today, we're going to talk to Arthur Visi, or I should say Don Starr is going to talk to him by telephone. As a matter of fact, he's about ready to place the phone call now, aren't you, Don? Yes, I can place it now. Go right ahead and we'll listen. Okay. Hello, operator. Yes, sir. Would you please get Arthur Visi in our London office? The number is central 61 .26. Okay.

Thank you. We're now back in the wire room because it's going to take a little while before that phone call to get through to London. But it gives me a chance to talk to Don about some of the other facets of foreign correspondents. Don, himself, was a correspondent overseas during the war. Don, tell us a little bit about it. Well, I started out in Australia attached to General MacArthur's headquarters, which were then in Brisbane. And I moved north with him through New Guinea and on up to the Philippines. My principal assignment was to publish a small edition of the Chicago Tribune. It was called the Overseas Tribune. It was distributed to troops. Of course, don't have that sort of thing nowadays. Do the foreign correspondents ever get to see the pieces they write? Well, yes, they do. For example, we assign Larry Rue to get close to the American troop station in Germany. Larry was sent up to Berlin and

we had Larry tape this interview so that you can get an idea of how he goes about talking to these boys. This is how he gets his story. That's how Larry gets his story. After he interviews the boy, then he goes back to his office. It's down to these typewriter writes the story and then files it to us by radio. Good. Well, then while we're waiting for Visi's call to come through, why don't we listen to Larry Rue's interview with that Chicago sergeant? One of the fellows helping keep this city in its four -power status is with us right now. I wonder if I could introduce specialist Ron Millman to you and perhaps he can give you some of the information about this city that you would be interested in. Well, Ron, I'm glad to meet you. Where are you from? Chicago. What address? 2701 West Grandville. Well, how long you've been here? I've been in Berlin now two and a half years. Two and a half years? What do you do now? I run the Army newspaper for the American troops here. You like that? Wonderful job. Yeah, do you think the American forces of which you are a

member and as far as that goes, the West Berliners themselves are playing an important role in the struggle between the free and captive peoples? Yes, I believe our American forces are playing a big part just in the fact that they're here in Berlin showing the communists that we intend to stay. We don't intend to give up any more land and showing the Berliners that they are our allies as well as the Russians, the French and the British troops here. Well, that sounds fine. But don't you see that another purpose is served here as far as the capitalistic world is concerned? Isn't the West Berlin being built up in such a way that it makes what's being done economically in the eastern sector in the communist zone? Does it make it look like it's just a very backward country and civilization? Yes, I agree with you on that point. You travel through the cities, the streets of Berlin, you'll find buildings coming up every day.

Whereas if you go into East Berlin, there's only one section that has been rebuilt, Stalin, LA. I don't know if they're going to change that name. Well, you turn around, go around the corner and you won't see, it's all you will see as runes. Thanks to Ron, it's been wonderful to meet you and thank you very much for coming here. Well done, that was interesting to hear how Larry Rue goes about making the interviews I recall last week as you do that I actually read a story off the wire service was coming in here from Rue, was date lined in Bond, Germany. And now this story here of how he actually goes out and gets the story. You know, we placed the phone call to V .C. in London quite a while ago and while that tape was playing, you and I discovered that it's still a little bit of delay. So I just wonder if there was somebody else that you might call while we're here that we could listen in as you talk to them. Well, you Ottawa, Canada isn't too far away and the phone connection is almost like calling across the street. We can call you Gene

Griffin up in Ottawa. I'm going to get right through to him. We'll get right through to Gene, yes. All right, let's listen into that conversation. Ottawa, Canada, Mr. Eugene Griffin. Hello. Hello, Gene. Fine, are you? Pretty good. Kind of busy now, aren't you? With this election? I would thank so. In general, if the conservatives take over the government, what will be the change in the attitude of the Canadian government toward the United States? It'll grow gradually, different towards the U .S. along many fronts trade and defense agreements and cultural influence in generalities. They've been talking about the United States in generalities from a long time, but it's thoughtful that they'll pass any hard legislation early in the administration. The, uh, the legislature is to meet this, I mean, the, uh, the parliament is to meet this fall,

right? Well, uh, it's expected that we'll meet this fall. And you think their attitude toward the United States would stiffen quite a bit. It, uh, will stiffen because the Tories have always talked that way. They're more inclined towards Britain and the Empire than the R towards the U .S. Well, uh, this, this deepened baker who led the, uh, conservatives to this victory over the liberals, uh, what's his background? Yeah. Traces is my name's to what they call a Salt Kirk Suckers. Scott's nun who came over here, taken over here by Lord Salt Kirk in 1812 and settled out in Manitoba. But he, during the campaign, he could trace his background almost any group. That's sure he's just a Canadian. You might say like an American would be in the United States. His background is lost, racially. In recent days, everybody's trying to explain this upset. And, uh,

I've, uh, read many stories which said, well, it was so the rascals out and, uh, they'd been in power too long. Uh, what's your opinion of the, uh, the cause, uh, the upset of the liberals? Well, of course, they had been in law and had been in since 1922 before that, but they'd been in almost continually since 1921 with only a five -year break during the depression. They had that, and over the last few years, they did show signs of seeming to think that they were the ordained people around this country. But nobody paid much attention to until about a year ago, they had this famous pipeline debate, the TransCanada Pipeline, to build a line from Alberta, the Eastern Canada. An oil pipeline? An, uh, an oil pipeline. Well, the companies, largely American interest, didn't have the cash to do it. So the government proposed lending them the money, government money. So that caused the storm. The opposition was going to object, but the government put on closure before they even introduced the bill.

And they, they just traveled the opposition to the thing. Well, all at once, the press of the country rose up on the side of the opposition. I think the press had a lot to do with it. They became very critical of the government, and for the first time the public began being shown what the government was doing in a rather arbitrary manner. I see. Well, that, that just about wraps it up. Okay, James. Nice talking to you. Bye. Bye. Sounds like Griffa knows his stuff up there in Canada, don't? Yes, he's been up there many years in those Canada thoroughly. As a matter of fact, he was the first full -time American correspondent to be assigned permanently to Canada. They've done what about Percy Wood? Well, Percy is in Mr. Maxwell's office right now. Would you like to go talk to him now? I certainly would, if we can make a little interview with him, or perhaps it'd be better if you talk to him. Well, let's both talk to him. First of all, I understand you started with the Chicago American as a reporter, Percy. Yes, in 1924, and then I was hired

by the Tribune in 1926, and those are the only two newspaper jobs I've had. So you've been with the Tribune for, well, 30 years? More than 30 years, that's right. Now, what about your overseas experience? I know that you were a reporter here in town for a good number of years. When did you first become a foreign correspondent? Actually, in July 1946, when I returned after four years in the Navy, part of which duty had been spent in the Far East, particularly India, and I was sent by the Tribune back to India for more than five years during which my territory gradually expanded until I was making periodic visits to about 15 different countries. I understand that you were in India when Gandhi died. Yes, I saw the old gentleman die. How did that come about? He was shot by a Hindu fanatic, and we were on the scene within five minutes, being quite close by, and we watched him die, and then the next day we covered the very tremendous cremation ceremony. Well, now let's bring it up to date, Percy. You just had a

trip in the Far East, as I said, and Don Star, who has been assigning you to some of the stories, is sitting right over here. So I'm going to put this microphone over here and let you and Don check it around for a while, and see what you come up with on your trip. Don, go ahead. Percy, I believe that your assignment in this particular case was to revisit the Far East, those countries with what you were familiar. Can you give us some of your impressions that you have gathered? Now, you've been away some time in your back. How do these people feel about America in general, and American aid, and are they friendly toward us now? Well, I think it can be said with confidence that American prestige is declining out in the Far East, even in nations which this country has helped very boundlessly, both economically and in a military sense. You have only to witness Formosa, or a mob wrecked our embassy last month, and

beat Americans who were hidden there, while police of our ally, President Chonkai Shek and his troops were very slow to stop it. Is there a possibility that similar outbreaks will occur in other countries in which we have troop station in the Far East? I should think it quite possible, yes. I think there's a growing feeling of anti -American feeling out that way. Well, Percy, you were mentioning a story about some of the businessmen in one of those countries over there actually flying communist flags from their stores. Well, you see that a great deal in Sumatra, one of the large islands of the Republic of Indonesia. I flew there with President Sikarno. We flew to Sumatra to Medan, the capital, and then went to a town some 90 kilometers away called Ciantar,

where Sikarno addressed a large Christian conference of all things to find down there. It's a Muslim country. But in the town of Ciantar, and also in Medan, many of the Chinese shopkeepers and the Chinese, of course, are the shopkeepers of Southeast Asia. We're flying the Chinese communist flag alongside the flag of Indonesia over their stores, and you'd see them in solid lines. Every store for blocks and blocks would have them. Chairman, I'd like to interrupt here because we're running a little short of time now, and we want to move on and get some other information from some of the other correspondents. Percy, it's certainly been a pleasure to talk to you and have Don and you kick around the traces here. I know Don is certainly interested in this because he was over there for quite a number of years, and was a great foreign correspondent himself. And we want to thank you, Percy, for coming in, taking the time out to tell us

about your trip in the far east. Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much. Don and I have come back into the wire room where Don is stationed while the paper is being made, and this is where he does most of his work. Just a minute, Hugh, there's my phone. That must be the call from Visi. All right, fine, let's listen. Ready with London England. Hello, Art. I am. Good. We're running a story tomorrow morning on USAID funds, and that is money that is sent over to England, and what happens to it? Who gets the money? Well, the money goes into the treasury here, the British treasury. It used to buy goods. These goods have been sold on the general market, and sterling funds accumulate in the treasury. That is British pounds.

That's right. British pounds. These money at first, the sterling that made about four billion dollars used in this way. It came into the treasury at the time that the socials were in power and were busy expanding the welfare state. So these four billions help make this possible. By the welfare state, you mean such things as the government subsidized all this sort of thing, taking over the minds of all of the things that were done during the nationalizing the railroads and so forth. That's right. Then after four billions were used in this manner, there were some protest states. So the next couple of billions were used to pay off the British internal debt. That's the debt of the British government to the British people. I see. And

since the American debt was going up at the same time after a couple of years, there were some protests from the United States over this too. In fact, what happened, what was happening was that the British debt was being exported across the oil. So then there was another change, and the last billion and a half or so was used for direct military purposes here. The money was divided up among the British, Canadian, Air Force. Well, does any of this money filter down to the people, to the working man, the white collar class and the laboring man? The money does, it's no, but of course it's good too. I don't think people, very many people realize they actually pay themselves, used any of the free words. In fact, they did. But they paid for it, you understand? Yeah. Well, what's the feeling among the British people? Do they like accepting these handouts? Do they feel

that they're on charity or what? Anybody likes to accept a handout? And the British have a very high degree of pride. I don't think they like to accept a handout. They're pretty well off financially then in the treasury now, and they have cut taxes, haven't they? Oh, yes, they've cut taxes five out of the last six years. And the treasury has always been well off. I see. The treasury has had a surplus every year. I see. It's just the war. They've had a total surplus of somewhere like 15 billion dollars. The internal finance has always been good. The peaches come in the external finance. I see. I wonder if we could get on a lighter subject. I have heard that there is a new American type hotdog stand that's opened near part of him, and I wonder if you could get a little story about that. Is it true that they have opened the American type hotdog? Yes. There's a,

what they call it, a snack bar opened up by Canadians. They're quite a swing to these things right now. There are several hamburger shops. Do they call them hamburgers? Do they call them hamburgers? Wimpsies. The biggest of these are on the enough have been installed by Chicago people. Oh, is that so? Yes. Who is it? A man named Stan Horwitz. Oh, and he's from Chicago. Yes, and he was just over here. He just left here. He could go after fixing up a new set of and foreign English company. I see. Now, Art, let's go back to the Suez crisis. I think that on the day that the French and the British attacked the canal, I immediately cabled you at Mr. Maxwell's direction, and you flew out the next day, didn't you? You're right during the night. You got out that night? Well, I left here just

about gone. Were you the first reported to get into Israel? Well, I suppose there was some residents there. I think, probably, our plane was probably the first to land there after the war began. Well, it proved Mr. Maxwell's point that in the modern days of fast airplane travel, that foreign staff of a big newspaper need not necessarily be numerous, but if we have good men and key men, you can move them fast enough that we can get them to the scene of action within a matter of hours, no matter where it is. Okay, is Gwen there? Gwen, you covered the wedding down in Monaco of Grace Kelly and Prince Renier, did you not? Yes. And how many days did you spend? I believe you made two trips, didn't you? Well, I went down in March, first before about two days to prepare a series on Monaco itself. About a thousand

years of Monaco, and then I came back and I woke to series. And then I went down about the first of April. Yeah? The wedding was about 15 -19 and Grace refused to arrive about 8 -12 and so I arrived there. Hello? Hello? Operator. Have we were cut off on that call to London? Do you think it can get it back for us? Just a moment. That's one minute, Don. Yes. Just a minute. Yes. Oh, um, a hell of thinking is just called up with phoning in a piece about Volganon and Chruschev. Oh? One indication to the United States. What do you mean that Volganon and Chruschev want to come over here? That's right. Okay, fine. That's from Showblum and Helsinki. That's right. Okay, swell. All right, Don. Hello? Hello, Gwen. Hello? Hello? Well, we were cut off. Yes. Now, you say

that the Grace was due on the twelfth. That's right. Uh -huh. So, uh, you were there for that. Oh, yes, I was there for the, for the arrival when the ship appeared in but not harbor on the twelfth. Don, that Volganon and Chruschev visits the United States may turn into a story. Yes, I hope it does and if it does, the boy who sent it from Helsinki will be right on the job. Don, I certainly want to thank you very much for helping us out on the program and cooperating and letting Iran Chicago tell a story of the Chicago Tribune's Foreign Service. Now, we have mentioned the name of Mr. Maxwell throughout both programs and I think it'd be only fitting and proper if we first of all identify Mr. Maxwell and then if we could possibly make a brief interview with him. WD Maxwell, of course, is the editor of the Tribune. Now, will there be a chance to talk to him before our program is over? I think that we can talk to him for a couple of minutes before we finish, yes. Well, then, Don, let's do

that now and before I go into talk to Mr. Maxwell, that will be the closing of our program. It's certainly been a lot of fun and excitement for me to listen in as you talk to your correspondents and to find out just how the Tribune's Foreign Service operates. Certainly an amazing thing. It's worldwide. We haven't even mentioned, for example, the many stringers that you have throughout the world. Don, thanks again for going with it. Not at all. It's been a pleasure and thank you. Now, let's go in and talk to Mr. Maxwell. We now come back to the office of Mr. Don Maxwell, who is the editor and the managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Maxwell, first of all, allow me to thank you, sir, for allowing us to take a look at your foreign news service and also, once again, to thank Don Star for helping us out and making the interviews with the correspondents overseas and with the gentleman who came into the office just a little while ago. Now, I'd like to ask you, sir, how important do you consider the foreign news service of such a large metropolitan newspaper?

Well, I think at most of us have become interested in foreign affairs because of our participation in foreign wars. I think the interest is also increased because America has been settled and has made up of people from many other countries. I think you'll find that Hungarians are interested in news from Hungary. Maybe more than they are interested in news from Japan. Certainly, the great Polish population in Chicago is interested in every shred of news that we can get from Poland. Englishmen are interested in the news of their queen. We try to tell the background more than a spot news of what is happening through our own world news service. We don't try to cover everything. It happens in Germany or everything that happens in France or England. But we do try to have men who can get on the spot where big news is breaking and can report and translate it for our readers. Mr. Maxwell, what about iron curtain countries? Now, I note that you don't have a correspondent in Moscow. We had a correspondent in Moscow for eight months. William Moore from our Washington

Bureau went to Moscow, lived there, wrote very interestingly and very informative stories. But he was unable to get much news. It was spot or news that wasn't of the travel page order. He could only report on the things that he could see. He heard very little because people in Moscow don't talk. It's a difficult thing to live in Moscow. It's very cold. The cost of living is very high. And finally, we decided that Mr. Moore should come back to Washington for a while and we would not send back to Moscow until it was possible to get more than press handouts. Moreover, the Tribune is well covered in Moscow by the fact that writers, the great British News Service and the Associated Press and the New York Times all have bureaus there. And the Tribune, of course, has access to all their news. Well, Mr. Maxwell, I know that for your foreign news service costs a great deal of money. Now, why does the Chicago Tribune continue such a service? The Chicago

Tribune has had a foreign news service for many years. We had the greatest number of correspondence, of course, during the First World War and immediately afterwards. Then they dwindled in number and were increased again during the Second World War. The reason for a foreign news service, of course, is to offer your readers something a little more illuminating, a clearer picture of what is happening in the world. Then the readers can get from the press services. It's also to have something on your shelves that your competition doesn't have. And the value of foreign news service lies in the intelligence, the capabilities, and the integrity of the men who are covering these foreign countries. And their ability to seek clearly and report clearly what they have seen and heard. We think our foreign service is very valuable to Chicago Tribune readers. If we did not, of course, we could save a lot of money and scrap it. But we have felt like that men like Henry Wales and Larry Rue and the visas in London,

Gagetini in Italy and Paul Ress in France are men who have a clear perspective, men who can write plainly and interestingly, and who can give the readers of the Chicago Tribune more than they could get if they only had the reports of the news services. Well, Mr. Maxwell, I don't think there's any question in anyone's mind that the Chicago Tribune has one of the very great foreign news services. And once again, we want to thank you for allowing us to tell its story. Well, thank you very much for telling it. And that is the story of the Chicago Tribune's foreign news service. And this is Hugh Hill speaking.