WILLIAM ALLEN WHITES AMERICA

By Walter Johnson '37. Henry Holt andCompany, 1947, 621 pages, $5.00.

Few persons who have known in equal intimacy James B. Reynolds 'go and Philip S. Marden '94—names familiar to long-time readers of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE—wouId hesitate to pronounce either as the editorial equal of William Allen White, now the subject of an admirable biography by Walter Johnson of the History Department of the University of Chicago. Other titles he might have selected, such as "The Anomaly of William Allen White," or "The Salesmanship of William Allen White."

Here was a man who built a reputation that justified an earlier biography, an extensive autobiography, a compilation of his letters and now this definitive volume. Why? White became the accepted interpreter of the great Middle West for a notable half century. He did it by knowing a much greater area than that which he professedly served. Herein comes the anomaly. He was really a great cosmopolite, widely traveled here and abroad, and personally in touch with an extraordinary number of the leaders of opinion everywhere. One cannot help noticing in these books his preference for the persons whom he knew. He had refused to become a big city editor, sticking tenaciously to the part he had decided in youth to play. In 1896 at the age of 28, in obvious haste he had dashed off an editorial, "What's the Matter with Kansas," which should be read today.

Young men who have a "feeling" for journalism, and particularly for the small city daily, cannot afford to miss this book. The local news weekly is on the way out. In the near future it will be the daily or nothing, so great has become popular concern in our larger neighborhoods. How William Allen White succeeded affords one great textbook for men who would learn how.