The Press: New .Face For Chicago

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Defendant Clark also told of threats by Crawford & Spencer that "something would happen to him" if, in his campaign speeches for judgeship, he did not "lay off" his charges that an organized gambling ring and a vice syndicate controlled the city's politics. He pictured Spencer not as a martyred news-crusader but as a political blackmailer; not a Mellett but a sort of Lingle. Under crossexamination, however, Defendant Clark made a remark which made the whole case seem futile and tragic. Asked Prosecutor Joseph Ford: "You didn't believe your talks against the 'underworld' would incur the hostility of anyone, or hurt anyone?"

"Well, I don't know. I was just talking to get votes."

Squabbles & Streetsales

Newspaper circulation wars broke out last week in two cities.

In Columbus, Ohio the evening Dispatch cut its price from 2¢ t01¢ without announcing its reason which was, obviously, to harass its only evening competitor, the Scripps-Howard Citizen. The Citizen did not meet the reduction, instead accused the Dispatch of striking out not for economic reasons but because of a political feud between the two. The Citizen had begun a campaign for removal of Probate Judge Homer C. Bostwick. whose good friend is Publisher Harry Preston Wolfe of the Dispatch and the morning Ohio State Journal. It offered evidence that the judge had forced a young woman to return a diamond ring he had given her on threat of prosecution. When the Citizen's first story appeared the Dispatch notified the Citizen that edition agreements were off, followed with the price cut.

In Philadelphia newsboys wore large placards with the legends: "Buy the Record . . . Help Break the Monopoly . . . Protect the Newsboy." Reason: newsboys were told that if they persisted in carrying the bulldog (early) editions of the lusty Record, they would not be served with Curtis-Martin Ledgers (morning, evening & Sunday) and Inquirer. Curtis-Martin's reason: the Record was bringing its bulldog out too early.