The Press: Return of the Native

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In his Washington political column syndicated to 145 U.S. dailies, last week Columnist Marquis Childs, 50, struck a gloomy note. "Neither party," wrote Fair Dealer Childs, "has come to any [overall policy] agreement within its own ranks . . . If we are to save ourselves, we must . . . think anew and act anew." The sentiment was not new, but for Childs it had a special meaning. This week he quit as a political pundit for United Features, went back to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he had been a staffer for 18 years before leaving to start his column in 1944. United Features will continue to syndicate his P-D stories three days a week, but Childs will be paid by the PD, not the syndicate. Childs had a candid explanation for his return to the PD. Says he: "There's a terrible danger of becoming a stuck whistle as a columnist."

Mark Childs was not alone in the feeling. More and more political columnists have found that the pressure of solving the world's problems four, five and six days a week takes a heavy toll. "The journalistic profession," said one Washington newsman, commenting on Childs's shift, "has made the job of the columnists impossible. He has to turn out something with meaning five days a week. He can't digest events. He's a victim of inconsistency. He can really become a kind of high-class gossip monger if he's not careful."

For the PD, Childs will work out of Washington, concentrating on interpretive reporting of foreign affairs (he left this week for the Berlin conference and a tour of Europe). While Childs decided to go back to his old paper at "a slight financial loss," he thinks this will be more than made up by the freedom of his new job. Says Childs: "I feel I will have more latitude as a reporter. I think the column's been doing very well, but there was the danger of becoming sort of a croaker. I wanted to avoid that by going back to reporting as the basis of my writing."