Tribune v. World

At recess, two boys in a schoolyard begin quarreling over a nice red apple. One of them, by fair means or foul, procures it, whereupon the disgruntled lad shouts: "Ha! it's gotta woim hole. Ha! it's gotta woim hole! You got stung!" This kind of conduct is quite normal in shrill Jimmy Nine and smudgy Butch Ten--but when for the two lads you substitute a pair of famous daily newspapers, and for the red apple a valuable "feature," is such behavior decent? Is it dignified? People asked this question last week about the New York World and the Herald Tribune.

The first evidence of the quarrel was a self-explanatory editorial in the Herald Tribune. It was entitled "Sour Grapes."

"Our contemporary the World printed yesterday morning on its front page in the guise of a news despatch from Washington an article designed to belittle the Colonel House memoirs which begin in this newspaper next Sunday.

"The facts are that the World made the utmost efforts to buy the House memoirs in the precise form in which they will appear in the Herald Tribune. It made actually one of the largest cash offers, and had it been successful would have published the series.

"Having lost the prize, unquestionably one of the most interesting and important newspaper features ever printed, the World has been busy endeavoring to minimize its value. It is now seeking to insinuate by its news article that the memoirs were shorn of some of their interest by Mrs. Wilson's objection to having her husband's letters printed."

Tribune readers waited anxiously for Friday morning's World. When at last they beheld it, they turned to the editorial page--and there, lo and behold, was a squib entitled "An Apology." Smiles wreathed the faces of the followers of the Tribune. So the World knew when it was wrong, did it? The World was courteous enough to apologize for its offences. With a new respect, they settled themselves to read: "The World made a high bid for the House memoirs; we do not blame the Herald Tribune for its resentment.

"We are glad to be reminded that magnanimity is important in journalism. We are glad to be reminded even by the Herald Tribune, which has taken such good care not to be magnanimous to the World that it has never as yet mentioned the part played by the World either in the aluminum inquiry or in the action of the stock exchange in regard to non-voting stock."

When they finished reading the editorial, the mouths of the friends of the Tribune wore an acid expression that could not possibly have been caused by their breakfast eggs. They were thinking again of the schoolboy--of how he says, "Yes, I'm sorry, teacher. Naw, teacher, I'll never do it again," while at that very moment he is displaying, to the tittering class behind him, a pair of crossed fingers. "Is that," the friends of the Tribune wanted to know, "an apology?"

It remained only for the Tribune to add a last shrill repartee entitled "Thanks":

"The World, in apologizing for its attack on the House memoirs, bewails the fact that we have not mentioned its interest in aluminum. Like the rest of America, we hardly knew there was an aluminum investigation. Besides, when your neighbor makes himself ridiculous the magnanimous course is surely not to draw attention to the fact."

With this cruel jibe the two combatants--as if hearing the bell that ended their recess--drew apart, leaving the school-yard to quiet and to Colonel House.