Men & Ink

Suit, Firmly embedded in U. S. folklore is the idea that Gangsterism got its seed and start in the circulation feuds of Chicago newspapers before the War. Last week rich, hardboiled Max Annenberg, now circulation director of the New York News (biggest in the U. S.), pre-War circulation manager in Chicago for Hearst and then the Tribune, took steps to clear his name of having had any part in fostering Chicago rough stuff. His lawyers began a libel suit for $250,000 against Burton Rascoe, author, and Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., publishers of the book, Before I Forget. Mr. Rascoe, who was writing for the Tribune when Mr. Annenberg was there, remembered in his book a lot of things that had happened to delivery trucks and newsstand dealers, drew the conclusion: "This was the beginning of gangsterism and racketeering in Chicago." Mr. Annenberg declared in his complaint: "Plaintiff is and always has been a forthright, honest and faithful citizen . . . always has been engaged in lawful and honorable businesses."

Before Noon-With a letter on page one of the Portland Oregon Journal, blind Editor B. F. Irvine, whose wife does his reading and takes his dictation, announced last week his retirement, suggested his publisher for the job. Publisher Philip Ludwell Jackson, ebullient at 43, accepted, aware that as editor of an afternoon newspaper he will need to change his habit of rarely getting to the office before noon.

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