The Press: Sequelae

Besought by petitioning club women, The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Ia.), two weeks ago (TIME, Apr, 13), instituted an experiment of segregating its crime news to a separate department, similar to “Sport” and “Business,” on an inside page. Last week, The Register announced that its experiment would be continued until opportunity might be had for “conclusive findings” on the merit of the plan. Also last week, whether by coincidence or following the lead of the Des Moines Register, other U. S. newspapers adopted trial crime segregation policies.

At Decatur, Ill., The Decatur Review segregated telegraphic crime news to a lower left-hand corner of the front page labelled “Crime.” At the end of a week, said ministers: “Undue attention is called.” Others commended.

At Fayettesville, N. C, The Fayettesville Observer announced that, for 15 days, it would refrain from publishing any crime news whatsoever in its columns. The readers were told that their opinions would be consulted, would determine whether or not the policy should become permanent.

“Literary”

The ever-active New York World, last week, announced proudly “a new literary achievement.” This feat amounted to nothing less than inducing the fiction editors of 16 U. S. magazines each to select that short story which he felt to be the best his magazine had published in 1924. Assembled at a luncheon given by the World, the editors had been told that, by definition, they were the most competent judges of short stories in the U. S.; hence a collection of tales selected by them would be the most authoritative volume of “best stories of 1924” conceivable. Enthusiastically the editors agreed to this proposition; agreed to choose; agreed to permit their names to be broadcast when the World republished and syndicated the series.

Alphabetically, the honored authors, their works, their judges, the magazines, were: Michael Arlen, The Dancer of Paris. Editor Sewell Haggard. Everybody’s.

F. R. Buckley, The Primitive Method. Editor Arthur Sullivant Hoffman. Adventure,

A. M. Chisholm, Tim of Bush Valley. Editor Charles Agnew MacLean. Popular.

Irvin S. Cobb, Standing Room Only. Editor Ray Long. Cosmopolitan.

Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game. Editor Loren Palmer. Collier’s Weekly.

Samuel A. Derieux, Wild Bill McCorkle. Editor Merle Crowell. American.

Meigs O. Frost, Shackles of Service. Editor Harry E. Maule. Short Stories.

Zona Gale, The Biography of Blade. Editor Carl VanDoren. Century.

Ellen Glasgow, Romance and Sally Byrd. Editor Gertrude B. Lane. Woman’s Home Companion.

Inez Haynes Irwin, The Spring Flight* Editor Harry P. Burton. McCall’s.

W. Somerset Maugham, The Letter. Editor Ray Long. Hearst’s International.

Samuel Merwin, More Stately Mansions. Editor Karl E. Harriman. Red Book.

Honore Willsie Morrow, Fighting Blood. Editor Mrs. William Brown Meloney. Delineator.

Elsie Singmaster, November the Nineteenth. Editor Arthur T. Vance. Pictorial Review.

Lisa Ysaye Tarleau, Loutre. Editor Thomas B. Wells. Harper’s.

Ida A. R. Wylie, Little Fraulein and the Big World. Editor W. F. Bigelow. Good Housekeeping.

Auto-Printing

According to a despatch from West Frankfort, Ill., the motive power of The West Frankfort American’s press ceased to function last week. Editor Byron Elkins cogitated. He stepped into the street, backed “a small automobile” into his shop, jacked up the wheels, attached a belt, ran off his editions “at the rate of 30 miles an hour.” He alleged that he got “1,500 papers to a gallon of gasoline.”

*Not to be confused with The Spring Flight, novel by Author Lee J. Smits, published last month by Alfred A. Knopf.