Columnists and Calumnists

8 1/2 x 11 (216 x 280 mm) sheets, [1], 16 pages, printed on rectos only and stapled at top left.

Advance copy of an acerbic speech by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, in which he levels sustained, withering criticism of certain newspaper columnists (or "calumnists," as he calls them). He singles out Westbrook Pegler as well as General Hugh Johnson, both fierce opponents of President Roosevelt. (Johnson worked briefly in the Roosevelt administration but was fired because of his Fascist sympathies.) On the other hand, he praises the great Heywood Broun: "Here is a genial philosopher who declines to take himself too seriously and yet one who never pulls his punches, even if he chuckles as he lands on an eagerly outstretched chin."

His view of Dorothy Thompson is decidedly mixed. On the one hand, he calls her "a sincere and earnest lady who is trying to cover too much ground by setting herself up as a final authority on all social, economic, governmental, national, and international questions." She also has a tendency "to see an American dictatorship in every move that is made by the Administration for the improvement of our social and economic conditions...." Yet he praises her for the "really fine stand that she has, with both courage and intelligence, taken on the subject of dictatorships abroad."

Ickes delivered his speech before the Newspaper Guild of New York City on April 11, 1939, and the CBS radio network broadcast the speech. The next day, The New York Times carried a lengthy report on the speech but, curiously, didn't report the reaction of the journalists attending the speech. Perhaps the Times relied on an advance copy such as this one.

No institutional holdings. RARE.

CONDITION: Some soiling to first and final pages, light toning throughout, a few creases. Overall, Very Good.