Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
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This is a period piece that has been completely forgotten. Mowrer exemplifies the high quality of foreign reporting on the Chicago Daily News, the paper that more than any other may be credited with creating modern American journalism and foreign correspondence. The first Pulitzer Prize in the category of foreign reporting went to Paul Scott Mowrer in the late 1920s. Stories such as he wrote would never win today. Mowrer’s book, written in the early 1920s, is an analysis of America’s role in the world after World War I. As a measure of Mowrer’s insight, he predicted the oil crisis that would come many decades later.
Now you’ve got Our Foreign Affairs, Paul Scott Mowrer.
This is a period piece that has been completely forgotten. Mowrer himself is a forgotten journalist, which is too bad, and so to a large extent is his paper. He exemplifies the high quality of foreign reporting on the Chicago Daily News, the paper that more than any other may be credited with creating modern American journalism and foreign correspondence. The paper was owned and run by a public-spirited businessman, Victor Lawson. Among many other innovations, Lawson decided at the end of the 19th century that it was time to fashion a foreign service made up of American correspondents. A lot of the papers hired Brits who were already abroad to write their foreign news, or they might send someone out to run a bureau here or there (typically these correspondents spent a lot of time clipping news from local papers) or send a reporter to do this or that story. But no paper had a professional corps that gathered news in a systematic way. The Daily News wanted to send people out who knew American culture, who were good local reporters, who would get original news.
Mowrer began on the local staff at the Daily News, straight out of high school, and in 1910 was assigned as the Paris bureau chief. He directed the Chicago Daily News war service in France from 1914 to 1918. After the war, he became the chief of the paper’s foreign service. The first Pulitzer Prize in the category of foreign reporting went to Paul Scott Mowrer in the late 1920s. Stories such as he wrote would never win today.
Why not?
Well, he could be a very colourful writer, even literary. In fact, he became poet laureate of New Hampshire late in life. But these stories were dry and somewhat arcane, fit really for the diplomatic pouch, rather than an average reader. Also, there was very little sourcing in his articles – he knew what was happening and didn’t need to get anyone else to say it. He was an expert writing for, if not experts, men and women with a considerable level of interest and knowledge in foreign affairs.
By World War I the Daily News had a quality and reach that gave it great competitive advantage. Many American newspapers subscribed to its service. Its correspondents had address books filled with some of the best sources there were to be had. This carried on after the war, although other papers, especially the New York Times, developed formidable foreign services. Sadly, there is no history of the Chicago Daily News, which, of course, no longer exists today. It went under in the mid-1970s.
Mowrer’s book, written in the early 1920s, is an analysis of America’s role in the world after World War I. It is an insightful analysis of the need for America to be an actor in the world, and it shows a brilliant understanding of how the nations were becoming interdependent, not just economically, but culturally and in all kinds of ways. As a measure of Mowrer’s insight, he predicted the oil crisis that would come many decades later.
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Former journalist John Maxwell Hamilton is Dean and Hopkins P Breazeale Professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. In the course of his career Hamilton has had assignments in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. He has overseen nuclear non-proliferation issues for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, advised the head of the US aid programme in Asia during the Carter administration, and managed a World Bank public affairs programme to educate Americans about economic development. His most recent book, Journalism’s Roving Eye: A History of American Newsgathering Abroad, won the Goldsmith Prize. Foreign reporting, he says, is much less swashbuckling now and correspondents are on a shorter leash. ‘They used to be left alone to find and write the stories they wanted to write – they were the experts. But now they can be in touch with the editor ten times a day on a big story. There was less tampering with copy in those days. Now the correspondents are less independent and really less colourful generally.'
