PRESIDENT AND PRESS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23317, 1 May 1941, Page 5

PRESIDENT AND PRESS

* THE SYSTEM IN WASHINGTON HISTORIC SPEECH AT A DINNER WASHINGTON, March 18. It was just right for President Roosevelt to choose the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association as the setting from which to deliver his historic appeal for “total aid” for Britain, writes Erwin D. Canham, in the “Christian Science Monitor.” Relations of President and press in the United States symbolise the maturity and breadth of America’s social as well as political democracy. Perhaps it will help citizens, both here and abroad, to take them behind the scenes in Washington into some ot the press organisations, Part of this, the press conference ■ system which centres in the White House, has been described fully many times. It constitutes a genuine “Fourth Estate” of government. President. Roosevelt's words in his Saturday night speech tell’part of the story: “you, more than you realised, have been giving me a great deal of information about what the people of this country are thinking.” Yet the press access system represents much more than that. It provides a form of interpellation or criticism right to the Executive’s face. Conversely the astute Executive can use the press as a sounding board. In sum, the press link makes a vital channel between government and the people. Its independent continuance is urgent to democracy. The vigour of the press in Washington partly causes and is partly due to the strength of newspapermen’s organisations there, which are more numerous and powerful than anywhere else in the world. It is about those that.the public knows little. Here is their roster;

The White House Correspondents’ Association,' * to which the President spoke, is the largest and most loosely constituted group. It exists principally to handle the accrediting of correspondents who attend White House press conferences. There are several hundred members, who pay a dollar a year dues and carry cards signed ,by the President’s press secretary asking for courtesies bn behalf of the White House. To, attend the President’s or his secretary’s conferences regularly, you have to have membership. To obtain it, you have only to prove affiliation with a newspaper or similar news-gathering organisation as your chief livelihood. Foreign correspondents are freely admitted. Germans, Italians, Japanese are now and have long been members. They were undoubtedly at the dinner on Saturday night. Several of them are old-timers in Washington, and are well liked by their colleagues. Only once a year does the White House Correspondents’ Association meet formally, and that is at its annual dinner. Officers are generally elected from a group of 10 or, 12 men who work full-time in the White House press room and nearly always accompany the President on his trips. The annual dinner has been attended by the President for many years and until this year was wholly given over to entertainment with only the briefest of speeches. An annual comic news rtel q£ Presidential or national affairs has been shown for many years. There is an entertainment programme presented in alternate years by the big radio networks. These shows have been splendid, usually with performers whom the President has asked to see. They cost the networks a good bit of money which, for obvious reasons, they are glad to spend. The occasions are relaxed and informal. Dinnerjackets instead of tail coats' are worn. Leading officials are guests, and the President has always seemed to enjoy himself. The lampooning has .been .very, minor, - and the big' thing. The "elder statesmen" of the press corps have not controlled this organisation, and President Roosevelt has seemed to find very congenial the, younger reporters who—assigned to cover him personally and often very devoted to him—have run its affairs. The Gridiron Club

The Gridiron Club, most renowned of Washington press groups, is as “exclusive” as the White House Correspondents’ Association is open. . Its roster of active members is limited to .50 resident correspondents, which makes, however, a strong and representative group. It gives two annual dinners at which a satirical political show is interspersed between the’ courses from 7.15 to nearly midnight. The satire is sharp, there is a speech by an opposition leader, and the President is given the last word in an unreported speech. Mr Roosevelt has attended these dinners twice a year with only one exception, and has stood up well under biting satire. He hasn’t seemed to like the club’s tail-coated formality, nor its audience of wealth and power, but the Gridiron Club has certainly been a vigorous and healthy expression of one aspect of democracy. The President attends the annual dinner of the National Press Club, a function also given over to entertainment. This group, as its name implies, is social. It is heavily loaded with associate members, who are lawyers and lobbyists and what not, but it is controlled by active newspapermen. Mr Roosevelt also recently attended a luncheon of the Women’s National Press Club, a very active group which has hitherto had the President’s wife as its chief guest. Without any direct contact with the President is the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which handles the accrediting of reporters in the Congressional press galleries, and Overseas Writers, a big group of American former foreign correspondents. . All this corporate organisation strengthens and fortifies the Washington press corps. It helps maintain the freedoms of the whole nation; and President Roosevelt did well at this particular hour—when an American correspondent of good standing, has lust been arrested! in Berlin—to recognise the entity of the working press. ( .