University Daily Kansan/Wednesday, Aug. 19, 1987
5
Veteran journalist recalls W.A. White, Emporia Gazette
By TONY BALANDRAN Special to the Korea
Special to the Kansan
EMPORIA - Time has changed some things in the Emporia Gazette newsroom.
New light fixtures illuminate new pictures covering new walls and new wallpaper covering old walls.
Electronic video display terminals have replaced some of the old Under-wood typewriters and Linotype machines.
Although William Allen White's name still appears on the editorial page, it appears only on the masthead — not above any columns.
Most of the furniture has been either replaced or rearranged.
The Gazette's offices have grown over the decades to include an advertising office and an employee's lounge next to a room referred to as the museum. In the museum, some of the once-reliable Linotvies now rest.
Some faces have changed as well. Different people sit in chairs once claimed by newspaper veterans who no longer put out the daily news.
One of those journalism veterans was T.F. McDaniel, a man who started as a carrier boy in Kansas City, Mo., and worked his way up to managing editor of the Emporia Gazette.
He has seen the world change through the news stories he has encountered during his association with the Gazette.
He has seen the changes, the alter-
ations, the developments. And he
has seen his work in action.
Everything changes, said McDaniel, whom time has carried carefully through the years, aging him like a book that fades only on the outside and leaves the content unaltered.
His image, from a bygone time, is
preserved in a wall mural in Staufer-Flint Hall.
McDaniel, 83, still knows his business.
"There I am still standing at the end of the hall, a little younger and with a little more hair," he said walking toward the mural at the east end of the first floor Stauffer-Flint hallway, where he is pictured holding a telephone.
"Everyone heard that *Life* magazine was coming in," McDaniel said. "So everyone made it a point to be there at a certain time."
The photographer from *Life* was setting up his equipment in the newsroom in 1938 while everyone was finding a place to sit, McDaniel recalled.
By the time McDaniel got to the newsroom, all the chairs were taken, and he was left standing. He picked up the phone without ever intending to use it.
"I'm what's known as a scene stealer," he said, examining the wall mural. "At least that's what they see me after the picture was taken."
The world has aged, but for McDaniel, journalism has grown younger; younger faces, newer technology and14.0ent ethics.
He was born Theodore Fairbanks McDaniel on Aug. 30, 1904. His father, a Republican chairman in Rush County, named him after two prominent Republicans at the time, President Theodore Roosevelt and Vice President Charles Fairbanks.
A job delivering newspapers in the early 1920s was the start of a 50-year journalism career.
By the winter of 1923, he was a union printer for the Kansas City Star where he worked in the composing room during the Christmas season.
The next year McDaniel answered an advertisement in the Kansas City Times for a proofreader's position at the Emporia Gazette.
He had never proofread before, but he applied and spent about two weeks learning the proofreading fundamentals. William Allen White hired him.
His job was to proofread copy and get it in a Linotype, a keyboard-operated machine that set a line of copy on a single metal slug.
The metal slugs were stacked to form a page of copy.
Today, copy is typeset by a computer, and the Linotype has become obsolete.
"The toughest job was making sure the boss's editorial was correct," McDaniel said. "His handwriting was worse than any doctor you know."
A couple of times, McDaniel had problems reading White's writing.
"I was called on the carpet a few times, but at least that showed me he was paying attention to me," he said.
Until World War II, McDaniel's versatility allowed him to do several jobs at once, including sports writing, city hall reporting and wireiling.
As a sports writer, he used to do something that newspapers today don't do for their staffs. Nowadays it is considered unethical.
The Gazette had what it called due bills, which allowed hotels to run free advertisements in the paper in exchange for free lodging for reporters.
Covering sports on the road, McDaniel spent free nights in St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh because of the due bills.
And whatever hotel register McDaniel signed, he said, people would recognize Emporia as the place where White lived and worked.
"Everybody did it then," he said. "The boss once told me that he had a free pass on the Santa Fe Railroad. Of course, it's past saying, nobody does that anmere."
In 1942, McDaniel continued the tradition of writing the Good Morning pieces, usually a paragraph or two short stories. He was also weather on the Gazette's front page.
The man who had started the Good Morning pieces quit, he said. Others did it for a while, and McDaniel and Lorenzo both joined him. He continued for several decades.
McDaniel said he wanted to keep the column going because in 1942 the news was usually depressing.
The Good Morning columns often contained anecdotes, quotations or just sayings.
"If people read that first," McDaniel said, "then at least they could face the rest of the news with a glimmer of a smile."
In developing ideas for the columns, "sometimes we stole them, some were borrowed, but most were original," he said.
In 1944, William Allen White died,
and Daniel remembers his boss's
death.
McDaniel was stationed in Honolulu, in an Enlisted Naval Correspondence office overlooking Pearl Harbor, when he heard the radio bulletin of White's death. He later read the report.
At that time White was known all over the world, McDaniel said.
"With all the war going on, the San Diego Union called me and gave me a front page picture and story on
"He was the last of the great personal journalists," he said. White was known not only for his name in the book but also for his ideas he presented in his editorials.
William Allen White.
After the war, television entered the journalism business, and newspapers had to adjust.
Television has had a great impact on the way the news is presented and perceived, McDaniel said.
"Television has had a negative effect on the press's reputation," he said. "I think they (television broadcasters) are sometimes, especially in election times."
"The press is still the permanent record. That's the big advantage. Television can handle the local news, but permanency is the key."
Today's high technology has made the public think of the press as more adversarial to public officials, he said, and therefore less trustworthy.
Nowadays the media attacks a city official because he is a city official. But the press should only attack him because something wrong, McDaniel said.
"God knows that William Allen White never hesitated in attacking people who expressed views different from his," McDaniel said.
"He was objective in the news, but he sure took out after them on the heath."
The press needs to be a watchdog, McDaniel said, but it doesn't need to get rabies.
One former employee of the Emporia Gazette who had the opportunity to work under McDaniel
"You've got to realize you're not going to please everybody, and sometimes you don't please anybody," he said.
remembers his editor well
"The more versatile you were, the better off you were on the paper," said Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for academic affairs.
While studying at Emporia State University in the summer of 1954, Brinkman began working for the Gazette as a correspondent from his hometown of Olpe. He became a full-time reporter the next year under then managing editor McDaniel.
During his career with the Gazette, Brinkman, who is the former dean of journalism, worked as editor of the city, sports, wire and society desks.
Brinkman said his experience with the Gazette and with the people who knew White made him appreciate even more his tenure with the School of Journalism.
Patient, even-tempered, subtle-humored and supportive is how Brinkman recalls McDaniel.
Although McDaniel doesn't spend all his days in the Gazette's newsroom anymore, he frequently strides through his former territory, bombarded with greetings.
His desk still remains in the news room.
"They have changed the chair a little bit . probably broke it."
Beside his desk rests one new item that recently has gained entry to the newsroom and probably will remain longer than his desk.
Placing his hand on a video display terminal, McDaniel said. "The quality of writing has deteriorated since these things have come in."
"I used to give a spelling test to all new reporters. If they could spell Wabaunsee, accommodate and Marais des Cygnes, then I hired them."
Professional & Personal Travel Service At No Extra Charge
- Airline Tickets
  * Cruises
    * Car Rentals
      * Hotel & Resorts
        * Air Charters
- Motorcoach Tours
- Escorted Tours
- Group Travel
- Amtrak Tickets
- Academic Travel
Welcome Back!
AVOID THAT HOLIDAY CRUNCH MAKE RESERVATIONS NOW!
UNIVERSITY LUTHERAN CENTER at IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH
15th & Iowa
843-0620
704 Massachusetts 842-4000 Across from the Eldridge Hotel)
Lawrence, KS
WORSHIP-8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.Bible Study-9:35 a.m.
Student Activities
- Thursday August 20
- Sunday August 23
7:00 p.m. Volleyball, ice cream & videos Noon Free welcoming meal
VIDEOXPRESS YOUR TICKET TO THE HOTTEST MOVIES AROUND!
ADULT MOVIES AVAILABLE
1447 W.23rd Open 9 a.m.-10 p.m.daily