Friday, Feb. 7, 1964
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
White Lecturer Battles Secrecy in Government
He's never practiced much law, but Clark R. Mollenhoff, Pulitzer Prize winning Washington correspondent, probably has found his legal knowledge invaluable.
Mollenhoff, who received a law degree from Drake University in 1944, will deliver the 15th annual William Allen White Lecture at 3:30 p.m. Monday in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union.
Before his speech on "Life Line of
Democracy." Mollenhoff will be presented the William Allen White Foundation's seventh annual citation of an American journalist for service to his profession and his community.
MOLLENHOFF HAS BEEN involved in several scrapes with the U.S. government in its policies of withholding and releasing information. During the Eisenhower administration, Mollenhoff's persistent
questions on government secrecy nearly led to the reporter's expulsion from press conferences.
More recently, Mollenhoff has been highly critical of information released and withheld by the Defense Department concerning the controversial TFX jet bomber controversy.
Mollenhoff has been a Washington reporter since 1950 for the Cowles Publications, which include the Des Moines Register and Tribune, Min-
Famed Editor Had KU Grade Troubles Too
Rv Rick Mahutt
William Allen White, the late editor of the Emporia Gazette, struggled with the same problem when he attended KU that many students wrestle with today. The problem — how to make good enough grades to be graduated from the University.
It is a matter of record that White, who many of the nation's journalists will honor here Monday, lost the battle of grades. Although he averaged a "C" in his other courses, he failed solid geometry three times and this inability to meet the mathematics requirement prevented him from being graduated from KU.
WHILE ATTENDING KU from 1886 to 1888, William Allen White's first love was campus politics. He also served as business manager of the Literary Review and as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal,
DURING THE PRE-WAR years of 1940-41, White, as chairman of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, helped prepare the country for war. The committee advocated extending aid to the Allies although it did not favor America's entry into the war.
William Allen White died in Emporia in 1944 at the age of 76.
To honor the Emporia editor the foundation began sponsoring an annual commemorative program which is held on or near Feb.10, the anniversary of White's birth.
of "widening the scope and services of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information at KU."
The commemorative program, begun in 1950, features a memorial lecture by a guest journalist. James Reston of the New York Times was the first lecturer.
neapolis Star and Tribune and Look magazine.
The man was gone, but his spirit remained and in the same year the William Allen White Foundation was established with the aim
He received the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. He has won numerous other awards including the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for Washington correspondence, the Sigma Delta Chi Award for public service in journalism, the Heywood Broun Memorial Award and the John Peter Zenger Award.
MOLLENHOFF SPENT 11 months in 1960 and 1961 studying in nations throughout Africa and the Middle East on an Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship.
Since returning to Washington, he has been especially active in studying and writing about problems of secrecy in government. In 1962, Mollenhoff wrote "Washington Cover-Up," a book that asserts that secrecy in government promotes corruption and waste.
He was born in Iowa in 1921. While in Drake's law school he covered state and local government for the Des Moines Register. After service in the Navy, Mollenhoff was with the Des Moines Tribune from 1946 until 1950.
spondent will speak informally at a dinner at 6 p.m. Monday in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union. The dinner will be sponsored by Sigma Delta Chi and Theta Sigma Phi, men's and women's professional journalistic organizations.
THE WASHINGTON CORRE-
Each year the William Allen White Foundation holds its annual meeting here on Feb. 10, the birthday of the late editor of the Emporia Gazette in whose honor the foundation was established in 1944.
The foundation's board will meet at 9:30 a.m. in Flint Hall. Byron E. Guise, president of the foundation and editor of the Marysville Advocate, will preside. Burton W. Marvin, dean of the KU School of Journalism and director of the foundation, will present his annual report.
A Kansas editor will be cited by the foundation in recognition of service to journalism and his community at a lunchtown at 12:30 p.m. in the Kansas Union, Rolla A. Clymer, editor of the El Dorado Times, will give the presentation address.
"To An Anxious Friend," a White editorial which defended the freedom of speech, was awarded the 1922 Pulltzer Prize.
Patronize Tour Kansan Advertisers
White also gained recognition during the 1920's with his editorial campaign against the Ku Klux Klan which had become a significant social and political force in Kansas.
He was a leader in the progressive movement and he followed Theodore Roosevelt when he bolted the Republican party to form the Bull Moose party.
William Allen White
the Kansas City News, and occasionally the St. Louis, Topeka and Chicago papers.
Having failed to meet the academic requirement for graduation, White, like many students today, decided to "quit when the quitting was good," as he states in his autobiography.
In 1895 be bought the Emporia Gazette and a year later he vaulted into national prominence with an editorial, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" It was a blast, directed at the Populist party, blaming them for Kansas' decline in population, wealth and status.
The lack of a college diploma was not the stark failure to White, however, that it is to some of today's students. Finding a job without a college degree was easier then and White went to work for the Kansas City Journal and, later, the Kansas City Star.
White continued to achieve national recognition during the early decades of the new century by writing books, articles for national magazines, and editorials which were reprinted and read the nation over.
THE EDITORIAL WAS used against William Jennings Bryan by the Republican supporters of William McKinley during the presidential campaign of that year.