The Press: E Is for Gene

Blunt, news-nosed Gene Howe is a colorful, individualistic publisher who is not averse to a bit of honest ballyhoo. Nobody outside the Navy—least of all a newspaper—had ever won a Navy E for recruiting, but Gene ("Old Tack") Howe's Amarillo (Tex.) Globe-News had one—gratefully awarded by the head of the Dallas naval recruiting district, husky Lieut. L. H. Ridout Jr., for recruiting a special squadron of 60 "Skybusters" (naval aviation cadets). Last week he lost it.

Washington, which had not been informed of the unusual award, learned about it from an A.P. dispatch,...