The Press: I Loathe

The late great, hard Frank Andrew Munsey (1854-1925), amalgamator of newspapers, had a strict rule in all his editorial offices that there should be NO SMOKING. This caused many reporters to sneak out of sight.

The New York Sun, old Munsey paper, still keeps the NO SMOKING rule. Keats Speed, managing editor of the Sun, has added another prohibition. Paper shall not be cast upon the floor, but shall be placed in wastebaskets. Noiseless typewriters, too, are replacing the old machines. Said Mr. Speed: “All normal men hate noise and mess; I loathe them both.”

But the Sun now has a special smoking room, in which Mr. Speed and reporters, off-duty smokers, smoke.