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OFF Chief Archibald MacLeish, in Manhattan speeches to conventions of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and Associated Press, asked loyal U.S. editors to purge their own ranks of "minority elements of the American press which are actively engaged in influencing American opinion in directions which lead not to victory . . . but to defeat."
MacLeish did not name names, but he urged the editors to act because the Government cannot, without endangering "the freedom of the honest editor and the loyal publisher," because "the most poisonous and pervasive defeatism is not practiced by those who violate the statutes of their country openly. It is practiced by those who take scrupulous care to stay within the law — to come, as one of them is reported to have told his staff, 'as close to treason as I dare.' "
Death of a Senescent
The oldest Macfadden publication, Physical Culture, long senescent at 43, was last week put out of its misery "for the duration." Its circulation down to around 175,000 (25,000 below its advertising guarantee), its advertising off 46% from last year (which was off more than 50% from 1935), the onetime money-making muscle magazine, in spite of recently changing its name to Beauty & Health, had seen its losses grow to around $6,000 a month.