I Hold These Truths to be Self Evident

Northeast News Service - April 1993 Unforgettable Encounter Through the Vermont woods we drove, stopping briefly at the old General Store for directions. After several anxious hours of driving, I was about to enter the life and world of George Seldes. At the store, I was handed the old-fashioned telephone which had been dialed by the owner and handed it to my dad. As he spoke he took down the directions and agreed that we’d stop by at 3:00pm that afternoon. "Was that him?" I asked. "He sounded good, firm, but not unfriendly," replied my dad. "He’s finishing an interview with Newsweek right now and wants to rest up a while. He’ll see us at 3:00 o’clock sharp." A book on a shelf at home led to this day. The Great Quotations by journalist, George Seldes (1960) was a family reference for many years, but this didn’t tell the whole story. Through family folklore, I learned that this man wrote many best-selling books in the 1930s describing his rendezvous with history, the world leaders he met and covered as a member of the American Press Corp. My father, now in his mid-70s, grew up reading Seldes’ books as well as his one man news journal, In Fact, which for 10 years (1940-1950) was a ground-breaking news journal which claimed a national readership of 200,000 including such subscribers as Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt and a cadre of historians, statesmen and ordinary citizens like my father. Needless to say, dad was a big fan of Mr. Seldes. Although I had heard and read a lot about this great man, I had no inkling he would still be living until I saw a profile in the Boston Globe of him receiving the coveted George Polk Award for a lifetime achievement of journalism. There he was, in his 90s, standing in his Vermont garden and admonishing the White House and discussing life all around him as if he’d never retired or faded into the past. I remember saying to my father, "I’ve got to meet this guy - he’s still living and breathing, and outspoken as ever." A few years passed and I noticed a new book at a bookstore one day titled, The Great Thoughts, compiled by George Seldes. It was regarded as a 50 year achievement by a living legend and I remember grabbing several copies and rushing home to call my dad. It wasn’t long thereafter that I became a new pen-pal to this man, whom I discovered was a great friend of Labor and the plight of the working man. I was soon to learn first hand what a mentor an elderly man could be to an impressionable younger person. My dad and I found ourselves at George Seldes doorstep awaiting our knocking at his country door in the hills of Vermont. The first of our visits would begin now of this remarkable man. Mr. Seldes immediately welcomed us into his home. A compact man who conspicuously wore no eyeglasses, no hearing aid, he clearly enjoyed doing most things for himself. A widower of almost two decades, Seldes appreciated his company and spoke to us as if we were his long lost neighbors. “It is almost 3 o’clock and you must join me for my afternoon martini.” This gentleman’s humor was apparent and his sincerity was genuine. After a hearty round of martinis, ‘George’ (as he wanted to be called) recounted a recent birthday his Vermont neighbors sponsored for him. Some guests who dropped by read like a Who’s Who VIP list: Bill Moyers of PBS and historian, Studs Terkel were at his table. Flowers were sent by TV mogul Norman Lear and there were regards from Dear Abby herself as well as a call from Ralph Nader, who gives Seldes credit for inspiring him as a consumer advocate. “So you want an interview. Sit next to me on the couch and ask me anything you want. What do I care - at my age I can say anything I wish.” It was George’s way of telling his life’s story to a sympathetic audience. Although we wanted to ask George some contemporary questions regarding today’s press, the election and some of his favorite people, he conscientiously described some of his highlights with the encounters he had with world leaders while serving as a reporter during America’s tumultuous years. “I was 20 years old when my editor at the Pittsburgh Leader sent me to cover William Jennings Bryan, who threw me out of his hotel room when I asked him if he was intending to run for President again, (for a fourth time). This man was once my hero!” It didn’t take much prompting to keep George from recounting the stories of some of his great assignments. “My favorite President was Woodrow Wilson. He was an academic and ill at ease with the common man. He was a decent man and after the Great War (WWI) he was hailed as ‘the New Messiah’ in France and was greatly popular in Europe with the common man. My greatest assignment was covering a young Theodore Roosevelt in 1910. He was not yet on the Bull Moose ticket, but we all knew he’d be running for President. He was denouncing the big trusts and advocating better laws favoring the working man. Naturally, the Republicans regarded him as a dangerous radical - and it would be the same today!” My fatgher and I tried to keep George on the subject of Labor between his many anecdotes and jokes and his eye’s lit up as he lectured us on the great importance of Labor’s struggle during the early part of the century. “My city editor, Ray Sprigle and I declared for unionization at the Pittsburgh Post early on (1912) and we were considered radicals at the time because we were friendly with labor leaders like John L. Lewis. We were curious about the new Labor Movement, the IWW (International Workers of the World, aka ‘The Wobblies’), and me and Sprigle went downtown to hear these leaders at the time - Bill Haywood and Joe Hill. He’s the same guy you now hear in songs. His full name was Joe Hilstrom, you see. And at his meetings he had us all singing his famous song: (George now gets animated and sings aloud) You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky: Work and pray, live on hay You’ll get pie in the sky when you die. And we all shouted - That’s a lie!” “Joe Hill was regarded as a dangerous man to his enemies, the big companies, and was treated unfairly in the major press. He became a great martyr when he was accused by the state of Utah as someone who was spotted robbing and shooting a grocery owner and was quickly executed. Those of us who knew him knew the charge wa laughable and outrageous and when Woodrow Wilson intervened on behalf of his sentence nad conviction, but to no avail. His last words were- ‘Don’t mourn for me. Organize.’ “