Read Online Eve of a Hundred Midnights by Bill Lascher - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bill Lascher
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California as the heart of an idealized pan-Pacific economy just as the United States emerged from the Depression. The exhibition also showed off the China Clipper, Pan-Amâs glamorous, silvery whale of an airplane, which flew regularly between Treasure Island and Hong Kong.
The Golden Gate International Exhibition took place at a time when some scholars and policymakers, especially thoseinvolved with the Institute for Pacific Relations (IPR), an early and influential think tank cofounded by Wilbur, believed that Pacific Rim nations were becoming increasingly interdependent. The policy analysts and editors who attended Melâs presentation rewarded his fresh and potent perspective on Asian affairs with a clutch of introduction letters to important journalists, businessmen, and diplomats in China.
One of the sources Mel met while working on the thesis was Ray Marshall, the just-returned manager of the United Pressâs China bureau. Marshall now edited the syndicateâs incoming cables in San Francisco. When Mel visited Marshallâs Mission Street office, Marshall told Mel that he would make a strong recommendation to the United Pressâs New York office that Mel be hired to contribute from China. He even said he would urge them to try to pay Melâs boat fare to China, but told Mel that it would be worthwhile to go even if they didnâtâwhich was likely because the syndicate was spending most of its money sending reporters to Europe.
Mel nearly fainted upon receiving such support from Marshall, though he knew a stable job wasnât guaranteed.
âIt means that when I land in China, I am on my own,â he wrote. âI will have the task of doing my best to interpret a force which is taking a toll of several thousand lives daily. Perhaps I wonât do a good job. I donât know.â
On top of Marshallâs support and the letters he received from the Institute for Pacific Relations members, Mel was asked by the San Francisco Chronicle âs Paul Smith to send him feature articles from China for This World, the Chronicle âs Sunday magazine. If big news broke, Smith said the paper would also turn to him as its correspondent in Asia.
Mel knew this was a tremendous opportunity. Still, he hadto improve his Chinese in the few weeks left before he left California. His old friend George Ching, who lived in San Francisco, offered to tutor him. To help Mel meet more easily with Ching, Jonathan Rice, a friend from the Stanford Daily who also lived in the city with a number of other Stanford friends, invited Mel to room with him.
A few days after Mel made his presentation at the exposition, he wrote his mother with news about the commitment from the Chronicle . It was August 31, 1939, and probably not the best day for Mel to tout his ability to predict the news.
âStill looks like no war in Europe today,â he wrote.
The next day Hitler invaded Poland.
Because of the outbreak of war in Europe, few people recall more positive events that were happening at the same time, like the Golden Gate exposition or the IPRâs lobbying for pan-Pacific cooperation. Perhaps, as Mel wrote on the eve of his return to China, such optimistic initiatives had simply run their course. The world had changed for the worse, and it was Melâs job as a journalist to acknowledge that reality, though he argued that a journalistâs commitment to accurate reporting could help achieve peace.
âWorld conditions point to troubled years ahead,â Mel wrote.
No matter which way you turn, revolution, civil war, world war it all means people dying and suffering. It is the primary task of the correspondent to portray a real picture of what he sees before him. Yet it is his job to serve his own group best. That is the job I want to tackle. A job which means success if just one iota of misunderstanding is righted. It means that the world is just that much closer to harmonious
The Golden Gate International Exhibition took place at a time when some scholars and policymakers, especially thoseinvolved with the Institute for Pacific Relations (IPR), an early and influential think tank cofounded by Wilbur, believed that Pacific Rim nations were becoming increasingly interdependent. The policy analysts and editors who attended Melâs presentation rewarded his fresh and potent perspective on Asian affairs with a clutch of introduction letters to important journalists, businessmen, and diplomats in China.
One of the sources Mel met while working on the thesis was Ray Marshall, the just-returned manager of the United Pressâs China bureau. Marshall now edited the syndicateâs incoming cables in San Francisco. When Mel visited Marshallâs Mission Street office, Marshall told Mel that he would make a strong recommendation to the United Pressâs New York office that Mel be hired to contribute from China. He even said he would urge them to try to pay Melâs boat fare to China, but told Mel that it would be worthwhile to go even if they didnâtâwhich was likely because the syndicate was spending most of its money sending reporters to Europe.
Mel nearly fainted upon receiving such support from Marshall, though he knew a stable job wasnât guaranteed.
âIt means that when I land in China, I am on my own,â he wrote. âI will have the task of doing my best to interpret a force which is taking a toll of several thousand lives daily. Perhaps I wonât do a good job. I donât know.â
On top of Marshallâs support and the letters he received from the Institute for Pacific Relations members, Mel was asked by the San Francisco Chronicle âs Paul Smith to send him feature articles from China for This World, the Chronicle âs Sunday magazine. If big news broke, Smith said the paper would also turn to him as its correspondent in Asia.
Mel knew this was a tremendous opportunity. Still, he hadto improve his Chinese in the few weeks left before he left California. His old friend George Ching, who lived in San Francisco, offered to tutor him. To help Mel meet more easily with Ching, Jonathan Rice, a friend from the Stanford Daily who also lived in the city with a number of other Stanford friends, invited Mel to room with him.
A few days after Mel made his presentation at the exposition, he wrote his mother with news about the commitment from the Chronicle . It was August 31, 1939, and probably not the best day for Mel to tout his ability to predict the news.
âStill looks like no war in Europe today,â he wrote.
The next day Hitler invaded Poland.
Because of the outbreak of war in Europe, few people recall more positive events that were happening at the same time, like the Golden Gate exposition or the IPRâs lobbying for pan-Pacific cooperation. Perhaps, as Mel wrote on the eve of his return to China, such optimistic initiatives had simply run their course. The world had changed for the worse, and it was Melâs job as a journalist to acknowledge that reality, though he argued that a journalistâs commitment to accurate reporting could help achieve peace.
âWorld conditions point to troubled years ahead,â Mel wrote.
No matter which way you turn, revolution, civil war, world war it all means people dying and suffering. It is the primary task of the correspondent to portray a real picture of what he sees before him. Yet it is his job to serve his own group best. That is the job I want to tackle. A job which means success if just one iota of misunderstanding is righted. It means that the world is just that much closer to harmonious
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