Price - Byron
On March 25, 1891, Byron Price was born in Topeka, Indiana, a rural, Amish-Mennonite community in North Central Indiana. His father, John Price, was a farmer and his mother, Emaline, a homemaker. His ancestry has been traced back to Thomas Price who came from Wales in 1634. As a lad, Byron attended the Topeka public schools and was graduated from Topeka High School in 1908.
He then enrolled at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. While still a student there, he served as a cub reporter for the Crawfordsville Journal-Review and for the Indianapolis Star and News. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa while at Wabash. After earning his B.A. degree at Wabash College in 1912, he got a job with the United Press.
From May until December 1912, he was a reporter and editor for U.P. in the Chicago and Omaha bureaus. In December 1912, he joined the Associated Press, and stayed with that organization for 29 years until December 1941. He served as a day editor for the Atlanta Bureau, then acting correspondent and bureau chief in New Orleans, and was transferred next to Washington, D.C.
In 1917, during World War I, Price took a leave of absence from the AP's Washington Office, and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served as a first lieutenant and then as a captain in the 52nd pioneer infantry. While serving in France, his regiment was cited for conspicuous service in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which helped to end the war. After mustering out of the army in 1919, he rejoined the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press.
At age 29, on April 3, 1920, Byron Price married Priscilla Alden in New York City. She was the daughter of William F. Alden, a Washington, D.C. lawyer. They never had any children.
In 1922, Price was promoted to news editor of the Washington Bureau and then in 1927 was made chief of that bureau. After ten years as chief of the Washington AP office, in 1937, the AP's general manager chose him to be executive news editor of the entire organization. He served in that position, with headquarters in New York City, until 1941. On the twenty-ninth anniversary of the day the Associated Press hired him December 16, 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Price Director of Censorship following the outbreak of World War II. Taking a leave of absence from the Associated Press, he moved back to Washington, D.C., to assume his new position.
There he discovered that office space was so crowded due to the war that he had to set up his office in the Post Office building. Under Price's direction, the office quickly hired 13,000 men and women civilians through the Civil Service Commission to examine the mails and cables in ports and border cities. In addition, he hired about twenty newspapermen and broadcasters to supervise the domestic press and radio "voluntary" censorship. The entire staff eventually numbered 14,500, and Price organized the total program. After the war was over and the Censorship Office abolished, in August 1945, President Truman appointed Price his personal representative to investigate post-war conditions in Germany. Truman especially wanted him to report on relations between American occupation forces and the German people. He also served as an adviser to Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lucius D. Clay, from September to November 1945. In December 1945, Byron Price was appointed vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America. In 1946, he added the titles of chairman of the board for the Association of Motion Picture Productions, president of the Central Casting Corporation, first vice president of the Educational Films Research Corporation, and director of the Hollywood Coordinating Committee. Just before his fifty-sixth birthday, in 1947, Price left his $75,000 a year job with the Motion Picture Association to become Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Administrative and Financial Affairs. He was the only American among eight assistant secretary-generals. Given the job because of his past record of efficiency in administrative work, Price was to supervise the arrangements for construction of the new United Nations building in New York City. He also was in charge of all the staff members who worked for the U.N. In the Current Biography volume on 1942, Byron Price was described as being blond, five feet ten and a half inches tall, and 190 pounds. He played golf for relaxation, was a member of the Methodist Church, as well as many other press clubs and organizations. He died August 6, 1981, at his Hendersonville, N.C. home at age 90. Journalistic Contributions Byron Price's newspaper work took him into all fields of governmental, political, and diplomatic activities. In his jobs with the syndicated press associations, he covered eleven national conventions and the news in such major cities as Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, Omaha, and Washington, D.C. For many years, he wrote a twice-weekly column for the Associated Press entitled "Politics at Random," and a column for Sunday papers, "The Week in Washington." His rise within the ranks of the Associated Press was indicative of his administrative abilities. He moved from reporter in 1912 to day editor, news editor (1922), and chief of the Washington, D.C. bureau (1927), before becoming executive editor in charge of news, he had the complete responsibility for four years for the Associated Press' daily news reports of 250,000 words. He was head of what was then the world's biggest staff of foreign correspondents. Price was praised for his ability to handle reporters under him and for pushing for strictly objective reporting with no bias. Though his job as Director of Censorship during World War II seemed to be a political position, it still was a journalistic one. Price was chosen for his interest and experience in gathering and disseminating the news, not for his politics. Before he was even suggested for the job, managing editors of many U.S. newspapers were asking him how they should hand wartime news. Many journalists felt he did a fine job through the Office of Censorship of maintaining an informed public and preserving the democratic processes while making sure no information was published or broadcast that might be of value to the enemies. Instead of channeling all war information through him or his office (as was done in World War I), Price continued the usual news channels. Newspaper reporters still went to their usual sources of information, and government departments and agencies still issued press releases. But each department had been given a list of what was not to be published. He asked journalists voluntarily not to print news of troop and ship movements, of sabotage, and of rumors about negotiations. He never tried to regulate or discourage editorial comment and criticism of government in any newspapers. Byron Price was given a number of awards for his journalistic work over the years. In 1946, for example, President Truman awarded him the Medal for Merit, the highest civilian decoration the President can give. The citation read in part, "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services as director, Office of Censorship." Wabash College conferred upon him an honorary LL.D. degree in 1943 for his journalistic achievements, and Harvard University gave him an honorary M.A. degree in 1946. In 1944, Columbia University presented to him a special Pulitzer citation for the creation and administration of the newspaper and radio censorship codes. The American Society of Newspaper Editors and ten other associations of the press, radio, and photographers gave him special commendatory citations in 1945 and 1946. Other Contributions After Price's work as Director of Censorship, most of the rest of his positions did not involve journalism. His short stint in 1945 as President Truman's representative to occupied Germany was diplomatic in nature and an important piece of work right after the devastation of World War II. He had so proven his worth as an administrator while he was with the Associated Press and the Office of Censorship that other organizations then sought his efficient leadership. That's why he was appointed in 1945 as vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America. In that position, he oversaw the industry's attempt to handle research, legislation, labor relations, public relations, and the voluntary codes regulating the moral content of films and advertising.
Even though it paid well, Price left that position in 1947 to do more administrative work as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Administrative and Financial Affairs. The U.N. Secretary-General selected him because of his efficient administrative record. At the time he joined the United Nations, he had to deal with the U.N. staff members' discontent over salaries and overtime, as well as with their alleged inefficiency. There was a financial crisis at the U.N. when he was appointed. But one of the bigger jobs he had to undertake in his new position was the supervision of the construction of the new U.N. building in New York.
by Paulette Sauders Ball State University, Summer 1981 - thanks so much PS for sharing :) kbz
Source: Indianapolis Star Sun 3 Jan 1937 p 39
Byron Price, Hoosier, Worked from Farm to High AP Post – by Everett C. Watkins
Washington, Jan 2 – Byron Price was a 10-year-old boy in LaGrange County, Indiana when he first became identified with newspaper work. At that age he established for family consumption only, a newspaper he called the Family Journal. He didn’t possess type, ink or a press. He did have a lead pencil. His newspaper, issued every now and then between farm chores, consisted of penciled items written on a piece of discarded wrapping paper. He chronicled the news of the Price farm, items about the new calf, the laying hens and the doings of members of his family. Finally, the 10-year-old editor made the mistake of using his family publication to air personal grievances against his older sisters. It was then he first learned the meaning of “censorship” and that “freedom of the press” is something that shouldn’t be abused. The penciled newspaper was abolished on parental orders.
Today, the farm-boy journalist is preparing to depart for New York, after having been chief of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press since 1927, to become the “executive news editor for the Associated Press,” responsible for the news of the world whether it be a “story from Vincennes, France or Vincennes, Ind. Various families at Crawfordsville, Ind where he attended Wabash College will testify that Byron Price worked hard in obtaining education that was to prepare him for big responsibilities. They will recall that he fired furnaces, carried paper routes, washed windows, dusted rugs, collected laundry, worked and served as short-order cook in a restaurant to meet expenses of tuition, room and board. He worked before most families were up in the morning: he worked at night after most families had retired. He worked so many hours that it doesn’t seem possible he ever had time for his studies, yet his grades were so high he was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa key. Despite the fact he was working his way through college, Mr. Price somehow found time for various school activities – he belonged to the literary society, was a member of the debating team, was active in the YMCA and in his junior and senior years was managing editor and editor respectively of the twice-a-week-school publication, The Bachelor. Fellow members of the debating team were Hinkle Hays (Sullivan Ind) lawyer and Louis Roberts, now city attorney at Evansville. In 1910, he was selected as Wabash College representative at the state oratorical contest held in Tomlinson Hall, Indianapolis. He won! His topic was Natural Forces in the Development of World Peace. His peace topic was not good enough to present the World War which was to break out a few years later. The collegiate peace advocate was destined to become a soldier – he served overseas as a captain and company commander in the 52nd Pioneer Infantry regiment and was under fire every day for five weeks in the Argonne campaign. Byron Price’s father was John Price, Lagrange county farmer. A brother, Lewis Price, former member of the Indiana legislature, still lives on a farm in northeastern Indiana. A second brother, Earl Price now living near Chicago attended Wabash.
Byron Price attended a nearby “country school” in learning readin’ ‘ritin; ‘ritmetic. Before and after school and all day in the summer time he worked on the farm – plowing, milking cows, bedding live stock and doing other chores. He attended HS at Topeka, a village four miles from his Indiana farm home. He drove a horse hitched to a two-wheel cart in attending HS. While in HS he became the editor of the Topeka HS Index; he wishes today he had a copy of that publication when his name was carried at the masthead as editor. He entered college with a strong physique, a strong determination, much perseverance but little money. In the evening he wrote items, relating to the campus for the Crawfordsville Journal then a morning newspaper. He was up at 4 a.m. to deliver a paper route – to deliver newspapers in which his items appeared. In delivering the morning newspaper he stopped at 3 homes, the Peck, Merrill and Voorhees families to fire their furnaces. He also had a laundry route in the neighborhood of the college. In the evening in return for his board, he worked behind the counter of what was then the Ben Hur Dairy Lunch; on Saturday night he was a short order cook in that same eating place. He has no regrets about the hard work he did in pounding his way through school; he has a feeling of gratitude for those in Crawfordsville who provided him with work. He is no “softie.”
During his junior and senior years he served as secretary to George L. MacKintosh, then president of Wabash. He had heard a secretarial vacancy was developing. He made application. But he didn’t know shorthand and his typewriter experience was limited. So, despite all his jobs and his school activities, he attended night school at the Crawfordsville Business College and qualified to be secretary to the college president. While in college he lived at the Merrill home and also the home of Mrs. Maxwell on College street. In his sophomore year he was president of his class; it was in his junior year he accepted membership in Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Out of college he first had a thought of further schooling, preparation to be a lawyer; to finance a law course he considered teaching school. He had practically contracted to teach English and history in New Albany HS when he chanced to get a summer job in the United Press Bureau at Chicago. He became so interested in newspaper work that all thought of law vanished. Soon he was sent to Omaha, Neb to establish the UPress first bureau in that city. Before the end of 1912 he took a position with the Associated Press to be sent first to Atlanta, GA and then New Orleans, LA to be bureau chief.
In 1914 he came to the Associated Press Washington Bureau to be a reporter, assignments to “cover” the Senate, White House, State Department. He took leave of absence to serve in the WW then returned to Washington. He “covered” the year of Senate debate on the League of Nations; he traveled with President Wilson when the President suffered his breakdown; in 1920 he wrote the news of the Harding “front porch” campaign at Marion, O. He wrote of the celebrated Leo Fran murder case in Georgia; he went with President Harding to the Panama Canal; he was in London for the 1930 naval conference; he has attended 11 Republican and Democratic national conventions. He has rubbed elbows and had contacts with the big names of the world.
But no thrill has he experience like his first big thrill. “Life’s greatest moment” first came to him when he was a 7-year-old boy gazing for the first time upon a “real congressman.” Today he doesn’t even remember the name of that member of Congress but never will he experience the awe and thrill he felt when he walked within 3’ of an Indiana member of Congress when attending a Chautauqua at Rome City.
Two years ago (1935) Mr. Price and other Indiana men in Washington newspaper work were special guests of the Indiana Society of Washington. Each newspaperman was on the program to relate his most memorable experience. Meeting celebrities is all in the day’s work for newspapermen. Mrs. Price’s thoughts ran back to the days when he was an Indiana plowboy. He told of his “great moment” in the following language “It is not very difficult for me to select my most memorable experience. I have enjoyed immensely the interesting stories already told by my newspaper colleagues. They have dealt with Presidents and princes, Cabinet members, senators and generals. Since I came to Washington more than 20 years ago, I also have had some experience with the headline-makers of that caliber. But I am compelled in honesty to confess that my greatest thrill of that kind came to me long before I thought of being a newspaperman or aspired to look on the dome of the US Capitol “In that section of northeastern Indiana where I was reared there is a small summer colony nestling along the wooded bank of a lake. It is called Rome City and in those never-forgotten days when I was a farm boy, it was the seat of a summer Chautauqua. To that place when a mere urchin, I went with my parents on one proud occasion by horse and buggy to listen to the band and hear distinguished speakers awake the echoes of the Hoosier land with oratory. And it was there that I saw my first congressman. He was not a giant as I had supposed he would be, but a man of ordinary stature, having two ears and two eyes, even as I myself. He was not clad in raiment of exception splendor; in fact he had spots on his coat and dust on his shoes. In his moments of relaxation when I observed him jovially mingling with the voters, he chewed the ragged end of a most evil-smellin cigar. YET he was really a congressman. He had been in Washington. He had moved in the charmed circle of the great. Therefore he had about him the aura of fame and rich experience – the sanctity of kings. I shall never forget how I looked upon him with awe and rapture and had to be led forcibly from his presence. Since that day I have learned a great deal. I have seen many of that congressman’s kind and many of his betters. But not one of them ever has replace him in my affections. He remains my greatest thrill. He is and always will be my hero. For that was the sort of experience to a boy that can come but once in a lifetime and beside which all other experiences thereafter are only anticlimax. “I have seen Presidents come and go but I know that I never shall look again on the like of that great man at Rome City whose name, I regret to say I cannot recall!’
Byron Price, Hoosier, Worked from Farm to High AP Post – by Everett C. Watkins
Washington, Jan 2 – Byron Price was a 10-year-old boy in LaGrange County, Indiana when he first became identified with newspaper work. At that age he established for family consumption only, a newspaper he called the Family Journal. He didn’t possess type, ink or a press. He did have a lead pencil. His newspaper, issued every now and then between farm chores, consisted of penciled items written on a piece of discarded wrapping paper. He chronicled the news of the Price farm, items about the new calf, the laying hens and the doings of members of his family. Finally, the 10-year-old editor made the mistake of using his family publication to air personal grievances against his older sisters. It was then he first learned the meaning of “censorship” and that “freedom of the press” is something that shouldn’t be abused. The penciled newspaper was abolished on parental orders.
Today, the farm-boy journalist is preparing to depart for New York, after having been chief of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press since 1927, to become the “executive news editor for the Associated Press,” responsible for the news of the world whether it be a “story from Vincennes, France or Vincennes, Ind. Various families at Crawfordsville, Ind where he attended Wabash College will testify that Byron Price worked hard in obtaining education that was to prepare him for big responsibilities. They will recall that he fired furnaces, carried paper routes, washed windows, dusted rugs, collected laundry, worked and served as short-order cook in a restaurant to meet expenses of tuition, room and board. He worked before most families were up in the morning: he worked at night after most families had retired. He worked so many hours that it doesn’t seem possible he ever had time for his studies, yet his grades were so high he was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa key. Despite the fact he was working his way through college, Mr. Price somehow found time for various school activities – he belonged to the literary society, was a member of the debating team, was active in the YMCA and in his junior and senior years was managing editor and editor respectively of the twice-a-week-school publication, The Bachelor. Fellow members of the debating team were Hinkle Hays (Sullivan Ind) lawyer and Louis Roberts, now city attorney at Evansville. In 1910, he was selected as Wabash College representative at the state oratorical contest held in Tomlinson Hall, Indianapolis. He won! His topic was Natural Forces in the Development of World Peace. His peace topic was not good enough to present the World War which was to break out a few years later. The collegiate peace advocate was destined to become a soldier – he served overseas as a captain and company commander in the 52nd Pioneer Infantry regiment and was under fire every day for five weeks in the Argonne campaign. Byron Price’s father was John Price, Lagrange county farmer. A brother, Lewis Price, former member of the Indiana legislature, still lives on a farm in northeastern Indiana. A second brother, Earl Price now living near Chicago attended Wabash.
Byron Price attended a nearby “country school” in learning readin’ ‘ritin; ‘ritmetic. Before and after school and all day in the summer time he worked on the farm – plowing, milking cows, bedding live stock and doing other chores. He attended HS at Topeka, a village four miles from his Indiana farm home. He drove a horse hitched to a two-wheel cart in attending HS. While in HS he became the editor of the Topeka HS Index; he wishes today he had a copy of that publication when his name was carried at the masthead as editor. He entered college with a strong physique, a strong determination, much perseverance but little money. In the evening he wrote items, relating to the campus for the Crawfordsville Journal then a morning newspaper. He was up at 4 a.m. to deliver a paper route – to deliver newspapers in which his items appeared. In delivering the morning newspaper he stopped at 3 homes, the Peck, Merrill and Voorhees families to fire their furnaces. He also had a laundry route in the neighborhood of the college. In the evening in return for his board, he worked behind the counter of what was then the Ben Hur Dairy Lunch; on Saturday night he was a short order cook in that same eating place. He has no regrets about the hard work he did in pounding his way through school; he has a feeling of gratitude for those in Crawfordsville who provided him with work. He is no “softie.”
During his junior and senior years he served as secretary to George L. MacKintosh, then president of Wabash. He had heard a secretarial vacancy was developing. He made application. But he didn’t know shorthand and his typewriter experience was limited. So, despite all his jobs and his school activities, he attended night school at the Crawfordsville Business College and qualified to be secretary to the college president. While in college he lived at the Merrill home and also the home of Mrs. Maxwell on College street. In his sophomore year he was president of his class; it was in his junior year he accepted membership in Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Out of college he first had a thought of further schooling, preparation to be a lawyer; to finance a law course he considered teaching school. He had practically contracted to teach English and history in New Albany HS when he chanced to get a summer job in the United Press Bureau at Chicago. He became so interested in newspaper work that all thought of law vanished. Soon he was sent to Omaha, Neb to establish the UPress first bureau in that city. Before the end of 1912 he took a position with the Associated Press to be sent first to Atlanta, GA and then New Orleans, LA to be bureau chief.
In 1914 he came to the Associated Press Washington Bureau to be a reporter, assignments to “cover” the Senate, White House, State Department. He took leave of absence to serve in the WW then returned to Washington. He “covered” the year of Senate debate on the League of Nations; he traveled with President Wilson when the President suffered his breakdown; in 1920 he wrote the news of the Harding “front porch” campaign at Marion, O. He wrote of the celebrated Leo Fran murder case in Georgia; he went with President Harding to the Panama Canal; he was in London for the 1930 naval conference; he has attended 11 Republican and Democratic national conventions. He has rubbed elbows and had contacts with the big names of the world.
But no thrill has he experience like his first big thrill. “Life’s greatest moment” first came to him when he was a 7-year-old boy gazing for the first time upon a “real congressman.” Today he doesn’t even remember the name of that member of Congress but never will he experience the awe and thrill he felt when he walked within 3’ of an Indiana member of Congress when attending a Chautauqua at Rome City.
Two years ago (1935) Mr. Price and other Indiana men in Washington newspaper work were special guests of the Indiana Society of Washington. Each newspaperman was on the program to relate his most memorable experience. Meeting celebrities is all in the day’s work for newspapermen. Mrs. Price’s thoughts ran back to the days when he was an Indiana plowboy. He told of his “great moment” in the following language “It is not very difficult for me to select my most memorable experience. I have enjoyed immensely the interesting stories already told by my newspaper colleagues. They have dealt with Presidents and princes, Cabinet members, senators and generals. Since I came to Washington more than 20 years ago, I also have had some experience with the headline-makers of that caliber. But I am compelled in honesty to confess that my greatest thrill of that kind came to me long before I thought of being a newspaperman or aspired to look on the dome of the US Capitol “In that section of northeastern Indiana where I was reared there is a small summer colony nestling along the wooded bank of a lake. It is called Rome City and in those never-forgotten days when I was a farm boy, it was the seat of a summer Chautauqua. To that place when a mere urchin, I went with my parents on one proud occasion by horse and buggy to listen to the band and hear distinguished speakers awake the echoes of the Hoosier land with oratory. And it was there that I saw my first congressman. He was not a giant as I had supposed he would be, but a man of ordinary stature, having two ears and two eyes, even as I myself. He was not clad in raiment of exception splendor; in fact he had spots on his coat and dust on his shoes. In his moments of relaxation when I observed him jovially mingling with the voters, he chewed the ragged end of a most evil-smellin cigar. YET he was really a congressman. He had been in Washington. He had moved in the charmed circle of the great. Therefore he had about him the aura of fame and rich experience – the sanctity of kings. I shall never forget how I looked upon him with awe and rapture and had to be led forcibly from his presence. Since that day I have learned a great deal. I have seen many of that congressman’s kind and many of his betters. But not one of them ever has replace him in my affections. He remains my greatest thrill. He is and always will be my hero. For that was the sort of experience to a boy that can come but once in a lifetime and beside which all other experiences thereafter are only anticlimax. “I have seen Presidents come and go but I know that I never shall look again on the like of that great man at Rome City whose name, I regret to say I cannot recall!’
Source: Indianapolis Star 17 April 1927 Sun p 7
New Head of Capital Bureau of AP is former Indianian - notes of what was not in the other article above
Topeka HS began a fascination in reading the romantic and interesting lives of Melville Stone and other newspaper men. Mr. Price becomes the head of the largest & most important news bureau maintained by the Assoc Press in any city of the world. Only 36 years old but through hard work step by step to get there – wrote for both C’ville papers and served as Wabash’s correspondent to the Indy Star. Won 1910 Indiana State Intercollegiate debating contest. Worked in Ben-Hur Dairy Lunch where he learned to be a ham-and-egg cook. Found time to sweep the floor in Otto’s jewelry store. When got the job of Dr. McIntosh’s secretary he was able to drop his janitor’s job. All his jobs make him have brawn & muscle which he kept at least to the point of becoming the AP head in 1927.
1915 – Army – commission as 1st Lt of Infantry at the Officer’ training school at Ft Myer, VA. – learned the “self-reliance” tactic of life from his father, John Price a farmer who always did that until his death about a year before. 1920 marr Priscilla Alden, direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden.
New Head of Capital Bureau of AP is former Indianian - notes of what was not in the other article above
Topeka HS began a fascination in reading the romantic and interesting lives of Melville Stone and other newspaper men. Mr. Price becomes the head of the largest & most important news bureau maintained by the Assoc Press in any city of the world. Only 36 years old but through hard work step by step to get there – wrote for both C’ville papers and served as Wabash’s correspondent to the Indy Star. Won 1910 Indiana State Intercollegiate debating contest. Worked in Ben-Hur Dairy Lunch where he learned to be a ham-and-egg cook. Found time to sweep the floor in Otto’s jewelry store. When got the job of Dr. McIntosh’s secretary he was able to drop his janitor’s job. All his jobs make him have brawn & muscle which he kept at least to the point of becoming the AP head in 1927.
1915 – Army – commission as 1st Lt of Infantry at the Officer’ training school at Ft Myer, VA. – learned the “self-reliance” tactic of life from his father, John Price a farmer who always did that until his death about a year before. 1920 marr Priscilla Alden, direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden.
