The Best Reporter

Among the Pulitzer prizes awarded annually is one of $1,000 for the "best reportorial work of the year"--the tests being accuracy, terseness and " the accomplishment of some public good." The prizes were recently awarded for 1922. The " best reporter," however, did not expose a great graft ring, did not describe a great national catastrophe, did not report a momentous political event, made no great " scoop." What he reported was a convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Cambridge, Mass, (last December). The man was Alva Johnston, then with The New York Times, now with The New York Herald.

The headlines employed by The Times and The Herald in reporting Mr. Johnston's winning of the Pulitzer prize were noteworthy. Said The Times: " Alva Johnston Receives $1,000 for Reports of Scientists' Convention in The Times." Said The Herald: "Pulitzer Prize for Reporters Goes to Alva Johnston, Now of Herald."