W.L.W. for W.A.W.

The leader editorials of the Emporia (Kans.) Gazette (circ. 7,000) were signed W.L.W. once again last week. Young Bill White was taking up where he had left off eight eventful years before, subbing for his famed father, William Allen White.

Bill White was cradled in the Gazette's wastebasket, while his father worked with his mother over its forms. When he was big enough to hit a front porch, young Bill White had carried the Gazette. He had penned its Emporia high-school notes. He had been the Gazette's reporter, copyreader, business manager, circulation manager, associate editor, finally publisher.

But in the past eight years, fortune far greater than any Emporia could give had come to square-jawed Bill White. He became a syndicated columnist, war correspondent, author of three best-selling war books (Journey for Margaret, They Were Expendable, Queens Die Proudly), a roving editor of Reader's Digest.

Perhaps, now that he was home again, his globe-trotting career lay behind him. He had moved into his father's office (but at another desk), was writing, as W.A.W. always had, the whole range--about Republicans, Russians, Emporians. Bill White, at 43, had a big man's shoes to fill. His father, kindly philosopher, deflator of stuffed shirts, folksy booster of Kansas and the common man, over the years had been a solid force for good in the U.S. Old William Allen White, full of years (75) and journalistic glory, had been ailing for months, was glad he had a son as competent as Bill.

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