The Good-Works Beat

At the docks in Freeport, Texas one day last week, 238 disabled veterans boarded an odd-looking fleet of 56 boats, ranging from battered shrimpers to slick and polished yachts. The vets were off for a day of fishing. For the blind, there were special lines with tufts of silk placed at regular intervals to show how much line was out; for one-armed fishermen there were special devices to wind the reels. Both the expedition--and the fishing aids--were the productions of Columnist Ralph Alexander ("Andy") Anderson of Scripps-Howard's Houston Press. A little (5 ft.

4 in., 145 Ibs.), red-faced man of 64, Andy Anderson has a unique newspaper job--the good-works beat.

His good works are so famed that the veterans' annual fishing trip, now in its eighth year, is a Texas institution, and boat owners are glad to lend their boats for it. Nevertheless, Anderson has nothing but scorn for the "bighearted amateur do-gooder." Says he: "There's no greater waste in the world." The reason is that Anderson does not consider himself an amateur do-gooder. He is a professional.

One-Legged Bowlers. Newsman Anderson, who was born in Pittsburgh, moved to Texas after a hitch in the Army in World War I and became sports editor of the Houston Press. It was not till early in World War II, when he saw a planeload of wounded soldiers from overseas arriving at a hospital, that he became interested in professional good works. Anderson was so shaken that he decided to help them regain their health through sports.

He invented a leather sleeve device to serve as the missing arm for one-armed golfers, a crutch with a retractable spring so that one-legged men could go bowling, a special hook with which a one-armed man could swing a softball bat, a series of gadgets for fishermen. Then he took a leave of absence from the Press, spent three years touring every major veterans' hospital in the U.S., teaching 50,000 veterans how to use his contraptions.

When a citizens' committee asked him to head the "Hire the Handicapped Week" for Houston in 1949, Anderson accepted, but only on condition that hiring the handicapped be a year-round project for local industries. On his return to the Press, where he writes a fishing column, he also found time to write stories on the handicapped and chivvy personnel managers into hiring them. As a result, Houston employers hired 2,280 handicapped people in 1953. When a crippled vet gets out of a hospital in Houston, boasts Anderson, "he don't loaf more than 36 hours." For those still in the hospital, Anderson puts on a wild-game dinner every fall. Last year he fed 5,000 disabled veterans on 100 deer, 1,500 ducks and numerous quail, geese and elk, all shot by a small army of veterans under Anderson's command, on land lent specially for the annual hunt. Anderson also organized a group of 100 totally disabled men, known as the Rambling Wrecks, supplies them with tickets to sporting events.

Playing Millionaire. To help raise money for his veterans' projects and other charitable undertakings, Anderson started another daily feature called "Andy's Column." He runs a pool of 90 wheelchairs for invalids who cannot afford their own, and a furniture pool for those who have lost their belongings in fires. He has placed about 100 children in foster homes, once helped nine girls get dresses for their high-school graduation. At Christmas time, says Anderson, "I have a helluva time" with a project modeled after the New York Times's annual "100 Neediest Cases." In true Texas fashion, Anderson figured that if the Times could help 100, he should help 500. He helped many more. Says he: "I figure I spend about $150,000 of other men's money a year." One wealthy Houstonian gives him $1,000 with which to "play millionaire"; another gives him $3,000 to buy shoes for needy children. He distributes $5 bills to the down-and-out, last year handed out 3,000 Christmas baskets worth $70,000.

Anderson gets about 100 calls a day from people who want help, and a steady stream of petitioners pours into his Press office. Says he: "A man may call, and you can't do anything for him. But if you're kind to him, sometimes that will carry him through a whole day."

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