EDITOR

An Unknown Force.

As a child in Wapakoneta and Georgetown, Ohio, Carr Vattel Van Anda showed equal enthusiasm for mechanical tinkering and publishing. At age ten he built his own printing press and published his Boy's Gazette, and he spent his profits on chemistry and physics experiments. He went to college at age sixteen and worked as a typesetter and reporter. In 1904, after fifteen years as a reporter and editor for the New York Sun, Van Anda became managing editor of The New York Times, He worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and hardly took a day off for the twenty-one years he held that position. Van Anda's genius in selecting news and finding ways to get information quickly, as well as his remarkable intelligence, set standards for news gathering. While reporters respected him for his fairness, his disapproving glance was known as the "death ray." It was Van Anda, perhaps even more...