Page 75 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

HOWE, LOUIS
HENRY
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York World-Telegram won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1933. Howard
directed the newspaper's attack on Tammany Hall and supported Fiorello H.
LaGuardia, the reform candidate for mayor. Throughout his career, Roy Howard
maintained a keen interest in reporting. He obtained exclusive interviews with
a number of world leaders, including Britain's minister for war David Lloyd
George, Japanese emperor Hirohito, and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. The New
York Times credited Howard with being a major influence in the election of
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Howard retired officially in 1953 but continued
to serve as chairman of the executive committee of Scripps-Howard Newspapers
until his death of a heart attack in his New York office at age 81.
SOURCE: Kenneth Stewart and John Tebbel, Makers of Modern Journalism, 1952.
David H. Weaver

HOWE, LOUIS HENRY (1871-1936), a political operative who personified
the "man behind the scenes," was instrumental in the political development of
both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. After a somewhat unsuc-
cessful career as a newspaper reporter and political aide in Albany, New York,
Howe attached himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt when he led an effort to reform
Democratic politics and New York as a new state senator in 1911. When Roo-
sevelt became ill during his reelection bid the following year, his wife, Eleanor,
who initially disliked Howe for his heavy smoking and other personal charac-
teristics, was forced to ask him to run the campaign. During the next eight years,
Howe wrote speeches for Roosevelt, developed a national network of supporters,
and managed his unsuccessful campaign for vice president on the Democratic
ticket in 1920. Refusing to give up his belief in Roosevelt's political future
when Roosevelt contracted infantile paralysis the following year, Howe kept
Roosevelt's name before the public by extensive correspondence and personal
contacts with political leaders. He also groomed Eleanor Roosevelt to become
politically active. Howe helped bring about political alliances that led to Franklin
Roosevelt's election as governor of New York in 1928. Instead of accompanying
Roosevelt to Albany, he remained in New York, working on national political
strategies that culminated in Roosevelt's election as president of the United
States in 1932. By that time, Howe was in failing health. He was given the title
of secretary to the president and was an indispensable adviser. He died in 1936
before Roosevelt ran for a second term.
SOURCE: Alfred B. Rollins, Jr., Roosevelt and Howe, 1962.
Maurine H. Beasley

HUSTLER V. FALWELL. One of Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell's several
court battles against sexually explicit magazines turned into a landmark Supreme
Court case. Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt lampooned Falwell in print
in a liquor ad parody that suggested Falwell's first sexual experience was with