I was perfectly green at it and I was completely uninformed and
uninstructed. I think I learned pretty fast. However, I had a shocking
experience that gave me a lesson that I never forgot. They were
sufficiently unwise to send me to cover a bank failure and to go to the
State Corporation Commission for a statement on this bank failure. It
was a Negro bank, operated by a very prominent Negro named John
Mitchell, who was the leading Negro in Richmond. I was just as green as
I could be, and I went to see the chairman of the Commission and asked
him what he could tell me about failure of the bank. Well, he said, "I
don't think that if I were you I would use this, but what happened was
that somebody took valuable securities out of the bank and put
worthless
Page 31 securities in their place, and that
went on over a period of years, and finally, the thing just caught up
with them and the bank collapsed." Since Chairman Adams of the
Corporation Commission said he didn't think I ought to use this, I went
back to the office and didn't write anything. Well, pretty soon, the
city editor said, "Where's that bank story?" I said, "Well, the
Corporation Commissioner told me what happened, but he said that he
didn't think we ought to use it." The city editor said, "What? Didn't
think that we ought to use it?" I said, "Yeah, that's what he said." He
said, "What is this that we shouldn't use?" I said, "Well, he just
thought it would be better if we didn't publish the facts." The city
editor exploded, "What the hell has he got to do with it? Can you write
it?" I said, "Yeah, I can write it." I hadn't made any notes at all, but
I thought I knew what the commissioner said. So, I wrote incorrectly
that "State Corporation Commissioner Adams said that the president, John
Mitchell, took valuable securities out of the bank and put worthless
securities in their place." What he had said was that
somebody had done this. This was the crucial point. Well, the
Corporation Commissioner hit the ceiling and said that he had been
misquoted which he had, and the managing editor got after me in a big
way and said that it was a horrible mistake, which it certainly was; it
was absolutely inexcusable. I thought I might be fired. I ran into one
of the Bryans, who said, "Why in the world did they assign you to that?
Why didn't they get an experienced reporter? It is going to cost us
about $10,000." Which at that time was real money. Fortunately, in a
stroke of luck, what I said happened had actually happened. Mitchell had
taken the good securities out of the portfolio. He
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never did sue, but I was absolutely miserable until the statute of
limitations expired. I felt that if I wasn't fired immediately, I
thought that I would be fired when he sued. The fact that Mitchell had
done exactly what I had said he had, saved my hide. But after that,
believe me, I was careful.