Will Irwin: the ace of correspondents

              WILL IRWIN 
The Ace of Correspondents


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WILL IRWIN, Lecturer, Correspondent, Magazine Writer



T
WENTY years ago Will Irwin, just out of Stanford University, was a 
cub
 reporter on the San Francisco Chronicle.  Today he is in the foremost rank among American journalists and writers.  His work during the past six years, both during and immediately following the war, has won for him the title 
The Ace of Correspondents.
 Just as the great war developed great generals and great statesmen, so did it bring out great correspondents and journalists.




Actor, Cowboy, Then Writer



Will Irwin is a product of the west.  His interesting experiences as a boy and young man may have had something to do with the course of events in later life.  His early years were spent in Leadville, Colorado, a 
wild and woolly
 mining town.  He began his newspaper work while a boy in school by carrying a paper route on the Leadville Herald-Democrat.  When Mr. Irwin was sixteen his family moved to Denver in order to give educational advantages which were not to be had in the mining camp.  Then followed two roving years during which young Irwin was an actor, ran an elevator and was a clerk in street railway offices.  Inexplicably tuberculosis developed and Mr. Irwin was sent back to the saddle, and on a western ranch broke up the disease in six months.  At twenty-one he entered Stanford University where he worked his way through.  During his freshman year he became acquainted with Herbert Hoover, at that time a senior in college, and the two became fast friends.  Twenty years later, during the great war, their destinies were linked closely together—Irwin as a great American correspondent, and Hoover as head of the Belgian Relief Commission.





Fired
 From Stanford



Irwin's literary work developed during his college days at Stanford.  In fact his talents developed altogether too fast, for in his senior year he was 
fired
 from Stanford because of a clever song he had written in which some of the faculty members were gently immortalized.  A year later his case was reopened and he was given his degree.  By peculiar coincidence his brother, Wallace Irwin, now a well known writer, was also expelled from college for writing 
The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum,
 a poem which within a year had made him a national reputation




Mr Irwin's first regular newspaper job was on the San Francisco Chronicle.  Within six months he became a star reporter and did considerable literary work on the side.  His magazine articles were beginning to attract attention and soon he was called to New York for a repertorial job on the New York Sun.  He repeated his San Francisco success and soon became the feature writer on the Sun.





Becomes Editor McClures



A
LONG in 1905 S. S. McClure offered Mr. Irwin the managing editorship of McClure's Magazine.  He accepted the post.  While in this position the San Francisco earthquake occurred and as Mr. Irwin had spent five years in Frisco he was called upon by the New York papers to 
cover
 the earthquake from the New York offices—that is to write about things which his peculiar knowledge of Frisco would permit him to discuss intelligently.  His series of articles on 
The City That Was
 was published in book form and is still selling to this day.  Following his association with McClure's which covered a year, he became a free-lance magazine and book writer, and his articles which were widely published covered a multitude of subjects.  In 1908 Mr. Irwin was following the prohibition wave and was one of the first detached observers to prophesy that the United States would be dry within a decade or so.  He spent three years for Collier's Magazine making a comprehensive study of the American press.  Even in those days he was pretty generally considered the foremost American reporter.




When war broke out Mr. Irwin had just returned from an extended trip in Europe.  The American Magazine and Collier's sent him to Europe and he was on his way within three days after the Germans laid siege to Liege.  For six years he was one of the foremost war correspondents.





First English Speaking Prisoner



The old story of Mr. Irwin's arrest—with Irvin Cobb, John T. McCutcheon and Arno Dosch-Fleurot has been told over and over again—how they had permission to join the Belgian army and how they were cut off by the Germans and arrested.  It was Irwin who did the talking and who was arrested first, and he enjoys the distinction of being the first English speaking prisoner of the war.





Talked 
Yankee
 to Premier



He was practically everywhere during the war—with all the armies, on all the fronts and in all the countries.  He became an expert and his articles were widely published.  He was under fire on several occasions and was gassed.  The memorable story of the battle of Ypres was compiled while he was in England.  This article was widely read and was published in several different languages.  The Literary Digest acclaimed it the greatest literary masterpiece of the war.  It almost had a tragic ending for Mr. Irwin's success, however, for he was immediatialey blacklisted by the English War Department, although the rank and file and even Lord Northcliffe were with him heart and soul.  It was a true story and the British war department knew it.  For a week or two it made Mr. Irwin famous, then the war department slipped over a general order against him.  He was not allowed to approach any of the army headquarters or to have anything to do with officers or soldiers of the British army.  He tried the French army and found that the same order had been given through the French headquarters.  Finally in desperation he went to Lloyd George, then Minister of war, and boldly gave him ten minutes of good straight 
Yankee Talk.
  Lloyd George said 
You told the truth in that Ypres story.
  A general order was issued on the spot and Irwin was allowed all privileges from that day on.








Under Fire in the German Rebellion



Following the war, Mr. Irwin again toured the Allied countries and followed this with an extended visit in Germany.  With his customary luck he found himself in the center of the Ruhr rebellion and a most interesting series of his articles was published during the past summer covering his experiences in Germany.




His work has not only attracted attention in America but his writings have won the commendation of big men in each of the allied nations.  He has been honored with the 
Order of Albert, 1st class
 from the King of Belgium, and with the 
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor
 from France.




A Speaker of Rare Platform Gifts



Since his last return from Europe there have been repeated demands for his lectures.  He is a forceful and eloquent speaker.  Perhaps his early experience as an actor has something to do with his platform abilities, at any rate he has the same gift of vividness in his lecture work that dominates his writings and with his tremendous fund of information and natural platform abilities he holds the attention of his audience from first to last.




During the past summer Mr. Irwin made an extensive tour on one of the large eastern circuits and his lectures attracted wide attention and very favorable comment.  Journalists who are gifted with platform eloquence are rare indeed and Mr. Irwin is a noted exception to the general rule.





Widely Known as an Author



Some of Mr. Irwin's well known literary efforts are 
Beating Back,
 which attracted wide attention first in the Post and later in book form.  It was written by Mr. Irwin in conjunction with Al Jennings, the Oklahoma train robber.  
A Reporter at Armageddon,
 
The Red Button,
 and 
The Latin at War
 are also well known books from the pen of Mr. Irwin.





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