The General Captures the Hub

General MacArthur's visit to Boston this July was well-timed. Tension from the tight American League pennant race had reached the breaking point, and MacArthur provided relief in the form of a different emotional outlet. The week after his visit Bostonians turned back to the pennant race with renewed enthusiasm for the Red Sox during the trying stretch drive ahead.

In the interests of mental health, the Boston press all but cleared the Red Sox off their front pages and substituted MacArthur. Coverage was detailed from his departure over a red carpet at New York's Waldorf-Astoria and included even a description of the general's meals (on Wednesday his supper consisted of a pitcher of orange juice).

Before his arrival the papers spoke of the "greatest welcome...ever accorded a visiting dignitary" the "like of which has never been witnessed in Boston's 300-year history." Police predicted 2,000,000 persons would see MacArthur on Wednesday in Boston--whose population is 770,000.

Next to 'The Wanderer'

(Coverage was limited in Wednesday's New York Times to 13 lines on page 21. The item was strategically placed under a story from Washington about protests to increased taxation; in the adjoining column was the announcement of a new novel, "The Wanderer.")

In describing MacArthur's arrival, the Record said:

The South Station area was converted into a sea of humanity...The crowd screamed: "The general. The general." ...When he emerged from the rotunda into the street the throng set a chant which was to echo all the way to Quincy and back again.

This presumably took two minutes and 19 seconds, since the temperature was 82 degrees.

Even the Monitor succumbed, saying, "Crushing crowds of cheering Bostonians stood on tiptoes today to get a fleeting glimpse." But the Times commented, "It was not the sort of hysterical outpouring that met Colonel Lindberg 23 years ago...nor was it quite the sort of demonstration associated with a personnage who is both a hero and a legend...Most people seemed content principally to turn to those near them and exclaim 'I saw him'."

'Humanity Is Fallible'

The press did not maintain a solid front as far as the size of the crowd was concerned. Most papers spoke of 1,000,000 spectators but the Post was satisfied with only 500,000. The split continued in editorial page discussion of the general's talk, the main purpose of his visit. To the Post it was "filled up with platitudes and inconsistencies," while the Herald called the speech "grand," conceding, however, that there were "glaring inconsistencies." The Record found it a "masterly address," but on the same page the daily quotation from William Randolph Hearst ran "Humanity is fallible. We cannot look for perfection in politicians."

The most imaginative report was in the Herald, which wrote: after the speech "the general was clapping the governor on the back as if to say, 'I'm sorry I had to get rough, Paul, but I didn't mean you'."

'She's So Sweet'

All during the visit the papers sought to out-adjective one another in describing MacArthur. He was "America's greatest soldier-statesman," and "like some sequoia, calm and proudly decked." Herald Columnist Bill Cunningham wrote that the general and his wife were "fresh as flowers in a florist's refrigerator" and noted, "If every wife were as pretty, as trim and as charming as Mrs. MacArthur, despite Corregidor, Australia, Japan, etc., they wouldn't have to resort to dreaming."

Since Mrs. MacArthur mostly watched her husband during the visit, reporters had to trample their pride to fill up long articles about her. A detective was quoted, describing her eyes. "They are so intense, so animated that you can't catch the exact color." The Globe ran a headline: "'She's So Sweet,' They Said as Mrs. MacArthur Rode By." An eight column headline in the Traveler read: "Mrs. MacArthur Quickly Uses Gift Handbag."

Except for a passing mention in the Globe, the papers declined to discuss MacArthur's big blunder. Someone must have mumbled to the general that the truce agenda had been agreed upon in Kores, for when he visited a hospital a few minutes later he told more than one soldier. "You'll be interested to know that a truce was signed this morning."

By Friday the morning papers had nothing to say, as his departure from the state had been fully reported by the papers of the afternoon before. The Herald remedied that situation:

Largely due to a State House speech that rang more strikingly in millions of American ears than the far-off splashing of the Boston tea party, Gen. and Mrs. MacArthur received a tumultuous greeting from toe to heel of Massachusetts...

Young and old somehow seemed to sense the renewal of faith in a hero who had for so long seemed remote. Who had yet captured their fancy in battle and who now had dared to rail against waste, hypocrisy and folly in our current administration...

Gold Star mothers cried along the route from Boston to Springfield. Dignitaries became tongue-tied with admiration. Children waved and will boast forever as people boasted at the turn of the century about seeing Teddy Roosevelt.

As the visit drew to a close, MacArthur grew more and more emotional. He seems to have a special tie to most of the 48 states--such as Arkansas, where he was born; Tennessee, his wife's state; and Wisconsin, his legal residence. But the Massachusetts papers reported his "eyes again misted and his voice became so choked with emotion he was seen to swallow and choke back his words." "I feel at last that I have indeed come home...This was the greatest ever."

But in the background the general's aide. Major General Courtney Whitney, was saying that this was one of many visits General MacArthur will make in the near future. "He's been invited to visit almost every state of the Union."