Summing Up

In west Texas, the five or six daily editorials in the Abilene Reporter-News (circ. 35,241) are often as important conversational topics as oil, cotton, cattle and sandstorms. The folksy, shrewd comments on politics, literature, science and almost everything else are the work of Frank Grimes, the tall (6 ft. 3 in.), cadaverous editor of the Reporter-News. Last week, Editorialist Grimes, 58, celebrated his 35th year on the paper by summing up "15,000,000 words later" everything he had learned about editorial writing.

"The longer the editorial," wrote Grimes, "the fewer the readers . . . It is much easier to write a long editorial on a single subject than two very short ones on two subjects . . .

"We doubt if we ever changed anybody's opinion about anything . . . Perhaps people modify or intensify or otherwise alter their opinions by something someone else has said or written, but basically opinions are like fingerprints: they never change, and no two are precisely alike in every respect. The height of art is to create in people's minds an involuntary and unconscious alteration of belief. You can't change an opinion by attacking the opinion or the holder thereof, or by praising and ballyhooing an opposite opinion. Opinions are changed from within, never from without.

"Many things operate to keep an editorial writer's opinion of himself in proper perspective. He can never be sure of himself, for while he may write his heart out about something that really matters without attracting the least attention, let him mention some trifling subject like pumpkin pie [which Grimes recently likened to axle grease] or the price of putty, and the compliments or condemnations pour in.

"One conclusion reached early . . . was that we were no judge of our own writings. Something we care for a great deal . . . falls without a sound into the quiet pool of public inattention.

"Then we dash off some little twirp of a squib that we're almost ashamed to print and we please or antagonize our clientele no end. You never know."

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