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General assignment and local reporting. First of all, on the Trenton State Gazette, which was one of the oldest newspapers in America and, unfortunately, has since gone out of existence, and was owned by the same family. And then after a few months I was shifted to the evening and their main paper, the Trenton Times and I did general reporting in both cases, covering police and fires and a shooting or two, as well as the U.S. District Court, then presided over by Judge Phillip Forman, with whom I became good friends. At the time of his appointment by President Hoover, he was the youngest U.S. Federal Judge. There was one murder trial I remember, that I helped cover. I also did some work helping the Trenton Times regular man cover the State Legislature when it was in session.

This was to get experience, of course, but at that point did you have your eyes set on international journalism more than anything else?

No, I can't honestly say I did, no. I was just interested in getting experience as a newspaper man, as a reporter. And I did some book reviewing, by the way, on both international and domestic subjects for what passed for a book section or book page on the Trenton Times, Sunday Times. I did quite a little of it, but I can't say that I had any specific ideas about international journalism at all. In fact, I think a little bit to the contrary, I was very much more interested in those days--after all this was just after the height of the New Deal and I was a very warm New Dealer, but not a rabid one, an extremist. For instance, I was against the court-packing plan, but nevertheless I was very much on the New Deal side politically and I was very much interested in that. I think that, as most of us interested in the New Deal were in those days, I was more interested in that sort of thing than in international questions.