a cross-questioning
lawyer. Do not say: "See here, you know more about it than that," and
thus try to force unwilling information from him. Go at him in a more
round-about way and lead him to give you the facts unwittingly perhaps.

A young reporter often feels an impulse to become too personal with the
man whom he is interviewing. He must always remember that he is not
there for a friendly chat but as a representative of a newspaper, sent
to get concise facts or opinions. This attitude must be maintained even
with the humblest persons. Any desire to sympathize, criticize, or
advise must be checked at the very start. The point of view must always
be kept.

* * * * *

Although the main difference between writing interview stories and
reporting speeches lies in the very act of getting the quotations and
words of the speaker, there are certain aspects in which the writing of
an interview story is different. The actual form of the two stories is
almost identical and yet there is a tone in the interview story that is
lacking in the report of a speech. This may be called the personal tone.

The very name of the speaker obviously plays a much larger part in the
interview story than in the speech report. We may be more interested in
what a man says in a public discourse than we are in the man, but when
we interview a man we want his opinions not for themselves so much as
because they are his opinions. An interview with the President on the
tariff is not necessarily interesting in the new ideas that it brings
out, for we have many other ways of knowing the President's opinions on
the tariff question; but the interview is worth printing because every
one is interested in reading anything that the President says, although
he may have read the same thing many times before. A man is seldom
interviewed unless he is of some prominence--that is why he is
interviewed, and so in the resulting story his name plays a very
important part. In fact, his name is usually the feature of the story;
most interview stories begin directly with the name of the man whose
statements are quoted.

Although a man may be interviewed simply because of his prominence and
popularity, there is usually another reason for the interview. We are
interested not only in hearing him say something but we wish to hear him
say something on a certain topic. The interview thus has a timeliness, a
reason for existence. Since