Softhearted Cynic

Harry McCormick, 56, of the Dallas Morning News, is a police reporter who still affects the once-fashionable cynicism of his calling. "I don't want to be anything but a police reporter," says he. "If the thing you're covering can't bleed, you can't write a story about it. Chambers of Commerce and Community Chests don't bleed."

Last week, in Dallas' Athletic Club, some of the city's leading citizens gave a testimonial dinner to show McCormick how wrong he is about himself. Their proof: McCormick's eight-year-long campaign to get better care for children struck by tuberculosis. "Get this straight," explained McCormick defensively. "I ain't no do-gooder. I don't go out to the hospitals and dandle those kids on my knee. But something had to be done about it."

McCormick started doing something after he discovered in his police-beat check on hospitals that tuberculous children under six could not get hospital care anywhere in the state. In anger he pounded out a series of articles that started one of the best-known, singlehanded crusades in Texas newspapering. Since 1946, he has crisscrossed Texas in his MG, buttonholing politicians, speaking before fund-raising rallies, and reporting his progress in the News. When a wealthy Texas widow died, McCormick persuaded her executors to use $250,000 of her estate to build a 52-bed hospital for tuberculous children. By last week he had promises from dozens of leading politicians for a $500,000 appropriation by the State legislature for new children's tuberculosis facilities.

McCormick's accomplishments in fund-raising are more than matched by his success at hell-raising crime stories. In more than 30 years as a newsman, he has scored notable beats on everything from an interview with a fugitive who had escaped from the Texas death house to an exclusive last year on an attempt to extort $250,000 from 24 of Dallas' leading Jewish families. Police Reporter McCormick has no intention of slowing down. Says he: "There ain't no such thing as the biggest moment in the newspaper business. The real big one is still around the corner."

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