Indignant letter addressed to fellow journalist Paul Mallon, "You ask me if I write all the articles I sign. That, sir, is not a very complimentary question....I am a professional newspaperman, Mr. Mallon, and I have been working at the newspaper business-not playing with it but working at it-day and night for over fifty years. Would I not be a "dumb cluck" as the saying goes if I did not know the rudiments of my trade by this time. Of course I write my signed articles and many more that I do not sign...Furthermore, Mr. Mallon, I do not think it is such a trick to write. Anybody who can think can write. It does not take much practice to put thoughts into words. All you have got to do is have some thoughts which are worth putting into words." This letter was published in the N.Y. American, 20 October 1935. A wonderful, long letter in which Hearst reflects on the trade of journalism. For all the controversy surrounding W.R.H., few people would dispute his phenomenal ability to write rings around other editorialists. Quoted in Swanberg, Citizen Hearst, p.473.