General MacArthur's visit to Boston last week was well-timed. Tension from the tight American League pennant race had reached the breaking point, and MacArthur provided relief in the form of a different emotional outlet. This week Bostonians were turning back to the pennant race with renewed enthusiasm for the Red Sox during the trying stretch drive ahead.

In the interests of mental health, the Boston press all but cleared the Red Sox off their front pages and substituted MacArthur. Coverage was detailed from his departure over a red carpet at New York's Waldorf-Astoria and included even a description of the general's meals (on Wednesday his supper consisted of a pitcher of orange juice).

Before his arrival the papers spoke of the greatest welcome...ever accorded a visiting dignitary" the "like of which has never been witnessed in Boston's 300-year history." Police predicted 2,000,000 persons would see MacArthur on Wednesday in Boston--whose population in 770,000. The Record editorialized:

The English language offers no warmer word of greetings to a visitor than "Welcome," yet it seems inadequate as an expression of the warmth of hearth with which Boston and all New England await the arrival...

Next to 'The Wanderer'

(Coverage was limited in Wednesday's New York Times to 13 lines on page 21. The item was strategically placed under a story from Washington about protests to increased taxation; in the adjoining columns was the announcement of a new novel, "The Wanderer.")

In describing MacArthur's arrival, the Record said:

The South Station area was converted into a sea of humanity...The crowd screamed: "The general. The general."...When he emerged from the rotunda into the street the throngs set a chant which was to echo all the way to Quincy and back again.

This presumably took two minutes and 19 seconds, since the temperature was 82 degrees.

Even the Monitor succumbed, saying, "Crushing crowds of cheering Bostonians stood on tiptoes today to get a fleeting glimpse." But the Times commented, "It was not the sort of hysterical outpouring that met Colonel Lindbergh 23 years ago... nor was it quite the sort of demonstration associated with a personage who is both a hero and a legend... Most people seemed content principally to turn to those near them and exclaim 'I saw him'."

'Humanity Is Fallible

The press did not maintain a solid front as far as the size of the crowd was concerned. Most papers spoke of 1,000,000 spectators but the Post was satisfied with only 500,000. The split continued in editorial page discussion of the general's talk, the main purpose of his visit. To the Post it was "filled up with platitudes and inconsistencies," while the Herald called the speech "grand," conceding, however, that there were "glaring inconsistencies." The Record found it a "masterly address," but on the same page the daily quotation from William Randelph Hearst ran "Humanity is fallible. We cannot look for perfection in politicians."

The reception the speech got also caused controversy; after the opening remarks the Herald said the applause was "strictly partisan," but Herald columnist W. E. Mullins said the talk was "widely applauded" except for a "few wooden-faced Democrats." On its page eight the Herald wrote that the address was interrupted 19 times by applause, but on page nine, it was "no fewer than 20 times." Hearst's American heard only 16, but it reported a "standing ovation of seven minutes" at the close, while the other papers timed it at two minutes.

The most imaginative report was in the Herald, which wrote: after the speech "the general was clapping the governor on the back as if to say, 'I'm sorry I had to get rough, Paul, but I didn't mean you'."

All during the visit the paper sought to out-adjective one another in describing MacArthur. He was "America's greatest soldiers statesman," and "like some sequoia, calm and proudly decked." Herald Columnist Bill Cunningham wrote that the general and his wife were "fresh as flowers in a florist's refrigerator" and noted, "If every wife were as pretty, as trim and as charming as Mrs. MacArthur, despite Corregidor, Australia, Japan, etc., They wouldn't have to resort to dreaming."