Scope and Contents: Papers of Robert Herrick. A letter from Robert Herrick to Burton Rascoe of the Chicago Tribune accompanying an article for Herrick's regular Sunday feature at the upper right-hand page of the opposite-editorial, or "highbrow" page, inaugurated by Rascoe and edited by him in the autumn of 1914.
The holograph manuscript of "Straw", as published in the Chicago Sunday tribune, may or may not be included in the volume The World Decision, which Herrick made up by selections from his Tribune articles. Rascoe has no recollection of what the mention of "trouble about the nine articles," for he does not recall that publication of any article was held up or questioned by him, or by any editor on the staff. Herrick's articles were run precisely as written under Rascoe's editorship, although he exercised his privilege of reviewing the book, when it came out, with an appraisal that fell quite a shade short of approbation.
It may have been that all, or some of the articles, contained libellous matter that would have to be passed upon by the Tribune's attorneys before it could be used; for Herrick, at the time, in his ardency for America's immediate entry into the war on the side of the allies led him into highly intemperate statements, which may have been directed toward persons who might have been inclined to bring suit against the newspaper. Note by Burton Rascoe Oct. 24, 1956.