Persons eligible for admission to the Periodical Press Galleries must be bona fide resident correspondents of reputable standing, giving their chief attention to the gathering and reporting of news. They shall state in writing the names of their employers and their additional sources of earned income; and they shall declare that, while a member of the Galleries, they will not act as an agent in the prosecution of claims, and will not become engaged or assist, directly or indirectly, in any lobbying, promotion, advertising, or publicity activity intended to influence legislation or any other action of the Congress, nor any matter before any independent agency, or any department or other instrumentality of the Executive branch; and that they will not act as an agent for, or be implied by the Federal , or any State, local or foreign government or representatives thereof; and that they will not, directly or indirectly, furnish special "insider" information intended to influence prices or for the purpose of trading on any commodity or stock exchange; and that they will not become employed, directly or indirectly, byh any stock exchange, board of trace or other organization or member thereof, or brokerage house or broker engaged in the buying and selling of any security of commodity. Applications shall be submitted to the Executive Committee of the Periodical Correspondents' Association and shall be authenticated in a manner satisfactory to the Executive Committee.

Ben Hecht (1894 - 1964) lived in New York state most of his life, but bloomed as a writer during Chicago's post-World War I literary renaissance. One of the founders of the Chicago Literary Times (1923 - 24), Hecht wrote novels and short stories inspired by the colorful characters he encountered when he was a reporter for the Chicago Journal and Chicago Daily News.

His experience as a reporter enhanced his fiction to good effect, but he often let his creativity overtake his credibility - in his autobiography, he admitted to embellishing and fabricating many of his news stories. Fittingly, Hecht also wrote one of the most popular fictional accounts of the newspaper business, "The Front Page." This definitive account of the turbulent Chicago newspaper scene during the Roaring Twenties has been made into a movie three times.

Members of the Press Gallery meet to discuss the merger of their space with that of the periodical writers and perhaps still photographers.

Line Drawing/Phiz (Halbot K. Browne) ____________________________________________________________________________________