The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-10-21
Continued from Page H.

they would have been called Boil
shevist. They had a Stephen De-
catur attitude toward the union;
they were for it, right or wrong.
AS organized labor grew stronger,
and the practices of the capitalist
group altered for the better, the
Scripps-H Howard papers modified
their policy. The Cleveland paper
uncovered corruption in the build
ing trades union, for example, and
helped send two men to the peni-
Tertiary. The kind of partisan
ship that had brought charge of
radicalism in an early day, lacked
motivation, once the worker was
strong enough to stand on his own
feet"
- SHARE the prejudice of
most newspaper men
against consolid ations,
mergers and chains" says Bent.
THAT independence and competi-
ton are a prerequisite to a cour-
ageous press seems automatic. How
can paper under absentee own
ership, pledged to contribute its
share to the profits of an organi-
zation, and subservient to an ed
itorial voice in another city, serve
its own community competently?"
This leads him to relate the
growth of the ScrippS-H Howard
group in the past year, the pur-
chase of the New York Telegram,
the mergers in Memphis and
Knoxville and the stirring events
in Denver following the purchase
of the Rocky Mountain News and
the Denver Times. OF this now
classic newspaper battle, he says:
1.-THE Scripps- Howard papers do
not customarily resort to circula-
ton methods of this sort. But
they happened at the time to be
in Rome. They fought fire with
fire. Elsewhere they have relied,
as a rule, on the United Press, the
Newspaper Enterprise Association
features, and the Washington
news supplied by the Scripps-
Howard Newspaper Alliance, sup
ported by a lively local staff and
fortnight editorial policy. Nor
are they merely news merchants
let us see what some of them have
done elsewhere.
I'm Knoxville, Tenn, by a Wig
orous campaign against a waste
full and inefficient municipal gov
eminent, the News succeeded in
setting up a city manager plan
and enlisting in it not only the
support but the service of substan-
tial business men.
I'm Evansville, Ind, the Press
has divorced the city government
from the Ku-Klux Khan, has
cleaned up the gambling joints,
and there, too, has undertaken to
substitute a business-like CITY,
manager administration for Boss
ism.
I'm Indianapolis the fight for a
city manager, in which The Times
triumphed by a vote of to /, was
but a minor engagement in a
greater battle against the Khan"
Bent tells at length of the part
played by The Indianapolis
Times in cleaning up Indiana.
1.-THE outcome Of this fight at
tracted national attention" he
says. ut was a conspicuous ex-
ample, take it, of the construc-
tive uses to which 'crusading'
newspapers can be put. At a time
when the daily press is coming
more and more to declare that the
exposure of corrupt officials is
none of its business, instances of
this sort stand out as beacons.
1t is true that Stephenson might
never have struggled out his mes
sage If there had not been another
fighting newspaper in Vincennes;
it is true that the struggle might
have failed but for the assistance,
as time went on, of the Indiana
press generally. But the fact re-
mains that the tenacity and brav-
cry Of the Scripps-Howard paper
were mainly responsible"
ENSTANCES Of this sort
might be multiplied.
IL Those I have sketched are
not the most remarkable; they
were chosen because taken to-
gether they present a fair picture.
The Scripps- Howard papers sell
dom quarrel with individuals;
they are not condescending or
f1ippant editorially; they are not
solemn or sanctimonious; they do
not spatter competitors with mud,
and they are never too busy for a
hearty scrap.
They are happy warriors.
In a long newspaper expert
ence, I have never heard of one of
them who got into fight which
wasn't a good fight, in a good
cause. The instances have cited
show, I think, that these papers
have skill, courage and power.
They show that not all the Amer
lean press is indolent and flabby,
as is often charged"
The relation of the local editor
to the general organization is thus
explained by Bent:
I'm national policy the papers of
this chain are unit. In wet
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