The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1931-03-13
TheCherry
" Where with sar
roo Little Hatchet
we tell the truth
about many things. sometimes pre-
foundly, sometimes fippantly,
sometimes recklessly.

Frank Muncey in his palmiest days
as a destroyer of newspapers through
the merger process never performed
such devastating act as the merger
of the New York Evening World with
the New York Telegram, just engi-
neered by the Scripps Howard inter-
ests, headed by Roy Howard.
By this merger the Morning World
and the Sunday World have passed
out of existence, while the merger of
the Evening World with the Tele-
gram means the same for the Eve
ming World. Three newspapers have
gone by the board.
There was no organic, fundamental
necessity for the slaughter of the
World newspapers, which throws out
of employment nearly 5000 employees
and affects the livelihood of perhaps
as many more in allied and supply
lines.
But here is striking fact: To
working newspaper men newspaper
is an institution. To newspaper own
ers and bankers it is a piece of prop
erty, like house and lot, or an empty
field
When the World employees formed
cooperative association to bid for
the paper they were assured of sup
port by newspapermen all over the
country. The working newspapermen
wanted to keep the World going, for
more than the jobs involved, numer-
Gus and important as they are.
But to Mr.. Howard and the Pull
izers as well, the World was piece
of property
To buy it and get it out of the way
meant more power to Mr.. Howard and
his associates, while to the three
Pulitzers its sale probably meant
money and the end of an undesired
and improbable responsibility.
Eventually it will become clear to
great numbers of people who remem-
ber the Scripps tradition as founded
in the days of E. w. Scripps and Col.
McRae, that Scripps Howard is big
business institution.
Big business in newspapers can be
just as ruthless, just as much occu-
pied in the pursuit for power and
dividends as it can be in steel, or oil,
for example.
So the New York World, with all
its faults--and they were numerous
has gone out of business, taking with
it all that was good, which was great
deal; and throwing out of work an
army of men and women in time
when New York newspaperdom is as
hard hit by unemployment as any
other section of the economic organ
ization of the city, not yet recovered
from other mergers and slaughters.
But the Scripps Howard organiza-
tion has put competitor out of the
way and has moved up a step on that
mysterious and shaky pinnacle from
the top of which is supposed to float
the banner of success.
The Scripps Howard newspapers
are not supposed to worship at the
shrine of material success, but per
haps that is just one of the illusions
hanging over from the old days. How
the old Penny Press of Cleveland
would gasp at this three million dollar
dealt
Newspaper mergers, consultations
and sales have been frequent in the
last two or three years. Step by step
the printed word has been coming
under the control of counting houses.
If it be argued, as we'll it may be.
that more powerful newspapers can
be better newspapers, let us agree,
for the sake of argument, that it is
so.
But let us know likewise that banks
that control newspapers are going to
have their say when policies are made
as to such things as trade union
rights, wages, injunctions, foreign
policies, Mussolini, the soviets, Cuba.
And newspapers that are big business
institutions are more than likely to
arrive at conclusions in manner not