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1935 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE 5359 6858. Also, petition of Charles Schoor Post, No. 796, Vet­ and may we be led to enlarge, enrich, and cleanse our own erans of Foreign Wars, indorsing the establishment of a little world. Hear us for our country's sake; come to our Veterans' Administration hospital in Michigan; to the Com­ social, economic, and soul need; and save our land from mittee on World War Veterans' Legislation. ill-advised patriotism. Regard the necessities of our under­ 6859. By Mr. TRUAX: Petition of West Side Boosters standing. Deepen the spiritual life of our Nation's heart Club, Warren, , by their president, W. L. Zedaker, and and all that goes to make up a good, happy, and prosperous secretary, Edith Ferrell, going on record as approving the people. 0 put the fear of God in all hearts. Abide with regulation of public-utility holding companies to the end our homes and our loved ones, and as long as there is sor­ that such companies be abolished within 5 years as in­ row to be assuaged, shadows to be lifted, and aspirations to sidious and false propaganda is being circulated throughout be developed, Father of Mercies, bless them. Th.rough the Nation, State, and even their own county and city to Christ. Amen. urge Representatives in Congress to work and vote against The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read and such legislation; to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign approved. Commerce. 6860. Also, petition of Women's Non-Partisan Club of MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE Howland, Ohio, by their president, Eva A. Fuller, endorsing A message from the Senate, by Mr. ·Horne, its enrolling the national labor-relations bill, as they believe it to be in clerk, announced that the Senate has passed without amend­ the interest of American labor and humanity; to the Com­ ment bills of the House of the following titles: mittee on Labor. H. R. 2128. An act for the relief of Rosetta Laws; 6861. Also, petition of Women's Non-Partisan Club of How­ H. R. 5576. An act to authorize the Secretary of the Navy land, Ohio, by their secretary, Lillian Biery, endorsing Senate to proceed with the construction of certain public works, bill 87, by Senator BLACK, providing for the 30-hour week, as and for other purposes; it would be the means of providing employment for those of H. R. 5577. An act to provide for aviation cadets in the our people now unemployed; to the Committee on Labor. Naval Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve; and 6862. Also, petition of Elmer C. O'Dowd and 185 other citi­ H. R. 6290. An act to authorize acquisition of land to pro­ zens of Newark, Ohio·, urging the support of House bill 6288, vide appropriate means of access to the post-omce building known as the " Connery labor-disputes bill ", and Senate at Jonesboro, Ark. bill 87, known as the "Black 30-hour week bill", and will The message also announced that the Senate had passed stand for no compromise; to the Committee on Labor. bills of the following titles, in which the concurrence of the 6863. Also, petition of E. C. Thomas and 85 other citizens House is requested: of Youngstown, Ohio, endorsing the Workers' Unemploy­ S. 81. An act to provide for the collection and publication ment, Old Age, and Social Insurance Act

c There being no objection, the Clerk read the bill, as follows: AMENDING SHIP MORTGAGE ACT, 1920 Be it enacted, etc., That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, I call up the bill (H. R. 7205) he is hereby, authorized to designate the present Manomet Point to amend the Ship Mortgage Act, 1920, otherwise known as 4uxiliary Boathouse, at the eastern entrance to the Cape Cod Canal, Mass., as a Coast Guard station. "section 30" of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, approved June 5, 1920, to allow the benefits of said act to be enjoyed . With. the following committee amendment: by owners of certain vessels of the United States of less than Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof 200 gross tons. the following: . The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCORMACK). This bill . "That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, author­ ized to establish a Coast Guard station at the eastern entrance is on the Union Calendar. The House automatically re­ to the Cape Cod Canal, Mass., in lieu of the present Manomet solves itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the Point Auxiliary Boathouse." state of the Union. The committee amendment was agreed to. Accordingly the House resolved itself into the Committee · The bill was ordered to be engr'ossed and· read a third of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the con­ time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion to sideration of the bill H. R. 7205, with Mr. EDMISTON in the reconsider was laid 'on the table. chair. The Clerk read the bill, as follows: COAST GUARD STATION AT SEA ISLAND BEACH, GA. Be it enacted, etc., That section 30, subsection D, subdivision Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, I call up the bill CH. R. 3975) (a), of the act of June 5, 1920, known as the "Ship Mortgage to provide for the establishment of a Coast Guard station Act, 1920 ", be amended by striking out the words " of 200 gross tons and upwards ", and adding immediately following the words on the coast of Georgia, at or near Sea Island Beach, and "vessel of the United States" the following: "(other than tow­ ask unanimous consent that the bill may be considered in boat, barge, scow, llghter, car fioat, canal boat, or tank vessel, of less the House as in Committee of the Whole. than 200 gross tons)", and as so amended be reenacted so as to read as follows: There being no objection, the Clerk read the bill, as "A valid mortgage which, at the time it is made, includes the follows: - . whole of any vessel of the United States (other than a towboat, Be it enacted, etc., That the Secretary of the Treasury is author­ barge, scow, llghter, car :ftoat, canal boat, or tank vessel, of less ized to establish a Coast Guard station on the coast of Georgia, at than 200 gross tons), shall, in addition, have, in respect to such or near Sea Island Beach, at such point as the Commandant of ~essel and as of the date of the compliance with all the provisions the Coast Guard may recommend. of this subdivision, the pretwred status given by the provisions of subsection ·M, if- _ The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third " ( 1) The mortgage is endorsed upon the vessel's documents in time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion accordance . with :the provisions of this section; _"(2) The mortgage is recorded as provided in subsection C, to­ to reconsider was laid on the table. · gether with the time and date when the mortgage is so endorsed; COAST GUARD STATION NEAR HOG ISLAND, VA. "{3) An affidavit is filed with the record of such mortgage to the effect that the mortgage .is made .in good .faith and without Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, I call up the bill CH. R. 65) iµiy design to hinder, delay, or defraud any existing or future creditor of the mortgagor or any llenor of the mortgaged vessel; to provide for the establishment of _a Coast Guard station · "(4) The mortgage does not stipulate that the mortgagee waives on the coast of Virginia, at or near the north end of Hog t_he preferred status thereof; and Island, Northampton County, and ask unanimous . consent . '.' ( ~) ~e m?rtga~~e _is a citizen ~-~ t!1e Un~ ted ~t_ates." ~ that the bill may be considered in the House as in Committee The CHAIRMAN. Under the Calendar Wednesday rule of the Whole. the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. BLAND] is entitled to 1 There being no objection, the Clerk read the bill, as hour and the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. LEHLBAcHl, follows: is entitled to 1-hour.· Be it enacted, etc., That the Secretary of the Treasury is author­ Mr. BLAND. Mr. Chairman, I yield surh time as he may ized to establish a Coast Guard station on the coast of Virginia, desire, not to exceed one~half hour, to the gentleman from at or near the north end of Hog Island,, Northamptop. C~mnty, at New York [M.r. SIROVICH]. . - s'u~h point as the Commandant of the Coast Gua:_d ~ay recom.ril~D..d. Mr. SIROVICH: Mr. Chairman, during the last session The bill was ordered to be engrossed. and read a third of the Seventy-third Congress various delegations of fisher­ time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion to men representing the Atlantic and Pacific-coasts, the Great reconsider was laid on the table. Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico, appeared before the Mer­ EXCHANGE OF PORTION OF NAVAL . STATION AND LIGHTHOUSE chant Marine and Fisheries Committee pleading, imploring, RESERVATION AT ·KEY WEST, FLA. and beseeching us to help them in this their great tragic Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, I call up the bill w a.11 been eaten up. Be it enacted, etc., That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby They had nothing left to hypothecate. Their credit was ex­ authorized and directed to transfer to the Secretary of Commerce buildings nos. 1 and 39, coal sheds nos. 29 and 29X, store shed no. hausted. Tht?y did not know where to .turn for reli~f and 29A, and coal wharf A, together with the lands under and around assistance. Others had lost their money in banks and finan­ these structures, including a strip 13 feet . in width along the cial institutions. Because of the pitiful cry of their depend­ south side of building no. l, containing, in all, an area of approxi- ent children they were compelled, much against their will, mately 113,000 square feet. · SEC. 2. The Secretary of Commerce is hereby authorized and to accept the munificence of our Nation through the mediilln directed to transfer to the Secretary of the Navy in exchange for of relief. These hardy fishermen who had always been self­ the land and buildings referred to in section 1 hereof the old post­ supporting and self-resi)ecting Americans are now the gross office building with land under and surrounding it and extending victims of our economic depression, unable to secure any west to the road on the quay wall. The area to be transferred is approximately 51,000 square feet. relief from private banks or any organization or institu­ SEC. 3. The boundaries of the foregoing premises are to be in tion that ni.ight come to their aid. In addition to. these accordance with plat identified as drawing no. 643, office of super­ contributory factors that I have just enumerated that broke intendent of lighthouses, seventh district, Key West, Fla., dated their morale, the price of fish that Japan has been dumping July 1, 1932, on which plat the areas are shown in colors. . . . ~ . into our country has demoralized the great fishing industry · The bill was ordered to .be engrossed and read a. third .of our Nation. These unfortunate fishermen have been un­ time, was read the third time, and passed. able to repair their vessels, fix their nets, and reequip their A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. ! , boats as the conditions of the time require. To help and 1935 .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE 5369 assist these humble citizens· of our coastline to carry on Will repay it in time. They have a right to appeal to us for their business, the House and Senate last year pas_sed a bill this humane assistance. Justice demands that we heed their enabling .the Government to loan $2,000,000 to these sturdy call -and · grant their request. [Applause.] . . fishermen to carry them through this frightful econom.lc Mr. Chairman, I would be remiss in my duty as a Member debacle. The President vetoed the bill because he thought of this House if I failed to pay the tribute of my homage the Reconstruction Finance Corporation had· enough funds and respect to the ·distinguished chairman of our committee. to loan these fishermen and utilize their gear, nets, and boats Judge BLAND, of Virginia, and the other members of our as . adequate· collateral security . . Unfortunately, the .Recon­ committee, who have cooperated with me in every way to struction Finance Corporation found tJ;lat the Shipping Act make_ it possible to secure adequate consideration of this of 1920, amended and reenacted in 1928, did not permit them ~easure that .will enable the fishermen . of our Nation to to loan money on ships that were under 200 tons. secure the same consideration in their hour of need that has It only allowed these benefits to be enjoyed by the owners been granted to every other agricultural, industrial, com­ of vessels in the United States of more than_200 gross tons. mercial, and fiiiancial institution in our country that sought To overcome this limitation I was requested by Commis­ assistjl.nce from it. [Applause.] . sioner Frederic H. Taber, one of the most lovable, gra­ Mr. DONDERO: Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield? cious, and humane members of the Reconstruction Finance Mr. SffiOVICH. I yield. Corporation, to introduce the bill now under discussion Mr. DONDERO. As I understand, the provisions of the before the membership of this House, which would give the bill do not apply exclusively to the fishermen on either the same rights, privileges, and prerogatives to ships under 200 Atlantic or Pacific coasts, but would include fishermen on t9ns.that ships above that tonnage now enjoy. The bill now the Great Lakes ~s well? under discussion, .according . to the sentiments expressed to Mr. SIROVICH. . Everywhere. me by that distinguished representative of New England in Mr. ZIONGHECK. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Mr. Taber, will yield? bring the desired relief to the fishermen ·of oµr country. . Mr. SIROVICH. I yield. . The only change suggested by our bill from the old Ship _Mr. ZIONCHECK. Is it not particularly desirable that Mortgage Act is the deletion and elimination of " 200 gross th~ _legisJation be passed now because of the great demand tons and upward .,,, so that the bill will apply to any" ves5el for fish on account of the condition in the drought area and of more than 5 tons, which would adequately safeguard. the the decrease in the production of meats, like pork and beef? interests of any fisherman who is desirous of securing a It is anticipated that prices will go up and this will give the loan, using his fishing boat as ample security and giving fishermen an opportunity to make a living in. their industry. reasonable a8suranc·e that the loan will ·be repaid to the Mr. SIROVICH. Not only make a living, but it will save Government. money for the Government by taking them off the relief roll . This bill, when considered before ·the Merchant ·Marine and giving them work. These nien not only want to be self­ and Fisheries Committee, was passed unanimously. It met supporting, but the only way they can retain theil.· self­ with only one objector, and that was . the New York Tow respect is by having the money to reequip themselves and Boat Association. They were afraid that liens for towing buy the mechanical devices that will enable them to go out that they might have against boats under 200 tons would as fishermen should. have to be subordinated to governmental loans, which would Mr. FLETCHER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman be a great injustice to them. The old Ship Mortgage Act, yield? which has been upon our statute books for 15 years, gave pri­ Mr. SffiOVICH. I yield. ority rights to liens for salvage, seamen's wages, stevedore Mr. FLETCHER. Has there been an estimate of the total bills, and tort claims. They had preferential consideration amount of loans required? , _ over a Government mortgage. This same principle will Mr. SIROVICH. From the statements that have been now apply to ships under 200 tons. However, to please the made by the Reqonstruction.Fl.nance Corporation and those New York Tow Boat Association, we accepted an amend­ who have appeared before us, it will not take more than ment of theirs which eliminated from consideration in this $1,000,000, or $2,000,000 at the most. bill towboats, barges, scows, lighters, floats, -canal boats, or Mr. Chairman, I thank the members of the Committee. tank vessels of less than 200 gross tons. · This amendment and yield back the balance of my time. satisfied everyone, and the bill has had n0- opposition from Mr. WELCH .. Mr. Chai~an, I yield 5 minutes to the any other group or organization. gentleman from New York [Mr. CULKIN]. Mr. Chairman, if we pass this bill of mine, with this addi­ Mr. CULKIN. Mr. Chairman, I simply wish to endorse tional amendment, we will be bringing happiness into the -what the gentleman from New York [Mr. Smov1cHJ has so hearts of fishing men of our country -and contentment ·in well said. Under existing law vessels of the fisherman type, the minds of members of the Reconstruction Finance Cor­ which average about 60 to 80 tons burden, are 'incapable of poration, who are ready to assist these humble and deserving procuring any loan, because under the present. law it is citizens of our Republic. Through the Reconstruction Fi­ impossible to get a prior lien. nance Corporation we have been lending money to railroads, The gentleman from Washington [Mr. ZioNCHECK] has life-insurance companies, banks, and business and com­ just stated that fish will play a most important part in the mercial enterprises of every conceivable natilre. Through national diet from now on. This, in my judgment, by reason the Agricultural Adjustment Administration we have come of some of the procedure of the A. A. A. · to the rescue of the farmers of our Nation who have been · Mr. ZIONCHECK. . If the gentleman will yield, I made no caressing the bosom of nature to bring forth products that such statement. It is caused by the drought. are necessary to sustain human life. Through the passage Mr. CULKIN. I did not ascribe it to my friend-I made it of this legislation we will be heeding the pitiful cry of the on my own responsibility; but what he said was ·true-from farmers of the sea.:._gturdy, honorable men and women who whatever cause, the matter of an adequate fish diet for the have been working in the most hazardous enterprise known American ·people becomes of the first importance. to mankind, the raging sea with all its ramifications. Let This· is a step in that direction and will give relief to ·a us heed their cry. Let us tell these fishermen, the lineal group of men who to my mind are the hardest worked men in descendants Of ·our sturdy pioneers who helped to found this America at the present time. They face stress of weather in Nation, that we will never forget their offspring. Let us do the· summer and the winter, and get small returns for their justice to this inarticulate group, who want no charity, who efforts. This law will establish· their status and enable them seek rio relief, who "desire no dole, btit plead for the oppor­ to make necessary loans. In my judgment it is extremely tilnity to have the Reconstruction Finance· Corporation lend sound legislation and has the support of the members of the them money against thefr fishing boats with the reasonable Committee on Merchant Marine on this side of the House. assurance to our Government that as honorable men they Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time. LXXIX--339 5370 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE APRIL 10 . Mr. LEHLBACH. Mr. Chairman, I yield 10 minutes to the and go and from the great Reconstruction Finance Corpo .. gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ANDREW]. . ration in Washington. [Applause.] Mr. ANDREW of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman and Mr. BLAND. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the members of the committee. The reasons for this measure gentleman from New York [Mr. DELANEY] and ask unani­ have been very simply and clearly and appealingly stated by mous consent that he be permitted to speak out· of order. the author of the bill, Dr. SmoVIcH, of New York. The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection? I want to say, coming from a fishing town, Gloucester, There was no objection. Mass., that this bill, although it sounds very technical, in­ Mr. DELANEY. Mr. Chairman, last Monday the whole volves a very human proposal, and means a great deal to the world was shocked by the news of the death of Adolph S. life and welfare of the fishing population in tha-;, community. Ochs, the owner and editor of . The We have passed a great many measures during the de­ best evidence of the high esteem in which he was held by pression for the relief of one and another group in this everyone who knew him, either personally or through the country, p&.rticularly those who till the soil, but no measure New York Times, is the very many expressions of regret that has been passed in the interest of these people who till the have been voiced by every important personage and news­ sea in winter and summer amid great hardships, with little paper throughout the world. or no reward, and heavily burdened with debts. While I did not know Mr. Ochs personally, still the col­ We have appropriated billions of dollars in the way of re­ umns of the New York Times have so well indicated the lief, but as yet not a dollar has gone for the relief of the high standard he established that I feel we must all concede fisherman. Last year, in the "loans to industry" act, spe­ that he was a man of great sincerity, earnestness, and cial provision was made for loans · by the Reconstruction ability. Of course, it is beyond the power of my words to Finance Corporation to the fishing industry which might be express in an adequate manner just to what extent Mr. used to finance the production, storage, processing, packing, Ochs was loved and admired by all those with whom he and orderly marketing of fish. But as yet not a single dollar came in contact, but I probably could not better illustrate has been loaned in aid of the fishermen. The reason is that his slant on life than to read to you the answer he gave to under this loans to industry act adequate security is, as is Mr. Will Durant when the latter asked him his opinion of natural, required for these loans~ and the fishermen had no life and how it should be lived. The letter reads as follows: such security to offer. They have no inventories, such as NEW YORK, October 22, 1931. other industries have, to give as security. The fish may or DEAR MR. DURANT: • • • You ask me what 'meaning life may not be caught and when caught deteriorate very rap­ has for me, what help, if any, religion gives me, what keeps me idly. Of course, that does not offer adequate security for a going, what are the sources of my inspiration and my energy, what is the goal or motive force of my toil, where I find my con­ loan. They have no pay roll because most of the fis~ng is solation and my happiness, where in the last resort my treasure carried on upon a share-the-profit basis. Virtually the_oJ?ly lies. thing that they could offer for security was their vessels and To make myself clearly understood, if I were able to do so, equipment, and here they encountered a curious legal would take more time and thought than I can give the matter now. Suffice it for me to say that I inherited good health and obstacle. sound moral principles; I found pleasure in work that came to It appeared that for some reason which no one today my hand and in doing it conscientiously; I found joy and satis­ recalls, when the Merchant Marine Act was passed 15 years faction in being helpful to my parents and others, and in thus making my life worth while found happiness and consolation. ago, provision was made for the validating of mortgages My Jewish home life and religion gave me a spiritual uplift and only on vessels of 200 tons and upward. No one k.z?.ows why a sense of responsibility to my subconscious better self, which I an arbitrary discrimination was made between vessels of 200 think is the God within me, the unknowable, the inexplicable. This makes me believe I am more than an animal and that this tons and upward upon which mortgages could be placed, and life cannot be the end of our spiritual nature. vessels of lesser tonnage on which mortgages could not be Yours fal~hfully, placed. So the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, unable ADOLPH 8. OCHS. to obtain a mortgage on those small vessels, yet desiring to Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to extend my help the fishing industry if it could, evolved the principles remarks in the RECORD and to include therein an editorial of this bill which Dr. SIROVICH has introduced in the House on the work he so well accomplished. and has spoken so eloquently for today. It proposes a very small change in the Ship Mortgage Act, providing for the The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection? validation of mortgages on vessels of less than 200 tons. There was no obJection. If the bill is passed, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation The editorial is as follows: has stated that they would be able to make loans upon these [From the New York Times of Apr. 9, 1935} smaller vessels which they have not hitherto been able to do. ADOLPH S. OCHS The owners of those vessels that sail from my town of The story of Adolph S. Ochs is one of a career which, in pov­ Gloucesrer, which until a few years ago was the leading fish­ erty and wealth, in obscurity and eminence, was all of one piece. ing town in the world, are in very straitened circumstances The qualities that his employers and associates noted when he began his newspaper career as office boy and printer's devil in at the present time. They are unable to obtain loans from Knoxville, Tenn., were the qualities he manifested throughout his the banks and unable to obtain assistance from the Govern­ life. The principles he announced and put into practice when ment during this period of hard times. So they have not at the age of 20 he took charge of a bankrupt small-town news- · pa.per were the principles he announced and put into practice 18 been able to repair their ships. They have not in many years later when he took charge of the bankrupt New York Times cases been able to take out insurance, which is very expen­ and carried It to influence and prosperity. He knew how to pub­ sive in view of the hazards of the sea. They have not been lish; he believed In publishing only one single kind of paper; and to in his great achievement was the proof that the publishing of that abl~ buy new nets. The nets which they use catching kind of paper-" clean, dignified, trustworthy, and impartial", as fish have grown smaller and smaller as they have been used, he phrased it in his announcement in on August 18, and mended, and reused with the passage of the years. 1896-was practically possible; was not an exercise in altruism, There are many ships there tied up at the docks unable to but could be made economically as well as ethically successful. 1 That he made it successful was due no doubt to native ability, go on with their business. There are literally hundreds and to a mind which, strong in its grasp of organization, also was hundreds of families without a livelihood. It seems to me unusually intuitional and in flashes of inspiration covered in an that the Membership of this House should be very glad to instant ground that slow-thinking men might labor over for ,.make this slight change in the law, which would bring as­ months; but also very largely to the fact that he learned the newspaper business from the ground up, was in it all his life, ' sistance to these people and would help to keep alive an and never wasted his time or his ambitions on outside enterprises ; industry which is so appealing to our imagination, with its or on the political aspirations that have proved a curse to so risks and its hardships, and which at best yields but little many other newspaper makers (not least to his predecessor, Henry J. Raymond, founder of the New York Times). The poverty of his return to the people who follow its hazardous course. With parents cut short his formal schooling; but, as he told the Na­ its passage we hope that they will be able to get loans and tional Editorial Association in its convention of 1916, the print­ support from the banks in the towns from which they come ~g office was his high school and university; and something of 1935 .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-- HOUSE 5371 the impress· of the old-time printing shC>p and of that unique a Knoxville day school, and during his next 3 years 1n the Chron­ and salty breed, the old-school printers, stayed with him all his icle composing room he attended classes when he could in the life. preparatory department of the East Tennessee University (now the PRINCIPLES LEARNED AT HOME University of Tennessee), where he impressed his teachers, as he But the principles were his before he learned how to put them impressed his employers, with his diligence and quickness. The into practice; he learned them at home. He was born in Cin­ few years he actually spent in a schoolroom might not have cinnati March 12, 1858, eldest of the six children of Julius and amounted to much, however, had it not been for what he learned Bertha Levy Ochs. Both his parents belonged to the group of outside; as an office boy, a carrier, a grocery or drug-store clerk, German liberals and intellectuals who had been driven from he was always asking questions-an acquaintance of those days home by the repressive measures of autocratic governments described him as "a human interrogation point"; and the defi­ against which the revolution of 1848 was an ineffectual protest. ciencies of his formal education were compensated by the advan­ Julius Ochs, born in Furth, Bavaria, in 1826, came to the United tages of a cultured home and the private tuition of a scholarly States at the age of 18, possessor of an excellent education and father. fluent in six languages-German, French, English, Spanish, Ital­ There remained the printing office, his high school and university, ian, and Hebrew. He taught languages in various southern as he later described it; but the thorough grounding in the news­ schools, a career only brie:fly interrupted by his volunteering for paper business which he got in the Knoxville Chronicle shop came the Mexican War, as his regiment was never called into active to him largely by accident. When the 13-year-old boy became a service. In Natchez, in 1853, he met Miss Levy, and they were printer's devil he still had no idea of making the newspaper busi­ married in Nashville 2 years later. Adolph Ochs' mother, born ness his life work; he went after the job because he needed the 1n Rhenish, Bavaria, of a family with distinguished connections money and was hired because his services as office boy and carrier in France and Alsace, had had to leave Germany in haste in 1848 had impressed the editor of the Chronicle with his trustworthiness. to escape arrest for her connection with revolutionary commit· Now, it happened that the printer's devil had to work at night and tees. She traveled by sailing ship to New Orleans, where an that his duties were finished earlier than those of the journeyman uncle lived. The influence of this brilliant and cultured woman printers, who were the aristocracy of the composing room. He had on her son was immense and lasting. At the age of 7"0 his tele­ to go home alone, and the way home, along unpaved poorly lighted gram of congratulation to Alfred E. Smith on his nomination to streets, led past the graveyard of the First Presbyterian Church. the Presidency took this characteristic form: A boy of 13 who had grown up in a town where there were plenty " Every good mother's son is inspired and encouraged by this of superstitious residents, both white and colored, might be excused well-earned climax to an extraordinary career." for sometimes forgetting the information he had no doubt received Until she moved to after her marriage, Mrs. Ochs' at home; that a graveyard was nothing to be afraid of. He hated American residence had been in the South; her sympathies were to go home alone in the dark; and because the foreman of the with the South in the Civil War that presently broke out, and her composing room, Henry C. Collins, lived near him, little Adolph brother served in the Confederate Army. Julius Ochs, however, Ochs med to stay in the shop after his own day's work was over till despite his southern connections and his residence in Kentucky Mr. .Colltns had finished and could walk home with him. and Tennessee, was a Union man; he enlisted in an Ohio regi­ Staying in the shop, he had to occupy his time, and the natural ment in 1861 and served throughout the war, rising to the rank way to do it was by learning more about the printing trade than of captain. The division in politics did not affect the harmony would come the way even of an alert and observant printer's devil of the family; but when Captain Ochs died in Chattanooga in.. during his ordinary and well-filled working hours. He learned · 1888, the Grand Army of the Republic was prominent at his and he learned fast; and in later years the proprietor of the New funeral; when his wife died in New York in 1910, a s1milar part York Times was not ashamed to admit that what really made a was played by the Daughters of the Confederacy. newspaper man of him was the need of company when he walked FAMILY MOVES TO KNOXVILLE past the graveyard late at night. Half a century later, when Mr. Och~ returned to Knoxville !or the Rule celebration, he and Mr. After the war Captain Ochs found himself in the position of Collins went over that route again. Most of the landmarks had a good many demobilized soldiers; he had to start again from the vanished, but the friendship that sprang up in the composing beginning. With his growing family he moved to Knoxvme, room still endured. Tenn., a town that had been somewhat battered in the war, but seemed t.o have bright prospects for future growth. That expecta­ Those years as devil and later as apprentice were busy ones for tion was justified; but Julius Ochs, scholar and idealist, lacked young Adolph Ochs; learning his trade in the printing office, going the talent for material success that would have enabled him to to school as he found opportunity, and acting as usher, with his share in the town's prosperity. He served as justice of the peace younger brothers, George and Milton, in Mayor Peter Staub's Opera and United States commissioner, and later for a short time as House, where traveling companies played the Two Orphans, Monte probate judge; his continuing enthusiasm for clean and pro­ Cristo, and Hazel Kirke, and ushers picked up a little extra money gressive politics, in an age when such ideas had fallen out of by selling candy between the acts. favor, carried him as a delegate to the Liberal Republican con­ STARTS OUT IN WIDER FIELD vention which nominated Greeley in Cincinnati in '1872. Active in lodge work, he was universally popular and respected; deeply And so it went till October 1875, when Adolph Ochs, 17 years piolls and a student of the religious writings of the Hebrew faith, old, decided to go out and see what he could do in a larger field. he served his unorganized coreligionlsts in Knoxville as what one '!here is a tradition that he had some idea of settling, eventually, of his Tennessee friends later called " a first-class · emergency m California, but his immediate objective was Louisville; and the ." But his material fortunes did not prosper, and his sons letters of recommendation that he took with him when he left grew up in the realization that as soon as possible they must his home town were considered more than perfunctory dischru'ges begin to contribute to the family income. of obligation; they were curiously prophetic. Captain Rule, the Adolph, the oldest boy, went to work at the ~ge of 11 as omce editor of the Chronicle, wrote that he had found him "honest, boy to Capt. , editor of the Knoxville Chronicle. zealous, reliable, and trustworthy • • • quick to comprehend This Republican paper, successor of Parson Brownlow's Knoxville and faithful to execute", and "endowed with an intellect capable Whig of pre-war days, never succeeded in winning its newest em­ of reaching the highest point of mental achievement." Collins, ployee to its politics; Adolph Ochs grew up in sympathy with the his foreman, said that "He is to a foreman what money is to a conservative Democrats of the reconstruction period. But Cap­ miser-a necessity, hard to part with." His associates in the com­ tain Rule became one of the determining infiuences of his life posing room presented him with a volume of Hood's poems-he and inspired a loyalty and affection that were enduring. Fifty­ kept it all his life--with an inscription on the :flyleaf over all their two years later, when all Knoxville declared a holiday to celebrate signatures expressing the hope that "some day we shall be able to the eighty-second birthday of Captain Rule--then, and until his note you among the Nation's honored sons." And Mayor Staub, death in his ninetieth.year, still in active service as an editor­ losing a valuable usher from his opera house, chose to speak in the publisher of the New York Times was a sort C1f secondary his civic rather than his private capacity: "For the mayor of any guest of honor; and Captain Rule recalled that " he swept my city such a loss as your departure. my young and worthy friend sanctum and cleaned up the papers and trash so methodically is quite serious." ' that he was promoted to delivery boy", getting up long before Armed with these testimonials the young printer went to Louis­ dawn to deposit the Chronicle on the doorsteps of subscribers for ville and found work in the job-printing department of the $1.50 a. week. Courier Journal. But 6 months later he was back in Knoxville· After a year or so of this the family decided that the be>y might and as Edward H. Edwards, a printer who worked with him there', have a better chance in a larger city, so he was sent to Providence, has put it, " If there ever was a turning point in the life of R. I., where his mother's two brothers had a grocery in which he Adolph S. Ochs it was when, having gone out from bis father's roof worked as cash boy. But the next year he was back in Knoxville, to seek his fortune, he so sorely felt the loss of family ties and working in a local drug store, where (tradition has it) he lost bis the personal contact of those near and dear to him that he was job some 6 months later by selling a customer borax in mistake impelled to return home." Ambition as well as homesickness was for sal soda. Early in 1872 he returned to the Chronicle, this time a motive, however; a new paper, the Tribune, had just been as "printer's devil "-the old-time printer's term for the boy who established in Knoxville, and it offered perhaps a better oppor­ did the odd jobs and dirty work about the composing room; and tunity to a boy who was indeed trusted and admired by his old this established him in the newspaper business, where he was to employers on the Chronicle, but might never have lived down the remain for the rest of his life. fact that he started at the very bottom, might never have seemed KEEN IN QUEST OF KNOWLEDGE to them any more than Adolph, the office boy grown up. In the chaotic conditions of a town recovering from the Civil ATTRACTED BY CHA'ITANOOGA War through the handicaps of reconstruction it would be hard to His year and a half on the Tribune gave him a more varied ex­ say whether a boy worked outside of school hours or went to school perience. He worked at first in the composing room, then as a outside of working hours. Adolph Ochs had got the beginnings reporter, and was presently made assistant to the business man­ of his school education a.t Bradforc.i's Hampden-Sidney Academy. ag~r, Franc M. Paul-a rehe&rsal in each of the three departments 5372 .CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE APRIL 10 of newspaper making which he was soon to find invaluable. For fellow-citizens that he was not yet old enough to vote. He had already his ambitions, and those of some of his associates on the a newspaper plant fit for hardly anything but the junk heap, pub­ Tribune, were looking southward to Chattanooga. The strategic lishing a four-page paper with a circulation of 250; he owed $1,71$0, importance of this city, so great 1n the military operations of the and his working capital amounted to just about 2 percent of his Civil War, had not yet been appreciated commercia.lly; the center debts. Yet from that slender beginning came not only the Chat­ of a number of railroads, with rich mineral deposits lying in the tanooga Times, but the New York Times of today. mountains roundabout, Chattanooga had only some 12,000 people Colonel MacGowan, another immigrant from Knoxville left be­ and was still in spirit a sma.11 town. Yet there were a few per­ hind after the collapse of the Dispatch, was hired to serve as sons, including Adolph Ochs, who realized its possib111ties; and editor of the Times in such time as he could spare from his other this town of promise was served by only a single newspaper, the. job, at a salary of a dollar a day. There was one reporter and a Times, an organ miserably inadequate from every point of view business omce staff of one; five men in the composing room, be­ which was living from hand to mouth. Young Ochs and Col. J.E. sides a foreman who also acted as proofreader and pressman; and MacGowan, an editorial writer on the Knoxville Tribune, were the proprietor and publisher, besides being general editorial super­ planning to establish a new paper in competition with the Chat­ visor, was also business manager and advertising solicitor. The tanooga Times when they discovered that their colleague Franc pay roll even of this modest force, even· 1n those times, was some­ Paul had anticipated them and started the Chattanooga Dispatch, what over $100 a week, without allowing any compensation for to which he brought them both in the fall of 1877, Colonel Mac­ the publisher; and the problem of meeting the pay roll in the Gowan as editor and Adolph Ochs as advertising solicitor. first year was often an acute one. But it was always met, and met But the Chattanooga Times, feeble as it was, refused to fold up without any compromise with the principles announced by the in the face of competition. The outcome has been succinctly de­ new publisher 1n his first issue. His first year with the Chat­ scribed by William M. Stone, a Chattanooga printer, who was after­ tanooga Times was perhaps the hardest, certainly the most criti­ ward for many years on Mr. Och's staff: cal, 1n Mr. Ochs' whole career; but the end of the year saw him on " In less than 6 months the Dispatch. despite Paul's planting and the road to success. Adolph's watering, proved a hopeless failure. But this, unfortunate PROFITS PUT INTO BUSINESS as it seemed at the time, proved a great blessing to Chattanooga, His total receipts that year were $12,000; but his expenses were as it left Adolph so poor that he could not leave town." only $10,000, including $900 withdrawn for his own living, and Paul went back to Knoxville, Colonel MacGown stayed in Chat­ the profit was plowed back into the business. From the first he tanooga and got another job, and Adolph Ochs was made receiver had given the Times the telegraph service of the old Western of the Dispatch, and eventually managed to liquidate its debts. Associated Press; this was expanded as rapidly as possible, and But meanwhile he had to eat; and discovering that Chattanooga Colonel MacGowan was soon engaged as full-time editor, a post had no city directory, he set to work on this his :flr&t publication. he held until his death 25 years later. When it became apparent He himself did all the work on it but the binding; he got the in­ that the new venture was going to be successful the publisher formation, wrote it, set it up in type, read the proof, and printed brought his family down from Knoxville, and his brothers, George • it on a hand press. And this directory had two consequences be­ and Milton. presently took their turn as reporters on the Times, sides the urgent and immediate one of enabling its publisher to thus beginning newspaper career8 that were later to bring distinc­ eat-it gave him a comprehensive and thorough acquaintance tion to both. Two years after he had bought the control of the with all the population and all the business of Chattanooga, and Times Mr. Ochs was able to buy the other half interest in the it awakened the citizens to the realization that their town had paper that had. been beyond his reach in 1878. At that time he possibilities that they had overlooked, but which were plain to could have bought it for $400, or probably even less; by ' 1880 he the eyes of an observant (and hungry) young immigrant from had to pay $5,500 for it, every cent of the increment 1n value Knoxville. being the result of his own success with the paper. TAKF.S OVER THE LOCAL TIMES The newspaper which was thus succeeding was fulfilling its The directory not only made Ochs acquainted with Chattanooga promise of impartiality and disinterestedness. To L. G. Walker, on but made Chattanooga acquainted with Ochs. The Times had his appointment as editor of the Chattanooga Times years later, been able to outlast the competition of the Dispatch; but it was Mr. Ochs said: "Your only policy is to have no policy-no policy; about ready to give up the ghost, and its .editor offered to se:µ it to that is, except to be right." It was on that principle that the Mr. Ochs for $800, provided he would assume the paper's . debts, Times was conducted from the very first, in a day when news­ amounting to $1,500 more. The young man from Knoxville would papers, especially in the smaller cities, were far more likely to be have been glad to accept the offer, but for one insuperable difil­ affected by outside influence than they are at present; and it was culty: he did not have $800. Indeed, he had almost nothing; but that same principle that Mr. Ochs later put into practice in New he had made acquaintances and established his personal st~nding York. But it never meant a weak policy or an absence of policy. in Chattanooga, and after further negotiations he discovered that It meant independen,ce and a sense of civic duty. The Chatta­ he could borrow $250. With that borrowed $250 he -bought a half nooga paper prospered and, the town prospered with it. In the interest in the Chatt~nooga Times, stipulating that his half should language of William M. Stone, Mr. Ochs "took the dirty, poverty­ carry with it the control of the paper; he assumed the paper's stricken village bY- the nape of the neck and by sheer force of $1,500 debt in addition to the $250 he had borrowed to buy it; and magnetic optimism and courageous enterprise lifted it to where with his own private fortune of $37-50 as working capital he be­ it is today." One of his own contributions to the -upbuilding of came publisher of the Chattanooga Times on July 2, 1878. the city was the erection, in 1892, of the substantial building of The salutary of the new publisher announced the theme around the Chattanooga Times. which his whole life was to be woven. The Times intended to Captain Rule years before had noted .that his young emp~oyee become " the indispensable organ of the .business, coll).mercial and was not only honest but zealous; and it was that zeal that Chatta­ productive, of Chattanooga and of the mineral and agricultural nooga was feeling now-the zeal of a young man who had picked districts" surrounding the town; it would get all the news it could out a town that he thought had a future, and was resolved to at home and abroad (the earlier Times had had no telegraph news make that future a pleasant reality. There was no civic improve­ ~t all), and would support conservative Democratic principles ment of those years in Chattanooga that the Times did not. pro­ while reserving independence in State politics, "being cognizant mote-indeed, often it started them-the opera house, the firemen's of the need of and the strongly expressed desire for such a news­ fountain. the dredging of a channel in the Tennessee River. More paper in Chattanooga as the above outline indicates the Times important, perhaps, was the Chickamauga National Park, of which to be, we have taken the people at their word and shall give them Mr. Ochs was one of the originators, and which served to get him a chance to support that which they have been asking for." started In the park movement which was to prove one of the But, it was added, "in this matter of patronage we shall make great interests of his life. no appeals, but rely upon that sense of propriety and justice HIS ONLY PUBLIC OFFICE which must teach every intelligent citizen that the obligation between himself and the· paper is a mutual one, ours to print and It was, perhaps, this zeal for promotion of his home town that circulate such a journal as we have described, his to see ·that he led him to accept the only public o:mce he ever held in his life-­ membership on the Chattanooga school board in 1884 and 1885. contri~utes his share, 1n proportion to the benefits such a paper confers on him as a citizen, the means to sustain it and promote Mr. Och's leadership in the boosting of his home town had a its growth. • • • In short, we shall conduct our business on number of consequences, one of which was not altogether pleas­ business principles, neither seeking nor giving sops and donations." ant. Chattanooga was fiourishing, largely because of the vigor­ ous work of the Times; and in 1888 the town paid the inevitable TASK A FORMIDABLE ONE penalty of a real-estate boom. The publisher of the Times later Chattanooga knew what this meant. The Chattanooga Times admitted that he ran wild like everybody else and bought up a lot before Mr. Ochs' day had, in the words of Henry M. Wiltse, of land which for years afterward ate its head off in taxes; but the "dragged itself from pillar to post and had to lean heavily against boom turned out to be only an anticipation of values that were the one or the other whenever it desired to cast shadow or take really there, and ultimately Mr. Ochs lost no money by this dem­ a long breath." It was a failing not uncommon in the small-town onstration of his faith in Chattanooga. journalism of the seventies, a precarious trade whose practitioners, Another byproduct of Mr. Ochs' civic leadership had more agree­ unless they were unusually able or unusually lucky, were likely to able and, as it turned out, more fruitful consequences. By com­ find that they could keep afioat only by giving sops to local inter­ mon consent the publisher of the Times, young, affable, and ests, or by accepting donations of one sort or another which were abundantly enthusiastic, was accepted as the unomcial reception rarely disinterested. and entertainment committee for distinguished visitors to the The young man who had turned his back on this sort of thing, town. He was the better able to discharge this function since he who had announced that he would give Chattanooga what he had been married in Cincinnati on February 28, 1883, to Miss Effie thought it needed and would accept from it only what he thought Miriam Wise, daughter of the Reverend Dr. Isaac M. Wise, founder he had earned, had nothing behind him but his abilities and his of the Hebrew Union College and the Union of American Hebrew knowledge of his trade. He had been a resident of the town for Congregations. Marriage brought him not only an invaluable help­ less than a year; despite the mustache which he then wore to mate but a brilliant connection. In the early days when the whole give himself an air of maturity, he could hardly conceal from his Ochs family was collaborating in getting out the Chattanooga 1935 CONGRESSIONAL' -RECORD-HOUSE 5373 Times, Mrs. Ochs did her part as book reviewer and dramatic critic, Hardly had he reached home before he had a telegram--on his besides presiding over the household, at which eminent visitors to thirty-eighth birthday, as it happened-from that Harry Alloway, Chattanooga were entertained. To this union was born some years of the New York Times, to whom he had remarked 6 years before later a daughter, Iphigene Bertha, who was married in 1917 to that the Times offered the greatest opportunity in American jour­ . nalism. Since 1890 the Times had sadly declined, there was talk All sorts of people passed through Chattanooga in the later of an imminent reorganization, and Alloway-purely on his own eighties and earlier nineties, and the publisher of the Times met account, and without any authority-wired to Mr. Ochs that if he most of them. There was President Cleveland; there were Gov­ were interested in the Times it could probably be bought cheap. ernors, Senators, bankers, bishops, and railroad presidents. A In Mr. Ochs' early years in New York rumor kept insisting that young Republican editor from Ohio named Warren G. Harding he had been brought to town by various personages, from Presi­ came to town on his honeymoon, and confessed to the publisher dent Cleveland on down, to rehabilitate the Times; but the fact of the Times that he wasn't satisfied with his prospects back home is that the only man who "brought him to town" was the Times and had some idea of starting a Republican paper in Chattanooga. reporter who wanted to see the paper set on its feet and believed This notion was promptly dropped when Mr. Ochs pointed out to that the Chattanooga publisher had the ability to do it. him that the only Republicans in Chattanooga were colored people, At the moment Mr. Ochs did not take the idea ,..ery seriously; few of whom in those days could read. but it happened that the next day business took him to Chicago. CASUAL REMARK PROPHETIC There, at lunch, he mentioned the matter to his friend Herman Another caller, in 1890, was Harry Alloway, a Wall Street re­ Kohlsaat, publisher of the Chicago Times-Herald, who exclaimed, porter for the New York Times, who was writing a series ·of articles "Ochs, there's your opportunity." "But," Mr. Ochs protested, on the industrial development of the South, to whom Mr. Ochs " I don't believe I'm a big enough man for the job." This argu­ remarked casually that he thought the Times, then in the begin­ ment failed to impress Mr. Kohlsaat. "Don't tell anybody," he nings of decay, offered the greatest opportunity in American advised, " and they'll never find it out." journalism. This remark was forgotten by the young publisher; BECOMES INTERESTED IN THE TIMES but Harry Alloway remembered it, and the rehabilitation of the Thus encouraged, Mr. Ochs went to New York and began to in­ New York Times was the fruit of that passing comment. vestigate the situatfon, which was to prove not only his opportu­ The outcome of all this entertainment of distinguished visitors, nity, but the Times', too. · unintended but inevitable, was that the publisher of the Chatta­ George Jones, who had joined with Henry J. Raymond in found­ nooga Times was acquiring a national acquaintance far larger ing the New York Times in 1851 and had conducted it. since Ray­ than falls to most small-city publishers, and the time was at hand mond's death, had died in 1891. The antiquated organism, which when he would find it useful. In his trade, too, he was becoming he knew how to operate, his children were unable to conduct widely and favorably known. Invited to address the meeting of successfully, and within 2 years of his death his heirs were pre­ the National Editorial Association at St. Paul in 1891, he put his finger on the great change American journalism was undergoing pared to save themselves further losses by selling the Times to at the time and foretold the tendency of the future. Through the anybody who would pay the price. As it turned out, only one pur­ mid-nineteenth century the great papers had been essentially chaser was willing to. pay the $1,000,000 they asked for nothing political and essentially personal; they were the platforms on but the paper's name and good will-a company hastily organized which great editors could display their personal brilliance, and by the editors of -the paper, with all the money they had them­ the news columns were usually as biased and argumentative as selves and al~ they could get from their friends, to prevent an the editorial page. But Mr. Ochs told the assembled editors at institution of great and honorable tradition from falling into un­ St. Paul: " The day of the organ, if not past, is rapidly passing. worthy hands. The company thus established, under the presi­ A journal conducted as a newspaper (with the emphasis on the dency of Charles R. Miller, editor of the Times since 1883, never news) is the newspaper of the future." had a fair chance to get started. Almost at once the panic of Many newspapers of the South, the Chattanooga Times included, 1893 struck a paper which had no working capital, and the only were at that time getting their telegraph news from the old Asso­ marvel is that the organization managed to keep going for 3 years ciated Press, an Illinois corporation composed chiefly of middle longer. western newspapers, with the New York World as its principal By the spring of 1896 the circulation of the Times had dwindled eastern member. In opposition, the other New York papers were to 9,000 (the paper was printing 19,000 copies a day, but more than maintaining, at heavy cost, the old United Press. Southern papers one-half of them were coming back unsold); it had outstanding were not altogether satisfied with the service they were getting, obligations of $300,000, and was losing $1,000 a day. Mr. Miller, a and in 1891 Mr. Ochs, as secretary of the Southern Press Associa­ brilliant scholar, thinker and stylist, but no business man, who tion, called a meeting which organized the Southern Associated would never have tried to be anything but an editor except under Press, of which he became general manager and later chairman of the pressure of necessity, had endeavored to interest other New the executive committee. But the division of newspaper territory York editors and newspaper managers in the rescue of the Times, among three competing organizations did not prove successful. In but these men who were on the spot, who knew all the details of 1894 the majority of southern papers threw in their lot with the the situation, were of the unanimous opinion that it could not be United Press. Mr. Ochs thought that the western organization done. A plan of reorganization-involving, of course, the raising had a better prospect of surviving the struggle than the eastern; of more money to be thrown into what began to look like a bot­ the Chattanooga Times went into the Associated Press; and the tomless pit-was being formulated by Charles R. Flint and Spencer connections there formed were presently to prove of immense Trask, already heavily involved in the Times Co.; but it was gen­ value to its publisher and to the greater enterprise which he was erally recognized that what the plan needed was a man to work it, about to undertake, as well as the Associated Press itself. and every man in New York who might have been supposed to see in the Times the opportunity of his life had declared the . thing HIS FmST CALL TO NEW YORK was impossible. Early in 1896 Mr. Ochs received a telegram from a friend in A MOMENTOUS INTERVIEW New York-Leopold Wallace, a lawyer-informing him that "the In this situation the young publisher from Chattanooga came opportunity of your life lies before you." To an ambitious young to town, and through Alloway arranged an interview with the man of 38 who had already explored and realized on about all the editor and president of the Times. Mr. Miller, hard _driven and opportunities that were offered in Chattanooga the information worried, had so little hope of finding a solution for his troubles in was too alluring to be overlooked; Mr. Ochs went to New York to this encounter that he arranged for a meeting at his home and see what it was all about. decided to squeeze it in between dinner and a trip to the theater The reality was disillusioning. This great opportunity was only on which he had promised to take his wife and children to forget the business managership of the New York Mercury, a small pa­ the troubles that the Times had brought down on their heads. per, dealing chiefly in theatrical and sporting news, which a group But it needed only a few minutes to make it clear to the editor of politicians who favored free silver were planning to buy in that, as Fraser Bond puts it in his life of Miller, this small-town order to give New York a silver newspaper in the Presidential newspaperman had forgotten more about the business than most campaign of 1896, in which it was already evident that the cur­ metrooolitan executives ever knew. Theater time arrived and rency issue would play a large part. Mr. Ochs, however, was a Mr. Miller told his family to go on, that he would join them later. believer in the gold standard, which the Chattanooga Times was But he never did join them; they came home after the play to valiantly supporting, even though the majority of southern Demo­ find him still deep in discussion with Mr. Ochs; and when the two crats had abandoned it. With the management of a silver paper, men parted after midnight, Mr. Miller was convinced that the in New York or elsewhere, he would have nothing to do; but Times had found the man. · when the silver group presently gave up its plan to buy the Mer­ Meeting Mr. Flint and Mr. Trask the next day, Mr. Ochs im­ cury the owner of that paper, anxious to get rid of it before it pressed them so favorably that 11e was invited to join their syndi­ died on his hands, offered to sell it to Mr. Ochs direct. cate. He was compelled to decline, for their plan would have This was rather more of a temptation. Mr. Ochs believed that required him to invest more money than he had or would have in New York at the time there was an opening for a compact cared to try to borrow. Mr. Flint then proposed that if the plan paper devoting itself strictly to the presentation of news and sell­ were carried out, Mr. Ochs should become the manager of the ing at 1 cent, a price then represented in New York only by the paper. He mentioned a salary of $50,000 a year-a staggering flamboyant " yellow" papers of the time, the World and the amount for a man fr.om Chattanooga. But Vir. Ochs had decided Journal. The paper he envisioned was very much the sort of that he could not rescue the Times unless he· owned and con­ thing that another ambitiO'Us young man, Alfred Harmsworth, trolled it. The Flint-Trask project thereupon collapsed, and an­ was just then beginning to publish in London; and it was Mr. other group of stockholders came forward with a proposal to con­ Ochs' notion that the Mercury could be developed into what he solidate the Times with the Recorder, another daily newspaper had in mind. But all depended on the Mercury continuing to then also in difficulties and which went out of existence the receive, as it was then receiving, the service of the United Press; same year. But Mr. Miller and his associate editor, Edward Cary, and when he found that its owner could give him no assurance felt sure that Mr. Ochs could save the paper as an independent of that, Mr. Ochs returned to Chattanooga. publication if he only had a little time. They therefore obtained. • 5374 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE APRIL 10 the appointment of a ir~iwer, who k-ept the Times go1ng while Gffered a pictorial Sunday magazine; and a few months after Mr. Mr. Ochs worked out chis own plan, -obtained the :approval of stock­ Ochs took charge the Saturday Review of Books, later shifted to holders and creditors, and :raised the needed funus. the Sunday issue. became a permanent feature of the paper. Let­ 'TAKES OVER THE Tllrll:S ters to the editor -controverting the paper's editorial policy were admitted to the rejuvenated Times on a scale not previously Now at last his -service as greeter "S.nd entertainer of cttst1n­ guished visitors to Chattanooga bore fruit. An unknown young known. The Times of il.'896, smaller and simpler, as was necessi­ man from -a small city, however sound his pl-ans and heartening tated by its constricted resources and by the less advanced news­ his enthusiasm, might have had some trouble persuading wary paper technology of the period, was essentially the Times of today. creditors that he coultl tlo what all the newspaper executives in 'ROAD TO SUCCESS A HARD 'ONE New York hart pronounced impossible. But_, headed by a letter The new pape.r found favor; in the first year of Mr. Ochs' pro­ from President Cleveland, the Chatanuoga publisher was able to prietorship the circulation more tha.n doubled, and the deficit, produce a mass of recommendations from men whose names meant which .had been -$1,000 a. -day when he took charge, averaged less somethirrg in New York. President Cleveland's letter, Jn his own than 11. fifth f his own plan for the realize What he was doing with the Times, and to see that the reo~anization of "the 'Times, whlch was transferred to him on paper was a good commercial risk. But tt was years before that August 1"8, 1896. problem was definitely a thing o:f the past; and it was years before The new plan was briefiy this: The New York Times Co. was some of the men whose investments tn the Times, old and new, organized with 10,000 shares of capital stock and a bond d."Ssue of Mr. Ochs was saving Ior them, began to realize how fully he $500,000. TW-O thousand. ,shares -of stock were exchanged for the deserved their trust. shares of the old cGIDpan,y 'On a 1-for-5 basis; holders "Of the 1 Some of them knew it from the first; the faith inspired in Mr. old company's notes received ln exch-ang:e bonds -0f the new com­ Miiler at that first interview endured, and personal friendship pany, dollar for dollar,, and -$200,000 worth of bonds were -sold at came to reenforce it. .Another man whose confidence in and affec­ par to provide working capital. {The new publisher discovered tion for the new publisher proved of immense value was Col. when he took charge that the pa.per lmd about $100,-000 worth of Marcellus Hartley, a member of the reorganization committee, who unfunded ·(}bligations, so ha:lf of that working capital was -eaten did perhaps more than anyone else to tea.ch the young man from up before Mr. Ochs got 'Started.) .As a needed incentive, each Tennessee his way around N~w Y.ork and the technique of dealing purchaser of a thousand-dollar bond got l5 shares cf stock with With New Yorkers. it; and Mr. Ochs himself, with all the money he had and all he If Mr. Ochs' way pretty hard tn the first years, it was made could borrow-most of it Wil.S borrowed-bought '$75;000 worth of was bonds, carrying with them 1,125 shares <>f stock. Of the rest of hal'd partly by his own principles. The volume of advertising in the stock, 3,876 sha.l'es, just enough to make an -absolute majority, the Times did not increase 1t5 .fast as the increase' in circulation were· put into escrow, to -be -delivered to the publisher whenever warranted, because the new publisher ha'Ci brought to New York the paper had paid its way tor 3 consecutive years. His control, not only some novel ideas about the treatment of news but an however, was to be absolute frnm the first. unusually rigorous conscienre about advertising. Certain types of objectionable -advertising that were commonly

A bill (H. R. 5899) for the relief of Helen Niehaus; Com­ By Mr. KLOEB: A bill