Merger

Manhattan's publishing organisms were again diminished in number. For something in the neighborhood of $2,850,000, the sons of the builder of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung acquired and merged the 132-year-old Commercial and the century-old Journal of Commerce. The new hybrid's title was Journal of Commerce and Commercial; its policy was to follow that of the late Journal of Commerce. The new owners contemplated selling their Associated Press franchise, perhaps to the tabloid Daily News. It would bring perhaps quarter of a million.

The new owners were the brothers Ridder -- Victor F., Bernard H., Joseph E. -- sons of the late Herman Ridder who, born a New Yorker, in 1851 of German parents, bought the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung in 1889. He had already established two Catholic newspapers in Manhattan and under his direction the Staats-Zeitung became the country's leading German daily. An independent Democrat, he was national democratic treasurer in 1908. A thorough German, he defended the Kaiser during the War, as far as his U. S. patriotism would permit, daily publishing an editorial in English that his attitude might be clearly understood. He died poor owing to a large and unfortunate investment. Friends assumed his debts to keep his press properties intact, as they have been kept since, and added unto by his sons.