Birthdays

In Detroit. The boys who deliver the Detroit Free Press to the doors of subscribers grunted and staggered under their loads last Sunday. The paper--largest ever published in Detroit--included 114 pages of rotogravure in addition to the usual sections, all for the glory of the Free Press's 100th anniversary.* The Centennial Edition, edited by Malcolm W. Bingay who conducts the paper's daily "Good Morning" column, reviewed the history of the paper, of Detroit and of mankind for the past hundred years. Crowning item was a rotogravure page with a large photograph of Poet Edgar Albert ("Eddie") Guest, pride of the Free Press, and a seven stanza poem written by him for the occasion. First stanza:

"Tarry, Old Father Time."

"Put by your scythe."

"Still young and blithe,"

"Untouched by rime,

"The paper that I love, behold!

"Here are no furrowed cheeks or palsied hand---

"The marks of old men who have past their prime

"And sigh to count the last few grains of sand,

"Knowing that soon the bells will chime

"Death's solemn dirge--but fearless, bold

"The Free Press wears a century on its brow,

"Facing the future with a young heart now!"

Detroit had some 2,500 population when, on May 5, 1831, John P. Sheldon turned from a creaking hand press the first copy of The Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer. First campaign of the paper was to agitate for Michigan's admittance to the Union. But its career of influence really began after the Civil War when the Free Press (a violent anti-Slavery paper) was edited by William E. Quinby. In the 44 years of his control, Editor Quinby developed the late Charles B. Lewis, whose humor made famous the nom de plume "M. Quad." Poet Guest he hired as an office boy. Robert Barr ("Luke Sharp") worked for him many a year before going to London to found The Idler with Jerome K. Jerome. The paper ceased to be the DEMOCRATIC Free Press in 1806 when it repudiated the nomination of William Jennings Bryan, threw its support to McKinley.

Today the Free Press is Michigan's dominant morning paper (second to the Scripps owned evening News in circulation), is strongly Republican, tinged with the liberal views of its publisher Edward D. ("Ed") Stair. A "clean, home paper," it suggests somewhat the New York Herald Tribune; and like the latter it boasts an exceptionally able women's editor--Mary Humphrey. (Herald Tribune has Mrs. William Brown Meloney.) Some of the Free Press' following may be accounted for by its Chicago Tribune comic features. This situation may be affected by the Tribune's recent acquisition of the Macfadden tabloid Detroit Daily (TIME, April 13).

In Chicago. The Detroit Free Press was already 50 years old when, in a four story building in Chicago's Washington Street, James W. Scott and William D. Eaton founded the Chicago Herald. But the Hearst Herald & Examiner celebrated its Golden Anniversary last week with ten times the Free Press's fanfare. The celebration happily coincided with an All Chicago Jubilee to celebrate the city's political "new era." At times it was difficult to discern where the Herald & Examiner's demonstration stopped and the city's jubilee began; the result was a pleasing impression that all of Chicago was agog over the newspaper's birthday.

The career of the Herald & Examiner ("Herex") as it is known today really dates from 1902 when William Randolph Hearst started his Examiner. In 1918 the Examiner swallowed the Herald which, prior to that, had absorbed the Times* Record and Inter Ocean. The story of the Herald & Examiner is in general that of any Hearst paper in any big city; but even more sensational, more blatant because of Chicago's shocking newspaper history. Wherever seasoned newsmen gather, tales are told of the Herex's famed exploits. There was the time when the late "Hildy" Johnson (TIME, April 20) got an exclusive tip on the conviction of one Norman Cook for murder; he stole into the vacated jury room, wrote "not guilty" on a dozen bits of paper, scattered them on the floor where he knew a Tribune newshawk would find them. Next morning, before the verdict was returned, the Herald & Examiner was out with COOK FOUND GUILTY while the duped Tribune blazoned the fake verdict. Another great scoop was the 1920 street car strike, which the Herald & Examiner got from a grateful union delegate whom it had unconsciously flattered by referring to him as Mr. Boyle.

For the first three months of this year the Herald & Examiner has gained about 30,000 circulation (now 435,000) over the same period in 1930. During the same period the Tribune has lost about 30,000, is now running about 60,000 less than before the murder of its Racketeer Reporter Jake Lingle.

*Last year Editor Frank Parker Stockbridge of The American Press began organizing a Century Club of U. S. newspapers. The club's roster, completed last month, included 79 dailies and too weeklies which have been published continuously since 1831 or earlier. Oldest is the Annapolis Gazette (weekly), founded 1727 Oldest to be published continuously as a daily is the New York Evening Post (1801).

*Not to be confused with the tabloid Illustrated Times now published in Chicago by Samuel Emory Thomason.

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