Chapter 24 - From Brimstone to Soothing Syrup

Chapter 24 - From Brimstone to Soothing Syrup

WHEN THOMAS Kearns died so unexpectedly it was inevitable that his secretary, John F. Fitzpatrick, would take over management of the estate the one-time hard rock miner had accumulated during a comparatively short life. This was so for at least three reasons. In the five years Fitzpatrick had served as the former senator's confidential and chief assistant he had won the complete confidence of his employer. Death transmitted this confidence to Mrs. Jennie Judge Kearns, the widow. No one but he possessed both business experience and a familiarity with the various interests left by Kearns to his family. Thus the selection of Fitzpatrick to take over the responsibilities theretofore carried by Kearns was both a matter of choice and necessity. Still another factor which probably had some bearing on the succession was the willingness of the secretary to assume responsibilities. As he had said in his letter of application for the job, he had "the initiative and ability of execution to take up and diplomatically handle correspondence and other matters without dictation, and, in line with your desires." He was the "take-over" type of man who did not shrink from the exercise of authority, the making of decisions and the acceptance of responsibility for those decisions. And Mrs. Kearns never had reason to wonder whether she had acted wisely in placing so much trust in the ability and fidelity of her late husband's young secretary.

The assets of the estate left by Kearns were appraised for inheritance tax purposes at $2,078,670.59. The major items were real estate, principally the Kearns Building, valued at $1,084,650; railroad bonds valued at $376,630; railroad capital stock valued at $135,117; Silver King Coalition Mines Company stock valued at $170,063; a one-half interest in The Tribune, valued at $175,000; Liberty Bonds in the amount of $25,000; and $26,887 cash in bank. Miscellaneous items included a 1908 Pierce Arrow automobile valued at $750 and three old vehicles valued at $1. Actual value of the estate was no doubt somewhat more than the appraised value. Looking a few years into the future, the appraisal was substantially short of the actual values. With respect to The Tribune, Fitzpatrick purchased for the estate the Keith half-interest in the newspaper for $300,000 and thereby struck an excellent bargain for his employers. In the following year (1920) the capitalization of The Tribune was increased from $200,000 to $1,000,000 and during the next four years it paid $350,000 in dividends. The flow of dividends, however, dwindled markedly as Fitzpatrick took over control. The motions at directors' meetings to authorize dividends were gradually supplanted by recommendations from Fitzpatrick as treasurer that $350,000 be accumulated for a new double octuple printing press; that $50,000 be accumulated for expansion of this or that department, and so on. Fitzpatrick had an inner urge approaching the intensity of a passion for capital investment and accumulation of cash reserves. And he generally got his way. He was not a man to take economic risks unless he had to, and he recognized that the days when the flow of mine dividends could support the newspaper belonged to the past. For mine dividends had already dwindled and publishing costs were swelling.

The heirs to the estate of Kearns, who left no will, were Mrs. Kearns and three children, Thomas F., Edmond J. and Helen. The corporate organization of The Tribune Publishing Company after the Keith one-half interest had been acquired was Thomas F., president and director, Mrs. Kearns, vice president and director, and Edmond J., director, and Fitzpatrick, treasurer. A perusal of the minutes of the board meetings indicates that the influence of the treasurer far exceeded that which normally attaches to that office in corporate organizations.

The day-to-day operations of The Tribune were at this time in the capable hands of A. N. McKay, who exercized the functions of publisher and general manager but whose title in the statements of ownership and circulation was general manager; Homer F. Robinson, business manager; and E. H. Holden, managing editor who had recently succeeded F. P. Gallagher in that position. There is nothing in available records to suggest that Fitzpatrick interfered in the operation of the editorial department of The Tribune during this period — the late teens and early nineteen twenties. There was no reason why he should; he was just learning the newspaper business and, intelligent and perceptive as he was, he undoubtedly recognized that his proper role, temporarily, was that of a student under the tutelage of the veteran, McKay. Moreover, as the future disclosed, he was in full accord with the general policies being pursued by McKay in accordance with the understanding he had reached with Kearns when he accepted the position in 1911. However, the Fitzpatrick influence was immediately reflected in the over-all business operations of the newspaper in such areas as budgeting and capital improvements.

Robinson, the business manager, had been a dedicated employe of The Tribune since 1882 when he started work as a messenger at age 18. He was a product of both periods of The Tribune's history and had imperturbably gone about his business of trying to make the newspaper profitable both in the days of bitter conflict and the latter days of conciliation. He was, by nature, better suited to the role of conciliator than crusader but he could play either one with dignity and without personal animosity or obeisance. In outward appearance he was an austere, forbidding individual encased in the armor of gruff sternness. Inwardly he was gracious, sympathetic and tolerant, and he possessed a subtle sense of humor which was not immediately discernible. In his capacity as business manager he was an ally of the editorial department, particularly in the sensitive and frequently disputatious problem of drawing the line between news and unpaid advertising. He never pressured editors to give away in the news department what he was selling in the advertising department. On the contrary, he was more inflexible on this point than some editors and on occasion raised objections to publication of material which an editor was willing to accept on a basis of its news value. He regarded the sale of newspapers or space as a mutually beneficial business transaction which did not call for the giving or the acceptance of favors. The inward nature of Homer Robinson was accurately reflected in a Tribune project which he initiated and enthusiastically nurtured until his death in 1939 - the Sub-for-Santa program. The program survived him and at Christmas time still serves as a memorial to a man who probably worked for The Tribune longer than any other person—fiftyseven years.

The story of The Tribune during the 1920's was one of solid progress in circulation and advertising volume. This reflected comparable growth in its public acceptance as a readable, reliable and objective source of news and opinions. The editorial policy, unobtrusively initiated in 1911 and fortified by the events of 1918, was working as the initiators expected it to work. Its area of acceptability as a source of information was rapidly expanding and its value as an advertising medium was keeping pace. The Tribune was on its way to becoming in the new era of accommodation what it had been in the old era of the "irrenressible conflict," the most widely read and quoted newspaper between Denver and the Pacific Coast. In this new era its appeal was aimed at the entire public of its circulation area rather than the combatants on one side of a bitter conflict. Its new role was that of a unifying communications medium for its territory rather than a divisive champion of a cause which by this time had been won in all substantial respects.

The change in the fortunes of The Tribune was dramatically reflected in the circulation figures. During the first forty years of its life, up to 1911, the daily circulation had crept from approximately 1,000 to 16,000. The Sunday edition, which was launched in 1900 with a circulation of 13,362, had reached 22,783 in 1910. In 1915 the daily circulation was 18,847 and the Sunday 35,526 and by the end of 1919 the daily circulation had passed the 40,000 mark and the Sunday was a few hundred short of 65,000. The growth trend continued throughout the 1920's but slowed drastically for a few years when the depression of the 1930's descended upon the country.

In the political campaign of 1920 The Tribune's editorials were even more bland than they had been in 1916 and 1918. It covered the speeches and developments of the campaign adequately, but any satisfaction Republicans or Democrats derived from its editorials had to be strictly negative. The most positive statement in its election morning campaign editorial was that the presidential candidate receiving a majority of the electoral vote would take the presidential chair and "the country would settle down to business." The concluding sentences were:

Today marks the culminating point of the 1920 campaign. From now on business will improve because the matter of policy for the next four years will have been definitely settled and the businessmen of the nation can make their plans along the lines laid down without fear of interference. There is much reason for optimism at this time.

For Tribune readers brought up on the editorials of Lockley, Goodwin and Frank J. Cannon, the editorial page must have been depressingly dull reading.

The election turned out as The Tribune forecast — a Republican sweep in the nation and in the state. Warren G. Harding was elected president, Reed Smoot was returned to the Senate for his fourth term, Charles R. Mabey was elected governor and E. 0. Leatherwood and Don B. Colton were elected to their first terms in the United States House of Representatives.

In the 1924 campaign The Tribune shed some of its neutrality but not its recently acquired soft political manners. It supported, with something less than crusading zeal, the election of Calvin Coolidge who had succeeded to the presidency upon Harding's death. Somewhat more positively, it urged the election of a Republican Congress to support the president. In a pre-election editorial, it said:

It being practically certain that President Coolidge will remain chief executive of the nation for the next four years, the Republican Party will not achieve a full measure of victory at the polls next Tuesday unless it gains control of both branches of Congress. Otherwise the president's influence for good will be nullified. . .

The Tribune's assumption that Coolidge would be elected by a large majority proved correct, but its confident prediction that Utah would go Republican proved wrong in one important respect. The Republicans retained their two congressional seats, elected majorities in both houses of the state legislature and elected a state ticket except for the politically most important office of all, that of governor. George H. Dern, a Democratic state legislator, defeated Governor Mabey and thereby pulled off an upset that was stunning to The Tribune and the Republicans and surprising to the Democrats. In a post-election editorial The Tribune extended the customary congratulations to the winners but it did not radiate enthusiasm for the new governor:

The Democrats made their drive against Governor Mabey and succeeded in defeating him. He will be succeeded by George H. Dern, a Salt Lake business- man who has had business experience and who will no doubt be able to fill the exalted position to which he has been elected. The Tribune wishes him well and extends the customary congratulations upon his victory. Governor Mabey retires to private life with a clean record as a public official and with the proud consciousness of having performed his duty as he saw it.

The Tribune editor was surprised by the election of a Democratic governor in Utah but he was astounded by an event in England which he commented on in the same issue.

Premier Baldwin has not invited David Lloyd George into his new cabinet but he has done almost as astonishing a thing — he has made Winston Churchill chancellor of the exchequer, thus honoring the man who deserted the Tory Party twenty years ago and who has now come back to eat of the fatted calf which has been roasted for him by Mr. Baldwin. . . .

The Tribune, incidentally, devoted a liberal amount of its space to foreign news and frequently commented editorially on foreign affairs and events. This was partially but not wholly a response to the increased public interest in world affairs arising from World War I. For the newspaper, from the time of its founding, had given more attention to foreign news than most of its inland contemporaries. The editors were perhaps conscious of the considerable number of residents in its territory who had come from Europe as converts to the Mormon Church or to work in the mines or smelters and who still had strong ties with the "old country."

Soon after the election, on November 18,1924, death ended the long and noteworthy newspaper career of A. N. McKay. One of his major contributions to Utah journalism during the eleven years he served as managing editor of the Herald and thirteen years as general manager of The Tribune was the moderation of partisan excesses which characterized newspapers of his era. Politically he was a Democrat and, as editor of the Herald, he presided over the general policy of a Democratic newspaper. During his regime it was not Democratic in the same sense that the Inter-Mountain Republican, for example, was Republican. The Herald was primarily a newspaper and secondarily a party organ. As general manager of The Tribune, McKay directed the change in policy of that newspaper which made possible and promoted an accommodation between Mormons and non-Mormons. In the terminology of the day, he was one of the state's outstanding and most influential "Jack Mormons" and he was not apologetic about that role. He was, along with John F. Fitzpatrick in a later period and such Mormon leaders as Heber J. Grant, a key girder of the bridge which first spanned the chasm which the "irrepressible conflict" had created in Utah. He was, on the non- Mormon side, a counterpart to such Mormon leaders as Grant and Anthony W. Ivins.

There was, incidentally, something special about "Tony" Ivins so far as The Tribune was concerned. Anyone who started working in The Tribune news or editorial departments after the turn of the century soon learned by word-of-mouth or through some experience that the holiest of "holy cows" around The Tribune was not a big advertiser or a banker who might be holding a mortgage, but Ivins, who was neither advertiser nor banker. Why or how this relationship started may be explained in some unpublished diary but no clues could be found by the writer in recorded histories. Tribune editorials, however, indicate that it started some time prior to 1907. For when Ivins returned from Mexico where he had been a mission president to be sustained as a new member of the Council of Twelve Apostles, The Tribune had this to say about his selection:

The reward to Mr. Ivins has been well earned, from the church standpoint. And we believe that it will inject into the quorum better character in the way of independent manhood than the twelve have received for many years. The chief difficulty about it is that he will be away so much that he will not be able to shake loose the barnacles as he could and probably would do were he here all the time. But as there had to be a filling of the vacancy, we certainly approve of A. W. Ivins. We could not have made a better choice ourselves, and this is about the first occasion (unless we except McKay) that we could have said the same.

The Tribune obviously had the same high regard for David 0. McKay, who had been sustained a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles in 1906, that it had for Ivins.

This tribute to the two Mormon leaders had come at a time when animosity between The Tribune and the church and Deseret News was at a peak. The Tribune was publishing in every issue from one to a half-dozen editorials denouncing the Deseret News, President Joseph F. Smith and other church leaders. The Deseret News was reciprocating in kind. A sample of the dozens of Tribune editorials published during the same week that the Ivins-McKay editorial appeared started out in this fashion, under the heading — "Its Sniveling Wail":

The Deseret News last night put out a long-winded wail about The Tribune abusing it and 'fighting the Mormon church.' Of course, The Tribune has not been fighting the Mormon church at all. It has been abusing nobody. But it has resented the lies told by the church organ, and has condemned the lawlessness, vice, lechery, tyranny, usurpation and robberies of the Mormon church leaders. . . .

The Tribune's high regard for Ivins personally did not deter it from publishing six days later a purported expose of the new apostle as a post-Manifesto polygamist. Under front-page headings - "Apostle Ivins a Polygamist, Known to be a Two-Ply One, and Reported to Have Other Wives, Takes Plural Wife After Manifesto" — the article began: "The Mormon hierarchy in elevating Anthony (Tony) W. Ivins of Mexico to the apostleship appears to have overlooked a disqualification over his predecessor, the late George Teasdale. Apostle Teasdale was a five-ply polygamist whilst Apostle Ivins can boast of only two betterhalves. . . ."

Two days after publication of this expose, which was one of a long series, The Tribune published on its front page a retraction which said in part that Apostle Ivins "had declared most positively that he is not a polygamist, and never has been, and that he has kept faith with the pledges made to the United States when Utah was made a State. . . ."

In the same issue on the editorial page The Tribune apologized to Apostle Ivins for the error but expressed no abashment over the fact that no one had checked the article with Ivins before its publication. The editor excused this omission on the grounds that The Tribune had learned from experience that it could not expect to be told the truth by church sources on this subject. The editorial then continued:

In acknowledging the fact that this [the statement that Ivins was a polygamist] was a misstatement, The Tribune feels so far from being humiliated that it would be glad of the privilege of making similar confession every day in the week concerning others, if only such action could be in truth — as we believe to be the case here — and if this whole situation u could thus be cleared up.

This did not end the really inexcusable (for The Tribune) and embarrassing (for Apostle Ivins) incident. Two days later The Tribune published another editorial, which said in substance that the newspaper had gotten Ivins into trouble with "the old polygamists . . . who are wondering why this 'fresh young apostle' as they call him, should put any black mark upon their countenances." The editorial continued:

Why does he, they inquire, even before he has become accustomed to his apostle frock, cast aspersions upon their righteous lives? If a thing is to be denied, they reasonably assert, that thing is to be denied only because it is bad. Are they, then, who made of commonplace Honorable Anthony W. Ivins the distinguished Apostle Anthony W. Ivins such a bad lot? We also would like to know. But let them fight it out with Apostle Ivins, and not let them blame The Tribune further. Our columns are open to both proposed controversialists in this particular matter; and while we hold our space in high value, let not either the polygamists or Mr. Ivins stint themselves on that account. Have it out, gentlemen. We were never more ready for such a fray, and our willingness can be exceeded by no other thing than our interest in the outcome.

A measure of Apostle Ivins' tolerance can be inferred from the fact that this affair did not poison his relations with Tribune executives, and over the years he grew even larger in their esteem and respect. As a footnote to this relationship, which played no small part in the repression of the "irrepressible conflict," an incident in which The Tribune again had some apologies to make to Apostle Ivins is worth mentioning. A year or so before his death in September of 1934, and when he was nearing his eightieth birthday, he took to the hills on one of his favorite horses and bagged a magnificent deer. A Tribune sportswriter, who thought the word "senile" signified only age, started his story of "Tony" Ivins deer hunt with the phrase: "Despite his senility. . . ." The consternation in The Tribune editorial offices the morning the article appeared was something to remember. The editor waited in dread for a call from Fitzpatrick's office in the Kearns Building across the street from the Tribune Building and glanced across the street from time to time to see if the Kearns Building roof was still in place. When the call came it was, in the light of the circumstances, surprisingly mild. The publisher made it clear that he did not like the choice of words in the Ivins story and suggested that the writer go to the Ivins home to apologize. The sportswriter, who shall remain nameless, willingly but apprehensively complied with the directive and was greeted not by an infuriated President Ivins but a chuckling "Tony." Ivins suggested that perhaps the writer had hit closer to the truth than he (Ivins) liked to admit and assured him that if the article had any adverse repercussions on his job status that he (Ivins) would be happy to intercede in his behalf.

In a tribute to President Ivins upon his death The Tribune said in part:

As a general he would have been gallant and resourceful; as a judge, impartial, sympathetic and always just; as a leader in any cause, courageous and consistent. As a successful colonizer he was vigilant, progressive and enterprising, ably fulfilling every essential requirement of guide, commander, counselor, advocate and arbitrator. As a churchman he was devout but not bigoted; chivalrous in controversy, reasonable in attitude and argument, tolerant of the honest opinions of others. . .

Sometimes things are said in death which would seem an exaggeration in life, but no one around The Tribune doubted what was said about "Tony" Ivins was really meant by the publisher in death or in life.