A.P. Liberalized

The world's biggest newsgathering cooperative, Associated Press, threatened by anti-trust suits, has undergone major changes. Last week, under the long-suspicious eye of Thurman Arnold, A.P. liberalized itself in the first important by-law shakeup since 1928 (when voting control was taken out of the hands of the 173 members who owned a majority of the bonds). Heretofore election to A.P. required approval of four-fifths of the total membership, and a single member, by "right of protest," could blackball any candidate in his city, for any reason at all. This exclusiveness largely accounted for the rise of such A.P. rivals as Scripps-Howard's U.P. and Hearst's I.N.S. With the abolition of the blackball privilege, any paper can gain admission if it wins the vote of the majority of members of the entire A.P. But under the new rule, candidates will have to pay an initiation fee: a new member must pay to existing members in his community 10% of their A.P. assessments since 1900, or not less than three times their present annual assessment. Hence Marshall Field's Chicago Sun, say, would have to pay heavy tribute to Colonel McCormick's Chicago Tribune and Hearst's Chicago Herald-American for an A.P. membership.

Possibly Marshall Field would fork over --on the theory, proclaimed by one observer, that "A.P. is like an elephant: it's worth a lot if you run a circus." But A.P.'s liberalized by-laws did not get a membership for the Chicago Sun. The Sun's application was voted down by the members, 684-to-287. Bluffing, Colonel McCormick himself applied for an afternoon membership. And Colonel McCormick's friendly cousin, Cissie Patterson, applied for a morning and evening membership for her Washington Times-Herald.

When the Chicago Sun's application was voted down, under the new bylaws, the Tribune withdrew. (Cissie Patterson's application was thrown out, 514-to-242.) Colonel McCormick boasted that he had beaten the Sun's application by a "tactical move." Since he was also re-elected to A.P.'s board of directors, he considered that he had won a triumph.

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