"Friendly Agreement"

"Out of the hands of the Philistines"-as libertarians of the press viewed it-were delivered the Boston Herald and Traveler. Trustees of International Paper Co., whose purchase of these and other newspapers had excited great outcry because I. P. Co.'s owner is International Paper & Power Co. and because power companies' press activities have lately been viewed with wide alarm (TIME, April 22 et seq.), authorized the sale of I. P. Co.'s 50% stock interest in Boston Publishing Co.-a development long rumored (TIME, June 10).

The I. P. Co. paid $5,500,000 last January. The new buyers, Boston bankers acting for the Boston Publishing Co. management, paid some $7,000,000. The stock will now be offered to the general public.

Said the Herald editorially:

"Thus ends, by friendly agreement, an episode which caused an amount of comment all out of proportion to the plain business involved in it."