New York: Break in the Ranks

"I think this strike has gone on long enough," said New York Post Publisher Dorothy ("Dolly") Schiff in what was surely the understatement of the week. "The city should have at least one newspaper." With that, Dolly Schiff broke the united front of New York publishers against Bert Powers' local of the International Typographical Union. She resigned from the New York Publishers Association and announced that the Post would reappear on the newsstands this week.

One & All. Dolly's defection, said New York Times Vice President Amory H. Bradford, chief negotiator for the publishers, was "a great mistake." The publishers, like the NATO allies, operate on the principle that an attack on one is an attack on all; and when the I.T.U. called strikes at four New York dailies last December, five others voluntarily stopped their presses. Now, said Bradford, Dolly's action "is bound to stiffen the union's position and may well prolong the strike. It is going to be more difficult for us to persuade the unions to arrive at a settlement that will permit all the newspapers to continue."

Bert Powers, naturally, thought otherwise. "The other afternoon papers," said he, "will not miss the fact that their competitor is publishing." He might have a point. Though the Post's pre-strike circulation was only 327,629, it was expected to run off at least 500,000 papers a day in an effort to pick up readers from the idle Journal-American (circ. 601,625) and World-Telegram (442,936). Powers insisted that Mrs. Schiff would have settled "a long time ago" but for fear of "retribution from advertisers." What suddenly made Dolly change her mind?

Accept or Reject. Knowing hands pointed out that just after she handed in her resignation to the association at a meeting in midtown Manhattan's Daily News building, she scooted off to meet Powers at an uptown hotel. After nearly three hours, she emerged with Powers to announce that she would immediately begin calling some--but not all--of her 1,183 employees back to work under the old contracts. But it might not be that easy to get back in print on the cheap; the American Newspaper Guild advised its members to report for work, whether they were asked to or not. To rumors that Dolly already had a separate secret deal with Powers, she replied: "I have no agreement with Mr. Powers about a new contract. We will accept or reject any new settlement as it comes up."

There was no quarrel with Dolly's argument that New York needs its newspapers. The strike has deprived New Yorkers of 5,780,000 papers a day, has idled 20,000 workers, and has cost an estimated $100 million in wages, advertising and circulation revenue. But whether publication of the Post would do anything to help settle the argument was something else again.

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