[NEW YORK TIMES - PAPER'S SALE STILLS EDITOR'S LIBERAL VOICE IN CONSERVATIVE YORK]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300430003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2006
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 25, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/12/15 IA-RDP88-01314. 000300430003-3
2 OCT 1 9-?T
pti's -Sale tf11,~. Editor's Liberal Voice in
By DONALD JANSON
Saec:a7'La T, Ncw Yoxc Tres
YORK, Pa.,Oct. 23-Fifty-
five years. of colorful, out-
spoken, personal journalism
have ended in this historic Co-
lonial city.
conservative York, and York
yellov ," a resident said this ?
~
County with its views. week. eons rva L j-ve
But readers bought it because While Mr. Gitt never besi-
it was the only morning paper
in the city, and even many of
its detractors believed that its
sports and county news cover-
Josiah W. (Jess) Gitt, editor}age were superior to that of
of The Gazette and' Daily since
he bought it in 1915, sold the
morning newspaper yesterday
to Harold W. ?Fitzkee Jr.,. Dis-
trict Attorney of York County,
and two associates in the law
firm. of Morris, Vedder & Fitz-
kee.
Although Mr. Gitt Is 86 years
old, a time of life when some
publishers consider retirement,
the sale was precipitated not
by age but by declining reve-
nue and a. strike of the Inter-
national Typographical Union,
the first strike in the paper's
the conservative afternoon Dis-
patch, the rival daily. In addi-
tion, a minority liked The Gaz-
ette's anti-establishment tone
and aggressive reporting of dis-
senting as well as majority
viewpoints on controversial is-
sues.
The-elder Mr. Gitt contrib-
uted to The Gazette's "Food for
Thought" column and occasion-
ally wrote signed editorials. His
chief lieutenant for the last two
decades in setting the paper's
course was James Higgins, as-
sistant editor until he turned
to freelance writing this year.
history. -
Paper Is Re-Named
a. ,Uvnvu uanaillev at long.
Mr. Higgins, educated ' at the Minutemen, John Birch So- haired Gazette men and women
Berkeley and Harvard
was one
,
ciety and Ku Klux Klan. in jeans Publication was suspended of a large number of writers The city, whose 50,000 popu- beads. The sandals City Hall
loct..8.-Mr.. Fitzkee settled with attracted to York over the lation is 10 per cent black, has reporter covered his beat
the union and publication re- years by the prospect of work- had a succession of racial in- wearing tied ed shirts and
sumed today under a new name, ing at relatively low for b y
-The York Daily Record. ? ( Y pay) cidents in recent years, in u earrings.
Y an editor who crusaded un- ing fighting that' was sup-
- ----
The name was chosen to sug- equivocall
a
ainst war
racism
y
g
,-
pressed by using police dogs.
?gest continuity.. Within three and infringement of human lib- There was gunfire in the city's
"
years of his purchase of The erties. -'
racially mixed high school last
York Gazette in 1915, Mr. Gitt Mr, Gitt supported Henry A. week after suspensions had
had acquired and incorporated Wallace for President in 1948 been meted out to some pupils.
in
to it The York Daily and The for his peace stand
He refused
.
The Gazette lost subscribers
Xork
azette.ega.l Record with The to accept advertising for Sena- the year of the Goldwater can-
tor Barry Goldwater's Presiden- didacy, and The Dispatch soon)
But the; longtime publisher tial campaign in 1964. passed it in circulation. An
insisted ,this week that the Besides its own views, the other big drop in Gazette circ-(
name_"Gazette" be retired with Gazette presented such other ulation followed the racial riot-'
hirn? opinions as those of Julio Al- ing in 19"08. Then, Gazette re-'
"It is like retiring the num- varez del Vayo, a socialist who porters sought out black youths
ber of a siar baseball player," was Republican Spain's last on the causes, and the result
his son, Charles M. (Josh) Gitt, Foreign Minister before Franco; was that the newspaper's stor-'
president. of The Gazette and T.F. Stone, Owen Lattimore and ies varied considerably from!
Daily, said in an interview.. Drew Pearson. It reprinted art!- police versions printed by The'
f, Under-hisfa:ther,-The Gazette Iles from The Nation. The New Dispatch.
and:.Daily was one of a kind. republic and other liberal pub- When the sale was announced
The tabloid, often an award lications:-._ this week, The Dispatch had
winner for., typography and ap- "For years York has had two a circulation of 45,000 and The
pearance, regularly shockednewspapers, one red -.and one Gazette 33,000. A sharp decline
tated to give the dissenting -
voice ahearing, he strongly op- in Gazette' 'advertising had sooI- AT
posed dictatorship in any form.
Asked whether Mr. Gitt was lowed the reduction in circula
a Communist, a priest -who tion. Mr. .Gitt asked all em-
knew him well replied, "No, he plbyes to take a "temporary','
is just a contrary, bull-headed 10 per cent pay cut. The typo-
Pennsylvania Dutchman like i graphical union refused. The
am." i members of the American
Most of York -County was Newspaper Guild refused to
settled by Germans of the Luth-( cross its picket lines.
eran and Reformed Churches, Unconventional dress was a'
who, like. the Amish and Men- factor in shaping attitudes of
nonites to' the north and east, conventional York residents to-
are often . called Pennsylvania ward The Gazette. With 'Mr.
Dutch. Dutch Gap . and Saur-
kraut Hill have lost their sepa- Gltt and other editors settin '
rate identities as neighborhoods the fashion, Gazette reporters
within the city, but the city, usually went about their work
only 18 miles north of the without neckties. One recently
Mason-Dixon Line, and the was ordered from a courtroom
county remain conservative by the judge. Public officials
Approved For Release 2006/12/15: CIA-RDP88-01314R000300430003-3