The Iron Hand

In Clarksburg, W.Va. (pop. 32,000), where the morning Exponent (circ. 15,381) and evening Telegram (circ. 24,729) have been the only dailies in town for 50 years, Publisher Cecil B. Highland, 76, rules with an iron hand. The names of local citizens who displease Highland are banned from his papers, even though some hold public office. He has fought daylight saving time, a public sewage-disposal project, and turned down ads for a community project to raise money for the widow of a local hero who had tried to save three boys from drowning. By his own peculiar rules of nonpartisanship, the Exponent is Democratic, the Telegram Republican, and during campaigns each prints only the briefest news about the party it opposes. On the day that Harry Truman whistle-stopped at Clarksburg, the Exponent carried not a word about it. (The Sunday combined Exponent-Telegram is completely "nonpartisan," i.e., rarely reports political news at all.)

One of Publisher Highland's oldest and bitterest fights is against radio. He bans all program listings, even censors ads that mention radio or have anything to do with it. Lately, however, Publisher Highland has brought his papers up to date in at least one respect: he has turned his fury away from radio and concentrated it on television. The switch came about five months ago when Manhattan Financier John Hay ("Jock") Whitney's investment company decided to put up money (about $250,000) for a coaxial cable into Clarksburg to bring the town television programs. Whitney's company, set up to "help stimulate free enterprise" with new projects, quickly ran head-on into Publisher Highland. One paper reported that "strangers" and "outsiders" wanted to string "dangerous" overhead lines into town. "DANGER TO LIFE, PROPERTY COULD COME FROM CABLE," said a headline in the Telegram, over a story suggesting that TV cables could kill children and burn Clarksburg homes. As compensation to parents, "cash would be used to replace [the] child," said the story. A picture of an ugly fire-control tower was described as a TV tower, and the papers pointed out that every TV set owner would have to pay hundreds of dollars a year, some to "Wall Street exploiters." Asked Highland: "Do [these New Yorkers] sound like Americans to you?"

Jock Whitney's plan to help Clarksburg get TV had the backing of local businessmen, the Chamber of Commerce and the city council. But Publisher Highland blocked every move, covered his front pages with stories about the evils of TV and the big-city "bellhops" who were trying to impose it on his community. Last week at the final city council meeting to decide the question, the council unanimously approved the plan, which will give Clarksburg TV within 90 days. Many Clarksburg citizens wished that Jock Whitney's free-enterprising ventures could also include a new paper for Clarksburg.

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