--- description: Twenty-seven years ago, aged 12, Generoso Pope had a job in Manhattan painting pianos at $3 a week. He had come to the land of opportunity from Italy. Twenty years later successful Mr. Pope owned... title: The Press: Sandman image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # The Press: Sandman by [TIME](/author/time/) Sep 14, 1931 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Sep 14, 1931 4:00 AM CUT Twenty-seven years ago, aged 12, Generoso Pope had a job in Manhattan painting pianos at $3 a week. He had come to the land of opportunity from Italy. Twenty years later successful Mr. Pope owned Colonial Sand & Stone Co. which he believes is now the world’s largest. Then he started buying up New York’s Italian-language daily and Sunday newspapers. First he bought Il Progresso Italo-Americano (founded in 1880, circulation: 100,000), biggest in the land. The year after he purchased Bollettino Delia Sera (circulation: 35,000). Last week he acquired another one — Carrier e d ‘America (circulation: 60,000). Corriere and II Progresso have Sunday editions. Still in dependent is // Nuovo Mundo, Labor and anti-Fascist organ (circulation: 32,000). Publisher Pope’s reasons for his purchases: ”To hold together the Italian colony in the United States. … To prevent out side interests getting hold of these mediums . . . possibly to cause dissension later.” With his near-monopoly, Generoso Pope, sandman, contractor, publisher, is indeed a man to be reckoned with in the politics and contracts of New York City. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6747785/the-press-sandman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6747785/the-press-sandman/"},"headline":"The Press: Sandman","datePublished":"1931-09-14T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-28T13:49:13.138Z","description":"Twenty-seven years ago, aged 12, Generoso Pope had a job in Manhattan painting pianos at $3 a week. He had come to the land of opportunity from Italy. Twenty years later successful Mr. Pope owned...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6747785/the-press-sandman/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6747785/the-press-sandman/","name":"The Press: Sandman"}}]}] ```