The Press: After Ochs

Last week the New York Times formally established the two-year-old fact that Arthur Hays Sulzberger is publisher of the greatest newspaper in the land. Unobtrusively Mr. Sulzberger had been running the Times—to the degree that any one man will ever run it—throughout the lingering illness of his father-in-law, Adolph Simon Ochs. When the late Mr.

Ochs bequeathed the management of his estate to his only daughter, son-in-law, and nephew, it remained only for the Times directors to elevate Son-in-law Sulzberger to the vacant presidential chair.

Since Arthur Sulzberger is handsome, able, and of eminently fine character, last week’s event was practically predestined 17 years ago when Iphigene Ochs* said yes, she would marry him. He was 26 (a year older than Miss Ochs), and he wore the uniform of a second lieutenant when they were married in his native Manhattan. They had known each other since college days when he went to Columbia and she to nearby Barnard. Father Ochs smiled on the match, imposed only one stipulation: whoever became his son-in-law must also work on the Times. Willingly Arthur quit the silk business at which he had worked for his father, Cyrus L. Sulzberger. From his philanthropist father, Arthur had acquired a big urge for civic responsibility, and family pride in the fact that his great-great-grandfather was Lieut. Benjamin Mendes Seixas of the American Colonial Army.†.

Joining the Times in 1919, Arthur Sulzberger there found his wife’s cousin, Julius Ochs Adler, vice president & treasurer.

Cousin Julius had been valedictorian at Lawrenceville, vice president of his Princeton class (1914), a distinguished army officer in France. Back home with a D.S.C., Croix de Guerre, many a citation, he retained his title of colonel and a love for the military.

Privately as well as professionally Arthur Sulzberger was in many ways the ideal crown prince. Naturally as retiring as his Chief, he and his wife avoid public show, work hard for their numerous charities. They like to visit with their friends the Morgenthaus, the Marcossons, the Roger Strauses (American Smelting), or drive through Brooklyn’s back streets to find some dinky restaurant where the steaks are thick and juicy. Their social calendar includes two invariable annual events. One is the Once-a-Year Poker & Pretzel Club, for which Mr. Sulzberger & friends were obliged to journey to Washington this year because Secretary Morgenthau was too busy to come to Manhattan. The other is the New Year’s Eve party in the Sulzbergers’ rich mansion in East Eightieth Street near Central Park. From 2 a. m. on, guests drift in from earlier parties, gravitate to the huge, glistening kitchen to grill frankfurters, scramble eggs, bib champagne.

Only ostentation the Sulzbergers have permitted themselves is tucked safely away at the bottom of the earth. Explorers of Antarctica may follow the trail of grateful Admiral Byrd to Adolph Ochs Glacier, and from there survey the eminence of Mount Iphigene some 150 mi. from Arthur Sulzberger Bay. Even the four Sulzberger children, Marian, 16, Ruth Rachel, 14, Judith (“Judy”), 11, and Arthur (“Punch”), 9, were not forgotten. The first two letters of their names are immortalized in Mount Marujupu.

Aside from the fact that the routine succession of publisher’s title called for no fuss & fury in the Times offices. Arthur Hays Sulzberger would be the last man to kick up a fuss. He did not even move into his father-in-law’s vacant chair at council table, but retained his customary seat beside Editor Rollo Ogden. There, every noon, publisher, editors and managers meet for the day’s mulling of policy. Afterward the biggest wigs adjourn to the dining room upstairs, usually with a guest who may be a Cabinet officer, Brain Truster, diplomat. In the centre of the dining room ceiling is the design of a rose which Publisher Ochs liked to point out to assure his guest that whatever he said at table was strictly sub rosa.

At his desk, which he rarely quits before 7 p. m., Publisher Sulzberger is quietly brisk, occasionally pausing in his talk to reach for the automatic telephone, flip by memory one of the hundred-odd numbers in the Times private exchange. He reads all editorials in galley proof, sprays his staff with marked clippings, suggestions for stories and editorials.

If Arthur Sulzberger lacks the genius of Adolph Ochs, it is also true that he is less idolatrous of tradition, more receptive to suggestion and advice. It was he who saw the value of installing in the Times building the Pynson Printers, a small shop conducted by Elmer Adler (no kin), devoted to the finest craftsmanship. Since Mr. Sulzberger has been active head man, the Times has established a week-end news review, a daily book review of astonishingly free viewpoint. But no observer expects the Times to be changed fundamentally from the institution created by Adolph Ochs. Even if he could do it, Arthur Hays Sulzberger would not.

*Named Iphigenie for her mother, Iphigenia Wise Ochs, who has always been called Effie. Widow Effie is the daughter of the late Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of Reform Judaism in the U. S. He once wrote a novel based on Greek mythology in which Iphigenia (”Great Princess”) is a noble character.

†Another Seixas descendant: Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo.