The Press: Editor Out

St. Louis newspapermen looked knowing last week as they read the official announcement that the Star-Times’s Managing Editor Frank W. Taylor was quitting after 32 years “to take a well-earned rest.” They knew that big (6 ft. 3), bellowing, brilliant, 53-year-old Editor Taylor, rated one of the ablest editors in the U.S., was getting out because he and Publisher Elzey Roberts had agreed to disagree.

St. Louis newsmen agreed that the Star-Times would not soon see Taylor’s like again. He had built the Star-Times from the anemic 30,000 circulation of the old Star to its present 167,400, made it a lusty rival of the powerful Post-Dispatch, and in doing so had become a newspaper legend. Managing editor since 1914, he made his reputation in the early ’20s, when he exposed the notorious Hogan gang, the Egan Rats, the bloody Italian gang called the Green Ones.

His technique in reporter-training was “Get ’em young and work hell out of ’em.” His main difficulty was keeping reporters, on the budget that Publisher Roberts allowed him. He had no sooner got reporters trained than they were hired away for a few dollars more by the Post-Dispatch. He made reporters out of copy boys, sometimes had to send out kids to compete against the Post-Dispatch’s crack reporters. To one reporter he yelled: “Shut up, or I’ll throw you out the window.” But he liked those who stood up to him, reneged on firing a reporter who pounded his desk, yelled as loudly as Editor Taylor.

When the Newspaper Guild came along, Editor Taylor was called a ruthless exploiter. But even Guildsmen had to admit that Editor Taylor had created at the Star-Times one of the best training schools for reporters in the country.

In 1925 he turned down a Scripps-Howard offer of $25,000 a year, and in the mid-’30s turned down a Hearst offer of $700 a week. Publisher Elzey Roberts would not match such salaries, but he gave Taylor Star-Times stock, which he has lately bought back at Taylor’s stiff figure. With this nest egg and savings from his $19,500 salary, Editor Taylor can probably take it easy from now on. But he has no intention of retiring for good. “This is a little journey into the woods to see if I can recapture the art of loafing a bit. When the ants begin to get back in the pants, we’ll see what happens.”

When Editor Taylor’s retirement was announced, his bitter rival, Editor Ben Reese of the Post-Dispatch, was the first to telephone his congratulations on a magnificent record. He concluded: “I can’t say that I’m sorry to see you quit, however. So far as the Post-Dispatch is concerned you’ve been Public Enemy No. 1.”