Press: Journal from Hock

Though it traces its descent back almost 100 years to William (“Parson”) Brown-low’s famed Tennessee Whig, the Knoxville Journal has had a stormy career. A Republican sheet in Republican East Tennessee, the Journal had its politics spectacularly reversed overnight when swashbuckling Democratic Promoters Luke Lea & Rogers Clark (“Bank on the South”) Caldwell bought the paper in 1928. With the collapse of Caldwell’s Southern banking and publishing empire (TIME, Nov. 24, 1930), the Journal regained its Republican editorial policy, limped along under the jury-rig of a receivership, with able General Manager Robert H. Clagett keeping a tight grip on the helm. Last week when Roy N. Lotspeich, socialite president of Knoxville’s big Appalachian Mills Co., came forward with $450,000, for which New Orleans’ Canal Bank & Trust Co. turned over the paper’s controlling interest, it was evident that the venerable Journal had once more sailed into calm publishing waters.

Shrewd Knoxvillians guessed that new Publisher Lotspeich was not alone in getting the Journal out of hock. Back of him were supposed to be his fellow members in the potent Tennessee Manufacturers’ Association, who wish to insure the continuation of the Journal’s strong Republican slant.