The Press: McCormick’s Surprise

Abeam with good humor, the Chicago Tribune’s baronial Colonel Robert McCormick last week let his 3,000 employes in on a happy secret.

At a banquet for the advertising department he took a swipe at Marshall Field’s Sun and at the Tribune’s critics (“People-may question our being the world’s greatest newspaper. I cannot find they ever suggest any other candidate.”). Then he announced that when he dies employes will be permitted to buy his shares (only ten) of Tribune Co. stock and he hoped that eventually they might be permitted to buy a majority of the company’s 2,000 shares of stock (estimated value: $25,000 to $40,000 a share).