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Neylan v. Noyes. Shrewdly Mr. Neylan hitched his Wirephoto attack to a demand that the AP directorate of 15 be altered to include small-city publishers who comprise 80% of the membership. Deftly he planted the idea that adoption of Wirephoto by the AP directorate indicated that the small towner was AP's forgotten man. That was enough to jolt the AP into action. Within a week AP President Frank Brett Noyes, venerable publisher of the rich & routine Washington Evening Star, wrote his 1,340 members: "It would be impossible to plan a procedure that would more effectively scuttle the Associated Press than the proposals advanced by Mr. Neylan." The battle for proxies went on until last week, when it moved onto the floor of the incongruously elegant Starlight Roof of Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria. His big frame draped over a front-row chair whence he could easily address barbed asides to President Noyes on the platform. Lawyer Neylan let a potent "lit tle fellow" open his attack for a five-point program. The little fellow was youthful J. Noel Macy, publisher of New York's Westchester County papers.
Resolution No. 1: Let the AP maintain its picture-mat service to small papers at the same standard of efficiency as in the past, and at no greater cost than in pre-Wirephoto days. Boldly Publisher Macy pounced on a sore toe by reviewing the AP's momentous blunders on the Hauptmann verdict, the Gold Clause decision and the Weirton case "while the executives' attention was diverted to Wire-photo." His main point for the resolution: His papers were required to pay 50% more for an expedited mat-service to keep from being scooped by metropolitan dailies invading his own territory with Wirephotos. Moreover, said he, the Wirephoto machines were bought with money ($432,000) that belonged to the whole AP —non-users of Wirephoto as well as users. Angrily to the defense rushed Publisher Joseph Ridder of the St. Paul Dispatch et al. Cried he: "An insult to the board of directors! . . . You get what you pay for m this world, and now we are asked to vote that forever after the AP may never improve its mat-service if it should cost more."
Vote: Overwhelming "NO."
Resolution No, 2: Let the AP undertake no activity that does not serve the entire membership. Up spoke John D. Ewing, publisher of the Shreveport (La.) Times to complain that the Dallas News and Times-Herald "come into our field every day in the year with their damn Wirephotos—using our pictures!" Defense by President Noyes: "If we are to back to real mutuality, we go back to a pony wire service for all members, because some members can't afford anything better. ' Vote: Overwhelming "NO."
Resolution No. 3: Let the AP be protected against any liability arising out of ) Wirephoto. Big Jack Neylan rose on his long legs, began in an easy, booming drawl: