The Press: Iowa Formula

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When Cowles parties threaten to be dulled by stuffy guests. John, who drinks pleasantly, sometimes produces a large, fiat bowl, places it on the hardwood floor. The unbending guest is persuaded to sit in the bowl, which is then spun for a record number of turns. By the time the guest has won the contest or fallen over from dizziness, the party is considerably enlivened. John Cowles plays bridge everywhere except in Des Moines. where he has not the time to become involved in many local festivities.

The John Cowleses have three children. Daughter Morley, 10. Sally, 8, John. 6.

Gardner Jr., 33. followed his brother four years later to Exeter and Harvard where he was president of the Crimson and where his good friend was his cousin Corliss Lamont. Red son of the Morgan partner. Slow-spoken, deliberate, "Mike" Cowles is called executive editor. From his office on the balcony of the second floor he watches over the news rooms, keeps elbow to elbow with the associate editor and managing editor on either side. He cooks up many a smart feature, directs the three radio stations, which last year netted a profit of about $20,000. Breezier, more imaginative than Brother John, Gardner Jr. is not so invariably right. However, the only office wager he is known to have lost was $1 each to five employes whom he bet that Kansas City was bigger than St. Louis.

Once an enthusiastic airplane pilot. Mike let his license lapse for want of flying time. He introduced squash racquets to Des Moines, helped build the first courts, became one of the town's best players, twice city champion. Popular Mike Cowles's second wife is pretty Lois Thornburg, who was his pupil in a University of Iowa journalism class, later a crack newshawk on his staff. They have a one-year-old daughter. Just before Citizen Hoover arrived to spend the weekend, Gardner Jr. managed to have his hair cut—a necessity which both he and John regularly put off as long as possible.

Conferences. No accident is the Register & Tribune's dominance of Iowa. Besides his perseverance and his insistent emphasis on circulation, "G. C." had the wisdom to hire the best men available, pay them well, and above all, get them to work together. No Register & Tribune editor may look down his nose at a circulation hustler. No mechanical superintendent may harbor a secret contempt for a white-collar advertising manager. The Cowles method: Conferences. Register & Tribune conferences are serious business. Every Monday there is a conference of all departments, at which any man can—and is expected to—speak his mind on any subject, criticize anyone from old "G. C." down.* Fridays at lunch the "planning committee" meets to plot promotion stunts and civic campaigns.

In on the Monday conference sit the owners and such key men as:

Editor Harvey Ingham, now 76, snow-thatched and paunchy, still pegs out a daily editorial column, makes speeches, is supposed to know more Iowans than any other man alive.