Editors: Gadfly with a Sting

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All Joseph A. Maloney wanted when he retired at 52 to Apalachicola, Fla., was a little fishing and the easy life. That was understandable. He had led anything but a peaceful existence as a crusading Indiana newspaper reporter and publisher, a U.S. intelligence agent just after World War II, and as a correspondent for the New York Daily News. Yet, when he tried to settle down to the relaxed life of a pensioner, the drab, rundown condition of Apalachicola set his hackles rising. The little Gulf town "was so depressed," he recalls, "that the only way it could go was up." What was holding it down, he decided, was the $900 million Alfred I. du Pont estate that dominates the six-county area around Apalachicola on the Florida panhandle.

In the 1920s, Alfred I. du Pont broke away from the rest of his Delaware-based family and moved to Florida, where he used his money to start several banks. After his death in 1935, the trustees expanded his holdings, until today the Du Pont estate includes a string of utilities and industries, plus 1,000,000 choice acres of pine forest. Overseeing this domain was Du Font's brother-in-law, Edward Ball, 77, one of the most powerful men in the state. Maloney was unawed, and craved action. In 1959, he bought a weekly, the Apalachicola Times, to prod the Du Pont interests.

Delinquent Taxes. By keeping so many acres tied up in timber, Maloney said, Du Pont was shutting out new industry and preventing the development of beach front that could attract much-needed tourist dollars. Beyond that, he insisted, the Du Pont interests were not paying their fair share of taxes. While Du Pont land was assessed at $20 an acre, adjacent non-Du Pont land was assessed at $100 an acre. When Maloney revealed that the Du Pont-owned St. Joe Paper Co. held assets that were undervalued by $90 million, the embarrassed company was forced to pay $153,317 in back taxes.

From time to time, other Florida newspapers had criticized Ed Ball and the Du Pont estate, but none so persistently as the Apalachicola Times. Even as a weekly with a circulation of only 2,100, the gadfly stung, and Du Pont tried to swat it. Roy Gibson, vice president of Du Pont's St. Joseph Telephone & Telegraph Co., charged in a public speech that Maloney was pursuing an "unprogressive anti-business policy" in his paper. Maloney replied with a $200,000 libel suit. Arguing that his paper had constantly urged new business for Apalachicola, he testified that he had gone to Washington on his own initiative to persuade the Area Redevelopment Administration to designate Apalachicola a "depressed area." As a result, the town received federal funds to help build a $120,000 water tank and a $1,250,000 seafood-processing plant. Maloney was awarded libel damages of $15,000. "People around here used to make the sign of the cross at the mere mention of Ed Ball's name," crowed Maloney. "At least I convinced 'em that the baron isn't invincible."