The Press: New Job for Mauldin

Just before he flew off to Europe on a combined holiday and art-buying tour, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., 49, publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (circ. 378,293) and grandson of its founder, tarried long enough to take a phone call from his editorial cartoonist, Bill Mauldin (TIME cover, July 21). Mauldin's message was brief: he was leaving the P-D (which was recently added to the official White House reading list, replacing the New York Herald, Tribune's for a better-paying job on Marshall Field Jr.'s Chicago Sun-Times (circ. 551,529). "Well," said Pulitzer levelly, after expressing polite regret, "maybe we'll buy the stuff."

Maybe Pulitzer will. In four years in St. Louis, Mauldin amply proved his right to succeed the P-D's famed, caustic Daniel R. Fitzpatrick, who retired in

1958. A professional whose genius ripened early and produced an indelible monument in the wartime characters of Willie and Joe, Bill Mauldin floundered aimlessly through the postwar years before rediscovering and refining his talent on the PD.

Mauldin is leaving mainly for money. His salary was $20,000, and he shared his syndication take with the paper. Mauldin's slice: 25% of the net, or about $10,000 a year. On the Sun-Times he will get $25,000 and all the syndication royalties, which might go to $25,000 a year, since the Sun-Times plans to boost his papers from 80 to 200.