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Josiah W. Gitt

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Josiah William Gitt (March 28, 1884 – October 7, 1973) was an American newspaper editor known for editing The York Gazette and Daily.

Biography

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Gitt was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, the son of Clinton Jacob Gitt and Emma Koplin.[1] His maternal grandmother, Harriet Custer, was a cousin of George Armstrong Custer.[2] Gitt graduated from Franklin & Marshall College and then studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.[3] Around 1917, Gitt purchased the Gazette and Daily after its former owners declared bankruptcy.[4] Gitt was a Pennsylvania delegate to the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, casting the state's sole vote for Samuel Huston Thompson.[5] In 1944, he ran as the Democratic candidate for Congress from York County.[6] He lost the election to Chester H. Gross.[7]

Gitt served as the Pennsylvania state chairman of the Progressive Party in 1948, turning the Gazette into the only daily newspaper in Pennsylvania to support Henry Wallace.[8] Gitt was one of the three references in 1948 on Wallace's Standard Form 57, his application to work as a federal employee.[9] Under his editorship, the newspaper was likely "the only daily paper in the United States that consistently opposed postwar American foreign policy."[10] It also published articles by progressive and leftist writers such as Howard Fast, who were rejected by more mainstream papers.[11] Nevertheless, Gitt rejected accusations that he was a Communist or radical, telling an interviewer "I believe in progressive capitalism. I am not a materialist and in no sense am I a Marxist."[12] Gitt and Louis Adamic warned Henry Wallace that they thought the Communist Party was attempting to embarrass the Party's non-Communist supporters into abandoning it, allowing the Communists to control the organization.[13]

Gitt continued his paper's support of liberal causes after the defeat of Henry Wallace in 1948. In 1961 he was one of 400 names on an advertisement in the New York Times, calling for the abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee.[14] He also refused to accept advertising or editorials in support of Barry Goldwater during the 1964 election.[15] He sold the Gazette in 1970 and its new owners changed the name to the York Daily Record.[16] This followed several years of declining readership and a failed attempt by Gitt to implement a 10% pay cut for the newspaper's employees that led to a strike by the International Typographical Union Local.[15]

References

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  1. ^ Hamilton, Mary Allienne (2007). Rising from the Wilderness: J.W. Gitt and His Legendary Newspaper : the Gazette and Daily of York, Pa. York County Heritage Trust. p. 3. ISBN 9780979291517.
  2. ^ "Plaque to General Custer Dedicated at Hanover". The Gazette and Daily. July 28, 1948. p. 8.
  3. ^ "York Gazette Publisher's Service Private". The Daily Mail. October 8, 1973. p. 24.
  4. ^ "Gazette with an Ayer". Newsweek. April 12, 1948. p. 58.
  5. ^ "Pennsylvania Votes 70 1-2 For Smith in Houston Balloting". New Castle News. June 29, 1928. p. 18.
  6. ^ "Ballots Ready". Gettysburg Times. April 10, 1944. p. 2.
  7. ^ "Chambersburg: County Remains in GOP Column". Harrisburg Telepgraph. November 9, 1944. p. 23.
  8. ^ McDaniel, Charles-Gene. "Daily, Founded in 1795, Thrives on Liberalism". The Quill. 44 (3): 12.
  9. ^ ""Form 57" Tells Full Life Story, Philosophy of Henry Wallace". Clovis News-Journal. July 25, 1948. p. 8.
  10. ^ Walton, Richard J. (1976). Henry Wallace, Harry Truman, and the Cold War. The Viking Press. p. 149.
  11. ^ Jenkins, Philip (1999). The Cold War at home : the Red Scare in Pennsylvania, 1945-1960. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 38.
  12. ^ Hodge, Carle (October 9, 1948). "Gitt Ignores 'Radical' Label, Backs Wallace". Editor & Publisher. p. 7.
  13. ^ Shannon, David A. (1959). The Decline of American Communism: A History of the Communist Party of the United States since 1945. New York: Harcourt and Brace. p. 177.
  14. ^ "House Committee Opposed". Oakland Tribune. February 9, 1961. p. 4.
  15. ^ a b "Different Stories Behind Two Newspapers' Troubles". Daily Independent Journal. December 30, 1970. p. 16.
  16. ^ "Other Deaths: Josiah Gitt". The Mercury. October 8, 1973. p. 35.
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