stefansson-wrangel-09-28-031

131

It goes without saying that I should not have put
Mr. Noice in charge of the Wrangell supply ship of 1923 had I known
his mental attitude on these and several other subjects. Ignorant of it So I gave
by cable the necessary orders to pay his New York bills and have him
start. Sailings from Seattle to Nome are few and the one he had to
catch was scheduled in a week. He, therefore, left New York on only
a few hours' notice for Toronto.

Mr. Taylor had been trying to raise money in Canada
but had not been very successful. It now occurred to him that part
of the expense of the trip to Wrangell Island could perhaps be paid
by making an arrangement with a syndicate of newspapers to furnish
them an exclusive story covering the voyage of the supply ship under
command of Mr. Noice from Nome to Wrangell Island and back to Nome.
The story of what had happened in Wrangell Island could not be
offered for sale without contingent clauses, for we could not say
in advance whether for personal or policy reasons we might desire to
withhold it temporarily.* It was also understood that the men in
Wrangell had personal rights as well as those rights which belonged
to our company and that a story depending on their records or told
by them could not be sold by us until there had been a conference.

Mr. Taylor now discussed with Mr. Noice his formulat-
ing and sending out upon every opportunity stories about his progress
from Nome towards Wrangell, and also on his return to Nome a cable
story summarizing the voyage but not including any account of what
had happened on the island to the party who were there. The con-
clusion arrived at was that the plan was both feasible and desirable.
To make everything secure legally, Mr. Taylor obtained from Mr.
Noice authority to bind him to a newspaper agreement not only as
our employee but also in so far as his personal rights to the story
were concerned, if there were such personal rights in law.

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* For the full text of the contract with the North American Newspaper Alliance, see Appendix, post.