stefansson-wrangel-09-14-134-001

C O P Y

New York, Sept. 10, 1923.

A. J. Taylor, Esq.,
Bank of Hamilton Bldg.,
Toronto, Ont.

My dear Taylor:

Many thanks for your letter of Sept. 7. I presumed
when I did not hear from you earlier that you were away from town.

This morning I received a cable from Stefansson in
which he asks me to close no deal with the North American Newspaper
Alliance or anyone else until I have consulted with Miss Marbury or
someone suggested by Fannie Hurst. He said that he was desirous of
getting the greatest amount of money for the boys' relatives. He also
asked me to pass this on to you and Noice.

Of course I have no intention of closing anything with-
out authority from you or Stefansson and furthermore I cannot do any-
thing until we hear what Noice has.

Between ourselves Pickering is pretty sore at the
way he has been treated. You can understand that as a newspaper man he
hated to have the A.P. beat him out by several days on his own story.
It is hard for him to explain to his member papers. He sold the story
in England and Australia and here, too, he was beaten out. Of course
he got out the first comparatively complete story but the gist of it
had been published ahead of him.

He has cabled repeatedly for further details but
Noice has been singularly dumb. This may be due to his having re-
ceived instructions from V. S. not to spoit Crawford's story, and if so
I think it was a mistake.

In my opinion the North American Newspaper Alliance
would have paid more for the story than anyone else and they should have
had it while it was still hot. I would not blame them at all if they
were to recede from the price which they felt at one time they could pay.

They do not want to get the story for nothing, but natur-
ally they do not wish to have the story which they did everything they
could to buy hawked about in London and New York before it is made avail-
able for them.

However, it is none of my affair. I am trying to do what
ti think will prove to be in the best interests of you all in the long run.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) D. M. LeBourdais.