The tall handsome man standing in the center of the first row of a century-old photo of members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association is identified as Wm. C. Sproul Chester Times. This photograph is framed and mounted on the wall of the venerable newsroom in the State Capitol.

William Sproul was governor of Pennsylvania when the photograph was taken in 1919.

Sproul’s presence with the news reporters covering the Capitol says a lot about the intersection of politics and journalism in those days. The lines were blurred especially for newspaper editors and publishers who ran for public office. Standing next to the governor in the photo is Hiram G. Andrews of the Philadelphia North American who later became Speaker of the House.

“William Cameron Sproul, a newspaper man by training and instinct, was inaugurated in January 1919….” wrote E.J. Stackpole in his memoir “Behind The Scenes With A Newspaper Man.”

“Always a newspaperman, the Governor recognized the value of cooperation with the press,’’ wrote Stackpole. “He early foresaw how helpful the press was certain to be in the working out of his administration policies.”

Sproul of Chester County came from a wealthy family. He was in many lines of business and became a millionaire. But his first love was newspapers. He was a Chester correspondent for the Philadelphia Press at age 15 and then a reporter at the Chester Daily Times. He bought a half interest in the Chester Times and became an editor and publisher.

He also ventured into politics. At age 26 in 1896, Sproul was elected to the state Senate as a Republican and served in that chamber until his election as governor in 1918.

Sproul’s dual track wasn’t that unusual during a time when a newspaper was often identified with a political party. In an era where numerous dailies would compete for the readers’ attention in a major city, this was one way to carve out a market niche. In the 1919 PLCA photo, seven Philly newspapers are represented. Only the Inquirer survives.

Stackpole’s own career is a case in point. He spent 50 years in the newspaper business.

Stackpole exerted his greatest influence as owner and publisher of the Harrisburg Telegraph starting in 1901. He was also appointed postmaster of Harrisburg, a delegate to Republican national conventions and confidante of Sen. Boies Penrose, the GOP political boss whose statue is at the south end of the Capitol grounds.
“Senator Penrose clearly understood the personal distinction between representatives of the press and the policies of their employers,” wrote Stackpole of his association with Penrose. “All he expected was a fair deal and truthful statements regarding his course. He never held the correspondent to account for editorial comment at the receiving end of the line.”

So how did Sproul end up in the PLCA photo?

The PLCA had a policy into the 1920s of making the governor an honorary member. Sproul’s successor, Gov. Gifford Pinchot is pictured in the 1923 PLCA photo, but he is identified as the governor.

Sproul is remembered for creating the state highways system. Sproul State Forest is named for him, appropriately so since he named the conservation hero Pinchot as state forester and launched an initiative to plant one tree for each WWI casualty in Pennsylvania.

And oh yes, Sproul turned down an offer to be Warren Harding’s running mate in the 1920 presidential election. That would have meant a two-newsman ticket if it had come about. Harding was the longtime publisher of the Marion, Ohio Star as well as a U.S. Senator. The veep nod went instead to Calvin Coolidge who became president when Harding died in 1923. — Robert Swift

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