Houston Chronicle Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===1926β1956: Jesse H. Jones era=== In 1926, [[Jesse H. Jones]] became the sole owner of the paper. He had approached Foster about selling, and Foster had answered, "What will you give me?" Jones described the buyout of Foster as follows: {{blockquote|text=Wanting to be liberal with Foster if I bought him out, since he had created the paper and originally owned most of the stock, and had made a success of it, I thought for a while before answering and finally asked him how much he owed. He replied, "On real estate and everything about 200,000 dollars." I then said to him that I would give him 300,000 dollars in cash, having in mind that this would pay his debts and give him 100,000 spending money. In addition, I would give him a note for 500,000 secured by a mortgage on the Chronicle Building, the note to be payable (interest and principal) at the rate of 35,000 a year for thirty-five years, which I figured was about his expectancy. I would also pay him 20,000 dollars a year as editor of the paper and 6,000 dollars a year to continue writing the daily front-page column, "MEFO", on the condition that either of us could cancel the editorship and/or the MEFO-column contracts on six months' notice, and that, if I canceled both the column and the editorship, I would give him an additional 6,000 dollars a year for life. I considered the offer substantially more than the ''Chronicle'' was worth at the time. No sooner had I finished stating my proposition than he said, "I will take it", and the transaction was completed accordingly.|sign=|source=pp. 121β122 of ''Jesse H. Jones: The Man and the Statesman'' by [[Bascom N. Timmons]], copyright 1956 Henry Holt and Company}} In 1937, Jesse H. Jones transferred ownership of the paper to the newly established [[Houston Endowment Inc.]] Jones retained the title of publisher until his death in 1956. According to the ''[[Handbook of Texas]]'' online, the ''Chronicle'' generally represented very conservative political views during the 1950s: <blockquote>... the ''Chronicle'' generally represented the very conservative political interests of the Houston business establishment. As such, it eschewed controversial political topics, such as integration or the impacts of rapid economic growth on life in the city. It did not perform investigative journalism. This resulted in a stodgy newspaper that failed to capture the interests of newcomers to the city. By 1959, circulation of the rival ''Houston Post'' had pulled ahead of the ''Chronicle''.<ref name="tsha"/></blockquote> Jones, a lifelong [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] who organized the [[Democratic National Convention]] to be in Houston in 1928, and who spent long years in public service first under the [[Wilson administration]], helping to found the Red Cross during World War I, and later famously under the Roosevelt administration, described the paper's mission in these terms: <blockquote>I regard the publication of a newspaper as a distinct public trust, and one not to be treated lightly or abused for selfish purposes or to gratify selfish whims. A great daily newspaper can remain a power for good only so long as it is uninfluenced by unworthy motives, and unbought by the desire for gain. A newspaper which can be neither bought nor bullied is the greatest asset of a city or state. Naturally, a newspaper makes mistakes in judgment, as it does in type; but, so long as errors are honestly made, they are not serious when general results are considered. The success or failure of a particular issue is of little consequence compared with the all-important principle of a fearless and honest newspaper. This I intend the ''Chronicle'' shall always be, a newspaper for all the people, democratic in fact and in principle, standing for the greatest good to the greatest number, championing and defending what it believes to be right, and condemning and opposing what it believes to be wrong. Such have always been the policies of the ''Chronicle'' and to such it is now rededicated."<ref>Jesse H. Jones, ''The Man and the Statesman'', pp. 122β123</ref></blockquote> Under Jones' watch, the ''Chronicle'' bought [[KTRH]], one of Houston's oldest radio stations, in 1937. In 1954, Jones led a syndicate that signed on Houston's third television station, [[KTRK-TV]]. 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