One of the biggest challenges Hakumon Herald faced upon its inauguration in 1956 was how to squeeze finances to pay for printing and other necessary expenses. Editorially, club members managed to get the ball rolling in a couple of years, bringing the number of publications to six to eight a year. However, this inevitably inflated the printing expenses close to 200,000 yen per year, which translates into roughly 4 million yen in terms of today’s commodity prices. In those days, the publication was a part of the English Speaking Society’s activities. This meant all expenses necessary for news coverage, editing and printing were supposed to be financed by the ESS. But its annual budget allocated by the school authorities was too small to foot all those bills. Most members had no choice but to pay their way when they went out to cover news events or canvass for ad sales.

 

Takeshi Terauchi, who served as editor-in-chief in later years, nostalgically recalled the financial plight the campus paper had in his days. I interviewed him in a hotel near his house in Ishioka, Ibaraki Prefecture, about a month before his town was jolted by the great earthquake in March 2011. He told me, “My father ran a liquor shop while I was boarding in Tokyo as a Chuo student. Each time I returned home, I brought back a bottle of sake as a gift to the accountant at Tokyo News where we printed our paper. You know why? Becausewe had owed them by then something like 200,000 yen.”

 

A breakthrough came in the autumn of 1958, two years after the launch of the newspaper. Susumu Hiyama, then editor-in-chief, hit upon an idea of meeting in person with Chuo University President Kinsho Katayama, an authority of civil code, to lobby for financial aid. Prof. Katayama was concurrently Chairman of the Alumni Association (Gakuyukai) that allocated the annual budgets for the ESS and other student clubs. Hiyama conspired with his colleagues on the idea and arranged a “wining and dining” session for the president and some Gakuyukai executives. A Japanese-style tavern run in Tokyo’s posh Ginza by the mother of a younger Hakumon Herald member was chosen for the occasion.

 

Hiyama and his colleagues started the dinner with their impassionate appeal. “We all know that Chuo students are not very good at English, a language that is all important as we greet an era of internationalization. Hakumon Herald is dedicated to the cause of promoting world peace through closer international exchanges.” Prof. Katayama commented in reply, “That’s the right thing you students should do.” With the help of alcohol, the student hosts followed it up, telling the president at length of their difficulties even clearing the printing fees in arrears. As the dinner came to a close, the president told them, “All right, your hardships are clear to me. I’ll bring the matter to Gakuyukai people.” Their lobbying proved a success. The bond forged at the party helped to persuade the professor to serve as adviser to Hakumon Herald from 1964 till his retirement in 1966.

 

When Terauchi assumed the post of editor-in-chief in the autumn of 1959, he invited the secretary general of Gakuyukai to a tavern near the Surugadai campus in Ochanomizu. According to Terauchi, he had the impression that the secretary general was acting apparently under the president’s personal instructions. He pledged that Hakumon Herald would get 30,000 yen in subsidy each time it published an edition. Terauchi promised to see the paper published at least eight times a year. In retrospect, he said the school subsidy made things much easier and paved the way for Hakumon Herald’s independence from the ESS in the 1963 academic year.

 

Toshimasa Shimizu, Yukio Suzuki, Kuniaki Onishi and Kenji Nakadate, who took over from Terauchi, held fast to the commitment to issue eight editions a year throughout their tenures from April 1960 to January 1964. (The writer graduated in 1970)

 

 

 

学長接待作戦で成功した予算獲得

―草創期のヘラルドの財政事情―

安尾 芳典

白門ヘラルド創刊当初、最も苦労したことの1つが印刷費などの予算確保だ った。1956年の創刊から2、3年たつと、発行回数は年6―8回に増え、 順調に軌道に乗ってきたが、印刷費は膨れ上がり、年間で20万円近くにまで 上った。現在の物価水準でいえば400万円ほどに相当する。当時ヘラルドは 英語学会(ESS)の傘下にあり、取材、編集、印刷にかかわる費用はESS の予算から出ていたが、微々たるもので、取材費などはないも同然。ほとんど が部員の個人負担だった。

 

後に編集長を務めた寺内毅は、当時の財政的苦境を懐かしそうに述懐する。 「私は茨城県出身で、親父が酒屋を経営していました。帰省のたびに酒瓶を持 ちかえり、印刷先の東京ニュース社の担当者に届けました。すでに印刷代が2 0万円ほど溜まっていたからです。」

 

創刊から2年たった58年秋のことだった。当時の編集長だった飛山将は、 印刷費を独自に確保するため、民法の大家である中大の片山金章学長に直接会 い、説得しようと考えたのである。学長はESSはじめ各サークルへの予算配 分権限を持つ学友会の会長も兼任していたからだ。そこで飛山がとった行動は、 片山学長を食事に招き、予算獲得を訴える「接待作戦」。接待先は部員の母親が 経営していた銀座の小料理屋だった。「中央大学は英語が弱い。これからは国際化の時代で、英語が大事だ。国際 交流を図り、世界平和に尽くしたい」。飛山らが必死に訴えると、学長は「それ はいいことだ」と賛同。さらに飛山らが「新聞の印刷代に苦労している」と苦 境を訴えると、「分かった。学友会に話をつけておこう」と応じてくれたのである。自腹を切っての接待は功を奏した。この縁もあって片山学長は64年から 66年までの間、白門ヘラルドのアドバイザーを務めてくれるようになった。

接待作戦の翌59年秋、編集長になった寺内は学友会事務局長をお茶の水の 居酒屋に招いた。寺内によると、すでに片山から指示があったのか、事務局長 は新聞の発行1回ごとに3万円を補助する旨確約してくれたのである。このこ とは新聞発行を一層円滑にし、後に白門ヘラルドがESSから独立する足掛かりともなった。

 

寺内から編集長役を引き継いだ清水利政、鈴木幸雄、大西邦彰、中楯健二は 任期中(60年4月から64年1月まで)、学友会との年8回発行の約束を守り 続けた。(文中敬称略。昭和45年卒)