Heiskell continued to serve as editor of the
Gazette, and produced editorials on a wide variety of issues. He advocated for city planning and for the commission form of municipal government. He opposed the Little Rock School Board's decision to drop German language classes during World War I, and opposed anti-Semitism, though he favored limits on immigration so that recent arrivals could be more easily assimilated. His was also a supporter of Prohibition and women's suffrage, while continuing to advocate for traditional cultural morality. On the issue of race relations, Heskiell's editorials supported segregation with the argument that "separate but equal" was legal and would cause the least conflict. Despite this paternalistic attitude, Heskiell was also an opponent of lynching and called for a grand jury investigation into the Little Rock mob violence that led to John Carter's lynching in 1927. As an avid student of Arkansas history and collector mementos and ephemera, Heskiell created an archive and library which was stored at the Gazette offices, and the Gazette was believed to be the country's only newspaper that employed a full-time staff historian. In 1947, Heskiell selected
Harry S. Ashmore to succeed him as executive editor, though Heskiell continued as editor and maintained an active interest in the Gazette's management. When the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School became a contentious issue, Heiskell supported Ashmore's advocacy for obedience to the federal courts. Ashmore's editorials and the Gazette's news coverage of the events surrounding the school's desegregation resulted in the award of two
Pulitzer Prizes. ==Death and burial==