Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-16
TIMES OWNER Fits
Lord NorthcIiffe Back to New
York This Morning.
LUNCHES WITH PRESIDENT
May Be in America to Buy News
paper Here.
CABLE SYNDICATE, PERHAPS
English Newspaperman, Adopting
American Ways, Has Made
British Readers Notice.
CABLE SYNDICATE, PERHAPS

/ Lord Northcliffe owner o. six neWSpa-
| pers and many periodicals. dropped into
| Washington Wednesday and dropped out
again yesterday.
| He was accompanied by Lady North
cliffe. his wife; Mrs. Harmsworth. his
| mother. and Mrs. Douglas Pennant. all
OF London They had luncheon with the
President at the White House and went
to New York by an early train.
! Lord Northcliffe is In America partly
! on business and partly on pleasure He
Is the principal owner now of the London
| Times. It was rumored-but Lord North
| cliffe did not confirm it-that he is nego-
tiating for the purchase outright of pa
per in this country or going to make
cable syndicate connection here similar to
that attempted by the London Standard
about two years ago.
He owns six newspapers in England.
beside forty-five periodicals. Much of his
success has been due to reducing ex-
| penses by serving large number of pa
| pers from the same source.
American Connection of Value.
1t has been his ambition for years to
| own a chain Of newspapers in England
that should be mutually Independent of
any other news service. An American
connection would help in this general
| scheme.
Lord Northcliffe is a typical English
! man in appearance and perceptibly IN
speech. In accomplishment, from news
| paper point of view. he is much more OF
| an American.
| He is better known to most Americans
as Alfred Harmsworth, the founder OF
the London Daily Mail. 1t was through
\, tic 1lnof tor, hot hA i1frO
| can newspaper ideas In England. The
paper was the basis Of his newspaper
| success.
Instead of big magazine sheets, such as
| England had been accustomed to. he
made the Mail an eight page paper. He
kept it at that in spite of all the de-
mands Of advertisers.
When 1t was discovered he had bought
| the Times-there Is but one Times in the
world to Englishmen-it seemed to the
| British empire almost as profane pro-
ceeding as though some one had en-
ployed variety actress to write pref
He has not done anything radical with
the Times yet. But the fear OF the
British public is not allayed.
| Mr.. Harmsworth's first incursion into
the publishing business was when he and
his brother bought a little weekly maya
zine called Answers. sort of cheap
edition Of Notes and Queries" and made
1t one of the most widely read publications
in England. They bought more periodi-
| calls and made more money.
Then Harmsworth founded the Daily
Mail. This was where he was expected
| by friends and enemies to go broke. But
he fooled everybody.
| He printed what he called "a tabold
newspaper" All essential news was in
it. but everything was cut to the bone.
1t was he who made the famous speech
to his staff, often quoted since:
| THE history of the creation is told in
Genesis in 500 words. And there have
| been mighty few stories since that have
been worth more space"
But the Mall was lawfully yellow.
dontcherknow.'' Its disregard of pre-
cedent shocked tradition-revering readers.
| Boar War "Beat."
| People affected not to believe lot of its
news. But time and again its long shots
came true.
This was notably the case at the close
Of the South African war. Then the Mail
made parliament and the public rub its
| eyes by printing from day to day the
proceedings of the Vereningen conference
which brought the Boer war to a close.
! It was the greatest newspaper beat
| since DeBlowitz scooped the Berlin con-
| ference and. incidentally, the rest of the
world on the publication of the Berlin
treaty. 1t was engineered by Edgar Wal
lace. the Nails war correspondent.
| South Africa at that time was bottled
| up and the cork driven In for news pur-
poses. The proceedings Of the confer
ence between Lord Kitchener and the
Boer leaders were guarded with utmost
secrecy.
England had just won out in long,
expensive disastrous and inglorious war.
| There was serious question whether
| the Beers were ready to accept terms.
| The government knew the terms wouldd
have to be made liberal, and that there
| 49, ,aY,11 vols ~ CT
| In the papers at home.
SO the continent of Africa was isolated
for news purposes. Not word was al
lowed to be sent to any paper There
another at Alden. the only two cable
points that could be reached by the cor
respondents. Every press dispatch was
stopped.
daily the proceedings of the conference
| without even a date line. and was the
| only paper in England that pretended to
have the slightest inkling Of the facts.
Government Suspected Leak.
The government suspected a leak in the
war office. Frantic efforts wero made to
| catch the betrayer Of confidence.
| The government knew the reports were
| substantially accurate The general pub
! He discredited them because they were
printed in the Mail and because it was so
manifestly absurd to suppose that an
English paper could get facts that the
government chose to suppress.
But when the settlement was ultimately
made public. as 1t had to be in the end
II was found that the Mail had been
right in every particular. Then 1t came
| out as to how 1t happened.
| Wallace through friend who was min
| ing engineer In Johannesburg. had been
sending daily cables to London to firm
| OF mining brokers about the negotiations
for the sale of a wholly mythical mine.
These cables were turned over to- the
Daily Mall.
BY substituting in the cables the word
| Beers for ''Venders" and the word
| British for purchasers. the messages
were as plain print to one who was
t on the inside 1t was a great beat and
ono that made Harmsworth and the Mail
talked about all over Great Britain
] That is the young man-for he is still
| young-who was d characteristic and well
come guest at the White House yester-
day. Nobody need be at all surprised IL
he breaks into the newspaper field on this
| side of the Atlantic.