Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-01-18
An Englishman's View.

An EnglishmaD's View.
no The Editor of the Evening star:
sir-May an Englishman Who is
spending a few months in this
country give your readers a slight
idea of some of the influences at
work in the forthcoming general
election. especially that exerted by
certain sections of the press?
From statements I have read IN
American papers, A. j. Baifour
swallowed the Northcliffe bait, n
in his opening speech in the cleo
toral campaign spoke his mind SO
freely on the subject of h Ter
man aggression as to once more en-
danger Great Britain with the ma
ton ruled by the Kaiser. Inc
gickedness of trying to pick a quar-
rel with a neighboring power III or
der to divert attention from some
of those social problems which press
so heavily upon my country, ana
which the government, put out OF
commission by the House of LORDS,
was making some real effort to
meet, shows to what a pass the
Conservative party has come. / am
glad to see that some of the fore
most Liberal speakers denounced
Balfour's conduct in thus foment-
ing i~ll-feeling between Great Britain
and Germany in emphatic language.
unfortunately it is just these spicy
bits of rhetoric that get cabled
over, and read, isolated and without
their context, do SO much to per-
petuate racial feuds, SO much to
make nations remain ignorant of
each other.
For a moment let us take stock of
Lord Northcliffe, erstwhile Alfred
Harmsworth. The party over which
Balfour ruled first made this smart
Journalist, whose chief aim to no.,
toriety is that he acclimated certain
types Of papers he found in the
United States in England. For his
advocacy of the Unionist aus
Harmsworth a first baroneted
Che probably subscribed freely to
party funds), and When Balfour
was losing the confidence of the
country he was not "kicked up
stairs" for he I've succeeded in
getting into Parliament, but created
a baron and chose Northcliffe as
his future name. His paper, the
Daily Mail, enjoys a large circula-
ton and brings him a princely in
come, but that it exercised little
real influence at the last election,
which put the Liberals in by an
enormous majority, is shown by
that event. 1t may be remarked
that in London the press is over
whelmingly on the side of the
Tories, but that did not avert the
crushing defeat in 1906.
Lord Northcliffe's paper was an
in-and-out supporter of Joe Cham
berlain and his wicked policy that
led to the Boer war. Indeed, it was
that war which gave the owner of
the Daily Mail his chance. He used
our struggle with the Beers for all
it was worth and succeeded in get
ting 1.-The largest circulation in the
world''-at least he says SO. / sup
pose there are now few a~pologists
for that var in South Africa. The
late Liberal government has done
it's best to heal the wounds left by
that war, fortunately with some
success. Northcliffe's paper is
taken largely by what you call here
Commuters" a class in England
which is always striving to be
thought better of socially than the
position it finds itself in gives it
the lower and middle-middle class.
England is suffering acutely from
economic conditions, the heritage of
the past, when the struggle for
existence was less strenuous than
it is now. Great changes, radical
changes. i necessary: hence the
loud cutlery on the part of those
who are asked to give up something
for the general welfare. So it comes
about that any stick is good enough
to beat the Radicals with.
FRED MILLAR.
Wallingford, Eng.