New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-01
Two Editors.
ORD MORLEY AND SIR THEY THINK ABOUT

copyright. 1912, by C. W. smalley J

|
! real power or which have made jour
! nallsm the world over the force il is.
/ They are the papers which lower the
standard and diminish the influence of
the Press the world over. They stand
In the way of the work the Press has
: to do. Says Lord Morley:
THE prime duty of the Press all over
Europe Is TO seize every opportunity 10
abate, TO assuage, TO minimize and. so
+ far as they can. to remove. interna-
ticnal suspicion and international sus-
ceptibility, instead of warming these
/ horrible things into their hateful life"
| We all know there are such papers.
| We know they exist in Berlin. 1t is
not certain they do not exist in New
! York. There's no use In naming them.
| But when a question is at issue be-
I tween Germany and England, or be-
/ tween England and the United States,
/ they are the papers which instead OF
! seeking to allay controversy envenom
! it: the papers which use international
misunderstanding as means of TO-
menting international hostlities. They
! act upon the rule which Mr.. Horace
Noules. once managing editor Of that
emazing periodical known az Truth,
/ announced TO Mr. Cook as q contrib
utor:
There's only one golden rule for
! journalism. and that is to give il EN-
! straight from the shoulder"
, That Is what is now known In Parlia-
ment as the new style, but there's
| nothing new either In Parliament or in
, Journalism. When Mr.. Bonar Law In
his new post as Unionist leader adopts
! what he or his opponents suppose 10
| be IA new manner, he is but revertlng
/ to the older methods Of such gladiators
as Pitt and Fox ana Grattan; as
| O'Connell. the fercest Of them ALL as
! Disraeh and Gladstone and Lord Ran
dolph Churchill. They all hit hard, but
they never hit below the belt; O'Con-
nell excepted. Nor does Mr.. Bonar
Law hit below the belt. Mr.. Horac"
! Voules and his master Mr.. La0ou-
| chere did: and they have their sue
! cessors in journalism to-day.
! Not many of them. perhaps no ons
Of them. sat at table the other night
and listened to Lord Morley or Sir T.
T. Cook or Lord Miner. The veterans
and protagonists Of the Press were
there: Air. Buckle, of "rhe Times
Mr.. Lawson, Of "The Daily Telegraph
Sir Douglas Straight. once OF THE Pail
Mall Gazette" and younger men hke
Mr.. Marlowe, OF The Daily Mall; Mr..
Blumenfeld, of The Express and Mr..
Garvin: veterans in service II not IN
years, and protagonists 10 whom eN-
perience In leadership has come quite
carly I'm life. name but half a dozen,
out Of a company numbering more than
a hundred. But they are representa-
: tives. Probably no such group of men
ever gathered before in London 10 10
| honor 10 one Of their own craft. 1t -
their presence and not so much what
they said that makes this tribute 10
! Sir r. T. Cook memorable OF the
qualities and services they praise in
him. many Of them are, each In his
own way and degree. themselves ex-
emplars. Sir Edward Cool supplied
another quotation quite unlike that
from Mr. Voulcs, yet not free from the
Satire note. He quoted RuskIn. whom
he has edited with pious care. with
fidelity, with enthusiasm yet with true
critical faculty. Ruskin said
When I want TO know something
about a subject, what ! do is 10 SIT
DOWN and write book about IT,"
The method was not always success
full. but that is the text on which Sir
l.. T. Cook bases his remark that a
Journalist is necessarily a middle
man between the expert and the COM
plete lgnoramus' adding that "a jour
nal written only by experts would ruin
even Mr. lawson" IT Is not very
happily phrased, but II you Will put
the converse the essential truth of II
will emerge. You cannot expect ON
niscience in a Journalist or even IN the
whole editorial staff Of a great news
! DdDfI. nut Tic ifdH'lS VI ii4' pap
DO seem TO expect il. a journalist may
be likened TO a lawyer who has TO get
up case dealing with subject OF
which he knows nothing. lie does get
il up and presents It TO the court with
completeness In my earlier years on
The Tribune Mr. Sidney Howard Gay
then Managing Editor, asked me to
do certain piece Of work said,
Certainly, If you wish ii, but IL IS
matter 7 know absolutely nothing
about" Mr.. Gay looked at me through
his glasses in his patient, bland way
and said
IF you had been little longer in
the office you would not have said you
knew nothing about IT, BY the time
you have written your article you VIII
know all that is necessary"
So there, across all that interval Of
years, and across the Atlantic as well,
meet the minds Of two men. each
though not an expert in all knowledge
an expert in his own profession. Lord
Morley was not an expert In politics
when he entered Parliament az mem
Der for Newcastle on Tyne in 1882 nor
| a., oxacutiy. b,,einaes when in 1895 he