New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-07
Lord Burnham
ACCOUNT CHARACTER AND CAREER OF GREAT Eng
IsH JOGRN AIsT AND ENGLISH LIFE

each day when the day is over, so that
you may be able 10 commence again
with absolute freshness on the follow
ing morning" lie was content that the
dead past should bury its dead. IL was
this freshness and force of spirit which
made him the great editor he was. lie
had in him the impulse Of leadership.
lie did not crave an impossible ideal
nor offer his readers counsels OF per
lection. His world was world 70 be
lived in; a world in which people
actually did live. He accepted the con-
ditions OF life as essentially perma-
nent, and his aim was 10 induce people
20 make the best Of them. His paper
came home 10 mems business and
bosoms. And from no list Of the hall
dozen greatest journals IN the world
can Lord Burnham's be excluded.
Discovering Men.
He had the gift, which every great
editor must have. Of discovering ard
anuexing not merely able men but the
kind of able men most useful to him
and his paper. Regulations in journal
ism are apt 20 be ephemeral, but Fleet
Street. the headquarters Of London
journalism, will long remember lie
I
Arnold. who is credited with having
invented and practised in its most
horid form what Matthew Arnold
labelled "Telegraphese. which was al
ways ford and sometimes lurid. Sala's
was a still wider fame, whether as
correspondent or as leader writer, who
described himself as enjoying the
salary Of an ambassador and the treat
ment Of prince; Sala. who took all
knowledge 20 be his province, with a
little help from classical dictionaries
and cyclopadias; Sala, who once ex-
planned that he considered leader
ought 10 be Juicy" and that he him
self wrote his best on buttered toast,
the toast and the butter both thick.
Lord Burnham had studied and
analyzed his great constituency and
played on il, if not with it, at his will.
But / do not think he ever consciously
played down 20 the small shopkeeper -
sometimes i'll naturedly taken as a
type; but IN many ways an exceedingly
good type II was his aim 10 give him
not only what he wanted, but some
thing better than he wanted, yet still
so as TO be wanted. Under his long
management the paper broadened up
ward II changed and changed for the
better. The sense of national and pres
emily Of imperial responsibility grew
stronger This was true of every de-
partment news, editorial, political, and
the rest. | will take Literature as an
example. 1t il one OF the last sub
jects 10 which the average middle class
Englishman applies his mind, as Litera-
ture; especially if he be of the lower
middle class. Yet, at this moment,
though commercial Literature, in the
person of that accomplished advertiser
Mr. Hall Caine, has occasional pages to
itself. Literature in its best sense Is
handled in THE Daily Telegraph" fully
and wisely and in large critical spirit
by Mr.. W. L. Courtney, himself both
critic and author Of distinction.
OF all Lord Burnhams discoveries
the happiest was his eldest son. Colo
mel Harry Lawson, who has conducted
the paper since 1903. though Lord
Burnham himself was always az hand
10 consult. With his inherited quail
ties and his natural energy he has
done great things for this great jour
his own connection with the daily pro-
duction of the paper still was. He
answered:
"Well, they send for me when they
get into trouble But then they don't
get into trouble"
But if YOU wish to form a judgment
Of Colonel Harry Lawson he is now
Lord Burnham-you can do II best by
q study Of the paper since his hand has
been at the wheel Like the whole
Press OF England, it has been tried by
the war as By fire and comes out pure
steel.
His Friends and His Position.
For generation and more Lord
Burnham has been a figure in the pub
lie and private life of England He
was rich in friends. The late King
Edward was one OF them and often a
guest at Hall Barn, Lord Burnham's
place in the classic Beaconsiield-Burke
country, which was his home. HIS
sturdy figure was that OF the country
squire. except that the powerful sym
metrical head which rose out OF II was
of strength and beauty such as I'M
aided country life does not often. pro-
duce. To his profession he was bene-
factor in many ways. He knew II from
end 10 end and on all sides, and was
master OF the technical branches OF IL,
printing and the rest. so that ms con-
trol in his own office was complete.
Then he knew il as professlOn'
knew the men who succeeded and the
men who failed, and was the stanch
uatron of all the charitable organiza-
! IONS which sought 20 redress the pal
ance OF i'll fortune. OF the Newspaper
Fund. the Institute of Journalists, the
Institute Orphan Fund of the Empire
Dras, Irnion ha uas President or Treas