New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-14
Nortbcliffe on Americas Problem

Northcliffe on Americas Problem
Few journalists have ever rendered
greater public service to their country thah
Lord Northcliffe in the present war IN
the Civil War Charles A. Dana lett TINS
newspaper to become an Assistant Secre-
tarv of War, and there rendered efnclenI
service. but to do this work he temporarily
left his profession. Northcliftes contri-
hutton has been made inside the newspaper
business, and it has been on the whole a
credit TO that great profession.
When Field Marshal Sir John french
looking out upon the slaughter OF Brlush
troons at Festubert-where nine thousand
mon were sacrificed as a result OF lnsu1n-
, Gent shells-decided to place before lhe
British public the truth in the matter OF
shells il was to Northcliffe that he turned
and il was through THE Times" Of Lon
don that Englishmen learned that their
brothers at the front were beng killed De-
cause the War Department refused 70
recognize that high explosives had replaced
shrapnel in trench war.
For this public service Northcilne was
tornorarilv abused from one end Of Eng
land to the other. His newspaper was
nubliclv burned and he was accused OF all
the crimes aroused patriotism could
;maqine. But the result of his courage
was the tardy recognition in official quar-
tors of the facts Of modern warfare.
When all Europe was waiting to know
what the German attack on Verdun meant
II was Northcliffe who went straight TO
the assailed fortress and in dispatches
which remain memorable gave the first
measure of the bravery of the French de-
fence and the first hint of successful re-
s;etance. No one who was in England at
the moment of the attack on Verdun can
fail to remember with gratitude North
cTTe's dispatches from the field Of battle
During almost three years Of war North
clifFe has continued TO go from one front
70 the other. His more conspicuous ser
vices are commonly known, but the rela-
tivelv minor contributions made to the
comfort and the health of the soldiers as
result of his intelligent observation and
courageous publication are still httle
known. He has made his newspapers the
servants of the state, but he has never made
them the slaves of the official caste and
events have made him one of the greatest
Z figures of contemporary England.
Much that Great Britain had to suffer
. as a result of unpreparedness Northclitfe
. foresaw and foretold. Many of the con-
timing abuses he has warred upon sue
!. cessfully. No civilian has had the oppor-
i tunities to see as much of the war from
the Allied side as Northcliffe, and no man
has more eagerly or earnestly sought to
turn these advantages to the profit OF
his country.
II has become familiar to sheer at North
cTffe as sensationalist and as a scandal
monger. His reputation as Journalist
has been frequently compared with that OF
Hearst. rather to the advantage OF the
American editor. Yet the fact rer'aln'
that of all the great newspaper men OF tho
world none has performed more useful
more considerable or more courageous ser
vice for his country than Northclitfe, and
the war has given to a man of great imagi'
nation, though with certain limitations, an
opportunity which he has met IN the
largest possible way.
For Americans, therefore, the comment
of Lord Northclffe upon American perils
and American opportunities, as, like Eng
land. America enters the war unprepared
should have peculiar value. The first OF
these Northcliffe comments will be pub
lished in The Tribune tomorrow, and 1t
= deals with the subject of volunteering and
CONSUMPTION, setting forth the breakdown
in England Of that volunteer system which
has always failed with us.