Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-09
JOHN BULL" AND
IT'S FIERY EDITOR
How Herbert Bottomley Infiu-
ences English Sentiment by
Billboard journalism
By GILBERT VIVIAN sELDEs

Special Correspondence Eveniro Ledger
LONDON, Feb. II.
| TN WAR TIME public opinion is supposed
l. TO be dangerous thing. II is easily In.
famed according to some people. and easily
cooled OF, according to others. But II ia
generally admitted that the chief agent In
the business Is the press.
As a professional journalist am in
clined TO pay too much attention to news
papers But the most astounding thing In
| Great Britain and suppose in every coun-
try where the press censorship is active.
Is this; That the things you really want
| to know about you never see in the news
papers, People have got back to their
| habits OF two centuries ago. Word or
| mouth Is infinitely more important than
| word Of print The day OF the great ex-
| plosion--and to this day--the location OF
| the factory did not appear in the papers.
| Yet the first man met told me where the
| explosion took place. A week before the
| great offensive Of last July everybody knew
| that II was coming and knew where it was
| coming. There Is already sufficient data
to determine with sonio precision where the
next blow will fall. Yet none Of these
| things Is in print
Then what do the papers print7 No
| rumor, for one thing. They print official
| news and they print special articles, chiefly
| those which follow their established poll
| cles. You read in one paper that Mr..
|
| two or three courses is n desperate failure.
| You read in another that 1t was quite
! success why the difference OF opinion?
| Because the first paper wanted Mr.. Runci-
| man out and the other wanted him In.
Lord Northcliffe's position is, Of course.
| the dominating element In the newspaper
| situation. Whether he Is an influence or
| not, or Is as important as he seems, Is not
| n question which an outsider can answer.
| Britons disagree pretty thoroughly about
| him. But as an example there Is more
| striking figure than Lord Northcline In
the person Of Horatlo Bottomley. Mr..
| Bottomley is a public figure. His paper,
| John Bull, is an institution.
Placards Fifty Feet Long
Dailles and weekles both advertise their
| features, news and editorials and articles
| with huge placards. Mr. Bottomley's plac-
! ards are sometimes fifty feet long and ten
| feet high. And I have been told. In all
| seriousness that those placards are either
| one Of two things: Either they reflect with
absolute fidelity, the passing sentiments OF
| the vast crowd Of Londoners or they nc
tually impose what they say into the minds
| of all London. I am told that man OF
| letters I'm the highest official position a
man of letters can hold i'm the United
| Kingdom holds the second view. He says
| that the crowds coming to work in the
city each day read the placards. They ac-
| cept them as true and spread their feeling
| to their employers. From the employers
the feeling moves upward through the
| financial circle to the Government. Result,
| Bottomlcy rules Westminster.
/ Bottomley has. however, a fatal knack of
saying the wrong thing. His paper comes
out at the end Of the week. and the placards
stay on six or seven days at time. SO,
| when IL seemed that Britain was not going
TO war in August, 1914. 7 am told Mr.. Bot
! tomleys placards bore the striking legend,
ITO Hell With Serbia :" And they bore
It on August s. when the country did go
10 war.
Mr.. BottomIcy missed It again a few
weeks ago when he threatened on the plac-
ards to-expose Mr.. Wilson just as Mr.. Will
son was breaking with Germany.
Generally. though, he is playing safe.
! "Rumana Must BE Saved" How TO Ston
U-Boats (spcciaD," "On to Berlin" Good
News Coming" and the best of all, The
Kaiser Threatens Mr.. Bottomley" You
| can't escape those placards. They tell you
things.
As for John Bull itself, It is surpris-
ing publication. Badly printed all in one
key Ohe editors vein runs through 1t all)
and stale by the time II is issued it has n
tremendous appeal. Stranger still, II Is a
| firc-eatng, go-to-it jinso paper. and 1t is
| liked by the soldiers, Usually the men in
the trenches don't want to hear the Kaiser
to read about the West End theatres and
small talk But Mr.. Bottomley, from the
| first, caught their sympathy. he announced
his pledge, mo case Of hardship&or injus-
tice no instance of beggary treatment or
mean checseparng shall go unchallenged
and unremedied" Where some 100000
men are being handled. through an organl-
cation which is still perfecting itself there
are bound TO be thousands of cases OF real
or fancied injustice. Bottomley will SEQ to
| tt 10 tn ha lEnc
appear that he has become important
that the officers are warning their men not
| to write to him. but TO make appeals direct.
| Nor does Mr.. Bottomley underestimate the
power Of the press. y short time ago he
began his comment on THE World, the
Flesh and the-Kaiser" with this remark:
Never was the power of the press
| more manifest than IL is today 1t is
| now the recognized custom for Minis 4
| ters before launching any new schemes, '
to invite newspaper editors to private
| conference and solicit their advice and
support But they still think they are
running the war.
what vulgar people our readers must
be :" says Mr. Bottomley in one place, with
| a sarcastic dig at the high-brows and cul-
tured people who read the Spectator No
one would criticize the readers of John
Bull The writer's OF it, however. are oc-
casionally brought into question.
Government Uses the Press
One of the finest things which has hap
pened in England in the last six months was
the funeral OF a Zeppelin commander. He
w 8 buried with military honors near the
spot where he fell. Apparently a little
excitement was anticipated and the au-
thorities were worried But as the coffin
was brought to the grave the crowd made
way, the men took off their hats and
silently listened to the service, 1t was
decent, notably decent, because "baby-kill-
ers' are less joke in that district than