The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-05-14
NOTED EDITOR IS
DEAD IN FRANCE
James Gordon Bennett of
New York Herald Was
Unconscious Two Days
UNIQUE FIGURE
IN JOURNALISM
Business While Thousands of Miles
Livingstone.

BEAULIEU, France, May l4-James
Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New
Work Herald, died today after having
been unconscious two days.
Mr. Bennett was born in New York
city May To-, 1871 When - years old,
in 1914, he married in Paris the Baron
ess de Reuter-, widow Of George Julius
de Reuter-, a son of the founder of Reu
ter 5, Ltd, British telegraphic news
40 years old and the mother of two
children. She was formerly an Ameri
can, Maud Potter, daughter of John
Potter of Philadelphia.
Several thousand miles away from
his main newspaper office, James Gordon
Bennett directed in minute detail the
affairs of the New York Herald and
maintained for himself one of the most
commanding positions in American
journalism. For more than a quarter
of a century he lived in Paris and
worked simultaneously there and In
New York
From almost every other angle his
position in the newspaper world has
been unique. Upon the death of his
father, who was founder of the Herald
the younger Bennett, then Just past 30
years, inherited the largest newspaper
fortune accumulated By any American
publisher up 10 that time. He applied
it toward achievements to startle the
public and thus rebound to the credit of
his newspaper. In many instances these
achievements became important items
in the world $ history.
Such was the policy he inaugurated
when as managing editor in 1870 he
ordered Henry NJ. Stanley into the
heart of Africa to find Livingstone
such when he sent the Inflated Jean
cite expedition to discover the North
ing of the commercial cable; all typical
instances of enterprise to - make news -
or further its transmission
In contrast to the personal journalism
Of the elder Bennett and Greeley type
the younger Bennett was one of the first
to sound the impersonal note
When Mr.. Bennett moved to Paris in
1887 he started the Paris edition of the
New York Herald and again took a
unique position, as this is still the ONLY
American daily newspaper published il
Europe
The Herald, marked minutelv with
the names of the men who had writer
certain articles or news Stories was for
warded to him in Paris daily lie kept
in touch with every detail of personne
and policy. Daily, or oftener, the cabl,
from Paris, or wherever he might b,
soiourning in his yacht, brought tn,
editorin chief s executive orders. fo
promotion or discharge, for compliment
or reprimand, or sketch of general poll
cies
His whims, amounting, his critic
said, to ecentricities, were one of tn
most interesting angles of his personal
ity.
He laughed at conventions, and in
variably printed in the Herald th
worst things his enemies said abou
him. When Jay Gould gave t,
the press letter of 10000 words at
tacking Bennett Is personal life, the ed
itor of the Herald turned about an,
published it in full with the curt re
mark that Mr.. Gould was ga gentle
man. When John Kelley, leader o
Tammany hall, publicly assailed MI
Bennett s character, he retorted: eth
proprietor of the Herald lost his reputa
tion long before Mr. Kelley was eve
heard of. He swung his newspape
from one side to another in public ques
tions with startling abruptness.
He was assailed for MANY wears fo
! the personal advertisements wbic
were once an unrestrained feature O
his paper. In 1907 he bowed to the lax
t with payment of a fine of $25 900 whe
2 the court characterized the Herald per
: sonals as "a public STENCIL
G In his innumerable promotions. a
!, bearing upon the promotion of his news
| paper, Mr.. Bennett figured as a notabl
: patron of sport. He introduced mol
}, INTO America; reviewed coaching !
France; organized international an
aeronautical races, and built and sale
numerous yachts.
n LOANS TO ALLIES.