New-York tribune., 1918-05-15
James Gordon Bennett

To New Workers of to-day James
Gordon Bennett had become only hazy
memory. He had passed out of recol-
lection with the New York of the seven
ties and eighties delightful in the self
centredness and color of its provincial
life), in which he was in his earlier
years a picturesque and familiar figure.
Times change with brutal rapidity.
For more than two decades Mr.. Bennett
has been as much stranger in New
York as New York itself has become a
stranger to those earlier local conditions
on which the fame and prosperity Of
"The New York Herald" rested and with
which Mr.. Benefits first activities as it's
editor were SO strikingly in accord.
The old New York was narrow, self
contented, genially parochial in spirit.
"The Herald" under the elder Bennett,
who was rugged egoist, was intensely
local and personal in its newspaper poll
cies. 1t got the news of the world
showing marked enterprise in that re-
spect. But it's point of view was al
ways that of purely routine journalism.
Under the younger Bennett these
tendencies continued. He developed the
machinery of gathering in the for
eign field, helped Mackay to build new
cable lines and kept "The Herald" at the
front as collector of information from
all parts of the world. He also was
pioneer in news-making undertakings on
%bo
tion to Central Africa to rescue Living
stone and the Jeanette expedition to
the Arctic.
Yet the editorial point of view re-
mained the same. 1t was journalistic
only in the reportorial sense. 1t com
pretended no thought of broad public
service in politics or of leadership in
social readjustments. Yet never before
in the history of journalism has such
pressure been brought on the newspaper
press to drop the mere role of observa-
tion and to plunge into the thick of cur
rent movements for social and political
betterment as has been brought to bear
on it in the last two decades
Mr.. Bennett was Indifferent to that
pressure. The spectators attitude
pleased him better. His almost continu-
Gus absence from the country handi-
capped him to an extent which he prob
ably did not appreciate. The immense
and rapid change in the temper and out
look Of the New York public also escaped
him. 1t lost touch with "The Herald"
more and more because "The Herald"
made no sufficient effort to keep in touch
with it.
Modern journalism is an extremely
fluid profession. Success in it requires
alertness and concentration. A leader
in one generation may easily find him
self isolated and sidetracked in the next.
That has been the experience of Bennett.
He allowed the machine which he had
brought to SO high state of efficiency
IN the eighties to disintegrate. 1t gradu
ally passed into the category of disused
models.
Mr. Benefits former rank as an
American journalist has been lowered by
The Herald's" long decline. Yet he is
entitled to respect for the energy and
vision which he exhibited in the news
held In the earlier part of his career.
he was beyond question a broader and
more intelligent man than his father. It
was unfortunate for him that defect in
his professional make-up-the lack of q
true appreciation of the journalists duty
to the public and the future-should
nave operated to cloud his marked in
'1lai successes. AS we have said, changed
conditions greatly emphasized that de-
1ect. Yet it was an inherent and pos
slbiy an ineradicable weakness, which
must bar him from the company of great
! american editors-of those, certainly, by
"hom power to mould the opinion of their
countrymen has been accepted in spirit
OF dedlcatlon to public service and ex-
erclsed as moral and intellectual trust.