The New York herald., 1922-06-01
Bennett, Fifty Years After.


HERALD. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, died
fifty years ago to-day. He was then
In his seventy-seventh year. He had
been the sole owner, the sole master,
of his newspaper for thirty-seven
years. When he died the most abso-
lutte monarch that American jour-
nalism had seen disappeared from
the stage. No other man, before
BENNETT or since. performed such an
extraordinary feat as he performed
alone In creating newspaper from
practically nothing but his brains and
raising it to be the instrument of
immense riches and great power.
Mr.. BENNETT was 40 years old
when, May 6, 1885, he issued the first
number of THE New YORK HERALD.
Up to that time he had not
been a successful man. A century
ago, when he first came to New
York, a Scot of French descent, he
tried his hand successfully at news
paper writing. commercial school
teaching and lecturing on political
economy. At writing he did best
and he spent dozen years at it,
going from one paper to another.
1t was not until BENNETT managed
to issue his own newspaper that he
showed his real worth. Then, for the
first time, he was able to print what
he believed the people wanted to read;
not what other proprietors thought
they ought to read. He gave his
readers the details of murders. OF
fires, of all the happenings of human
interest which other newspapers OF
the time minimized because those
papers were, more than anything
else, political organs.
As THE New York HERALD said
last year, on the eighty-sixth ami
versary of it's founding. Mr.. BENNETT
gave to the world. in this newspaper.
it's first great newspaper in the news
sense: "The very soul of Mr..
BENEFITS conception for his news
paper was news, and it was as news
gatherer that his great genius as a
journalist lowered over all others OF
his time" His Judgment of news
was instructive and unerring. His
enterprise, for those times. was daz-
zling. No pains, no expense, were
ever spared to get the news that Mr..
BENNETT wanted for his readers.
While Mr.. BENNETT made his paper
the newsiest he also made 1t the
richest. His innate business ability
showed him the way to a huge In
come from advertising. More profits
meant greater freedom to spend
money in getting news; for the ambi-
tion of JAMES GORDON BENNETT did
not lie in the direction of piling up
large fortune. The richness of his
newspaper was only an aid to its
increasing excellence.
When Mr.. BENNETT died, on June 1,
1872, he left THE NEW YORK HERALD,
with all it's power and wealth. to his
son, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, Jr., who
was then 32 years old. The second
BENNETT conducted the newspaper
with an enterprise and originality
In which he sometimes seemed to
rival his gifted father, until his
death in 1920. The span Of owner
ship of the two BENEFITS covered
eighty-fiye years.
On THE NEW York HERALD's birth
day in 1921 FRANK A. MUNsEY, the
present owner, paid this tribute to
the first BENNETT.
Considered as an all round news
paper genius. living at a time when
journalistic advancement meant pio-
neering, when there were no great
newspapers in the news sense, no
great newspapers in the business
sense, as a stimulus and guide, Mr..
BENNETT achieved bigger than any
man of his day, bigger than any man
since his day"
Half a century after his death
newspapers are still learning the
things which BENNETT discovered