The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1922-08-16
CURRENT COMMENT
Lord Northclife.

Back in the files Of the English pc
| riodical called Young Folks there will
be found series Of articles on ANA
/ teur Photography" signed Alfred G.
| Harmsworth. The writer was the boy
Of IS later to become known round the
world as Lord Northcliffe. Amateur
photography just then was leaping
into popularity. The youth of 1884
had an eye for an opening. He seized
upon the topic that was in the public
mind and sold readily the product Of
his pen
! The incident is typical of the en-
tire career of the famous man who
died yesterday in London. He had
an instinct for hitting the taste of the
masses. He began his career in jour
nalism as freelance, the successor
of the penny Liner Of the old time
novelists, and it is said, on fairly good
authority, that need trod so closely
upon his heels that he had to borrow
presentable hat from some more
prosperous comrade whenever he called
upon an editor with manuscript.
He kept in touch with the moods OF
tradition more completely or shattered
them more blithely. This shrewd tyro
was surrounded by able, scholarly and
experienced editors and reporters to
whom journalism was profession. He
conceived of IL as business, the re-
porters and editors were manufactur-
ing a product which first of all must
be sold. Sales depended upon the kind
of goods offered and the way the goods
gaze. II sales fell off Harmsworth
would ask, what is wrong with the
shop Window He did not seek. to in
form, instruct, lead the people; he
sought to amuse them.
There came boom in cycling;
forthwith he Travelled awheel in Cow
entry and wrote aobut it. Sir George
Newnes had caught the fancy of the
multitude with Tit Bits. cheap pub
LEGATION devoted to miscellany, but
Harmsworth at %, with younger
brother as assistant, invested all his
capital in getting out the first issue OF
new paper OF the same kind to be
called Answers. He has himself told
how he sat down, worn out with toll
and worry. in the office chair on the
day of publication, hungry and with
out the price of a meal, but happy. for
he now had paper Of his own. 1t was
success. And through the next ten
years he did little else but buy old |
papers and start new ones.
He was offered the Evening News |
on twelve hour option; he took it.
made il over into the Daily Mail |
and achieved tremendous success. |
That habit of quick decision always
him. In like manner it |
was that he bought The Times after
an all-night conference in Paris. No
body seems to know how many pa
pers he actually owned these late
years, but no one doubts that they are
legion.
Many times Lord Northcliffe has
been called the Napoleon Of the Press.
The one thing above all others he ad-
mired was success. He liked power,
aimed for il, achieved IL. In spite
Of all his many interests, his keen per
ceptions of the movement of opinion
and his flexible adaptations TO any
changes therein, his quick grasp of the
essential elements in a situation. his
powers Of observation. his
great executive force, he was after ALI
IN elementary character. He was pa
iriotic, yet many able critics have
challenged his patriotism. he was both
selfish and altruistic and the two
'orces often came TO close grips in his
leart, and sometimes the one. some
lines the other. triamphed; he want
d probably TO become a kind of I'm
'ficial dictator of British policies; il
nay be true that he overthrow the
ssquith cabinet and helped Lloyd
george 70 the premiership, and il GER
ainly is true that, having broken
With the little Welshman for rea-
ons not clearly explained. he tried
o overthrow another cabinet and
allied.
A novel published a few years ago
ontains what undoubtedly IL a mar
stive in fiction that Appropriated
losely the truth Of a biography Of
ord Northcliffe. The Little Dailvr
aust be the Daily Mail. the brothers
the story fl into the Harmswortht
amily, the incidents parallel the ca
ser Of the newspaper magnate. The
incident IN Keble How