Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-15
NORTHCLIFFE: A COMMONER
MIGHTIER THAN KINGS
Many People Still Believe That With
Printers Ink for Ammunition He
Wrecked the German Throne
and Saved the One at London

Wrecked the German Throne
and Saved the One at London
MUCH of what is best and not little of
A'A what Is lamentable in the spreading
democracy of these times was reflected
sharply in the career of Lord Northciffe
and the trend of his influence as the most
powerful. II not the most gifted. of British
journalists.
It was with Northcllffes rise and the
wars outbreak that the direction Of affairs
in the British Empire was taken perhaps
forever. from the hands Of the specially
trained and the elect. the ar,Stocrats and
the tea councils and the "gentemanly in
electives 1t was seized for an historic
hour or two by this restless and virile pub
Usher who made parliament of the masses
and came at last TO impose his will upon a
King and the Prime Ministers through the
enormous power Of printers ink.
What Northclife may have lacked in cul-
ture and the philosophy of sound govern
ment he made UP In earnestness and honesty
Of purpose. It had begun to seem that the
ruling classes in England were unable to
save the country from the effects OF n Ger
Northclife that he won the war. But there
are many far.sshted people who still be-
lieve that at one time he prevented It from
being lost
That was when he insisted in telling ugly
truths to country that preferred the COM
fort Of pleasant but misleading fctions about
the progress OF the war under the Kitchener
administration:
Kitchener was the hero and the demgod
of the worried public. the man of destiny. X
Of X. The Northcliffe press said that
Kitchener was old-fashioneI; that BIS
methods. perfected against the Bocrs in
South Africa, were outworn and inefficient
and that the war was being lost because the
War Office had not progressed with science
from shrapnel to high explosives.
Northcliffe's papers were burned in the
streets, but they went on telling the brutal
truth and their owner lived to see his cam
paign justified and his Judgment sustained.
Kitchener changed his methods But he
did so only after the NorthcliTe press had
run counter to all the preiudices of mer-
curial public by seeming. in attacking the
army CHleIS, 10 pe giving ala ana comfort TO
the enemy.
The democratic spirit animatlng North
cIife--a commoner by birth and tradition
went 10 the service Of the future England
and its people rather than TO the service of
q class or an aristocratlc legend II was not
always wholly wise or gracious ar Just or
even intelligent. 1t was brusque and often
harsh. But It did serve England and the
general cause Of civilization as no other
force in England Of the Oxford and
Cambridge aristocracy could. Had there
been no Northcliffe In England, no agency
great enough TO attack the ivied institutions
and regulations Ct the empire anil tell the
truth about them and bring even the min
isters Of state 70 their senses. the illusions
of the British about their ruling group might
have been sustained for few years longer
until the war was lost.
The virtues Of philosophy and learning,
had they been in Northcliffe as they were in
some Of the men whom he fought and broke,
might have made a marvellous man Of him.
but he had only n superficial knowledge Of
some of the questions which he tried to dis
pose Of with a sentence or an editorial
article He had instinct to guide him,
rather than learning, and It mignt be said
Of him that he was far wiser in many
ways than men more greatly learned
than he.
What he had was a sense Of partnership
or fellowship with all men and that Is
quality which the British artstoCrat did not
share at the outbreak Of the war. II is the
essentially necessary thing n a democratic
country. and Northciffe's life aud methods
will prove in final anlyss that what the
world needs is that same quality of mind
| linked with the intellectual accomplishments
now restricted in England at least, to the
| minority.
II has been said that the London Tiines
| lost much of its old integrity when North
cItfe got hold Of It," The Times did lose
something of It's dignity and the character
of its thinking changed. IT tried to improve
It's thunder with some interesting lightning.
| But though its vision may have narrowed a
| little its sympathies were broadened. IT
Was no longer the voice Of the aoof and In =
tuenttal minority. 1t became for a time,
AZ least, the voice of thinking England.
That was due in part to Northclife and in
uart to the moving force of the crisis of
1915. Northclife himself was In some de-
gree creation Of that crisis.
The war did more than anything else to
make a public figure of him Before the
outbreak of hostilities and after the firing
csased he was at bottom a brilliant adven
turer In journalism. Many OF the papers
which he controlled were anu are little more
than achievements in journalistic quackery
Northclife may have been great because
he was not a lord at heart. While Colonel