Evening star., 1931-12-13
Continued From First Page.)

from Scandinavia, or if the manufac-
turers realized what chance they had
to get these big buyers into a corner
and put up the price on them. They
were using 1000 tons a week. Suppose
the supply failed?
He did not see the business as North
cliffe saw it, in human terms. He saw
it in manufacturing terms. What, in
fact, were they doing? They were buy
ing large quantities Of paper, printing
variety of things thereon and persuad-
ing the masses to buy the finished prod
uct in such vast quantities that after
all bills had been met there remained
a huge profit for brothers Alfred and
Harold.
Alfred, impatient, asked what they
ought to do, and Harold gloomily re-
piled that they ought to organize their
own supply. That idea stirred Alfred
as the idea of new worlds to CONQUER
stirred Alexander. He became enthus-
iastic and instantly saw himself as a
paper potentate. Of went an expert
to scour the lands where grew the par
ticular kind of spruce from which news
print is made. He went to Sweden,
Norway, Russia, Finland, Canada.
Eventually a carabou hunter put the
brothers on the track of q possible site
in Newfoundland. Rothermere went out
and negotiated with the Newfoundland
government an arrangement whereby
the two British capitalists got a 19e-
years lease of o tract of virgin forest
land as big as the State Of Massachu-
setts.
They built town-now second only
to st. Johns tho capitsl-roads, a rail-
way, a great dam on the falls rearing
over red sandstone. But Northcliffe
could not keep up his enthusiasm for
this sideline. The big things in his life
were his papers and the game of in
fiuencing public opinion.
Sees Colony Oustrip Daily Mail.
1t was otherwise with Rothermere. To
him the papers were ephemeral things
The real solid and enduring things were
the raw material supplies behind those
papers-solid property, real estate, land,
mineral wealth, pulp ana paper max
ing plant, forests which ever renew
themselves, although 2,o0o 900 trees are
felled yearly to supply the Unsuitable
machines spewing printed matter over
the little crowded island 5000 miles
away In the North Atlantic
One Of their associates tells a story
Of how Harold said as much to Alfred
one day at the latter's country estate.
Harold said he could foresee the time
when this new colony Of theirs would
be one of the worlds great business or
ganizations, with its own cities, mills,
mines, railroads, ports and big popu--
lation which they would supply with all
the necessities and luxuries OF life.
Attached to this great enterprise"
unused Harold will be little news
paper called the Daily Mail. People
VIII ask how the connection between
them was established and we shall dis
cuss the question of cutting ourselves
away from it. 1t will be nuisance, a
hindrance. Eventually we shall let 1t
60"
Northcliffe was annoyed. You're
talking nonsense. Come on, let's get on
with the game" Newfoundland was
useful, In his view, only in so far as it
served his papers.
difference Of outlook may be found the
explanation of all that happened after
Northcliffe died and the whole enor-
nous newspaper and periodical empire
fell into Rothermere's capacious hands,
TO be broken up, reorganized, this part
sold and that retained, refinanced, sold
TO the public at mighty profit on the
original price at which Rothermere and
his associates had acquired the shares.
Bought Estates Shares.
In wooden hut, put up on the roof
OF his London mansion to give him air
and isolation, Northcliffe died in 1922.
In his lifetime he had overshadowed his
dour brother. The latter was an inti-
mate OF Lloyd George, even at a time
When Northcliffe was violently attacking
Britain's war dictator Rothermere's
son, the Honorable Esmond HarmsWorth,
tall, handsome, the youngest member Of
Parliament, married to a vivacious and
charming girl, was Lloyd Georges mill
tary aide at the Paris Peace Confer
ence-a conference which NorthclifYe
wished to attend as a negotiator, only
10 be turned down with an emphatic
Go to hell" by Lloyd George now
sure of his hold upon the people what
ever guns the affronted Northclife
might turn upon him.
Made baronet in 1909 and a baron
IN 1914, Rothermere received his Wis
countcy from Lloyd George in the year
OF that conference. During the war he
had had two spells Of office. He was
put In as director general of the arnv
clothing department following some
scandals in 1916, and cleaned up In
drastic fashion, and the following year,
brother Alfred having sensationaily re-
FUSED the air ministry, Lloyd George
gave the job TO Rothermere. But Roth
ermere cid not get on with the airnnen
so successfully and it was not long be-
lore he resigned. Still he remained
little known and nothing of a national
figure while Northcliffe was alive.
NorthcllHe dead, everything changed.
The dead man had left his executors
instructions to hand over his controll-
Ing shares to his brother for disposal
Rothermere decided to buy them for
hlmSeu. soon after he bought a chain |
OF competing national and provincial
papers from Northcliffe's dying rival, |
Hutton, neatly beating the ambitious |
Berry Brothers In the rush. He was now
regular press octopus and the roar |
OF apprehension about the new press |
trust was loud and long.
However, he kept the Hutton group |
only long enough to whet the Berry |
appetlte' He reSold them IN slices and |
at large profit. Then he found they |
would Ike the huge publishing business
OF the Amalgamated Press, and that in |
turn he let them have at his own price. !
Never had there been such a bull
market In newspapers and publishing
businesses. Single papers and whole
groups changed hands, with the public
cIamorlng tor shares and subscribing
4'HAANA W. Va Vi collars lOr new
issues. Rothermere sold bonds and de-
bentures and preferred shares, but kept
ordinary shares for himself. His enter
prses were so prosperous that he could
borrow up to almost any amount from
the pubic at per cent and use the
money to make 40 per cent in his busi-
ness.
When he was through with his adroit
and complicated financial operations,
ne nad Teahzed all his newspaper and
per1oolcal hoidlngs except the strongest
by the Newfoundland paper business
His papers today comprise the Daily
Mirror and the Daily Mail, the SUNDAY
Pictorial and the Sunday Dispatch and
the Evening News. These papers have
an aggregate circulation of around So
100000 a week, the two dailies selling
around $1,000 900 daily, the Sundays q
nd