Portrait of Northcliffe
Northcliffe in History. By Tom Clarke. (Hutchinson. I6s.) MR. Tom CLARICE has produced an excellent portrait of Northcliffe (Alfred Harmsworth), and has made that great journalist live again to those who knew him. As I read this, to me, absorbing volume, 1 was taken back forty years, and could almost imagine I was watching Northcliffe making his daily comment to some member of his staff, from his bedroom in Berkeley Square or St. James's Place, speaking emphatically through one of the formidable array of telephones by his bedside ; or I was once again sitting by him, in his snorting and pulsating 130 h.p. Mercedes, rushing up the Hog's Back near Guildford, at seventy miles an hour ; or 1 was playing golf with the " Chief " on the links at Sutton Place, his golfing instructor, Sandy Thompson, standing some fifty yards away. This was no ordinary match ; you were, in fact, playing two men, Thompson-trained Northcliffe plus the brain of " Sandy." Some kind of code existed between master and pupil. A sign fron Sandy implied, " You are swaying your body," or " Tighten your left- hand grip," and so on.. Northcliffe Nilthout Sandy Thompson, in those early golfing days, was like Trilby without Svengali !
The author takes as his sub-title " An Intimate Study of Press Power," but this does not, in my view, rightly describe the scope of the book. It is rather a most entertaining and syinpathetic portrait of Northcliffe. The value of the work is much enhanced by the inclusion of the comments and letters of the late Lord Harmsworth (referred to as " Brother Cecil ")—one of the kindest men I ever knew, who constantly sought to act as a peacemaker in the, at times, stormy Northcliffean entourage. Lord Harmsworth had a high opinion of the author's My Northcliffe Diary, which he considered " a little biographical masterpiece," and accordingly placed his " Northcliffiana ' at Mr. Clarke's disposal. Of a special interest are some of the letters and comments sent by Northcliffe.
during his chairmanship of the British War Mission to the United States in 1917, to his brother.
Whatever the views of his contemporaries concerning North- cliffe's political activities at home, no one can deny that few men have so consistently sought to improve British-American relations. He understood American conditions as few men. American journalists liked Alfred Harmsworth and he liked them. Throughout the United States and Canada were many city editors, sub-editors and reporters whom he had helped on journalistic missions to Europe. As a result he had a chain of friends throughout North America. This acquaintanceship was very useful when he tried to enlighten the American reading public as to the immensity of British effort and sacrifice in the First World War, which he held were but faintly appreciated owing to the " damnable policy of secrecy " of British censorship. From his earliest years Alfred Harmsworth had made a close study of the American scene. Many of his most successful ideas were in part due to his familiarity with the American daily and periodical Press.
Mr. Clarke refers (p. 85) to the sale of the Daily Mirror by Northcliffe to Rothermere ; this step was due to the fact that North- cliffe's mother told him he was working too hard and must reduce his responsibilities. Alfred, the dictator, did as he was told ; through- out his life he had profound respect for his mother's judgement. Mr. Kennedy Jones (p. 74) is described as " the go-getting young journalist from Ulster "—I always understood that K. J. first saw the light of day at Glasgow. The author correctly refers to the fact that Alfred Harmsworth's choice of the name Northcliffe was inspired " by the coastal panorama in the neighbourhood of his favourite retreat, Elmwood, at St. Peter's, Thanet " ; the name Northcliffe wished to take was that of " Kingsgate," but Lord Avebury, whom Northcliffe informed of his intention, objected, and alternatively suggested " St. Peters"" or " Broadstairs," neither of which found favour with Northcliffe. It may be true of North- cliffe's later years to say, as the author does (p. 9), that none of his brothers " was closer to him in spirit and understanding than Leicester ": certainly during the decade before the First World War, when I was intimately associated with Northcliffe, this was not so. His favourite brothers at that time were Cecil and St. John —his love of the latter may have grown in intensity during St. John's long illness. I never saw Northcliffe so deeply affected by any event as during the months after St. John's tragic motor accident, which deprived him of the use of his legs. No invalid can ever have had a more generous and loving brother, who lavished on him anything that would make his life more endurable. In the years from 1903 to 1914 it was Rothermere's advice that Northcliffe always first sought in matters of finance.
The author rightly deals at length with what was un- doubtedly. Northcliffe's greatest achievement in the field of daily journalism, the acquisition and complete reorganisation of The Times. One of Northcliffe's " flairs " was responsible for the appointment of Geoffrey Dawson (Robinson), then editor of the Johannesburg Star and The Times correspondent in South Africa, as editor of " The Thunderer." Two years before Dawson took over control at Printing House Square, Northcliffe told me that he had selected him as successor to G. E. Buckle. Dawson, who knew Northcliffe so well, regarded him at the zenith of his career, up to, say, 1915, as " a consummate journalist." Certainly before Northcliffe lost his sense of proportion Fleet Street can never
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