John St. Loe Strachey I T is difficult for us to
write in a detached way about the death of John St. Loe Strachey or " St. Loe " as he was affectionately called by those with whom he worked—for our hearts are heavy. But the task of saying good-bye to hint in the columns of the paper he loved so well, and with which he was identified for forty years, must be .attempted.
Success came easily to Strachey. He did not have to serve an 'apprenticeship of long years of struggle with unsympathetic editors. He conquered the region of his future domain almost at sight. Shortly after coming doWn from Oxford and while reading for the Bar in 1885, he went to the Spectator's office at 1 Wellington Street, to see Hutton and Townsend, the editors, armed with a letter of introduction from his father.
He was given two books to review, one of which was a new edition of Gulliver's Travels, and a few days later, to his joy, he was informed that the editors liked his reviews and he was promised regular work on the Spectator. A year later, when Townsend went away for his usual summer holiday, Strachey was called in as leader-writer: His articles gained the warm approval of the editors, and Townsend, when Hutton went on his holiday, asked him to remain as his assistant and told the young journalist of twenty-six that if he liked to give up reading for the Bar, he could have a permanent place at the Spectator, and hinted that he might look forward to succeeding the first of the two partners who died or retired: How different was Strachey's experience in mounting the first rungs of the ladder of journalistic success from that of most men !
In 1898, after Hutton's death and Townsend's retirement, Strachey became sole editor and proprietor of the paper and for twenty-seven years, from 1898 to 1925, he held that position ; in fact, during those years Strachey was the Spectator and he created for himself a unique position in British journalism. Since Rintoul founded this journal in 1828 the Spectator has, except for brief periods, been an editor-owner paper. The century of its existence has practically been covered by three editorships, that of Rintoul, then, after a brief inter- regnum, the 'joint editorship of Hutton and Townsend lasting nearly forty years, and then that of Strachey.
There is no one to-day who occupies a 'position in British journalism exactly similar to that held by Strachey twenty years ago, unless it be Mr. C. P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian, or perhaps Mr. Garvin of the Observer, although Mr. Garvin is not the proprietor. Strachey was a great political journalist and he took a great. pride in his profession. He believed that there was no more worthy calling for anyone who wished to serve his country and he frequently quoted the formula of W. T. Stead that " the journalist was the watch-dog of society." He realized that to act as a watch-dog and to keep on barking is an unpopular job and that the journalist who seeks to do his duty may make himself generally disliked, but that he must go forward undaunted.
Of the many campaigns- undertaken by the Spectator under Strachey's editorship perhaps its championing of the Free Trade cause against Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain in the early years of the present century will be best remembered. His fervour for Free Trade found him strange bedfellows, but there was nothing of the " little Englander " about Strachey. All his life he had been what he called a " Democrat Imperialist " and to him " the alliance of the free, self-governing Dominions which constitutes the British ComMonwealth " was a sacred cause. Great though his devotion to the British Empire, the dominating passion of his life was undoubtedly his belief in English-speaking co-operation and in the friendship of the British Commonwealth and the United States of America. That his successors would continue to advocate his principles as earnestly if not as eloquently was, we believe, a source of real satisfaction to him: While he was not blind to her faults, Strachey loved America, and all through his editorship the columns of the Spectator were open to the discussion of all that affected British-American relations. He was proud of the fact that one of his ancestors was William Strachey, the first Secretary to the Colony of Virginia. One of the things he looked back upon with greatest pleasure in recent years was the part he played in helping American journalists in London during the early days of the War to meet the leading British statesmen. For him American's were not " foreigners," and he laboured unceasingly to dispel misunderstandings and to promote the cause he had at heart by every means in his power.
Strachey gave much anxious thought to the increasing power of newspaper Trusts in recent years and he was anxious that the Spectator's independence should always be preserved. He felt that the weekly review played a part in our national life quite out of proportion to its circulation, and for that reason he cordially approved of the proposal that the Spectator's future should be safe- guarded by making impossible its transfer to any purchaser whose name had not been approved by an impartial committee. He was overjoyed when the Times was purchased by Major Astor, and when the announcement was made that steps had been taken to safeguard the future of the Times in this way he felt (as we do) that this example was one which we should follow.
Elsewhere we print a biography of Strachey and appreciations •by a few of his host of friends. A great editor, of wide sympathies, and a great literary critic he undoubtedly was, but to the present writer his three pre-eminent qualities seemed his generous enthusiasm for every scheme of social betterment, his readiness for new ideas, and his uncompromising insistence on financial integrity in high places. He sets out on the Great Adventure with splendid equipment—the equipment, to use his own words, of " faith, honest and instinctive," for to him faith was " a fact and a very palpable fact—a fact • as vital as any of the other great incommensurables and insolubles of human existence." And there we must leave him. We pray that those who come after him may be worthy of him and his example.
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