MR. PEARSON AND THE "STANDARD." [TO TRH EDITOR OP THE
'SPECTATOR:1 feel that I can rely upon your courtesy and sense of fairness to allow me to reply to some aspects of the state- ments made and opinions expressed in your last issue with regard to my purchase of the Standard ; and I trust that, if I am not encroaching too much on your space, you will permit me at the same time to reply briefly to some other assertions that have been made both in the Press and on the platform.
I do not complain in the least of the chagrin which has been felt and expressed at the fact that a newspaper which has latterly been a bold exponent of Free-trade theories should pass under the control of one who has not shown marked enthusiasm for them; but I do feel that I have every right to protest against some of the assumptions made by yourself and others.
The notes which dealt with the matter in your last issue con- tained the following sentence:—" Men feel that the saner and more moderate Conservative elements in the nation have been deprived of their one remaining representative in the London daily Press." Mr. Winston Churchill said in a recent speech :— " The group of able writers who had exerted so much influence was scattered ; their places were filled by the obedient scribes of a mammoth Trust." These statements are typical of many which have been made elsewhere. I venture to characterise that of the Spectator as being, to say the least of it, unfairly premature, while that of Mr. Winston Churchill is a deliberate untruth.
It is my firm intention to preserve in every way the tone which has distinguished the Standard up to the present. My association with other publications does not prevent me from thoroughly appreciating the dignified role played by the Standard The assumption that I purpose to lower the style and tone of the Standard is quite baseless. It is Utopian, I suppose, to hope that political opponents will believe this to be the case, but perhaps the fact that Mr. Sidney Low and Mr. Richardson Evans, who have been responsible for the leading articles for some twenty years, have entered into arrangements with me to remain on the staff for long terms; that Mr. S. H. Jeyes, who has been with the paper for thirteen years, and assistant-editor for the last five, has agreed to retain that position, with even larger responsibility than he has had in the past ; and finally, that so trusted and responsible a publicist as Mr. H. A. Gwynne has accepted the editorship, will convince the public of my deter- mination to adhere to old Standard traditions.
As for Mr. Winston Churchill's misstatement, I wish to correct it, not because I attach any great importance to this or any other utterance of that eminent statesman, but because of the publicity which has been given to it by the Press. No writer on the Standard staff has left. Mr. Curtis, the only member of the editorial staff who has gone, has not written in its columns for some fifteen years.
Then is it fair to talk or write of the creation of a "Newspaper Trust" ? My newspaper organisation, to which the Standard is the latest addition, is no more a Trust than is Lloyds Bank, the Gordon Hotels, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Sons, or any other great business which has branches in different parts of the country.
The fact that I have succeeded in extending my business rapidly seems for some occult reason to give serious offence to certain of my critics. If some of their assertions were true, I grant that there would be cause for adverse criticism. They say, for example, that my newspapers profess different principles in different parts of the country. This is not so. Every daily newspaper for which I am responsible—and I am connected with none for which I am not responsible in great issues—advocates the same views on subjects of national importance.
Finally, I should like to touch upon some purely personal matters. I trust that I may be excused an appearance of egotism. It is difficult to speak about oneself without this. I am not—as some people seem to think I ought to be—in the least ashamed of having been the manager of a great business, of which Tit-Bits was the principal production, when I was nineteen years old, nor of having made an independent start by the production of Pearson's Weekly a few years later. Neither can I see that there is anything terrible in the fact that I am only thirty-eight to-day. I know that to some minds it is almost a crime to attain success while one is young; but I believe that both in this respect, and in that of having begun with comparatively small things, I do not differ from many others who have arrived at some prominence both in our own and in former days.
Will you allow me finally to say that I have neither the time nor the desire to reply to hostile criticism in detail, and that I trust that those who have seen fit to express adverse views as to my association with the Standard will think it fair to give publicity to this letter ?
—I am, Sir, &c., C. ARTHUR PEARSON.
The "Standard," Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
[We publish Mr. Pearson's letter, and appreciate the candour with which he writes. He is quite mistaken, how- ever, in thinking that we desired to make any personal attack upon him, or on the newspapers he conducts. Nor do we for a moment suggest that he "purposes to lower the style and tone of the Standard." He may sustain that style and tone to the utmost, and yet we venture to declare that in aban- doning its position as the representative in the daily Press of the Conservative Free-traders the Standard will cease to represent "the saner and more moderate Conservative elements in the nation,"—for those are the elements repre- sented by such men as the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Goschen, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Lord George Hamilton, Lord James of Hereford, and Mr. Ritchie, to name only those who have attained to Cabinet rank. Mr. Chamberlain and the Tariff Reform League, and those who supported Sir John Cockburn in West Monmouth—the candidate who advocated payment of Members, Disestablishment, and other extreme measures—do not, and cannot, in our opinion, represent "the saner and more moderate Conservative elements in the nation," however sound and polished the style in which they carry on their propaganda. We would indeed say quite as strongly of the Times as of the Standard under its new Pro- tectionist banner that it does not represent "the saner and more moderate Conservative elements in the nation," though the style and tone of the editorial contributions to the Times are as high as ever from the point of view of literature and culture. As to Mr. Pearson's youth, it is not a ground for condemnation, but the reverse. That his energy and his business capacity should have brought him success so early is a subject for congratulation; but that youth and that success cannot make extreme opinions moderate, or render a Chamberlain and Tariff Reform League organ a fitting
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