FAMOUS WEEKLIES

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20198, 28 March 1931, Page 13

FAMOUS WEEKLIES

THE CAREER OP THE "NATION." (aPKa*.LLT WRITTSH TOR THS PRB88.) [ByChfHANO.] | "I ' ' ®° f e ;' Na tion» which has kept the veara , al * sm %ing \ for so ma*y LJJ beea merged i n the' rather more left wing" weekly, the "New Statesman," and there will be regret and ST ln mn V minda where in<s ua and sesthetic interests have a place. There will be regret for the passing of a separate entity that has H ° for tonest £olitics and god criticism and sound writing, and apprehension lest this process ctf merglnS go further still. Those who take 8 * nt ® rest in Bu °h things know well what the tendency is in daily journalism; there are fewer newspapers in London than there were thirty years ago. A similar trend is Noticeable in the ® e *d of ■ weekly journalism. The "NaS + J SO K *l ad absorbed the "Speaker" and[the Athenaeum," and now itß own title becomes subordinate to that of the younger "New Statesman." The new journal is to be called the'"New Statesman and Nation," which is a mouthful, in one quarter at least there will be wifo+u ! e J oi , cin ?- Some years ago, when the intellectual weeklies had been ? T oth [ ng particularly nasty about the Northcliffe Press, Lord Northother Lord Botherinero, Retorted with a comparison of circulations. _ He said either that the circulation of all these "high-brow" concerns, or of one particular weekly—X forget whether it was one or all; but it oes not matter—did Hot amount to more than thirty thousand, which, j course, ' compared with the million and three-quarters of the "Daily Mail" ei _ n °thmgof the great totals ot «.i!f Carmclite House publications—mere trifle. Carmelite House ita s -? c it Was natural that head should look contemptuously on the circulations of, these weeklies. What influence should they haveP It is highly, probable, however, that ul th f of the "Nation" aikl the Spectator 1 exercise far piore influence xn proportion to circulation «T? n -i fe® 8 "Daily Mail" or the .Daily Express." I have read that th e ll c ?> "Westminster Gaaotto under J, A, Spender was never more thai; the almost incredibly low figure or twenty thousand, but it was "cognised by - all Parties that the • _ Westminster" was very v influential indeed. - prominent Unionists admitted that they had to read the "Westminster" to keep themselves' up .to date, _ So it is with the 'lManchester Guardian ' and the intellectual London weeklies. Their power is not to be measured by the number of persons who read them at first hand.' Their opinions percolate through the minds pf influential readers and journalists all over the Empire into the, general community. Probably there is ,not a newspaper office in Britain or the Dominions where English and foreign politics' are taken seriously that is without a file t of the. "Guardian" and one or two of these 'weeklies. Their . point, of view, which is that of trained observer# and not that of ignorant and power-seeking proprietors, is indispensable. The history of this kiijd of weekly journalism in Britain is long and very honourable. One historian remarks that in its early days the "AthenteuraJ' set up a. record of'practical achievewhich daily, papers of great cir- , caption to-dftjt , might .envy. ~ It. ''pi^janisod. 1 fosters, atid .assisted to i success" the franklin relief expedition, the establishment of the' Public Record. Office, penny banks,. mechanics institutes, sanitary, prison. and h&usihg reforms. and the expositibn oft 1851. But the intellectual weekly as we know it, the journal that openß with, an .able apd nungently. spiced summary of the peek's news ana epes on to, pointed ftndi schplarly comment .in le'admg Articles, and literary musical and dramatic criticism, .may be said in soune. respects at ■ any rate to. date

from the establishment of the "Saturday Review." No other review can ever have had so brilliant a band of contributors as the ''Saturday" iu its early, prime. Think of Vernon Harcourt, Robert Cecil (Lord Salisbury), E. A. Freeman. .lames Fitzjames Stephen, Sir Henry Maine, and John Morley in the same team, its very , name was once a terror, and one might have said of it what was said of a famous Master of Trinity; "He casteth forth his ice like morsels. Who is able to abide his frost"? The "Saturday" not only made a great name for itself, but it stirred rival weeklies out of their ruts and made them overhaul their methods. It was after this that the "Spectator" took a new lease ot life under Meredith Townsend and K. H. Huttori, and became "the educated Englishman's lav preacher and in-, structor in all the higher interests ot ethics and theology, as in sooiety and statesmanship of the time." Though he was inferior to these men intellectu- ' ally, the late J. St. .Loe Strachey carried on the tradition, and to take the "Spectator" continued to be part of the whole duty of a certain type of Englishman at home and abroad. With the "Spectator's" admirable summaries. , leading articles, correspondence, and reviews, and the weekly edition of "The Times," the exiled # Englishman could follow affairs fairly closely. - . Strachey had certain mannerisms of thought and style that irritated, and they provoked the gibe from Mr A. G. Gardiner that So and So had incurred that subtlest of rebukes, praise from the "Spectator," but he was a fine journalist and a fine man. "Weekly journals are subjected to trials similar to those that beset daily papers; In these days of higher costs and increasing competition from outside their own ranks, they find it harder to livp. Several have died. Some live because they are really propaganda publications. The strangest of all these was probably the "Now Age," which existed to convert England to guild socialist!}. Orage, the editor, a remarkalble mati;- took a nominal salary, and the contributors, k who included eminent men, wrote for nothing. "CMC's Weekly" was at one time on its deathbed, but it (survives, and one suspects that a good deal' of the money that "G.K.C." makes by contributing to the gaiety of nations goes into it. Other journals died because they have got into the wrong hands. Tjie future-of the "Saturday" will be watched with interest. After falling from its high estate and changing hands more than once, it fell into really capable guidance, And was brilliantly written by one of the most gifted staffs in England. Then the proprietors foolishly swung it oyer to Lord -Besiverbrook, and the staff, went out and founded the "Week-End Review." Possibly the success of this has had something to do with the present amalgamation. The f 'Nation had a really great editor in Massingham, whose chief defect was that he was a prig. Intellect tual superiority is the besetting sin of this sort of journalism. The "Spectator" has always been, less lively than the/'Nation," but it,seems to have morq sympathy for the ordinary man. Especially to those old-fashioned enough to Delieve in the Imperial destiny of Britain, the "Nation" since Massingham 's time has .been more pleasant it has been more of an organ of Liberalism, whereas the old ** Nation." was moving further to the left. The "New Statesman" has been a bit of® mystery. It was originally identified with the Labour and • Socialist movements, and the Webbs were mentioned as having an interest, but the paper . had a sprightliness and humour that did not suggest the Sidney-Beatrice-Blue Book partnership. It seems to have moved some , distance to the right, I can hardly imagine a stronger indictment pf. the..-evils of -Indian -social lifted. aa depicted: in '' Mother India'' and as constituting a bar to self-government, than that which appeared in the "New Statesman." Men and women of all Parties who care for the intellectual life and who wish to see a healthy independent journalism maintained outside the great newspaper, combines, will wish the <*New Statesman and Nation" every suecess.. It would be a national calamity if journals like this, where able meik can write on the great problems of the day independently and in comparative leisure, and •-where style is valued, were to disappear. It is significant that the board of the new journal includes Mr J. M. Keynes. Weekly journalism has its own field, and even if English daily journalism we?e in a much more condition ; than it is, it would be necessary for | this field* to be cultivated. , 1