J. R. RATHOM

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 152, 24 December 1918, Page 2

J. R. RATHOM

EDITOR AND SECRET SERVICE MAN AN AUSTRALIAN BORN LONG CAREER' OF ADVENTURE. Few> individual journalists have created more "stir" during the war than John Revelstoke Rathom,, the editor of the Providence (Massachusetts) Journal, which published a long series of extraordinary revelations regarding the. German machinations in the United States. His enterprising and daring work was a powerful factor, in arousing the country to the truth regarding the trickery of the German officials in Washington, and was characterised by ingenuity and adventures as extraordinary as those of a sensational film drama.- : " Who is this Rathom? writes Sir F. A. Russell, ,iv the Sydney Sun. Who heard of him before the war? How did he come by that devil-may-care humour < that pitchforked him into the career that made him famous? — The answer to the last question is that he always had the soul of the adventurer. The man who was to achieve the distinction of rousing 'the United States to a sense of the danger she stood in ,from the Hun invasion was appropriately enough ushered into the world on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He was born on 4tli July, 1868, in Melbourne. ■ A Melbourne public school, Scotch College, began his education, aiid a school in England, almost as famous, completed \t, for he entered Harrow after he left Australia, While he was yet at school he felt the double itch of the wanderlust and the pernicious desire to wield the pen of a. journalist The unfortunate boy was soon to have tastes gratified to the full.' He was only a lad of 18 when the war in the Soudan broke out, and gave him the opportunity to commence a life of adventure which has never ceased. The Melbourne Argus conferred on him the title of War Correspondent, and he saw the trouble through as the accredited representative of that paper Australia was too tame for his restless, driving spirit, and when he was 20 an opportunity came to him which he embraced with enthusiasm The Bunbury Expedition to New Guinea was just starting, and Rathom joined the iittle party, and for the next few months groaned and sweated in the vapor bath whose name is Papua. Perhaps he had had his fill of tropic heat, though not of adventure, for less than two years afterwards he was freezing in Alaska,, a member of'the party led by that fine Ameyi-' can sailor, Lieutenant Schwatka, whose name has been carved so deeply in the history of Alaskan Exploration. 'The world must have seemed a very tame place to Rathom .after that strenuous year 1890. Nothing was stirring, and he remained in journalism, " waiting, for hell to pop." It duly popped, Cuba being the corner where the lid blew off. The Chicago Herald, being curious to inform its readers of the process of putting the lid on again, sent Rathom as its war correspondent to explain how. This he did with excellent effect, for he was promotsd\to 3taff correspondent on the Chicago Record-Herald on his re-

There followed a quiet -period, and. sines he could not find fresh adventures he busied himself in writing of those he had bad, antV:American magazines bear witness to' Mi)'activity and his powers of description,.. Then came fresh excitement, this time in industrial warfare, for he, was selected during the big meat strike in 1904 to present the case for the masters. His intervention helped materially in settling the strike. In 1912 he became editor and general manager of the Providence Journal, .the position he holds to-day,- which he has made a voice for the Allies, trumpeting the faith for which our men have died, in, tones so arresting that even, the, hostile party in the States has been forced, to listen.. He is the most quoted leaderwriter, in the Eastern States, and for two years the phrase "the Providence Journal will say to-morrow " was practically in stereo in hundreds of .-journals, while' editions, of. the biggest dailies have 'been kept back to enable readers'Ao see what John Revelstoke Rathom, Australian fighter out of uniform, and sound British patriot, had to remark, about the unspeakable Hun at the gate of the United States, ■