SUSPENSION OF THE "STANDARD.”

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11580, 22 May 1916, Page 2

SUSPENSION OF THE "STANDARD.”

JOU FtN A LIHTIC' VICTIM OE THE WAJt. STORY OR RISK AND FALL OK GREAT LONDON DAILY. • Tlut ’■!' audard depended cumulation ou Eriduy, .March 17th, Hmt iunao, lor the time, being ttm Inst. ’With it disappears one of tins most notable ol Iho Tory ~ organs of the country. Wo understand that the proprietors are taking stops to pro-ai-rvo the copyright of the title, tn l ess cataclystic times, writes a member of the stall', the nows would have caused some .sensation, inrttead of being' merely a ripple on the groat current of change. It was ■started in 1827 in the high Tory intores!, and with tho special aim of Opposing the removal of Catholic disabilities. As a morning paper it dates only from 1857 and as a penny paper from 1858. Its greatest influence and prosperity were reached under the managementand editorship of Mr Mudford, who directed it from 1878 until 1900 with remarkable ability'. Among those whom its suspension has thrown into unemployment is a veteran who began life on it 58 years ago, and who can remem bur the days when Lord Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salisbury, used to cross from the Temple and climb up the narrow stairs of Shoo Lane to v/Tito those incisive leaders in which he cultivated his natural talents for pungent expression ami luting irony Lord Robert had few acquaintances on the stall, hut one or two intimates, and he was accustomed to share a quantum of particularly potent hitler ale with one of the j other leader-writers. Years after, the marquis met. his old friend unuxfu'clcdly, and his first salutation was ‘ 1 Who pays for the beer to-night, Lilly V” RE KELT OK OH AN OK OK POLICY. Other well-known men connected in one capacity or another with the ; .Standard were Sir John Gnrst, Mr } Alfivd Austin, who used to tele- ' graph his leaders from his house ' near Ashford; George A. Homy, 1 .nil] beloved of hoy readers, and once famous for his war dispatches ; Mr t?. II .leyes, whocould ‘'smash’' an opponent in print as neatly as any of Thackeray’s Elect .Street bravos, and Mr Sidney Law, happily still with ns. The Standard's decline was hastened by its sudden change from Eree Trade to 'farin’ Reform principles. Bought by Mr C. Arthur Pearson tn 11)0-1, and run by a Diluted liability company under his chairmanship, it antlered many changes, but tiie attempts to modernise the paper i Wore not financially successful. , I

Finally the controlling interest passed to Mr Davison Dalvdel, M P., for Urixton, who was responsible for its policy until the uppointmuit of a Iteeeiver last March T)ie Standard, dying in its SSth year, is the first considerable journalistic victim ot the war. Twenty years aim its disappearance would have been as inconceivable as that, of the Hank of England, linder the proprietorship of Mr James Johnstone and the editorship of Mr .Hurray its influence was extraordinary Its foreign news service was the best in the world. The Standard ha u always had the reputation of being a dull paper, hut in its palmy days its editorial artillery, if a trifle heavy, was as effective as anything known before or since, and its news columns tsover cache wen what is now called “human interest,” When it meant to he crushing it usually succeeded. The Standard in the time of its prosperity was sumptuous in its ideas, it was probably the only paper in Victorian days to afford the luxury of an editor at i'.'aDO a year. That was Mr Medford’s salary, and ny the proprietor’s will it was secured to him for as long as he -cared to enjoy it.