A GREAT AMBASSADOR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12857, 24 December 1912, Page 6

A GREAT AMBASSADOR.

MR WHITELAW REID

One of America's best diplomatists, White-law Reid, whose death was recorded a few days ago, graduated to the Avorld of international affairs from tho strenuous school of American journalism. Born in 1837, he was tho editor of ia provincial paper at the early age of 21, and in 1868 moved on to the editorial staff of the " New York Tribune," 'becoming managing editor in 1869. From 1872 to 1905 he was editor-in-chief and chief proprietor of the great metropolitan ' daily. Early in his career as editor of the "Tribune," he was offered the appointment of United States Minister to Germany, and twice he refused the honour, but in 1889 he went to Paris on behalf of his Government, and stayed there for three years. In 1892 he was Republican nominee for the vice-presidentship, and in 1897 travelled to London as Special Ambassador of the United States to the jubilee of the late Queen Victoria. Since 1805 he has been Ambassador to England.

His stay in England has been marked by a friendship between the two countries that did not exist in so fervent a manner before. Mr Whitelaw Reid, at Dorchester House, his magnificent Park Lane house, became one of the bestknown hosts of Great Britain, and the palatial house was the scene of many brilliant gatherings at which the high representatives of diplomacy and politics, and Royalty as well, were often present. The late Ambassador was an extremely wealthy man. Beside the fortune that he made from his newspaper, he married a daughter of the late Darlotis Ogden Mills, one of America's multi-millionaires, and the sittiaigs of his social functions were always remarkable for the amount of money spent upon them*

He was a kindly mail, and particularly so in'his dealings with newspaper men. Representatives of London newspapers, whose duty it is to call at the embassies, or who otherwise came in contact with him, always found him willing to tell them what he could, and he inculcated this trait into the secretaries of the embassy, so that a visit to the American Legation was often the genesis of a good news "story." Mr Whitelaw Reid has put many a wellknown pressman into the way of becoming a success at his profession. When all London was astir over the marriage of Mr Nicholas Longworth and Miss Alice Roosevelt, the papers gave columns and columns of matter to the event, and one enterprising journal sent a member of its staff chasing round London in a taxi-cab following Miss Roosevelt's motor car, and finding out what she was buying for her trousseau. The items were published in detail. The idea came from the Embassy. Mr Whitelaw Reid was ia great clubman. He belonged to 22. He was also one of the pioneers of the erection of skyscrapers. In 1873 he built on the site of the old "Tribune" offices the biggest building to date in New York. Ho had the foresight to see what an inestimable value mechanical typesetting would be to the neAvspaper proprietor. Having formed a syndicate to purchase undeveloped mechanical inventions bearing on this point, the linotype machine, now in common use, wias designed and placed in his office. As" an author, Mr Whitelaw Reid was also well known. "After the War" (he was the United States Commissioner to the Paris conference for the treaty between the States and Spiain) was one of his books, and he also wrote "Ohio in the War," with works giving the details of his experiences as a war correspondent. Ho gave to the world "Problems of Expansion," and wrote numerous magazine articles.