work of other machines--and of nuclear energy for industrial power are
two of the principal adjustments that British industry must make. Each
will involve labor layoffs and shifts in working population. These are
important and difficult processes, and with the Communists on hand to
paint them in the darkest colors there will have to be common sense,
tolerance, and good will on the part of both management and labor. In
particular, the rank and file of British industry must be made aware
how important the changes are to the average worker and his family.
There is little use in publishing pamphlets, however admirable, if
the man for whom they are intended will not stir from in front of the
television set.
A comparison of some of the long-range economic plans laid down by
successive governments, Socialist and Tory, with the general attitude
of the man in the street leads to the conclusion that, whereas
government has been "thinking big," the governed have, in the main,
been "thinking small." There is in Britain little recognition of or
admiration for the truly impressive program for industrial use of
nuclear energy. By 1965 Britain expects to have nineteen nuclear power
stations in operation. These will be capable of generating between
5,000 and 6,000 megawatts, or about a third of the annual requirement
for generating capacity. It is estimated that the operation of these
nineteen stations can save the country eighteen million tons of coal
each year.
In addition to this basic program, the Atomic Energy Authority will
build six more reactors to produce plutonium for military purposes and
power for civil purposes. The total cost of the basic program alone
will be about £400,000,000 ($1,120,000,000) a year in the early 1960's.
The leaders of both Conservative and Labor parties believe that the
program is vital to Britain. Indeed, the foresight, imagination, and
ambition of the men at the top on both sides is one of the reasons why
the British economy, despite all its present weaknesses and future
difficulties, is a good bet to pull through. What is lacking is the
ability of any leader or party to evoke from the country the energetic
response necessary to meet and defeat the weaknesses and difficulties.
One instance of this lethargy on the part of either employers or
the industrial working class is their failure to respond to wider
educational advantages, especially in the field of technical knowledge.
Recognizing the necessity for greater technical education, the
government intends to spend £100,000,000 ($280,000,000) on technical
education from 1956 to 1961. Will the government and the people get
their money's worth in the present atmosphere?
Industrial research is on a much smaller scale in Britain than in the
United States. For years British industries thought it was cheaper
to buy patents abroad than to do their own research. As a result,
British technicians were lured abroad. Even today many industries are
indifferent if not openly hostile to the idea of "expensive" industrial
research.
The attitude of the new working class to education, technical or
otherwise, has been described earlier in this book. The boys, in the
eyes of their parents, need no more schooling than that given them
before they can leave school and go to work in the factory. The girls
need a little more if they are to graduate into the ranks of clerical
workers, but many girls, attracted by the independence offered by jobs
in mill or factory, leave school with their brothers.
Let me sum up some conclusions about the British economy:
_The drive for exports is not a passing economic phase but a permanent
condition. If wages and prices cannot be held down, Britain will be
priced out of her markets, and the standard of living of the working
class and of all other classes will fall._
_The ability of the country to meet the adjustments made necessary
by the revolution in the sources of industrial power and by the
introduction of new industrial techniques is gravely endangered by
the restrictive practices of both employers and labor, by interunion
bickering often arising from these practices, and by the prolonged and
vicious Communist attack on the trade-union structure._
_Neither among the middle class nor among the working class is there
sufficient awareness of the critical situation in which Britain finds
herself._
This is a somber picture. It is relieved, I think, by our knowledge
that the British are a surprising people. They are going through a
period of change in their society and of adjustment to their society's
place in the comity of nations. The very fact that they are changing
argues for them. The Britain of 1938 could not exist in the modern
world. The Britain of 1958 can be at the top.
Granted the indifference of the working class to politics and its
fierce reaction against anything that seems to threaten its newly won
ease, granted the middle class's penchant for the past, its out-worn
ideas--these are still a great people, tough, energetic, at heart
politically mature. And they believe in themselves perhaps more than
they are willing to admit. Their character, more than coal or sea power
or fortuitous geographical circumstances, made them great in the past.
It can keep them great in the future.
[Illustration]
XI. _The British Character and Some Influences_
_I am a great friend to public amusements, for they keep people from
vice._
SAMUEL JOHNSON
_I have never been able to understand why pigeon-shooting at
Hurlingham should be refined and polite while a rat-catching match in
Whitechapel is low._
T.H. HUXLEY
[Illustration]
Obviously there is great deal more to British society than political
and economic problems, although a casual visitor might not think so.
Visiting pundits find themselves immersed in the profundities of the
Foreign Office or following the ideological gymnastics of Socialist
intellectuals. Consequently, they depart firmly convinced that the
British are a sober, rather solemn people. These islanders, as a
matter of fact, are an exceptionally vigorous and boisterous lot and
have been for centuries. Their interest in diplomacy, politics, and
commerce is exceeded only by their devotion to cricket, beer, and
horse racing. Nor should we allow the deadening background to bemuse us
about the essential character of the British. The misty mournfulness
of the English countryside, the bleak inhospitality of a Midland city,
the eternal sameness of suburbia have failed to tame the incorrigible
robustness of the national character.
To know the British today one must know not only their government
and politics, their industry and commerce, but other aspects of life
through which the national character is expressed. The press, the
schools, the military services, sports and amusements, pubs and clubs
all are part of the changing British world. Each has been affected
by changes in the class structure. Each, in its way, is important to
Americans and their understanding of Britain. Opinion about the United
States in Britain is based largely on what Britons read in their
newspapers. And, whether or not Americans admire the class distinctions
inherent in the public-school system, perhaps a majority of the leaders
with whom the United States will deal in the future will be products of
that system.
THE PRESS:
THE THUNDERER AND THE TIN HORNS
A graduate of Smith, home from a stay in London, asked: "How can you
read those London newspapers? Nothing but crime and sex--I couldn't
find any news." Years ago Webb Miller, the great United Press
correspondent, advised me: "Read _The Times_ every day, read all of it,
if you want to know what is going on in this country and the world."
Both Webb and the young lady from Smith were right: the British press
contains some of what is best and a great deal of what is worst in
daily journalism.
Most Americans and many Britons, when they speak of the press, mean the
London daily and Sunday newspapers. The London papers concern us most
because they are national newspapers circulating throughout Britain and
influencing and reflecting opinion far beyond the boundaries of greater
London. One newspaper published in the provinces, the _Manchester
Guardian_, may be said to have national--indeed, world--standing. One
of the most influential, interesting, and well-written newspapers, it
can also assume on occasion a highly irritating unctuousness.
There are a large number of provincial newspapers--about a hundred
morning and evening dailies and Sunday papers, and about eleven hundred
weeklies. Many of them are read far more thoroughly than the London
"national" paper that the provincial family also buys.
Not long ago a British cabinet minister who represents a constituency
in the western Midlands told me his constituents "got their news
from the BBC, their entertainment from the London dailies, and their
political guidance from the principal newspaper in a near-by provincial
city." Other politicians have referred to the same pattern.
Because most London daily and Sunday newspapers circulate all over the
British isles, circulation figures are high by American standards. The
_News of the World_, a Sunday newspaper that built its circulation on
straight court reporting of the gamier aspects of British life, had a
record circulation of about 8,000,000 copies. Recently its circulation
has dropped slightly, a development that puzzles Fleet Street, for
there is no lack of sex, crime, or sport--or interest in them--in
Britain.
Of the London dailies, the largest in circulation is the _Daily
Mirror_, a tabloid whose circulation average between January and June
of 1955 was 4,725,122. The _Daily Express_, the bellwether of the
Beaverbrook newspapers, had a circulation of just over 4,000,000 during
the same period, and three other London dailies, the _Daily Mail_, the
_Daily Telegraph_, and the _News Chronicle_, all boasted circulations
of better than 1,000,000.
For every 1,000 Britons, 611 copies of the daily newspapers are sold
each day. Compare this with the United States figure of 353 per 1,000.
Britain is a good newspaper country, and the London press is lusty,
uninhibited, and highly competitive.
American newspapermen working in London customarily divide the press
between the popular newspapers, such as the _Daily Mirror_ and
the _Daily Mail_, and the small-circulation papers, such as _The
Times_ and the _Manchester Guardian_. The circulation of _The Times_
for January-June 1955 was 211,972 and for the _Guardian_ 156,154.
Similarly, on Sundays there is a division between the _Sunday Times_
(606,346) and the _Observer_ (564,307) and such mass-circulation
"Sundays" as the _Sunday Express_, the _Sunday Pictorial_, and the
_People_.
The distinction is not based primarily on circulation. _The Times_ and
the _Manchester Guardian_ and the _Daily Telegraph_ on weekdays and
the _Sunday Times_ and the _Observer_ on Sundays print more news about
politics, diplomacy, and world events than do the mass-circulation
papers. They are responsible and they are well written. The _Daily
Telegraph_, which has a circulation of over 2,000,000, is the only one
in this group whose circulation is in the "popular" field. But it has
given few hostages to fortune: its news columns contain a considerable
number of solid foreign-news items as well as first-class domestic
reporting.
The shortage of newsprint (the paper on which newspapers are printed)
has curtailed the size of British papers since 1939. Almost all
newsprint is imported, and with the balance of payments under pressure
the expenditure of dollars for it has been restricted. But the
situation has improved slowly and the London papers are fattening,
although they remain thin by New York standards.
Considering this restriction, the responsible newspapers do a
splendid job. Day in and day out the foreign news of _The Times_
maintains remarkably high standards of accuracy and insight. The
anonymous reporters--articles by _Times_ men are signed "From Our
Own Correspondent"--write lucidly and easily. _The Times_ has never
accepted the theory that involved and complicated issues can be boiled
down into a couple of hundred words with the nuances discarded. News is
knowledge, and no one has yet found a way to make it easy to acquire
knowledge.
But _The Times_, often called "_The Times_ newspaper," is a good deal
more than a report on Britain and the world. It is an institution
reflecting all British life. By reading its front page entirely
devoted to classified advertising one can get a complete picture of
upper-class and upper-middle-class Britain. In the left-hand columns
are births, deaths, marriages, and memorial notices. If an American
wants to understand how unstintingly the British upper classes gave
their sons and brothers and fathers to the First World War, let him
look at the memorial notices on the anniversary of the Battle of the
Somme. If he wants to see how hard-pushed these same classes are today,
let him read the painful, often pathetic admissions in the columns
where jewelry, old diplomatic uniforms, and the other impedimenta of
the class are offered for sale.
The editorials of _The Times_--the British call editorials "leaders" or
"leading articles"--are, of course, one of the most important features
in journalism. _The Times_ is independent politically, but it does its
best to explain and expound the policies of the government of the day.
Over the years since the war it has supported individual measures laid
down by Conservative and Labor governments and it has assailed the
policies of both the left and right when this has been conceived of as
the duty of _The Times_. The editorial writing in _The Times_ often
attains a peak of brilliance seldom achieved in any other newspaper.
For a time, especially in the period before World War II, "The
Thunderer," as it was once called, had become a whisperer. Recently
_The Times_ has spoken on national and international issues with its
old resonance and sharpness.
The influence of _The Times_ among politicians, civil servants, and
diplomats is extraordinary. It is, I suppose, the one newspaper read
thoroughly by all the foreign diplomats in London. As recently as the
spring of 1956 an editorial in _The Times_ discussing a reconsideration
of Britain's defense needs sent the German Ambassador scurrying to the
Foreign Office to inquire whether the editorial reflected government
policy. It did.
This influence is the result of _The Times_'s special position in
British journalism. The editorial-writers and some of the reporters
of _The Times_ often are told things that are hidden from other
reporters. Also, they are members in good standing of that important,
amorphous group, the Establishment, which exists at the center of
British society; they know and are known by the politicians, the key
civil servants, the ministers. Occasionally _The Times_ is used to test
foreign or domestic reaction to a measure under consideration by the
government. By discussing the measure in an editorial, _The Times_ will
provoke in its letter columns a wider discussion into which various
sections of public opinion, left, right, and center, will be drawn.
No other newspaper in the free world has a letter column comparable
to that of _The Times_. The first letter may be a sharp analysis of
government policy in Persia and the last the report by a Prime Minister
that he has seen a rare bird on a walk through St. James's park.
Some of the letter column's discussions touch on matters of national
interest. Others deal with the Christian names given to children or the
last time British troops carried their colors into action.
The _Manchester Guardian_, with a smaller circulation and a smaller
foreign staff, still manages to make its influence felt far beyond
Manchester. Its policies are those of the Liberal party and, as
the Liberal Party is now in eclipse, the _Guardian_ brings to the
discussion of national and international affairs a detached and
refreshing sharpness. Where _The Times_ occasionally adopts the tone
of a wise and indulgent father in its comments on the world, the
_Guardian_ speaks with the accents of a worldly-wise nanny. When the
_Guardian_ is aroused, its "leaders" can be corrosive and bitter. It
is less likely to support the foreign policy of the government of the
day than is _The Times_. Consequently, the _Guardian_ is liable to be
more critical than _The Times_ in dealings with the United States and
American foreign policy. (The Suez crisis was a notable exception.) But
it is well informed about the United States, and so are its readers.
In Alistair Cooke and Max Freedman the _Guardian_ has two of the
best correspondents now writing in the United States for the British
press. Their reports are long, detailed, and accurate, and Cooke, in
particular, never forgets that what a foreign people sees in its
theaters, reads in its magazines, and does on its vacations is also
news to the readers at home.
Such great provincial newspapers as the _Yorkshire Post_ and the
_Scotsman_ follow the conservative approach to news adopted by _The
Times_, the _Manchester Guardian_, and the _Daily Telegraph_. With
the responsible London dailies they serve the upper middle class and
are its most outspoken mouthpieces in a period when, as we have seen,
that class is being pressed by high taxation, the rising cost of
living, and the simultaneous development of a new middle class and a
prosperous working class. The _Sunday Times_, for instance, has devoted
many columns to the plight of the professional man and his family,
and all of these papers have reported at length on the appearance
of associations and groups devoted to, or supposedly devoted to,
the interests of the middle class and opposition to the unions that
represent the new working class.
The cult of anonymity has persisted longer in Britain's responsible
and reliable newspapers than in the United States. Although Fleet
Street knows the names of _The Times_'s reporters, the public does
not. Richard Scott, the Diplomatic Correspondent of the _Manchester
Guardian_, has no byline, nor has Hugh Massingham, the brilliant
Political Correspondent of the _Observer_. The influence wielded in
the United States by columnists still is reserved in Britain almost
entirely to the anonymous "leader"-writers of the responsible British
newspapers. Working with the editorial-writers are hundreds of
industrious, well-educated, experienced reporters. They are good men to
talk to and to drink with, and they are tough men to beat on a story.
But they and the newspapers they represent are not a part of the
bubbling, uproarious, pyrotechnical world of the popular London
dailies. Here is a circus, a daily excitement for anyone who enjoys
newspapers. The _Daily Express_, the _Daily Mail_, the _News
Chronicle_, the _Daily Herald_, the _Mirror_, and the _Sketch_ compete
hotly for news and entertainment. Their headlines are brash, their
writing varies from wonderfully good to wonderfully bad, and their
editorials are written with a slam-bang exuberance that is stimulating
and occasionally a little frightening. This is the true, tempestuous
world of Fleet Street.
In this world the great names are not confined to the writers and
editors. The publishers, called "proprietors" in Britain, tower over
all. Of these the most interesting, successful, and stimulating is
Lord Beaverbrook, who runs the _Daily Express_, the _Sunday Express_,
and the _Evening Standard_ with a gusto undiminished by seventy-eight
active years.
"The Beaver" occupies a unique place in British journalism and
politics. No one has neutral feelings about him. Either you like him
or you hate him; there is no middle course. I suppose nothing gives
him more satisfaction than knowing that when he arrives in London, men
in Fleet Street pubs and West End clubs ask one another: "What do you
think the Beaver's up to now?"
Is "what the Beaver is up to" really important? The enmity of the
_Express_, which is the enmity of Lord Beaverbrook, can make a
politician squirm. But does it really lower his standing with the
voters? I doubt it. Lord Beaverbrook is an incorrigible Don Quixote who
has tilted at and been tossed by many windmills. He is, incidentally, a
more powerful writer than most of his employees. Early in 1957 he was
prodding his newspapers to the attack against the government's plans
for closer economic association with Europe. The headlines were bold
and black, the indignation terrifying. Will the campaign itself alter
government policy? I doubt it.
Lord Beaverbrook once remarked that he ran his papers to conduct
propaganda. Just before the retirement of Sir Winston Churchill, Lord
Beaverbrook was asked why his newspapers were so critical of Sir
Anthony Eden, the heir presumptive to the premiership. He replied
that Sir Anthony had never supported the policies of the Beaverbrook
newspapers. As no other leading politician had thrown his weight that
way, this seemed a rather weak reason for attacking the new leader
of the Conservative Party. The political affiliation of the _Daily
Express_ is Independent Conservative.
But the Beaverbrook campaigns perform a real public service by
fixing public attention upon issues. I do not think the editorials
convince--I have yet to meet a _Daily Express_ reader who confused the
"leader" column with pronouncements from Sinai--but they encourage
that discussion of public issues which is essential in a democracy. Of
course the _Express_ newspapers' tactics annoy nice-minded people. But
the tradition of a free press includes not only such august journals
as _The Times_ but the rip-roaring, fire-eating crusaders as well.
There is not much chance that the popular press in Britain will model
itself on _The Times_, but if it did so, the result would be a loss to
journalism and to the nation. And as long as the Beaverbrook tradition
survives--as long, indeed, as Lord Beaverbrook himself is around to
draw on his inexhaustible fund of indignation--one section of the
popular press is bound to remain contentious and vigorous.
The _Daily Express_, the morning paper of the Beaverbrook empire, is
technically one of the best newspapers in the world. Its layout is
admirable, and its headline-writers often show a touch of genius. In
its writing and its presentation of news it has been much affected by
such divergent American influences as _The New Yorker_ and _Time_.
The _Express_ is brightly written (too much so at times), and its
tastes in policies and politicians are incalculable. Along with
a liberal helping of political, foreign, and crime reporting it
offers two of the best features in British journalism: Osbert
Lancaster's pocket cartoon on the front page and the humorous column
of "Beachcomber" on the editorial page. "Beachcomber" and Lancaster
are sharp and penetrating commentators on the daily scene. In many
instances their references to the occasional inanities of the British
society are more cogent than anything to be found in the editorial
columns of the _Express_.
The _Express_ successfully caters to the new middle class that has
arisen since the war, especially that part of it which is involved
in the communications industry. The young advertising manager from
the provinces who has "arrived" in London may find _The Times_ too
verbose and the _Telegraph_ too stodgy. The _Express_, with its bright
features on the theater or London night life, attracts him. But, oddly,
three principal features of the _Express_ cater to very different
tastes. Osbert Lancaster's subject matter is drawn usually from the
upper middle class--his Maudie Littlehampton, after all, is a Lady. The
humor of "Beachcomber" appeals to tastes that reject the average in
British humor, and Sefton Delmer, the peripatetic foreign correspondent
of the _Express_, often writes stories on international issues which
are much more involved and adult than would seem suitable for the
majority of the newspaper's four million readers.