The Press: British Boomlet

A vigorous believer in Anglo-American hands-across-the-sea is British Press Titan Lord Beaverbrook (born plain William Maxwell Aitken). Last week, when U. S. Publisher Frank Ernest Gannett arrived in London, Lord Beaverbrook’s friendly hand had a distinctly ham quality about it. Speaking through his Daily Express and Evening Standard his lordship found Mr. Gannett eminently qualified to be President, handed him the nomination. “In two years, Gannett may be the President of the U. S.,” warned the Standard.

Cherubic, 61-year-old Nominee Gannett, who publishes a string of 19 wholesome family newspapers, mostly in upstate New York, promptly accepted: ”No American could refuse the nomination for the Presidency.” He even offered a platform: “I should reverse the Roosevelt policy and compose a constructive program to restore prosperity, bring employment to the idle, lessen the burden of taxation and encourage business and the growth of abundancy.”

In London, Publisher Gannett’s candidacy immediately hit a snag. “Bang the trumpet and blow the drum,” began a sarcastic attack in Sir Walter Layton’s pro-New Deal Star. “For the first time in history, an American Presidential boom—or boomlet—has been started in London.” In the U. S., Columnist Heywood Broun gave Candidate Gannett “Hindiana, Hiowa and Harkansas.” In Manhattan, the Daily News chortled: “If Lord Beaverbrook has his way . . . and Roosevelt runs against him—boy, what a dish Gannett will be!”