REITH the DICTATOR

Radio Record, 18 March 1938, Page 8

REITH the DICTATOR

Britain’s Mussolini of Radio Provides Red Meat for Biogapher Allighan A Review for the "Record" :

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MAROS

GRAY

HE history of radio broadcasting is one of the inost surprising and eventful stories of the post-war world, In little more than 15 years it has evolved from a stage in which it was little more than a scientific tey to a stage in which it is probably the most powerful instrument of education, entertainment and propaganda yet devised to influence humanity. In most countries this evolution has taken place at very much the tempo and pitch of the national character, but to those who know the English there is a surprising exception. In England broadcasting has evolved With the career of a dictator-John Charles Walsham Reith, son of a Presbyterian parson, who since his inauspicious appointment as General Manager of the strange little British Broadcasting Company in 1928, has hewn himself a place in public life almost as powerful and counsiderably more permanent than that of the Prime Minister of Iingland. Thorough and Direct HAVE just read the biography of Sir John Reith by Garry Allighan, and I imagine-as a result of a weekend of fascinated reading-that I know three hyndred per cent. nore about radio in general than when I. began. Allighan’s biography is not without its literary and factual faults. Its personal opinions are, here and there, annoyingly obtrusive and the less likely to be forgiven because, in the beginning of the book in particular, he permits himself a little naive and mildly hysterical propaganda for such emotional foibles as a belief in Spiritualism and (oddly!) predestination. Nevertheless, its amazing thoroughness and directness make Allighan’s biography of Reith a notable and valuable contribution to literature that purports to survey the contemporary scene. It is a book which should be read and well digested by everyone who has an Interest in radio’s policies and problems.

THERE is little doubt. that the BBC operates tly -most compreheusive consistently accurate and admirable broadcasting service in the world. Its standards are unvarying. Its audience exceeds, probably, 40,000,000 people ; therefore, Sir John Reith and God are to be thanked for the before-mentioned virtues. There seems little doubt that this tremendously powerful instrument is being used wisely, conservatively, and fairly to preserve the status quo-something which should make every true Englishman sleep sounder in his bed. So inextricably have the tentacles of broadcasting wound themselves among the rvots of modern English life that Allighan’s claim that Reith could, on more than one oceasion, have precipitated revolution seems but little exaggerated. But, instead of using that amazing machine of his either constructively or destructively, he has chosen to use it as the sheet-anchor to what already exists in the English social order. More Character Than Brains After reading Sir John Reith’s life history, there cau be little doubt that the British Broadcasting Corporation is his very own work-the material manifestation of the Reithian character and philosophy. Probably no organisation exists which is so much at one with the character of its founder and builder. A LLIGHAN depicts the BBC chief as a Scot with more A © : : : character than and But what character! Tis has ever been the enviable gift of ignoring enmity and opposition. He was long-sighted enough to know that the commodity he controlled monopolistically was a commodity which modern England could not afford to forgo. Had Sir John Reith been controlling a service which required "selling" he would, if one is to believe his biographer, have failed dismally. As it was he merely sat so tight on something that everybody wanted, doled it out so efficiently and inoffensively, that not even the politicians could shift him! Strangely Negative Genius | N the purveying of radio since 1923 there has indeed ‘ been work for genius-the strangely negative genius of this son of Scottish Covenanters. Garry Allighan tells the story of the organisation of the BBC breathlessly-for it is a story that might well take a less enthusiastic biographer’s breath. The machine as it now éxists is, in itself, faultless-so faultless that, in Mr. Allighan’s words, its announcers sound like gramophone recordings! ‘ Impressed as one with the Sphinx-like inviolability of Sir John Reith’s character, with (Count. on page 54.)

Dictator Reith (Continued from page 8.)

his canniness, his far-sightedness, and his burning enthusiasm for thoroughness in detail, there seems very little for the average enlightened (and therefore somewhat irresponsible) man to admire in him. Mr. Allighan paints him as, above all, righteous-religious almost to the point of intolerance, a teetotaller, a moral bigot and the prince of snobs, "FISHIS pernicious snobbery," he writes-in surprising vein after some 50,000 words of almost undiluted admiration-‘runs right through the organisation. ..- His (Sir John lteith’s) policy has been to make his ‘Directors’ believe that they are not _ just workers, but. Men with a Mission -and there’s no hypocrisy more calculated to turn a. decent sort.of a mortal into a despicable moral snob thanfor him to believe he has a Call to uplift his fellows. ‘Directors’ of the BBC have attained that eminence after having accepted the Reithian ideology : ‘Unless you are couvinced in your own soul that you are doing your duty to the world by working in the BBC for less than half the salary you would get elsewhere-don’t stay.’ " TILL, for all the irritating narrowness of a man who actually endeavours to interfere with the private lives of his staff-sacks them if they are seen tipsy off duty, or are the guilty parties in a divorce suit-one feels that British broadcasting to-day could be in far worse hands than those of a man who wrote these words of the Crawford Committee and meant them: "In broadcasting there is to hand a mighty instrument to fashion a public opinion, to banish ignorance, and a great deal of misery, ultimately to paralyse the agencies that make for war, to contribute richly and in many directions to the sum total of human happihess and well-being. ... As for the future, the main concern is that those basic ideals to which the BBC devoted every effort shall be safeguarded in the interests of the great Service which should play so considerable a part in the future of civilisation." The real snag is that there are many eminent men whose concept of civilisation differs very considerably from Sir John Reith’s, One is assured, however, that he will at least never try to alter things, ...,