C. P. Scott

C. P. Scott
Scott in 1919
Born	Charles Prestwich Scott (1846-10-26)26 October 1846 Bath, Somerset,UK
Died	1 January 1932(1932-01-01)(aged 85)
Alma mater	Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Occupation(s)	Journalist, editor
Spouse	Rachel Cook (1874–1905)
Children	Madeline Scott Laurence Scott John Russell Scott Edward Taylor Scott

Charles Prestwich Scott(26 October 1846 – 1 January 1932), usually cited asC. P. Scott,was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born inBath,Somerset,he was the editor ofThe Manchester Guardian(nowThe Guardian) from 1872 until 1929 and its owner from 1907 until his death. He was also aLiberalMember of Parliament and pursued a progressive liberal agenda in the pages of the newspaper.

Biography

Early years

Educated at Hove House and Clapham Grammar School,Scott studied atCorpus Christi College, Oxford.He took a first inGreatsin the autumn of 1869,then in 1870 went toEdinburghto train onThe Scotsman.While at Oxford, his cousin John Taylor, who ran the London office ofThe Manchester Guardian,decided that the paper needed an editor based in Manchester and offered Scott the post. Scott already enjoyed a familial connection with the paper; its founder,John Edward Taylor,was his uncle, and at the time of his birth Scott's father, Russell Scott, was the paper's owner, though he later sold it back to Taylor's sons under the terms of Taylor's will. Accepting the offer, Scott joined the paper as their London editor in February 1871 and became its editor on 1 January 1872.

As editor Scott initially maintainedThe Manchester Guardian's well-established moderate Liberal line, "to the right of the party, to the right, indeed, of much of its own special reporting".However, when in 1886 thewhigsled byLord Hartingtonand a fewradicalsled byJoseph Chamberlain,split the party, formed theLiberal Unionist Partyand gave their backing to theConservatives,Scott'sManchester Guardianswung to the left and helpedGladstonelead the party towards support for IrishHome Ruleand ultimately the "new liberalism".

Parliamentary career

C. P. Scott c. 1895

Bust of Scott in the offices ofThe Guardian,London

In 1886, Scott fought his first general election as a Liberal candidate, an unsuccessful attempt in theManchester North Eastconstituency; he stood again for the same seat in 1891 and 1892.He was elected at the1895 electionas MP forLeigh,and thereafter spent long periods away in London during the parliamentary session. His combined position as a Liberalbackbencher,the editor of an important Liberal newspaper, and the president of the Manchester Liberal Federation made him an influential figure in Liberal circles, albeit in the middle of a long period of opposition.He was re-elected at the1900 electiondespite the unpopular stand against theBoer Warthat theGuardianhad taken,but retired from Parliament at the time of the Liberallandslide victoryin1906,when he was occupied with the difficult process of becoming owner of the newspaper he edited.

Taking ownership ofThe Manchester Guardian

In 1905,The Manchester Guardian's owner, Edward Taylor, died. His will provided that the trustees of his estate should give Scott first refusal on the copyright of theManchester Guardianat £10,000, and recommended that they should offer him the offices and printing works of the paper on "moderate and reasonable terms". However, they were not required to sell it at all, and could continue to run the paper themselves "on the same lines and in the same spirit as heretofore". Furthermore, one of the trustees was a nephew of Taylor and would financially benefit from forcing up the price at which Scott could buy the paper, and another wasThe Manchester Guardian's manager, but faced losing his job if Scott took control. Scott was therefore forced to dig deep to buy the paper: he paid a total of £240,000, taking large loans from his sisters and from Taylor's widow (who had been his chief supporter among the trustees) to do so. Taylor's other paper, theManchester Evening News,was inherited by his nephews in the Allen family. Scott made an agreement to buy theMENin 1922 and gained full control of it in 1929.

His politics and relations with Government

While in London, he stayed at the central location ofNottingham Placefrom where he could gather news intelligence on European developments. Would the government declare war? Scott recorded that the German ambassador had been deceived into believing that Britain would stay outside the conflict. But liberal policy always accentuated one of "continuity" of free radicals at its heart.But for Scott the Cabinet remained too reticent to act, too timid, clearly an indication of his movement towardsMacDonaldandLabour.They espoused a pacifist position in Britain, which he was warned was "pro-German".He was a friend of the radicalCharles HobhouseMP, who was not in the War Cabinet.

Scott turned his paper into a pacifist weapon against entering the war, and he lobbied the cabinet as well. His leaders denounced a "conspiracy to drag us into a war against England's interests", arguing that it would amount to a "crime against Europe" and warning that it would "throw away the accumulated progress of half a century".On Tuesday, 4 August 1914 – the day the king declared war –David Lloyd Georgetold Scott, "Up until last Sunday only two members of the Cabinet had been in favour of our intervention in the war but the violation of Belgian territory had completely altered the situation".

Although a lifelong liberal, Scott had a troubled relationship with Lloyd George. Perhaps most instructive of his communicating skills was the introduction he made ofChaim Weizmannto Lloyd George. He struck up a remarkable friendship with the Jewish émigré, whose intellectual brilliance and business savvy was lately attracting the attention of even the Tory Press and senior ministers. Scott wrote regularly in theNew Statesmandealing frankly and openly with theSamuel Memorandum;they would all come together in Downing Street for a top-level summit on the Palestine Question.But Scott also investigatedSir Roger Casement.His story was linked toMichael Collins' Dublin builderBatt O'Connor,who more than any Irishman had served to hide Collins's presence from theRIC.In UlsterJoe Devlinwarned the Left of the impending violence should they not heed the warnings contained in the newspapers about the coming military occupation. TheCurragh incidenthad profoundly shocked the establishment in Ireland; on 27 July 1916 Scott would hold just a one-off meeting withGeneral Macready,Lord Readingand Lloyd George in the aftermath of theEaster Rising.

Scott was gregarious and frequently met at theReform Cluband with his left-wing friends at theBath Club.His membership involved serious friendships with other editors, includingG. Lowes Dickinson,but his closest political intimate was Irish leaderJohn Dillon.They shared a socialist ambition for home rule, pacifism, conscriptionismand feminism.

Senior political journalist

Under his stewardship theGuardiancontinued to grow with Lloyd George's influence overseeing its place at the top table. In one such famous interview the new Prime Minister gave his "fight to the finish" speech. Scott was responsible for recruiting the correspondentRobert Dellwhose role in Paris was to communicate on secret negotiations with theQuai D'OrsayandBureau Anglaisin a weekly column called "From Our Correspondent, Paris, Friday". Despite Lloyd George's objection to the reporter's anonymity there remained little chance of compromising their French colleagues in a city already renowned for prostitution. To the contrary,Thomas Spring Ricehis friend suggested that it had "a most excellent effect here."Scott became friendly withChurchill,a Liberal, and dined withLord Fisherbut remained essentially anti-Conservative. Nonetheless the War Office acknowledged the utility of civilians as contacts on the ground; Scott's opinion was solicited on anything from the strength of Irish war opinions to whether Churchill should be removed from office.

Views

In a 1921 essay marking theManchester Guardian's centenary (at which time he had served nearly fifty years as editor), Scott put down his opinions on the role of the newspaper. He argued that the "primary office" of a newspaper is accurate news reporting, saying "comment is free, but facts are sacred". Even editorial comment has its responsibilities: "It is well to be frank; it is even better to be fair". A newspaper should have a "soul of its own", with staff motivated by a "common ideal": although the business side of a newspaper must be competent, if it becomes dominant the paper will face "distressing consequences".

While supportingfemale suffrage,Scott was hostile to militantsuffragettesin his editorials, accusing them of employing 'every engine of misguided fanaticism in order to wreck, if it be in their power, the fair prospects of their cause'He was just as disturbed by theGeneral Strike of 1926,asking 'Will not the General Strike cease to be counted henceforth as a possible or legitimate weapon of industrial warfare'Irish rebels were authors of their own destruction, he thought. On the execution ofPadraig PearseandJames Connollyafter theEaster UprisinginDublin,he wrote that 'it is a fate which they invoked and of which they probably would not complain'.

Scott was a supporter ofZionism.

Final years

Scott remained editor of theManchester Guardianuntil 1 July 1929, at which time he was eighty-three years old and had been editor for exactly fifty-seven and a half years. His successor as editor was his youngest son,Ted Scott,though C. P. remained as Governing Director of the company and was at theGuardianoffices most evenings. He died in the early hours of New Year's Day 1932.

Family

In 1874, Scott married Rachel Cook, who had been one of the first undergraduates of the College for Women,Hitchin(laterGirton College, Cambridge). She died in the midst of the dispute over Taylor's will. Their daughter Madeline married long-timeGuardiancontributorCharles Edward Montague.Scott's eldest son Laurence died in 1908, aged 31, after contractingtuberculosis.His middle son John became theManchester Guardian's manager and founder of theScott Trust.Youngest son Ted, who succeeded his father as editor, drowned in a sailing accident after less than three years in the post. John and Ted Scott jointly inherited the ownership of the Manchester Guardian & Evening News Ltd.; after Ted's death John passed it on to the Scott Trust.

In 1882, having built a new house inDarley Dalein Derbyshire,Sir Joseph WhitworthleasedThe FirsinFallowfieldin Manchester to his friend C. P. Scott.After Scott's death the house became the property of theUniversity of Manchester,and was the Vice-Chancellor's residence until 1991. Scott used to travel into his Cross Street office by bicycle.

Scott was the grandfather ofEvelyn Montague(1900–1948), the Olympic athlete and journalist depicted in the filmChariots of Fire.Montague, like his grandfather, wrote for theManchester Guardian,and became its London editor.

Honours

Scott was made aFreeman of the CityofManchesterin 1930.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Hammond papers
• Lloyd George papers - contains a large number of letters and correspondence - British Library (BL).

Secondary sources

• Ayerst, David (1971).The Guardian: Biography of a Newspaper.London: Collins.
• Hammond, J. L. (1934).C.P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian.London: Bell.
• Lejeune, C. A. (1964).Thank You for Having Me.London: Hutchinson.(the author's mother was a friend of Scott)
• Scott, C. P. (1946).1846–1932: the making of the Manchester Guardian.London: Frederick Muller.(5 extracts from Scott's writings; 18 other contributions)
• Wilson, Trevor, ed. (1970).The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911–1928.London: Collins.

External links

• Hansard1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by C. P. Scott
• Comment is free, but facts are sacred:Scott's famous essay
• The Editorial Correspondence of C.P Scott in the Guardian Archive