W. T. Stead
Crusading British journalist, original member of Rhodes's secret society (1849-1912)
Also known as: Stead, W.T. Stead, William T. Stead, William Stead
William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) was a pioneering British investigative journalist — editor of the Northern Echo, the Pall Mall Gazette, and the Review of Reviews — and one of the three founding members of Rhodes's secret society as Quigley reconstructs it. In the 1873-1891 'preparatory period' of the The Milner Group, Stead is one of two central figures alongside Milner; in the 1891-1901 'Rhodes period' he is 'the most influential member' (AAE 4). He died on the Titanic in April 1912.
Life and journalism
Born in 1849 in Northumberland, the son of a Congregationalist minister, Stead made his name as editor of the Northern Echo (1871-1880) before moving to London in 1880 as assistant editor of the Pall Mall Gazette under John Morley. He succeeded Morley as editor in 1883 and held the chair until 1890, when he founded the Review of Reviews. Quigley summarizes him as 'an ardent imperialist, at the same time that he was a violent reformer in domestic matters' and 'one of the strongest champions in England of Cecil Rhodes' (AAE 11). His 1885 'Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon' campaign on child prostitution was the first modern investigative-journalism sensation.
The founding of the secret society
Quigley puts Stead at the heart of the 5 February 1891 meeting at which Rhodes's secret society was organized: 'The three men who were thus engaged were already well known in England. The leader was Cecil Rhodes... The second was William T. Stead, the most famous, and probably also the most sensational, journalist of the day. The third was Reginald Baliol Brett, later known as Lord Esher' (AAE 4). On the original organizational chart, 'in this secret society Rhodes was to be leader; Stead, Brett (Lord Esher), and Milner were to form an executive committee' (T&H 144). Stead had been Rhodes's most influential publicist in England from 1889 onward, when 'England's most sensational journalist William T. Stead (1849-1912), an ardent social reformer and imperialist, brought them into association with Rhodes' (T&H 144).
Anglo-American federation
Quigley credits Stead — not Rhodes — with the most expansive version of the federation idea. 'Stead was able to get Rhodes to accept, in principle, a solution which might have made Washington the capital of the whole organization or allow parts of the empire to become states of the American Union' (T&H 146). This was the most radical proposal Stead ever pushed: full Anglo-American institutional reunion. It never went beyond an internal discussion within the Junta of Three, but it set the rhetorical horizon that the Group's twentieth-century institutional architecture — Rhodes Trust, Round Table, RIIA, CFR — was built to approximate by gentler means.
Eclipse and death
Stead's prominence in the society ended with the Boer War, which he opposed on moral grounds. Quigley notes that 'in April 1900, a year after [Rhodes] wrote his seventh and last will, Rhodes was reprimanding Stead for his opposition to the Boer War, on the grounds that in this case he should leave such questions to the others' (AAE 30). After 1899 the Group's organization 'was so modified and so expanded by Milner after the eclipse of Stead in 1899, and especially after the death of Rhodes in 1902, that it took on quite a different organization and character' (AAE 5). Stead drowned on the Titanic on 15 April 1912.
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 4 Quigley
The second was William T. Stead, the most famous, and probably also the most sensational, journalist of the day. The third was Reginald Baliol Brett, later known as Lord Esher, friend and confidant of Queen Victoria, and later to be the most influential adviser of King Edward VII and King George V.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 5 Quigley
The organization was so modified and so expanded by Milner after the eclipse of Stead in 1899, and especially after the death of Rhodes in 1902, that it took on quite a different organization and character.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 6 Quigley
the first, from 1873 to 1891, could be called the preparatory period and centers about the figures of W. T. Stead and Alfred Milner. The second period, from 1891 to 1901, could be called the Rhodes period, although Stead was the chief figure for most of it.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 11 Quigley
the editor was John Morley, with William T. Stead as assistant. Stead was assistant editor in 1880-1883, and editor in 1883-1890. In the last year, he founded The Review of Reviews. An ardent imperialist.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 144 Quigley
England's most sensational journalist William T. Stead (1849-1912), an ardent social reformer and imperialist, brought them into association with Rhodes. This association was formally established on February 5, 1891, when Rhodes and Stead organized a secret society of which Rhodes had been dreaming.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 146 Quigley
Stead was able to get Rhodes to accept, in principle, a solution which might have made Washington the capital of the whole organization or allow parts of the empire to become states of the American Union.