John Walker Harrington's interest in technology was evident in this article which appeared in Scientific American during World War I. |
John Walker
Harrington, an enterprising reporter who blew into New York City during the
heyday of yellow journalism in the 1890s, came equipped with a big ego.
In college
he’d torn up the competition in oratorical contests. He composed sly poems about his friends, pushing
caricatures to the limit. His writing dominated
the student newspaper and yearbook.
Still, everyone
seemed to like him.
At
Harrington’s 1887 wedding, it reflected well on the groom to have as his best
man Samuel Hopkins Adams, an up-and-coming muckraker who wrote for the
esteemed magazine, McClure’s.
Popular Science Monthly (1918) |
It was Harrington’s
good fortune to hit his stride during World War I when editors were looking for
his particular brand of story – technological innovation and the expansion of
government and industry:
Hudson
Under-River Roadway: Chief Engineer Talks of Plans and Prospects for the
40-foot Tunnel with Three Lines of Traffic Each Way
Police
Force Expands as its Duties Increase; Nerve Center of City at Headquarters
Utilizes Motor Cars, Telephones, Radio and Special Street Signals
Yet there
was a downside to the kind of in-depth reporting in which Harrington specialized,
and he recognized it even as he celebrated his own success.
As the public consumed ever greater amounts of information about how business and government worked, complacency gave way to
questions. Rumors spread. Organizations, corporations and individuals lost absolute control of how they were perceived by the world.
Dividends, reputations, and fortunes could be erased by a single newspaper article.
Popular Science Monthly (1928) |
Consequently,
Harrington began to pay attention to how his services might be used to balance negative
publicity. He designed a pitch and sent
out dozens of letters, emphasizing his knowledge of the inner workings of the
press with the implication that he could manipulate coverage.
For example,
in 1917, after the imperturbable New-York Historical Society confronted the
unthinkable – an attack on its leadership by one of its own starchy members –
Harrington wrote to the director suggesting that the museum might need some
help holding onto its aristocratic image.
New-York Historical Society flap: New York Times; January 3, 1917 |
The Society
declined Harrington's help, but he had great luck in the business sector.
By 1919, he
was running a news service for the American Chemical Society, a trade
organization eager to calm fears about toxic gases, the use of X-Rays and
fertilizer, problems with the nation’s milk supply, and other public concerns.
Harrington
had a particular interest and faith in science and scientists, so he was a
natural to write about the benefits of industrial research. His topics ranged from electrification of the
railroads, to the extraction of all-important potash from rock deposits, to building
cheaper, more comfortable shoes. His
articles were always upbeat.
Popular Science Monthly (1922) |
Harrington
did not invent the art of public relations.
That honor
went to Ivy Ledbetter Lee, a Princeton graduate and publicity expert. Lee began reshaping the unsavory image of the
Rockefeller family in 1914 after the Ludlow Massacre, when John D. Rockefeller
Sr. ordered a Colorado militia to break a strike by the United Mine Workers. Nineteen
men, women, and children were killed.
Harrington
flourished in the world of flackdom, which would become a derogatory term for PR. He also continued to write for himself.
In July 1924
American Magazine, a popular interest monthly, published a story by Harrington:
“His Most Valuable Contract was the One He Didn’t Get.”
Here’s the
teaser: “By speaking well of a rival firm, James G. White, when he was a young
engineer, lost a big contract but gained some bigger friends.”
And here’s
the first line: “Two men stood facing each other in the office of an Omaha
smelting plant.”
No one sets
a scene like that anymore.
"Chemistry's Greatest Rally" Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (1921) |
*John Walker
Harrington died in Connecticut in 1952.
See part 1 - 10/9/10.
https://www.throughthehourglass.com/2019/11/hitting-his-stride.html
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