Racism in the printed media

Alex Smith
Oct. 2003

Find evidence of racism in the first edition of The Daily Herald (1911). Why would racism surprise us in this paper?


Grandiloquent in style, the first issue of The Daily Herald dated 5th January 1911, reads more like a propagandist pamphlet than an informative newspaper. Indeed it was in fact initially a strike sheet compiled by London printers calling for a shorter, 48-hour week. The war-like and sometimes even racist idioms of this first edition are contrary to the socialist ideals and moral aspirations for which The Herald became renowned.

"On we march, then - we, the workers,
And the rumour that ye hear
Is the blended soul of battle
And deliverance drawing near,"

Peppered throughout with such war chants, the tone of the sheet is one of highly emotive belligerence. In fact, some of the rhetoric has even jingoistic undertones; quoted in the paper is a nationalistic 19th century music-hall song from w...