1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Harvey, George

HARVEY, GEORGE (1864-), American editor and diplomat, was born at Peacham, Vt., Feb. 16 1864, and was educated at the Peacham academy. At the age of 18 he became a reporter on the Springfield (Mass.) Republican and later on the New York World. In 1885 he was appointed by Gov. Green of New Jersey as aide-de-camp on his staff, and was reappointed by Gov. Abbett. The latter also made him insurance commissioner of New Jersey in 1890. During 1891-4 he was managing editor of the New York World. Then for several years he was engaged in the construction of electric railways and in 1898 organized a syndicate which secured possession of the lines in Havana, Cuba. The following year he purchased The North American Review, which he thereafter edited for several years. During 1900-15 he was president of the publishing house of Harper & Bros., and during 1902-13 was editor of Harper's Weekly. In 1903 he purchased the Metropolitan Magazine. He was said to have been the first to suggest (in 1906) Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton, as a presidential possibility. In the campaign of 1912 he gave Wilson strong support; but after the latter's nomination an estrangement developed, due, as it was generally understood, to the fact that Wilson intimated that his cause was being jeopardized by Harvey's officiousness. In 1916 Harvey urged the election of Charles E. Hughes, the Republican candidate for president. He was strongly opposed to the League of Nations on the ground that it involved the yielding of national sovereignty. In 1918 he established The North American Review's War Weekly, later called Harvey's Weekly, which bitterly denounced the Wilson administration. He was present at the Republican National Convention of 1920, but not as a delegate, and was influential in the nomination of Senator Harding. In 1921 he was appointed ambassador to England by President Harding.