Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/567

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BURNAND—BURNS, JOHN
525

in 1915, an order barring unneutral envelopes and cards from the mails, and after America became a belligerent he instituted a censorship designed to suppress treasonable and seditious news- papers. The purpose was reasonable, but it was impossible to draw an ideal line and the result was a general alienation of the press. Later he introduced the " zone system," whereby postage on second-class mail was charged according to distance. In Aug. 1918 the telephone and telegraph systems were taken over temporarily by the Government and their control vested in the postmaster-general. He was an avowed advocate of permanent Government ownership of the telegraph and tele- phone, and in Dec. 1918 urged legislation to that end. In Nov. 1918, five days after the Armistice was signed, he took over the cables. He aroused the hostility of labour by his opposition to organization and strikes among postal employees. As early as 1913 he had urged repeal of the law allowing them to organize. He was interested in extending the parcel post, and worked for the promotion of aerial mail service.


BURNAND, SIR FRANCIS COWLEY (1836-1917), English humorist (see 4.848), died at Ramsgate April 21 1917.


BURNET, SIR JOHN JAMES (1859- ), Scottish archi- tect, whose father was an architect in Glasgow, was born in that city in 1859, and was educated at the Western Academy, enter- ing the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1874. He passed three years in the studio of Pascal, whose direction and guidance had a strong influence on his future design. After his return to Glasgow Burnet's first important commission was the Royal Institute of Fine Arts, the beginning of a series of important public buildings in various places in Scotland. Amongst these are the offices for the Clyde Navigation Trust, the Glasgow Athenaeum, the Pathological Institute an extension of the Glasgow Infirmary and the lay-out and building for the International Exhibition at Edinburgh, in 1886. He carried out also much ecclesiastical work, notably the Barony church at Glasgow and churches at Arbroath, Brechin and Larbert. Amongst the larger business buildings designed by Burnet are the head office of the Union Bank of Scotland, and in London the important completion of the Selfridge premises, in collaboration with J. E. Graham, of Chicago. Entrusted with the addition of the new galleries at the back of the British Museum, a work which eventually took him upwards of nine years, Burnet, with a view of informing himself as to the conditions of museum design elsewhere, visited in 1895 various European galleries Paris, Berlin, Vienna and others. In the following year he visited the United States, in order to obtain information for his designs for new laboratories for Glasgow University. He was knighted in 1914, and among his other honours were the LL.D. degree at Glasgow, and membership of the Institut de France, the Societe Central des Architectes Francais, and the American Institute of Architects.


BURNETT, FRANCES ELIZA HODGSON (1849- ), American writer (see 4.853), published in 1911 The Little Princess, a Play for Children and Grown-Up Children, in Three Acts. Her other later writings include My Robin (1912); T. Tembarom (1913); A Lady of Quality (1913); The Lost Prince (1915); The One I Know the Best of All (1915); The Little Hunchback Zia (1916); The Way to the House of Santa Claus (1916), and The White People (1917).


BURNHAM, EDWARD LEVY LAWSON, 1ST BARON (1833- 1916), English newspaper proprietor, was born in London Dec. 28 1833. His father, Joseph Moses Levy (d. 1888) who married Esther Cohen, was managing proprietor of a paper manufacturing and printing company and proprietor of the Sunday Times. Edward Levy, who took the added surname of Lawson in 1875 in accordance with the will of an uncle, Lionel Lawson, was educated at University College school, London. On leaving school he entered his father's business, and there received a thorough training in the printing and paper trades. In June 1855, immediately after the stamp duty on newspapers had been removed, the Daily Telegraph and Courier (see 19.559) was started by Colonel Sleigh. In September it was acquired by Mr. J. M. Levy, in liquidation of the debt due to him for paper and printing. Edward Levy, who was already dramatic critic of the Sunday Times, now became editor of the Daily Telegraph, and 30 years later its managing proprietor and sole director. It was not until 1903 that he relinquished this position to his eldest son. He took a leading place in English journalism, and was largely instrumental in getting the paper duty abolished in 1861. He was more than once president of the Institute of Journalists, and was active in his support of press charities, especially as trustee and treasurer to the Newspaper Press Fund. In 1909 he presided over the first Imperial Press conference, held in London; in 1920 his son similarly presided at the conference held in Canada. On Lord Burnham's Both birthday he was the recipient of an address signed by the leading journalists of the British Empire, the United States and many European countries, expressing their sense of his great services to journalism. He was created a baronet in 1892 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Burnham in 1903. He married Harriette Georgiana (d. 1897), daughter of the actor Benjamin Webster (see 28.459). He died in London Jan. 9 1916.

His eldest son, HARRY LAWSON WEBSTER LAWSON, ist Vis- count Burnham (1862- ), was born in London Dec. 18 1862, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He represented W. St. Pancras in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892, E. Gloucestershire from 1893-5, ar >d Tower Hamlets from 1905-6, and again from 1910-6. He was also a member of the London County Council from 1889-92 and from 1897 to 1904, as well as mayor of Stepney 1908-9. He succeeded to his father's barony in 1916, and was created a viscount in 1919. In his position as editor and managing proprietor of the Daily Telegraph he did valuable work during the World War. In 1917 he was included in the first gazette of the new Order of Companions of Honour. He was hon. colonel of the Royal Bucks Hussars. He married in 1884 Olive, daughter of Gen. Sir Henry de Bathe, Bart., but had no son. The heir to the barony in 1921 was, therefore, his brother, Col. William Arnold Webster Lawson (b. 1864).


BURNHAM, DANIEL HUDSON (1846-1912), American architect, was born at Henderson, N.Y., Sept. 4 1846. At the age of ten he moved to Chicago, and was educated there and at Waltham, Mass. He worked as an architect in various offices in Chicago, and in 1871 formed a partnership with John W. Root. To them was entrusted the planning of the Chicago World's Fair (1893). On the death of Root this work fell wholly upon Burnham, who in 1891 formed with C. B. Atwood a partnership known as D. H. Burnham & Co. In 1894 he was elected president of the American Institute of Architects. His success with the Chicago World's Fair buildings soon led to his being called upon to design structures in many cities. Of these may be mentioned " The Rookery," the Great Northern hotel, the Masonic Temple, and the Railway Exchange, in Chicago; the " Flatiron Building," and new Wanamaker's store, in New York; the Pennsylvania railway station in Pittsburgh; Filene's store in Boston; the Union station in Washington and Selfridge's in London. He also was asked to propose plans for improving several cities, including Cleveland (1903), San Francisco (1905, after the earthquake), Chicago (1909), and Baltimore. In 1905 he was asked by the U.S. Government to design plans for cities in the Philippines, including Manila. He was made chairman of the national committee appointed for beautifying Washington, D.C. He died in Heidelberg, Germany, June i 1912.


BURNS, JOHN (1858- ), English politician (see 4.855), held the office of President of the Local Government Board for more than eight years, during which he underwent comparatively little hostile criticism save from his old friends of the Labour party. While resisting a policy of doles, he was zealous in forwarding substantial measures of social reform; but he did not take a prominent part in the great party disputes over the budget of 1909 and the Parliament bill. His activity and success in the administration of his department were recognized much against his own wish by the raising of the President's salary in 1910 from 2,000 to 5,000 a year; but his policy was thought