Bell, Edward Price, 1869-1943

Chicago reporter and foreign correspondent.

In 1900, Chicago Record publisher Victor Lawson asked Bell to manage the fledgling foreign news service of that newspaper, and Bell and his family relocated to London. When Lawson sold the Chicago Record a year later, its foreign news service transferred to the Chicago Daily News, and Bell remained in London for the next twenty-two years as overseas manager. During this time, the foreign news service of the Chicago Daily News became a leader in the field and Bell its most prominent correspondent, reporting on major European events. Bell's reputation grew during World War I, when he was able to secure interviews with many prominent politicians and military figures, which received world-wide circulation and acclaim. In 1932 Bell retired from the Chicago Daily News but continued to write. In 1934 he toured the world a second time for the Literary Digest, interviewing the premiers and foreign ministers of many countries, as well as Pope Pius XI, about the problems in achieving a lasting world peace. Between 1935 and 1938 Bell again traveled throughout America, lecturing on the duty of Americans to participate in the effort to organize a stable peace and to combat America's involvement in world conflict.