Statement on the death of Robert Bartley

Washington, DC, December 10, 2003— I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Robert Bartley, my good friend and comrade-in-arms for more than 30 years on the political battlefield of ideas. To think that just last week, I was writing Bob to congratulate him for being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, which was a fitting bookend to a life and career dedicated to freedom, democratic capitalism and supply-side economics.

As editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page—the Page to its regular readers—for three decades, Bob was champion not only of world-class opinion journalism but also advocate extraordinaire of the entire supply-side economics movement. At the helm of the Page during the late 1970s, when the economy was sandwiched between increasing unemployment and rising inflation—something economists of the day said was impossible—when malaise and fear gripped America, Bob relentlessly promoted the ideas of a couple of iconoclast economists from the University of Chicago, Robert Mundell and Art Laffer, and launched a revolution in economic thinking. By turning the Page into “the mouthpiece of supply-side economics” (his words), Bob infused pamphleteering with intellectual substance and logical rigor reminiscent of Thomas Paine, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

Bob Bartley was an articulate advocate for a philosophy he used to sum up simply as “free men; free markets,” and he had a tremendous impact in protecting and advancing the values of our great nation. But, even greater than this, I will cherish our friendship that encouraged me personally and professionally so very much. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy will endure because without Bob Bartley, there would have been no Reagan Revolution.