In the years prior to World War I Lapworth was an activist in the cause of syndicalist socialism, supporting industrial unionism and the international solidarity of the labour movement.

He was the editor of The Daily Herald from late 1912 to December 1913, during which the newspaper developed a radical voice supporting unionism, the suffragette movement and the class struggle.

[2] Lapworth travelled to the United States and accompanied Eugene V. Debs on his 'Red Special' railroad campaign in the lead-up to the 1908 presidential election.

Debs was running for president as the candidate for the Socialist Party of America and Lapworth took on the role as a publicist for the campaign, as well as promoting the Industrial Workers of the World and speaking about socialism in Britain.

Italy's aggressive campaign was characterised as "the seizure of the territory of a friendly power in the midst of profound peace", another instance "of the application of the modern doctrine of might is right".

[11][12] A review of the book in The Nation commented that "one readily gains the impression that [Lapworth] is presenting a semi-official brief on behalf of the Italian Government".

[14][15] Lapworth's appointment to the role of editor of the Herald was encouraged Charles Granville, a publisher who had promised to put four thousand pounds into the newspaper, during a period when its finances were particularly dire.

[16] Under Lapworth's editorship the pages of the Daily Herald became more sympathetic to a syndicalist agenda which emphasised the primacy of industrial workers within the structure of society.

[18] Coinciding with Lapworth's appointment as editor was the recruitment of the Australian cartoonist Will Dyson, who was initially paid five pounds a week and given carte blanche to engage in the expression of his ideas.

The opinions published in the newspaper were "accompanied by a greater venom"; Lapworth and his colleagues "were not content to attack the system, but denounced everyone who compromised with it".

[22] In June 1913 the company operating the newspaper, the Daily Herald Printing and Publishing Society Ltd., was forced into liquidation due to "a want of working capital".

Lansbury, who was on the eve of departing for a visit to the United States, began by asking Lapworth to resign from the position of editor, adding: "Either you go out, or I shall refuse to have anything more to do with the paper".

He, as the editor of "a militant working-class paper", was being "taken to task for uncomplimentary references to a duchess, to a bishop, to a prominent Fabian, and for a cartoon of a certain Labour member of Parliament".

Lapworth received remuneration of £300 (six months' salary) in lieu of notice and, as stated by Lansbury, "our friends" voluntarily added a further £200 "for his additional expenses and for the anxieties and difficulties that any man must have who feels that it is necessary for him to leave the country".

Lapworth concluded his letter: "And so I was forced to abdicate, because, as Mr. Meynell put it with sweetly becoming embarrassment, 'we want the paper to represent Mr. Lanbury's ideas'".

[29] After leaving the Herald Lapworth worked as the night news editor of London's Daily Mail newspaper, owned by Lord Northcliffe.

Lapworth later recalled: "When the first editorial came up from the composing room and we read it in the office, we felt quite confident that the whole staff would be hauled off to prison, or possibly stood up against a wall and shot".

Lapworth's work on the magazine demonstrated the sort of care and attention to quality that enabled Porter's proprietorship to remain essentially hands-off.

The editorial content of The Graphic generally avoided overt political comment, but Lapworth's concerns about the war in Europe led to his opposition to isolationism and his advocacy of the involvement of the United States in the conflict, manifested by cartoons in the magazine denouncing German barbarism and supporting American interventionism.

It is likely that Lapworth lacked the funds to buy the publication outright, but was enabled to purchase The Graphic by entering into a partnership with Eldridge Rand, a friend he had known in London before the war.

[31][32] There was a distinct change in the style of The Graphic after Rand and Lapworth took charge, with a greater coverage of the arts and society with a similarity to East Coast magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Town & Country.

The film was about a homeless tramp and his dog, outwitting the police after stealing sausages and ultimately winning the affection of a dance-hall singer.

The plot involved social commentary covering themes of poverty, hunger, the "hostility of police towards the poor and the victimisation of women by their reduced circumstances".

[44] In September 1925 in England Lapworth accepted an offer to join the board of Gainsborough Pictures Ltd, where he worked as a production manager and was associated with the early films of the producer Michael Balcon.

In November 1925 it was reported that Gainsborough Pictures had signed Alfred Hitchcock to direct his second film called Fear o'God, based on an original story by Lapworth.

[52] Lapworth was employed as the production manager for the Société Générale des Films, producers of La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, released in France in October 1926.