Eugene register-guard., August 21, 1952, Image 10

LAM I COtJfVTf H0HI IIWIMHI
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHER Alton F. Baker
EDITOR WiUiim M. Tugman MANAGING EDITOR Alton F. Baker Jr.
SERVICES Full Associated Press, United Press, Audit Bureau of Circulation,
The Refister-Guard'a policy ii the complete and impartial publication In Its news
pages of all newa and statements on news. On this page the editors of The Register
Guard offer their opinions on events of the day and matters of Importance U tne
community endeavoring to be candid but fair and helpful in the deyclopinent oji -itructive
community policy. A newspaper is A CITIZEN OF ITS COMMUNITY.
Entered at the Post Office at Eugene, Oregon, as second-elnss matter.
PAGE 10 EUGENE, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1952
Public Information and
"Though all the winds of doctrine were
let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth
be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing
and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength.
Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever
knew Truth put to the worse in a free and
open encounter?"
John Milton's Areopagitica.
The news is the most powerful in
strument of the press and when we
speak of the press nowadays we should
not think merely of a few famous news
papers but of all the modern agencies
of public information, the thousands of
community dailies and weeklies, the
specialized publications of thousands of
trade and professional associations, the
radio and television stations, even the
movie newsreels and the weekly and
monthly reviews which follow in the
wake of the news. We all seek the Truth
about this complicated world in which
we live.
Your newspaper, of course, is still
the most important of these agencies.
Flatterers call us "moulders of opinion,"
an honoiable title which we should seek
to justify rather than deny. This paper
is one which has always pursued jk
positive editorial policy. We believe
with our friend George Putnam of the
Salem Capital Journal:
"A newspaper isn't doing a job unless it
has all or nearly all of the right enemies."
But the purpose of this piece is to
show that even the most vigorous edi
torial policy is only partially effective,
unless it is documented with facts and
unless it supports an equally vigorous
policy in digging out and ' publishing
the NEWS and especially the news
about the public's business, which is
government at every level.
(This, by the way, is a request piece in
advance of National Newspaper Week, Octo
ber 1-8, by which time maybe we will be
in our fine new building, with new presses
and equipment to correct many of the
deficiencies in our service which mechanical
limitations have imposed. So we are going
to "talk shop").
This paper is often accused of "mix
ing news and editorial policy" which
would be1 unethical, if true. A few years
ago when we sent our reporters to
describe the horrible condition of
county roads and the waste of county
road funds we were thus accused.
"Is it 'editorializing' to show the people
of the community the truth about their roads
with pictures?"
When we exposed the sale of thou
sands of acres of county timber at one
tenth the going price obtained by
.federal agencies, the same cry was
raised, but our answer was:
"Those news stories were FACT and not
opinion facts the people had a right to
know,"
It is not possible to build "fire walls"
between editorial pages and news pages.
If we assign reporters to root out facts
about city or school debts, or adminis
trative inefficiency or malpractice, it
is our contention that such reports are
legitimate and necessary NEWS.
For years the Register-Guard has
experimented with methods of inform
ing the public about political candidates
and campaign issues all the printable
pertinent facts about each candidate for
every office; all the pros and cons about
controversial issues (and we'll have 18
Good Government
state and two local on the ballot this
fall). These "issue analysis" stories we
print on Page One. For candidates we
often take a three or four page spread.
We follow these explanatory articles
with our editorial recommendations.
We are often asked:
"Is this sort of spread worth the time and
cost? Does it produce any provable results
in elections?"
Nobody in his right mind would
ever claim that a newspaper produced
this or that result in any election
because so many other influences enter
in. We have taken many a sound licking
(as in our two county manager cam
paigns) but we can say tjiis:
"Readership surveys at the time of these
election spreads have showed a readership
., of this election material as high as 'Orphan
Annie' gets, about 70 percent, which is very
high.
"In one year, when time and paper
allowance did not permit the full treatment
on all issues, there was a marked difference
in the voting results on those issues which
we had to neglect.
"By mail and telephone we get plenty of
reader testimony that this type of service
is wanted.
"Our opinions are not nearly so important
as the facts we bring out."
So we keep on doing it. There is one
question which is always interesting
(because it usually comes from candi
dates whom wo have not preferred).
"As the only daily newspaper in this field
do you think you have any moral right to
express any preferences?"
Of course, we think we have not
only the right but the positive public
duty to do it. We try to be fair. We do
not claim that our opinion is the only
one or even the right one. We carry
the little editorial slogan that "a news
paper is a citizen of its community"
and we try to speak as any forthright
citizen .would speak, with deference to
others.
The prescribed text was "The News
paper and Good Government", but we
prefer to make it "Public Information
and Good Government", because we are
only one of the many agencies in this
service of the news.
It may be an overstatement to say
that corruption cannot exist where the
public is informed. But it cannot endure
if the truth is printed freely and re
peatedly. (In Lake Charles, La., they indicted the
local editors for "slandering" the professional
gamblers, but with all their power the crooks
couldn't make it stick.)
It is our firm belief that wherever
a public is fully informed, good gov
ernment follows, slowly but surely.
Our free press is far from perfect. It
is often cynical, sometimes venal, and
frequently lazy and superficial in its
work. What most critics of the press
forget is that the VOLUME of news
has become so great that it is beyond
human capacity to cope with it.
But with all its faults and short
comings, the press today is doing the
best job ever done to inform people
about this cockeyed world in which we
live. Whenever we feel "low" we turn
to that passage which Milton wrote in
his Areopagitica 300 years ago:
"Whoever knew the Truth put to the
worse in a free and open encounter?"
Free men have inherited a glorious
fight!
Streamlining Oregon Legislative Procedure
If the Oregon Legislature could be
spared the duty of considering hun
dreds of picayune bills which now in
fest its calendar, it could probably re
duce its "running time" to within 50
days and do a much better job on im
portant matters. For some years we
have been suggesting:
Establishment of an Interim Council which
would have authority to dispose of minor
matters, subject, if necessary to confirmation
when the regular session meets.
Segregation of a large amount of legisla
tion from such major problems as taxation,
appropriations, legislative apportionment
which should have the full attention of the
entire Legislature.
It would require a constitutional
amendment to establish such an interim
council, but we believe it would be bet
ter and more economical than the pro
posal for a preliminary session and a
final session of both houses.
Most of the changes now being con
sidered by the Interim Committee are
mere changes in session mechanics, of
doubtful value in speeding up the work.
It should not be too difficult to make a
classification of the measures which
could be threshed out by the Interim
Council to clear the decks for major
problems.
Under the present system it often
happens that some trifling measure, of
interest to one small segment of the
state, is used to block action until
"deals" can be made. Most of these
fights should be fought before the pro
posed Council, which could hold month
ly meetings, if necessary.
When sessions stretch out to more
than 100 days, it becomes impossible for
many good men and women to serve
without serious personal loss in time
and money.
"How would such an Interim Council be
selected? How would they be paid? How
would you keep them from becoming too
powerful?"
Those are legitimate questions, but
not impossible to answer. The thing we
see in going through the 1,000 or more
bills which are dropped into the hopper
at every session is that most of them
are measures which should not require
the attention of the whole Legislature.
If these could be disposed of in ad
vance, or even predigested, you would
be getting at the main cause of delay in
our Legislature. So many of them are
matters which an efficient city council
disposes of in the first 30 minutes of its
sessions.
Peter Edson
07 or Nothing,
Texas Man Told
WASHINGTON (NEA) The Indo
nesians recently moved into a big, new
embassy here. It's the old Walsh mansion
on Massachusetts Avenue, just above Du
Pont Circle.
In its rundown condition, it served as
a Red Cross headquarters annex during
the war. But now that the Indonesians
have taken it over, it has been refurbished
and made to look better than new.
Just after Ambassador All Sastroamid
jojo and his staff got settled in their new
headquarters, the ambassador got a tele
phone call from a man who identified him
self as a Texas oil man.
"I like the looks of your new house,"
said the oil man. "I don't know what price
you bought it at, but I'll give you $100,000
more than what you paid if you'll sell
and move out."
The ambassador said he wasn't in the
real estate business. Then as an after
thought he asked his caller how many oil
wells he owned. The man said "Sixteen."
"Well," said the ambassador, "I'll give
you $100,000 more for your oil wells than
what you paid for them."
With that the oil man hung up and the
Indonesian never did learn who he was.
INTEGRATE INDIAN WITH
PALEFACE? UGH!
A big conference of' experts on the
problems of the American Indian was held
in Washington recently, to discuss what
ought to be done about integrating the
noble red man with his white cousins.
The pow-wow lasted several days.
After all the speeches were over, one of
the few Indians present got up and made
medicine which almost broke up the con
ference. "I don't want to be integrated," he
said, "I want to remain a red man."
GERMAN ARMS PRODUCTION NEEDED
The ban against German production of
aircraft, long-range guided missiles and
atomic energy, as provided in the new
peace contract and European defense force
agreements, may not be as complete as
it appears in the treaties now before Con
gress for ratification.
John J. McCloy, U, S. High Commis
sioner to Germany, is now in Washington
to testify on these treaties.
The primary reason for the ban ap
peared to be a desire to satisfy France
that Germany would not become too
powerful. Beyond that, however, was the
strategic necessity of not locating key
European defense plants too close to the
Russian front,
German technical skills will be em
ployed, says Mr. McCloy, to produce radar
equipment and aircraft components which
other European countries cannot make. Air
frame and complete aircraft assembly
plants can be located in France, England
or Italy, where there will greater security
from possible Russian bombing or seizure.
The great risk in this plan is that Ger
man skills in aircraft and guided missiles
will not be utilized to the fullest at a time
when the Western powers are woefully
weak on air power.
Many of Germany's top scientists and
aviation engineers have of course been
working in the U. S. and other Allied
countries since the end of the war.
FOREIGN AID MONEY SPENT HERE
Paul Hoffman, former head of the
Marshall Plan organization, says it's wrong
to refer to the mutual security program
as the "foreign aid" bill. That name makes
many people oppose it.
Actually, says Hoffman, most of the
money gets spent in the United States.
And though the goods are delivered to
Europe and other foreign countries, they
contribute to U. S, military defenses at the
front lines.
INDIA TO CARRY BIGGER LOAD
The government of India will spend $2
for every $1 in the U. S. $54 million Indian
aid program approved by Congress last
fall. This is the plan worked out by
American Ambassador Chester Bowles, now
back in Washington for consultations with
Congress and the State Department.
Fifty-five areas, covering some 11 mil
lion people in 16,500 villages, have been
selected to receive this aid. Thirty centers
are being opened to train the 6800 native
Indians who will direct the work. In ad
dition, 200 Indian administrators will be
trained in the U. S.
A pilot operation at Etawah, India,
under the now famed Horace Holmes, has
already enabled some 79,000 people in 102
village to increase their food production
46 per cent.
By the end of the four-year program
for U. S. Point Four aid, it is hoped to
increase production in each area covered
by 35 to 50 per cent. The first year's pro
gram will reach only about three per cent
of India's 320 million people.
Eighty new areas would be covered
next year, 140 more in the third year, and
a total of 600 by the end of 1956, if the
IT. S. Congress approves the Bowles plan.
By the end of this Indian five-year plan,
some 120 million people, or over a third
of the population, would be reached.
Ambassador Bowles has estimated the
U. S. cost at $250 million a year for the
next four years, for a billion-dollar total.
About half of this sum would 'go for tech
nical services and equipment, the other
half for purchase of wheat and cotton.
Congress has so far been extremely
cold to the Bowles proposals. He is trying
to sell it as the best way to avoid a repeti
tion of the anti-Communist failure in
China.
Editor's Mailbag
The Shepherd
RECOVERY
"That it may go well tuith thee." Eph. t:3
When doctors use thcif art and skill
, , . And you have taken dose and
pill . . . They end the job allotted men
, , , It's time that God took over then
. , , You lie there looking at the ceil
ing .. . With time to search your in
most feeling ... Is it too big for you
alone? , , . Why not use aid you've
proved and known? ... Ask God to
help and do your part ... We get well
when we're well in heart.
JULIEN C. HYER
DEADWOOD DAVE.
DEADWOOD (To the Editor)
If "eternal vigilance is the price
of liberty" it seems reasonable to
suppose that complacency is the
saboteur of freedom. Whim one
contemplates the numerous and
deliberate attempts to betray this
nation during the past ten or fif
teen years, the complacency of
the American people is appalling.
And worst of all, those patriotic
citizens who have waged the
bravest fight to expose the
treachery of the attempted be
trayers have in most cases been
"smeared" for their efforts. Some
criticism has come from misguid
ed but sincere critics. But by and
large the well organized "smear"
attacks directed against the en
emies of Communism, have come
from those who seek to clothe
themselves with an aura of faked
"liberalism."
Whittaker Chambers, in his
book "Witness" (page 472),
throws some light on anti-Communist
"witch hunts":
"For men who could not see
that what they firmly believed
was liberalism added up to Soc
ialism could scarcely be expected
to see what added up to Com
munism. Any charge of Commu
nism enraged them precisely be
cause they could not grasp the
difference between themselves
and those against whom it was
made . . . Every move against
the Communists was felt by the
liberals as a move against them
selves . . . Unlike the liberals, the
Communists were fully aware of
their superior tactical position
and knew that they had only to
shout their innocence and cry
"witch hunt" for the liberals to
rally in all innocence to their de
fence." Louis Budenz puts it a little
differently. Budenz says (page
589, McCarran report) "To my
knowledge 95 per cent of the
members of Communist-front or
ganizations are actually Com
munists." Among the many hundreds of
Communist-fronts few have been
more active or influential than
the "National Council for American-Soviet
Friendship." I won
der how many members of this
front were among the 95 per
cent Communists, or how many
of them were "inocent liberals"?
Do you know Mr. Editor, or Mr.
John Q. Citizen, that 5 "liberal"
U. S. Senators and 3 "liberal
Congressmen were members of
this Communist-front? Did these
brilliant men (?) understand the
character of the organization?
Or were they dupes? If they were
dupes why were they duped into
an organization which included
the following members: Maxwell
S. Stewart (tagged as a Com
munist by Budenz, page 563 Mc
Carran Report), Corliss P. La
mont (also named by Budenz as
a Commie), Phillip Jaffe (see be
low), Frederick V. Field (an-
Look Who's Getting the Fan Mail
We MAY HAVE
TO SORT OF WATCH -sZ ',
THAT FELLOW OM THE-
other Commie), Langslon Hugh
es (see below), Paul Robeson,
Mike Quill, Phillip Murray, Jo
seph Curran, Sidney Hillman
and Harry Bridges.
Phillip Jaffe was editor of
"Amerasia" in whose offices
some 1,700 secret government
documents were found, including
the secret papers on the A-bomb.
This was prior to the Potsdam
conference where Harry told Joe
about our "secret" bomb. Jaffe
was convicted of perjury, Re
versed, re-trial granted.
Sidney Hillman was identified
as a Communist by Maurice Mal
kin who testified before a House
Un - American Activities Com
mittee that Hillman joined the
Communist party in 1919 and
was a member thereafter until
he died. "Clear everything with
Sidney."
Langston Hughes is the author
of the poem "Goodbye Christ."
Every Christian should read this
poem one verse of which follows.
"Goodbye
Christ Jesus, Lord God Jehova,
Bent it on away from here.
Make way for a now guy with
no religion at all
A real guy named
Marx Communist, Lenin,
Peasant Stalin
Worker me."
The above ought to show the
"liberal" character of many of
the members of this Communist
front to which 5 Senators and 3
Congressmen belonged as late as
1946. (See page 321-327, Tenney
Committee of Calif, legislature).
Is it any wonder we had an Alger
Hiss?
And here's some more for you
complacent Americans who abhor
"witch hunts." Do you know that
Max Klauscn, member of the
Sorge spy ring, installed and op
erated a secret radio transmitter
in the private home of the Amer
ican Vice-consul in Harbin, Man
churia? (See page 47, "Spies,
Dupes and Diplomats")
Now suppose we get a little
closer to the home front. Among
ill
the many Communist-pl
" ii'iupnicis publishe!
inhume . or Mafic
which Dlaved siifh
part in the formation o(i
astrous Far Eastern rrl
icy, one was called "LaiJ
Soviets," written by Mi
oiewari, wne of Max'
art above mentioned
CODV of "I.anrf f Tk.
before mm whirl,
of the Eusene High chofit
marked "Room 212, Con
This pamphlet was i&
the wife of a Communist!
purpose of Inculcating vfo
dren with the Communith
ganda. j
You may not have knli
before Mr. Citizen, justtl
you happen to be one ft
complacent citizens via
that such men as Mart
Pat McCarran and .Ti ifc-
don't know what the; n
ing about.
Yours.
DAVE IB
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