Show CONGRESS AND newspapers A certain worthy congressman has risen to remark that he would like to see every newspaper man placed on the firing line the point is well taken however it should be remembered that the average successful newspaper man has passed the fighting age and that if he presented himself before a recruiting officer he would be refused admittance mit tance to the service after a cursory and contemptuous once over just as any of our congressmen would be but at that it is a safe wager that there is a greater proportion of newspaper men and their sons in the army and already on the firing line than there are congressmen and the batters lat sons it is another safe wager that all over this broad land the newspaper man is contributing a greater percentage of his meager salary which is earned to assist in the prosecution of the war than is the congressman of his comparatively ively big salary which is not earned A third safe bet is that the newspaper man is doing more to conserve the food supply than is the congressman and that he is denying himself more of the pleasures of life some of our congressmen have a pecullar peculiar faculty of getting off on the wrong foot they should remember that the right to criticise criticism critic ise is one of the inalienable prerogatives roga tives of the american citizen and that the editor of even a country paper is privileged to exercise that right to the limit of his ability and he is not much of a newspaper man who fails to do so the press has exposed woeful shortcomings and criminal incompetence both within congress and without and that at no very distant date in the past criticism is necessary and constructive criticism is the only certain method of securing quick action in the rectifying rectify ing of mistakes such remarks as that credited to the congressman in question merely serve to show where the newspaper man has scored a bullseye |