Show Brit charts washington digest in U S alone of all world Is there real free freedom dom of speech disturbing signs recently indicate all Is not well administration tirades against press become frequent concerted effort to get rid of critics by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D 0 one of americas greatest and most glorious traditions Is the jealousy with which its citizens guard the right of free speech and a free press there Is no nation in the world now and there never has been one where such free freedom dorn tor for espres expression aion of opinion is accorded as we havo have in the united states for proof it if proof be needed simply take the old atlas atla and nd examine the countries one by one ne and abundant evidence will bo be found here alono alone in all of the world can an individual or a group have its untrammeled say bay there have been some signs lately however that are disturbing I 1 do not mean to overemphasize over emphasize th them em by a discussion of them but the greatest lesson that I 1 have learned Is that the american america n people will correct conditions or prevent their development if they know what tho the facts are and find them adverse during the last several months there have been frequent tirades against the press ot of tho the nation some of tile the denunciations havo have como come from president roosevelt in reply to press criticism of some of his policies other administration spokesmen have followed th the e presidents lead notably among them and certainly the most vicious Is the secretary of the interior harold L ickes who seems in this instance to bo be the lord high chief verbal executioner of opposition writers and newspapers mr Roosevel ts recent assertion that somo some newspaper owners are arc deliberately libera tely misrepresenting the facts an end d mr ickes assertion that our newspapers are arc not as free as they ought to be in a democracy constitute serious accusations even after one forgets how constantly M mr r ickes ickis gets get I 1 out on a limb it seems to me therefore that there ought to be some clarification of the situation it might be asked and properly I 1 believe why mr roosevelt roosevel and mr ickes do not point out those newspapers that are charged in ill effect as plain liars administration seeks to get rid frfd of the cri critics f acs ics now now to turn abruptly from one phase of the situation to another attention should be directed to the recent bill introduced in the senate by senator wheeler the montana democrat the bill proposes reorganization of the federal communications commission the agency that controls radio radio of course is the free speech just as the newspapers are the free press that Is one of the guarantees of the national constitution there can call be no doubt that the federal communications commission Is shot through with dissension there Is no doubt that it has developed one of the worst mosses messes in government supervision of any industry it Is a shameful situation and there appears to be no solution except to get rid of the bulk of the personnel from the commissioners on down the line until all trouble makers have been eliminated I 1 have written frequently frequency in these columns that the best law can be destroyed by selection of burns bums to administer it and the general appraisal here Is that the members of the federal communications commission are arct a pretty sickly lot of government officials the appointments tho the commission has made also do not constitute a list of mental giants well you ask how does this have anything to do with president denunciation of the newspapers where does it touch free speech that may be adverse to the new deal administration the answer lies in a belief now held by a great many observers in washington that somewhere in the administration Is a concerted effort to get rid of the critics there Is little political pressure that can be exerted upon the newspapers because they will speak peak their views through their columns but with the adlo cadlo government supervised licensed a weighty club over its head at all times the situation Is different radio news commentators eliminated from air waves some things have happened lately that bear recounting just as an example and to cite only one case boake carter is off of the air as a news commentator lie he was a severe and at times a vindictive critic of the new deal A former briend of the new deal dr stanley high recently wrote in the saturday evening post that car carter ter was kept out of new contracts by the administration there have been frequent recurrences of the rumor too that W J cameron who speaks tor for the ford motor company was mark marked ed by administration trouble shooters shooter sho sas as a sri sneaker who ought to be cinat ed cd from tho the air waves mr corn cam cron continues on the air clr gen hugh S johnson former boss Is a pain in tile the neck tor for the new deal as well but nothing has happened to him yet not other rumors of the type could be mentioned but I 1 was asked how any body in tho the government would dare to interfere the same letter asked how such ends could be achieved A tow few paragraphs earlier I 1 referred to governmental supervision licensing etc that Is the answer to the question any radio station gets a license for only a short period renewal of that license depends according to law upon compliance with federal communications commission regulations and the laws provisions this would seem to leave only a limited discretionary power it Is a case however like the army officer making an inspection of a buck pr privates ivales barracks it lie he wants to find dirt ho he will ind find it in tile the case of the radio station its owners live in dread of censure and I 1 suspect they are generally amenable to suggestions from headquarters in washington P presidents rest dents trusted adviser drafts reorganization bill so to link the roosevelt dent tion of newspapers and the wheeler radio bill one has only to know that chairman frank the presidents most trusted radio adviser largely dratted drafted the wheeler reorganization bill that measure it should be added reduces the communications commission to a membership of three there would bo be administrative assistants appointed for each of tile the major types type of communication ond and thus one individual becomes czar of radio another of wire communication and so on and while the members of the commission must be named by and with tile the advice and consent of the sc senate linte the administrative assistant may be anyone who has the necessary political pull I 1 repent repeat that the statements related above represent the belief of a good many persons one of the swift changes change s that has taken place in this country Is the switch in the attitude of the bulk of the newspapers it will bo be recalled that when mr roosevelt and the new deal took over the government there were so few editorial criticisms of the presidents program that any outcry was negligible in effect the corps of news writers who attended the presidents twice a week press conferences accepted his statements without equivocation oca tion or without question it was a press relationship more friendly than any other president ever h had a d then some of the new deal ideas proved flops and editors started asking questions their washington correspondents searched deeper than just official handouts it was about this time that the personnel of various agencies for press relations began to undergo elpa expansion ision time after time well known correspondents were hired and they could not be blamed because the jobs were lucrative I 1 was offered one by coincidence of course the quantity of statements tor for tho press increased accordingly once he laughed at them but bu t things have changed A few years ago mr rosevelt roosevelt dealt with the few editorial criticisms in masterful fashion by laughing about them that was the attitude of most department and agency heads but things have changed now to the extent that editorial criticisms and unfriendly st stories 0 or stories that include information beyond the handouts released from government sources become the subject for vitriolic attack from government quarters I 1 have no idea how long the campaign against the press may run it surely has plenty of momentum now and there la 13 plenty of money available for press relations lonal work mr ickes said that the modern newspapers can ansh d ash it out but cannot take it I 1 wonder if mr ickes can take it after dishing it out it has been my conviction always that the best censorship that america can have la is the censorship of the newspaper reader and more recently the censorship of the radio listener no newspaper can go on and on when its columns carry untruthful or unsound material the ra radio dio can not go on unless its programs are arc proper and popular because it continues to be easy to turn oil off the switch and silence the speak er nor are we in this country compelled to listen to some demagogue in washington or in a state capital and all of this lends leads up to the question is there an attempt being made at censorship if there Is it ts Is time aln e tor for us all to know about it a 0 western newspaper union |