OCR Text |
Show "PITILESS PUBLICITY." XT is a far cry back to the days when 'the.Taft administration fell into disrepute, due principally to the "gumshoe" tactics of the. Old Guard. The people were rapidly becoming suspicious of the alleged al-leged "invisible" system of government that they supposed themselves subjected to and were ripe for a change. Strange as it may now seem, it was no less a person than President Wilson himself "Governor" Wson then who coined the phrase, "Pitiless Publicity," and fanned the burning issue to a fever heat. He was then very much in the public pub-lic eye as a presidential possibility, thanks to the shrewdly calculated designs of Colonel Harvey and others. Back in 1911 the Gridiron Club at Washington happened to be giving one of its famous dinners and Mr. Wilson was the guest of honor. It was while addressing this gathering gath-ering that he first observed the necessity of providing for "Pitiless Publicity" in the conduct of public affairs. The importance of that utterance could not be over-estimated ; the newspaper men sensed its significance instantly, and that night the news was flashed over the wires that a real candidate was in the running for the Presidency. What followed is still fresh in the minds of every one. Mr. Wilson's Wil-son's popularity spread like a prairie fire, his candidacy gained momentum mo-mentum steadily, and it was his promise to smoke the bosses out of their holes and transact the people's business in the open that gained him the nomination of his party and swept him into the Presidency. Presi-dency. Even Mr. Bryan accepted the bait, hook, line and sinker and joined in the popular clamor for "Pitiless Publicity." And he was consistent about it, too, for had he not for years been advocating this very policy himself? But all this happened five years ago. Also, it was before the war. Mr. Wilson was elected, and re-elected, but the people are still waiting for the "Pitiless Publicity" that was promised. So is the press. Of course the exigencies of war have no doubt interfered with the program, pro-gram, but it will be recalled that even before any one entertained a thought that we might become involved in the conflict, the President evidenced a remarkable disposition to keep the people "in the dark," so to speak, concerning the attitude and activities of his administration. administra-tion. So that it is not altogether fair to charge the situation entirely to the war. The American people are growing impatient. They want to know something about their affairs and the war has served to make them more anxious for news than ever. They appreciate, of course, that there is a certain class of information concerning strategical measures and the movements of troops that cannot be given publicity, but even so, they feel that they are entitled to infinitely more news of a harmless harm-less nature than they have been getting. It was hoped for a time that the creation of the Board of Public Information, with Mr. George Creel at the head, would serve this purpose. Another disappointment was the result. In many respects, this particular news service is a joke. Instead of disseminating information that the people want and are entitled to get, its pronounced policy is to conceal everything it gets its hands on. Much of its secrecy is silly in the extreme. Then, as though to add insult to injury, Mr. Creel would assure' us that in the absence of desired information we are to consider "no news as good news." Great : Why not, then, dispense with the mails and the papers and with this reassurance resolve ourselves into a voluntary state of ignorance of events during the period of the war? How easily it would work out : when we wonder about the safety of someone at the front ; when we desire to know how things are going ; all that will be necessary is to make the thought follow the wish and ' then we will be able to satisfy ourselves that all is well. But in the meanwhile, the people of oher nations at war know something about their affairs and are getting satisfactory news from the front. We are not. How long the press and the people will tolerate the "Pitiless Publicity" that the administration is handing out to them remains to be seen. Unless the censors stop coloring and concealing information that properly belongs to the American people, the day of reckoning will come all too soon. RAILROADS AND GOVERNMENT. (OVERNMENT ownership or at least operation of railroads is 2a close upon us. So is government operation of mines and of factories fac-tories making war supplies. Threats of great strikes are responsible for this imminence of paternalism. The railroads are about ready to turn over their properties to the government. They find the wage account ac-count going up, the price of all materials increasing steadily, the demand de-mand of the country for incessant and better service growing more insistent, the wear and tear reducing the equipment to something approximating ap-proximating junk. There is more need than ever for new cars, new trackage, new motive power, and the earnings can't meet the demand and pay interest too. All requests for permission to increase rates are turned down. The roads need five billion dollars for general rehabilitation. re-habilitation. They cannot borrow money in the market. The govern- ment will not lend them its credit to enable them to equip to do the government's business. What - are the roads to do ? They can't stop running. If they do, we lose the war and go hungry to boot. Why shouldn't the railroads say to the government, "Take the roads. Maybe May-be you can run them without money. We can't." And if the government govern-ment takes them that means more taxes upon all us. .And if the government gov-ernment takes them, God help the fellows who strike on the roads in time of war. It would 'be better for everybody if the roads were given power to increase their rates or given government money to make the necessary improvements and extensions in the war work that comes next in importance to the fighting on the front and the raising of food products on the farm. Reedy's Mirror. The rations in Germany are down to one-half the normal needs. This is not as pitiful as it sounds ; what looks like half-fare to a German Ger-man is a pretty square meal. Philadelphia North American. Bolshevik promise of land to the peasants is like the promised rewards re-wards of the Kaiser always to be paid from the possessions of someone some-one else. |