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Show EDITOR SEES NEWSPAPERS OPERATED BY GOVERNMENT. "The newspaper that is demanding that the government go into some business other than its own, but is not willing to urge the government to engage in the newspaper business, is, of course, mentally dishonest." This statement is made editorially by the San Jose, Calif., Mercury Herald. Her-ald. "Presumably," the Mercury Herald Her-ald declares, "no American newspaper news-paper would advocate that the government gov-ernment enter the newspaper business busi-ness in. competition with privately-owned privately-owned publications. It would be argued ar-gued that politicians are incompetent to run newspapers; that it would be unfair to existing papers for the government gov-ernment to enter the field as a competitor com-petitor with tax-free property, and tax privately-owned newspapers to meet the deficits of papers run without with-out regard to their earning capacity because the taxpayers could be tapped tap-ped to keep the government papers going. "Nevertheless," continues the editorial, edi-torial, "many newspapers complain because President Hoover has vetoed the bill to put the politicians in the electric power and fertilizer business (at Muscle Shoals) with capital furnished fur-nished from the federal treasury. This despite the fact that existing power concerns are subject to state regulation of their rates, and are also subject to the inquisitorial and administrative powers of the federal government." At this point in the editorial, the Mercury Herald makes the charge of mental dishonesty, as above quoted, and follows it with: "Such newspapers are hastening the time when newspapers shall first be made public utilities, and then subjected to government competition. This day is being1 hastened by newspaper news-paper consolidations and the establishment estab-lishment of newspaper chains, which place the control of the publishing business, and, along with it, a great power for the control of public opinion, opin-ion, in a constantly decreasing num-i ber of hands. "There are just as many arguments for government entry into the newspaper news-paper field as to any other field of business; more, probably, because a newspaper is a public service enterprise enter-prise in its ability to lead public opinion." |