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Show Freedom Goes Where The Free Press Goes Adolph Hitler was a smart man. One of the first things he did when he took over Germany Ger-many was to give Goebbels the power to suppress the news.. Then when he purged loyal Germans who were unfaithful un-faithful Nazis, the people heard only his side of the story. And for all the years that Hitler was in power, all the newspapers under his control printed only what he permitted. per-mitted. In this respect Hitler was a smart man. He knew that he could never keep his hold on the people if they had access ac-cess to the truth. Every dictator and his bigot knows the same, whether in foreign lands or in our town. Freedom cannot exist without with-out the free exchange of facts and ideas. And as long as our newspapers remain as uncensored as they are now, all the facts on both sides of any controversy will be presented pre-sented to you, the freest people in the world. There are those who criticize the press, saying that it is censored; that it is not free to publish both sides of an argument because it is controlled by special interests. But oftentimes this criticism is really a tribute to the freedom that our newspapers enjoy. For nine times out of ten, those who criticise have an axe to grind themselves, and are disturbed that the press does not cater to them. In Cedar City anyone who has a legitimate story to tell will find the pages of the Iron County Record open for the facts. And if a dispute arises concerning those facts, the other side of the story will be told too. For wn know, from the experience of others in totalitarian lands, tnat suppression of the news breeds "smart men" like Adolph Hitler. ft Fire Prevention Week Fire Prevention Week in the nation and in Utah will be observed this year from October 9 to 15. It has been officially of-ficially proclaimed by President Truman, with an urgent appeal that the public give heed to the menace of fire and the need for intelligent, public-supported effort to prevent fire. The annual toll of fire in loss of life, in injury and suffering, suf-fering, in loss of property and in general inconvenience is huge and it has been increasing steadily in recent years. Last year the total property loss in fires in the United States was $715,000,000 That was the greatest national . fire loss in history. Last year over 8,500 lives were lost by fire. While the increase in loss of life has not been so steady as the increase in property loss, here again the toll has been greater than before the war. There is need for a vigorous and persistent effort to combat this toll. Most fires could be prevented with just a little extra care. If we cou!d just get all the American people fire-conscious alert to the menace of fire and watchful in regard to the more obvious fire hazards in their homes, on their farms and in their places of business we could make sharp reductions in annual fire losses. Every citizen can and should do his part in the fire prevention pre-vention effort by himself being fire safety conscious, and by supporting his local fire department and other fire prevention pre-vention agencies in their work of combatting the rising fire toll. The fire prevention appeal should strike home to every citizens because it is in his own interest. Good fire prevention pre-vention work may save him or members of his family heavy loss, suffering, even death. And it certainly will save him money because successful fire prevention work means less fire loss and therefore lower fire insurance premiums. It is in every respect a worth while project. |