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Show RILED ABOUT HARRY'S DIG AT PRESS ... Truman Chided for His 'Newspaper Stand' . . . ELMER WRITES HIM AN OPEN LETTER Bv H. I. PHILLIPS LETTER FOR SPECIAL DELIVERY Hon. Harry 8. Truman, Washington. D.C. Drar Mr. President: It paim me to note that you, who over the long pull have seemed to me horse-sense fellow who knew baloney when he saw it and who didn't like it thin, thick or medium, have now taken up that old cry about the newspapers being in a deep plot against the people. Harry, you know better. "There are no full-page ads for our side," you say in taking a dig at the press. Now that is plain has-senpfeffer. has-senpfeffer. All the page ads in opposition to your policies or acts in a year, if stacked end on end, would be completely lost in the thousands of pages which the American newspapers have devoted de-voted to you In reporting your speeches and your programs. The space devoted to any one of your speeches in the papers 'it the country coun-try would swamp the total space consumed by all thos full-page ads over a period of six months. The ads get into few papers; no paper fails to report your speeches to its fullest ability. Few Presidents in history have had a friendlier press. The note of kindliness Is to be found, even in the criticisms. The newspapers go to great expense to give- you every break. It Is doubtful If any occupant oc-cupant of the White House In 25 years has been more warmly warm-ly treated by the newspapers of this country from coast to coast 'and from border to border. bor-der. At work or at play you get a million columns of newspaper space and any honest publicity expert In your own party would admit that the advertising is mostly good and that all the Hough your opponents could lay a iTuriiT on wouldn't be enough to get that much space for their views. So you must be kidding kid-ding when you say, "There are no full pages for our side." "Selfish Interests are on the job year in and year out, seven days a week and 24 hours a day. They work through the editorial pages, the columnists and the commentators commenta-tors they control," you assert. "They twist and misrepresent the measures the people voted for." c Well, Harry, may the press of America never be as unfair to you as you are to the press when you make a crack like that. The fact twisters don't last long on any paper. No newspaper can misrepresent misrep-resent things long and survive. . In a democratic country where free press hat men of all parties and beliefs running newspapers, yon don't expect them all to be 100 per cent for everything yon propose, do you? The press Is one of America'! great Institutions, Harry. It ii mighty important to the American system. It is Important to the Democratic party, the Republican party and any other party. To deliberately de-liberately undermine its prestige, create an atmosphere of distrust in its fairness and foster the notion that it is a tool of the privileged few Is bad stuff, Mr. President. In every great crisis the press is a Number One Need. You've needed it, Harry. And you've had it as tew Americans have had it "year in and year out, seven days a week and 24 hours a day." I thought you knew. Yours In surprise ELMER. . . Cuif Stuff Walter Donnelly, slated as the new undersecretary of state in charge of South American affairs, used to work in the circulation department de-partment of the New Haven Register Regis-ter back home . . . Video does the darndest things. As for instance Sid Caesar's use of that old Willie Howard skit on the interrupting waiter, with no credit or apology to anybody. And it was played on another program only a few weeks back . . . "Knock On Any Door." widely proclaimed as a study in juvenile crime and a deterrent, is just another glorification of a hoodlum, hood-lum, with enough murders and stickups to keep a kid absorbed for weeks . . . The youth of any political party cannot be ignored, but the oldsters, because of greater experience, if honest, are the better guides. 1 |