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Show THE ".j'.OSL- j EIQfiSE f TCUSil L IN WASHINGTON LJJSi ? ',V,"?VTII!V',IJ'"J '.'VfiWiP" The Weekly Press 7J S we go into a new year this re-porter re-porter believes that to save democracy as a form of government in these United States, it is essential essen-tial to (1) believe in the principles of democracy and (2) to have confidence con-fidence in our democratic government. govern-ment. This is an election year and indications indi-cations are that controversies in the campaign will be bitter. The electorate must learn to distinguish facts from lies, the real from the phoney. And above all, the electorate elec-torate must not lose confidence in the government. The American people are, by and large, able to determine their own destiny. They have done a pretty good job up to now. Once in a while they make a mistake, but at the first opportunity they generally correct cor-rect those mistakes. That is the record of the past and the saving value of our system of elections. The election this year is an important im-portant one. We not only elect a new house of representatives, but also 32 members of the senate and a President and Vice President. Of the 32 senate members, only 12 are Democrats and 20 are Republicans. Of the 12 Democrats, only two seats are in danger of Republican succession, suc-cession, but at least six of the 20 Republican seats may be captured by Democrats. If the people of this country are to be well informed on the real issues of thic campaign, the responsibility will rest upon the weekly and small town daily press of the country. The responsibility re-sponsibility of getting this material mate-rial to the grass roots press rests not only upon the candidate, candi-date, but the Republican and Democratic national committees. commit-tees. The metropolitan newspapers carping and criticizing today are the same ones who have done so for the past 25 years, that is, through five national elections. They represent repre-sent 90 per cent of the newspapers in the metropolitan field and more than 90 per cent of the circulation. However, these newspapers have had little or no influence with t.;e American people en masse, representing repre-senting as they do the thinking of only a small segment of the people. And despite their determined opposition, op-position, they have lost every national na-tional election on every issue since . 1932. Real and Sham Issues They will lose the 1952 election because be-cause the American people still have confidence in themselves and are able to distinguish the real from the sham issues. Recently an accurate ac-curate and comprehensive poll of weekly newspaper publishers of the nation indicated that President Truman Tru-man would be the Democratic nominee nom-inee and he would be reelected. Every poll of metropolitan newspapers news-papers points to the defeat of President Presi-dent Truman. Polls by these papers predicted President Truman's defeat de-feat in 1948, while the grass-roots editor's poll predicted his election. a Newspaper Policy This reporter has a great respect re-spect for the newspaper profession. profes-sion. But we have little respect for a newspaper which orders its reporters to slant the news, to write "policy" stories. There can be enough criticism of any administration without manufacturing manu-facturing issues and writing half-truths; half-truths; without using the slanted headline which in no way bears out the story; and without asking ask-ing questions in press conferences confer-ences of the "have you quit beating your wife?" type. RFC Report Apropos of what we have just written, have any of you read a story about the annual report of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation? Corpora-tion? It is important for the reason that it covers the operation of the corporation during the fiscal year ending July 1, 1951, the period of alleged "graft and corruption" in RFC. The report submitted by Stuart Symington, administrator, shows that $16,345,812 was turned to the U.S. treasury as dividends on the capital stock of $100,000,000 a fact we doubt was equaled in private industry in this country. In addition, the corporation turned over to the treasury $75,-000,000 $75,-000,000 as net profit on its synthetic syn-thetic rubber and tin operations, and $4,000,000 net on liquidation of assets of the old Smaller War Plants Corporation, a total of $95,345,812 for the year. The Shakedown The fines levied against the four American airmen forced down in Hungary by that country's Communist Commu-nist government is being called tribute trib-ute by many Americans an ugly and degrading word to Americans since the birth of the republic. It brings to mind Robert Goodloe Harper's Har-per's dramatic declaration against paying tribute to France during the undeclared war of 1798: "Millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute." trib-ute." Hungary demanded $120,000. |