The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1917-04-06
(By United Press Association.)

~@S~o
It tacit alliance with the minions Of
sects and organizations. powerfully
financed and skillfully ofhcered, whose
mission In life il to legislate people in
to morality and goodness! 1t matters
not, my friends, whence emanates this
insidious movement. 1t u enough to
know that 1t really exists, that it u
not chimera or . myth Such let
ter Is an insult to the intelligence and
the integrity OF every publisher In
America, and there II NO redress for
the studied affront
Quoting from one who has made .
long study Of this insidious advance up
on the freedom of the press, let these
statements have place In your minds:
The fight for censorship OF the columns
Of the newspapers will not stop with At
lacks on liquor adver tisements or. indeed.
with attempts to control advertisements.
Several states now prohibit the manu-
facture or sale OF cigarettes, and 1t 10
Inevitable that legislation against news
papers carrying cigarette advertisements
In such states will be urged
| After the advertising department OF
every newspaper and magazine has been
subjected to censorship how can the news
columns remain free? What OF horse
IAcIuB IepOTt8s STOCK market QUOTATIONS.
Sunday baseball Observation-Disclosures, why
not suppression Of Sunday papers. and OF
Monday papers printed In whole or In
| part on the Sabbath?
But what of editorial liberty? II II BE-
decreed that the OF liquor and Of
/ cigarettes is hurtful alike to the individual
and to society. is 1t not an act of hostil-
| ity to the state and to the church for
an editor to praise an old wine. or to
refer indulgently to tho "makins" OF \
cigarette OF to oppose In any way the
cause Of prohibition?
How long will 1t be. wonder. before
American people are Jared into realiza-
ton that soon they must look for dictA-
ton As to what they may eat or drink.
As to what lines of business they may
engage in. and to how a newspaper
may be edited. and what forms Of sd-
vertising 1t may carry Into the different
states?
And. gentlemen OF the Associated
Ohio Dailies, we are to blame. We
have created the Frankensteins that
are now turning to rend US limb from
limb Drunk with power, riding =
wave OF fanaticism in sea of pater-
nalism, the creatures Of our own max
ing seek our destruction. The Wanted
power OF the press is no more. The
locks of Sampson have been shorn by
the Delilahs, miscalled statesmen, and
the press grovcls before otticialdom
grateful for look, kind word or .
less importunate kick than usual
Intolerance Of Offcialdom.
Two years ago, before this body,
painted picture of the growth OF
governmental ofiiciousness which was
more prophetic than | knew. Your
attention was directed at that time to
the increasing insolence and intolsr-
ance OF officialdom and the prediction
was made that, unless checked and re-
pressed with a stern hand, it would
rise up to strike down its creators. 1t
is in no spirit of arrogance or boast
fulness that these facts are recalled,
but in a spirit of sorrow and humiiia-
ton. Our sins OF omission and COM
mission are engulf us. Instead Of
rising like valiant fighting men, true
to conscience, to honor. to the spirit Of
freedom and progress of civilization,
to strike down our shackles, we sit
like hoary dotards wrapped in the
sackcloth and ashes Of lament and re-
pine. How long, o Lord! How long
shall this endure?
Where are the forward looking men
OF today? Certainly not In the halls of
legislation. State legislatures from
, the Atlantic to the Pacific are feeble
counterfeits merely of . doddering
congress. Here In Ohio why can we
not have constructive legislation on
) the subject of taxation? The answer
is painfully simple: because we lack
, constructive statesmen in the general
assembly. Too great = percentage Of
the membership cSn not lift its ears
from the ground to take a good,
square. honest look upon = the neces-
sites Of sections and taxing divisions
remote from the bailiwicks to which
I they look for continued lease ON Off
cial life.
A Dartmouth professor is sponsor
for = story that aptly portrays the sit.
uation in which we find ourselves.
A householder was dismayed one night
by the sudden extnguishment of the cleo
!, trio lights in his house In little whle
u II became apparent that the darkness
would probably continue through the night
= unless the break could be located and cor
$ rected Unable at that hour to secure
II householder hit upon the happy scheme OF
q detaching the batteries from his doorbells
and connecting them with his electric
= feed wires But no light resulted. Next
! day the experts came to remedy the
. trouble. and seeing the hapless expedieni
o OF the owner, remarked:
= Don't you know that IT takes 500 times
more power to produce light than 1t tskea
y to produce nose?
There is the whole situation In q
Il nutshell We are troubled with low
$ voltage statesmen, the tiny dry cells
: of whose brains are Just powerful
3 enough to make unceasing racket
while great dynamic minds that might
e food the world with legislative light
l. and wisdom are disconnected from the
machinery of government.
5 Two years later at this annual gath
l. ering, | ventured to scold and TO ad
e wise. Again crave your indulgence
o to expostulate. to plead with you tc
: turn the batteries of W. lth on all
n near-statesmen. whose hands are tn,