Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1920-04-09

AS soon as our fathers started their
revolution in 1776 they began to plan
the machinery of free government.
They spent thirteen years on this
job, and when they were through
with the work in 1889 they had built
good machine.
Our system of popular government
was then the best in the world. At
the helm Of their philanthropic ship
Of state was George Washington,
President; Thomas Jefferson, Secre-
tary of State; Alexander Hamilton
Secretary of the Treasury; GENIAL
Henry Knox, Secretary of War, and
Edmund Randolph, Attorney-Gereral
When Americans pause to take cog
nizance of their attitude, principles
and achievements in the stupendous
task with which they were confronted
and then compare the whole with the
present conditions a marked cor .-iSt
is evident.
Those former representatives Of
the people were ever endeavor IS to
advocate and promote sound iogi:a
principles of government, they we're
sincere and unbiased; justice to all
being their paramount object. They
were genuine Americans, with clear
perception of truth and facts, AID not
swayed by foreign camoufaged p"or-
aganda.
There are many Americans who
seem imbued with the idea that our
government is still guided by the same
skillful hands and honest thinking
executives, and are averse to admit
it is possible that our nation is in
vaded by foreign diplomacy and the
freedom and liberty we once enjoyed
is rapidly waning.
The time is opportune, however,
for US to take cognizance of existing
facts and conditions. The most es-
sential object, inasmuch as it is the
great creator of public decision, is
the public press. Regardless of who
we send to Washington as our rep
resentatives the time has come when
they who own and control the press
control the government. In the days
of Joseph Story the press may have
been honest and pledged to religion,
liberty and law, but such is not the
case today. With a few honorable
exceptions the big papers and maga-
zines of the United States are the
most ignorant and gullible as W i
as the most cowardly and controlltd
press in any country in the world.
The majority of the owners are mere
fnanciers who look upon their maga-
zines and newspapers simply as
money-making mills, and who when
ever it is a question between more
coin, and good honest patriotic serv-
ice, will take the coin every time.
The majority Of the editorial writers
display an ignorance of the long Sc
quent history of national, racial and
religious conflicts which constitute
the infinitely interesting and instruc-
tive story Of the human race, and an
inability to apply intelligently what
little they do know to a sensible ex-
position of the huge turmoil and mass
movement which are now shaking
the whole edifce Of human society,
that make an intelligent American
ashamed to look an intelligent for
eigner in the face when the American
press is spoken Of.
With such cupidity and such super
fetal smartness combined with such
profound ignorance in complete con-
troll Of the great part of our press,
the oppressors who seek to despoil
the people of their god-given rights
by the use of camoufaged propaganda
have the most powerful weapon that
can be imagined ready at hand. 1t
is very foolish, childish and un-
American like to look upon machines
of governments as sacred things; as
things holy to be profaned by touch
or examination. Governments and
the men who run the machinery Of
governments, like to encourage and
inculcate the foolish reverence for
themselves and their machine.
Anyone who examines attentively
the speeches and the writings Of the
men who lived between 1776 and 1889
and the speeches and the writings Of
the men who have the public eye to-
day, cannot fail to see how changed
Is the attitude of the men we hire to
run the machinery Of government
Nothing could be more demonstra.
tive of the contrast between the men
Of the two periods than to see rep
resentatives of the people in both
Houses of the Congress actually in
troduce laws to make it felony to
criticise any speech or any writing of
the sacred person and the sacred &C.