Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-10-12
PRESS CONGRESS
GETS A MESSAGE
FROM PRESIDENT
Harding Hopes the News
papers Throughout the
World Will Do Their Part
to Promote Understanding
tBy The Associated Prcss.)

Washington, Oct. 11.-A hope
that the public press throughout
the world will do its part to pro-
mote international UNDERSTANDING
and particularly to make easier
the tasks of the armament confer
ence was expressed by President
Harding in q message to the Press
Congress of the World which be-
gan it's sessions today at Honolulu.
In solving the problem of the
Pacific, the president wrote, the
press was in a position to WELD
a great and beneficial influence.
He declared it "hard to imagine
Qualifications for conflict among
the peoples on opposite shores of
the Pacific and added: a
1.-THE Pacific ought to be the
seat of generous, free, open
minded competition between the
best ideals of eastern and western
life, between the aspirations and
endeavors of the oldest and new
est forms of human society"
The message, sent in the form
of a letter to Wallace r. Earring
ton, governor of Hawaii and pub
Usher of the Honolulu Star Bulle-
tin, was dated September s, and
was, in part, as follows:
~ hope the fact that / chance
to have been most OF my life a
newspaper man, will not have dis
torted my Judgment so far as to
cause me to overrate the impor-
lance of Journalism In the pres
ent day world. Not only have the
world war and the events trans
piringS@ since the armistice i'm
pressed us all anew with the use
and value of the public press, but
they have demonstrated the pos
sible danger which resides in a
press too freely employed for mere
propaganda. In the overwhelm-
ing emergency of the war, prop
uganda became a well nigh uni
yersal habit; I might almost saJ
code among journalists. 1t was,
of course, intended to | the prop
uganda of patriotism, of devout
nationalism, of well-intentloned
aspiration for the salvation of the
best in human society; but 1t was
always entirely fair, judicial or
discreet. On the whole, it served
splendid purpose in the circum-
stances of war time: but we news
paper men could indulge our
selves in no more grievous error
than to assume that propaganda
Ia the first or even leading ann
of a properly conducted press.
'I cannot but feel that the pri-
mary purpose of the press, as IL
social institution, is the opening
of mems minds, rather than the
closing of them. Propaganda aims
primarily at shutting up the nina
against other conclusions than
those which the propagandists de-
sign to implant. Education, on the
contrary, aims to open the mlnd'
to prepare it, to make it recep-
tive, and to urge it to formulate
its own conclusions.
an this work of education no
single force or influence OF Wnlcii
we now know can be expected 10
exert so great potency as the
press. YOU are meeting In Gay
when the world is looking Iorwalu
to the gathering of the nations u
consider limitation of armament
and maintenance of world peace
If your deliberations snail inspire
a larger, a peter, more humane
view of the elements which enter
into the problem of peace ana at
least a measurable disarmament;
if YOU can encourage the ideal Oh
world permanently at peace, then
you will have given vast impetus
TO the efforts of statesmen who are
presently to consider these prop
lens in Washington.
1--WE have heard much in recent
years about the problem OF the ia
cific, whatever that may be. | take
it to be merely phase OF the uni
yersal problem of the race OF men
and nations wherever they are II
is hard to imagine Qualifications IN
this day and age especially in view
OF the worlds late unhappy ex-
reriences, for armed conflict
among civilized peoples anywhere
and especially among peoples 50
widely separated as those on OPP
zpOSlle DCNueiS VI llS
represent different races social or
CARNATIONS, political systems ana
modes Of thought. Between them
and their widely varying system
there may well be an amlcaple
competition to determine when
community possesses the better and
more effective ideas for human ad-
vancement.
But that there should be con-
flict; that warfare and controversy
should interfere with this worth
while demonstration of the value
of different modes of progress, IS
almost unthinkable. The Pacific
ought to be the seat of generous,
free, open minded competition be-
tween the best ideals Of eastern
and western life; between the as
pirations and endeavors of the old
est and the newest forms of human
society.
"You are meeting at the cross
roads of the Pacific, amid all the
glamour and romance and glory
which have always surrounded the
very name of the south sea. You
have an opportunity to do WORK
for humanity, and I believe you
have met at a peculiarly suspicious
time"
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