Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1934-08-29
rs CRITICISM PROPER?

This is still a country of expressed opinion and will
continue to be. There will be criticism OF Administrative
policies no matter what party Is III power ana II Is lgnt
that there should be. Calling those who do the crltlclslng
narrow. selfish, wicked or immoral will not stop the criti-
cism. 1t will only tend to make it more severe.
1t would seem that during the past weeks there has
been a special vocal effort on the part OF some OF those
who are supporting the New Deal to condemn those who
Go not agree with them and have the courage to say so, Ill
spite of the general RECOMMENDATION that IS gong on. But
it is to be remembered that criticism is always a %healthtul
sign in a government like ours. 1t is an indication that
democracy is not dead. The only places where criticism
is now silenced are countries like Russia, Germany and
Italy which have forsaken the paths of democracy and
gone in for complete RECOMMENDATION which means nothing
less than autocratic dictatorship.
Certainly no plan, governmental or otherwise, II 1t IS
safe and sound, will suffer any by having the full light OF
public opinion thrown on it. If such plan or policy has
any weaknesses, its public discussion will tend to bring
out the defects and give opportunity for revision and I'M
provement. Nobody is ~infalible, not even a college pro
lessor, and the man who seeks to answer criticism by IN
vective and questioning of motive, shows that he either
lacks temperament or a good case or perhaps both.
Nor is it a complete answer to demand that the critic
Immediately present a substitute plan which is better
than the one attacked. Perhaps what is required may be
not a substitute plan but a pairing down OF the plan al
ready produced or the elimination of some of its features.
AS the Saturday Evening Post well SAID recently IL a
man is about to jump out of a window, it is not necessary
to find something else for him to do; to stop HIM is sui
ficient."
Certainly criticism is as legal and fair now as it was in
the years from 1929 to 1888. The present leadership which
was then in the minority showed no hesitation IN CRITICS.
ing the administration then in power. The smearing start
ed in early and kept up until March, 1888. 1t is true that
we are now in the midst Of a serious crisis, but the same
was true back in the hectic years which preceded 1888.
Certainly constructive criticism now is as necessary and
il as good taste as it was then.
What is true of the individual is equally true of the
newspaper. Surely that portion Of the press which may
disagree with some of the phases Of present policies, state
and national, has the right to criticise without having
cbarond AGAINST II ac General johnson of thn MIRA ia said
to have charged, in an address at Chicago not long ago,
that many newspaper editors were guilty Of being parties
to the suppression, %garbling and coloring Of news.
Undoubtedly the American press is as free of that faint
as any press in the world. Those who are acquainted with
newspaper procedure in Europe with its schools of state
control and propaganda, will be Of the opinion that the
American press is the freest and the most unbiased in
the world.