Evening star., 1937-11-08
HOOVER ADDRESS
HITS PROPAGANDA
Free Speech Held "Very
Life Stream of Advanc-
i!,g Liberalism"
~ the Associated Press.

WATERVILLE, Me, Nov. g.
Terming free speech, free press and
free debate the very life stream of
advancing liberalism" Herbert Hoover
today warned the Nation to guard
against the poison" Of propaganda.
At the same time the former Presi-
dent asserted that in the last Is years
''every dictator who has assembled to
power has climbed on the ladder of
free speech and free press" and then
suppressed all free speech except
his own"
To counteract propaganda he pre-
scribed more free speech" adding
I'VE must necessarily expose intel
lectual dishonesty and the purpose
that lies behind it. = = Half truth
can be defeated with the whole truth"
Hoover spoke at Colby College on
the Tooth anniversary of the death of
Elijah Parish Lovejoy, graduate of
the college and an editor at Alton.
Ill, who perished defending his right
to print what he wished against slav-
cry. The address was broadcast on
Nationwide hookup.
Praises Publishers.
Hoover was welcomed here at Union
Station by Senator Wallace H. White,
jr.. Republican, and breskfasted at
the home of Frederick Hale, the States
senior United States Senator
President and Mrs. Franklin W.
johnson of Colby arranged lunch
con in Hoover's honor prior to the
convocation exercise in the historic
First Baptist Church of Waterville.
where Lovejoy's father was a preacher
more than a century ago.
"A free press" Hoover said, lis far
more than publishers privilege. 1t
is right Of the people. But the
publishers are its first lines of de-
fense. They deserve the gratitude of
the country for the zeal with which
they have driven back every attempt
ut legal restrictions
Describing propaganda as a "sin-
ister word meaning half-truth or any
other distortion of truth" Hoover said
1t moves by tainting of news, by max
ing synthetic news and opinions and
canards. 1t promotes the emotions of
hate. fear and dissension. = &
With still further refinements
fsince the World War it has been
applied to politics The great quality
Of this improved poison seems to be
that it must be artistically done. =
Confuses the Mind.
IF you don't like an argument on
currency or the budget or labor rela-
tions or what not. you put out Shiny
and If possible anonymous propaganda
rejecting upon your opponents grand
mother or the fact that his cousin is
employed in Wall Street or is a COM
munist or a reactionary.
You switch the premise and set
up straw men and then attack them
with fierce courage"
The only living ex-President. Hoo
yer, made no mention of the Roose-
welt administration, nor did he refer
to the suggestion for a mid-term Re-
publican convention which he has
backed and which party leaders dis
cussed in Chicago last week
Free speech and free press cam
not survive if. they are used deliber-
ately to cultivate untruth or half
TRUTH" Hoover said
In the past Is years. he con-
tinued, the light of free expression
and free criticism has been put out
in more than half the so-called civil
tzed earth.
The revolutions since the Great
War were the result of implanted
ideas. Magic formulas were spun.
-" Propaganda confused the minds
and soiled the spirits of men. The
news was colored and facts distorted
Potent catch phrases and slogans were
summoned as labels for the cure of
every social and economic evil Half
truths, quarter truths were amassed to
prove the failure of established insti-
tutions.
Ensiaved by Lies.
Men were led to their own enslave-
ment by lies and fraud from polluted
speech and press Liberty died by the
waters of her own well-free speech
and free press poisoned by untruth.
But there is problem of free
speech and free press in America wider
than sporadic attempts to control it.
The durability of free speech and free
press rests on the simple concept that
1t search for the truth and tell the
truth. =
Progress is indeed the degree to
which We discover truth-and here free
press and free speech become the most
powerful of human forces.
Free expression will not survive
II 1t be used to stir malice in the
minds of men, 1t will not survive if
1t be used to exploit hate. Nor will
1t survive if it be used to implant
that fear which is the blood brother
Of hate"
Then after taking up the subject
OF propaganda, Hoover said:
L am making no suggestions of law
or extension of government over free
speech and free press in order to SUD-
press this improved form of corrup-
ton. Men can use brickbats for mur-
der, but that is no reason for sup
pressing prlck houses. But we can
turn some free speech on the throwers
Of brickbats.
80 far as it reaches the press our
editors maintain hourly battle against
It. They have the job of discriminat-
ing between propaganda and real news,
between untruth and truth. Theirs is
. hard job. Considering their difficult
ties, they do it pretty well. They would
be assisted if the news service rigidly
adhered to the rule that when opinion
u news they refuse to quote anony-
mously. That would be hard blow to
the hate makers"
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