The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1938-09-15
GOVERNOR BENsON's COMMENTS

GOf EhNOR DENSONO SOMn1EtS LIZ
before Redwood Falls audience last week
would provide editorial matter for months
to come, but for the fact that election is
only weeks away and political matters will
become exceedingly boresome to all but the
more confirmed politicians before that time.
His listeners got an insight on the gov
ernor's penchant for snap judgments and
adherence to theories regardless of practic-
alities in his declarations on the matter OF
publicity for relief expenditures.
On the surface it sounds liberal and
humanitarian to oppose such publicity. "Peo-
pie should not be held up to ridicule and
seorn because they are On relief" the Gov
ernor said, adding that publishing OF names
in such cases is in his opinion, "un- Ameri-
can" 49,: + III
Yet publicity in matters of public ex-
penditures is an essential of democracy as
important as free speech, freedom OF the
press or right of assembly, because it guards
against misuse of public funds. Actually
publicity on relief expenditures protects not
only the hard pressed taxpayer but the Of
ficials whose duty it is to administer relief
and the very clients ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
chiSelers whose unWarranted participation
deprives worthy people of adequate help and
may in the long run impair all legislation to
provide such help.
I1du Tie IOtcIHOf DSGu ldIIlllldI Will
the increased responsibilities thrown upon
welfare boards by the elimination of pub
licity-which cancelled all help from neigh
bors familiar with the true conditions of i'm
posters-he could hardly have sided against
publication, no matter how liberal he may
wish to sound.
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS ARE THE
political resort of every demagogue but the
governor goes farther than most in his ad-
jectives, Immoral and corrupt" If it is
immoral and corrupt to have opinions other
than those held by government officials,
then freedom in Minnesota is myth. For
tunately readers are more tolerant than
politicians-even liberal politicians. Gazette
readers, for instance, who disagree with the
editor must be plentiful but those who stop
their paper or otherwise "sever relations"
as a result-we state thank ully-ares few.
The governor processes n6t4o md time
to read the newspapers self indictment
for no one, in or out of public life, can hope
to keep pace with developments today with
out systematic and painstaking study of the
daily press. If the governor can be taken
at his word, perhaps he has not noted that
his speeches, including those given on costly
radio time, are published in full without
charge in those large city newspapers which
he particularly castigates.
Publicity departments of state offices
lombard this corrupt and immoral press
with innumerable dispatches" surpris-
ing number of which appear in print con-
sidering publishing costs and the quality of
such material. The governors various pro-
carnations, overly abundant in campaign
year, likewise get valuable space. Criticism
therefore must be simply that: 1. Opponents
of the governor also get their speeches
printed. g. Newspapers feel free to COM
ment editorially even in this liberal age, and
3. Publicity is given government officials
and bureaus whose acts put them in an I'M
favorable light, as well as the plugs" they
handout.
Which of these practices would the gov
ernor suppress? .: o. 49,.
The strictly Republican Teapot Dome
scandal OF the last generation got wide and
damaging publicity in the Republican press.
Would such a scandal in the Farmer-Labor
party be even mentioned in the minnesota
Leader, that example of simon pure jour-
nalism with the governors picture on most
pages? That paper, by the way, which re-
fused FL member E. T. Ebbesen, candidate
for Acknowledgements, any mention be-
cause he was not the Endorsed candidate" ?
OWE HAVE THINGS TO LEARN
from Sweden but in comparing economic
status, the United States does not suffer, y
The Minneapolis Journal remarks editorial
ly on the declaration of Governor Benson
here last week that the Scandinavian coun-
tries have higher standard of living than
the United States.
The Journal comments further as fol-
lows: 1T is quite the fashion in these de-
preston years to proclaim that the Ameri-
can industrial system is all washed up, that
the system of private ownership is a fail
ure. Yet little look around will show that
even now Americans are better clad, better
housed and better fed than the people of
Europe. Governor Benson has not learned
this, and unfortunately, he may never find
out, for as he told the same Redwood Falls
audience, he never reads the newspapers.
Government statistics say that Al per
cent of the population of Sweden have in
comes below $3.50 year, 80 per cent have
from $3.50 to $500, and 81 per cent from
$500 to $1,000. So that SO per cent in that
on,,pfrv ho1ou tho CT O00 l,x,ol go.