Evening star., 1938-12-23

ing articles or speeches appearing
IN the American press, and the Gus
tomary answer from our Govern
ment is that freedom of the press
Is guaranteed by the Constitution
and that no administration can
exercise any legal control over what
the press publishes or what public
men say in their speeches.
The German government, how
ever. had much more of a point
IN its protest this time, for the
speech at which complaint was
directed was delivered by a member
of the cabinet of the President of
the Unitd States and presumably
the utteranceS of cabinet officers
are subject to control by the Chief
Executive. So, when the German
governments envoy came to lodge
a protest, he found to his dismay
that the speech, was by no means
disavowed but proudly acclaimed
as the viewpoint of the vast ma
jority of the citizens of the United
States.
This is but another way of Say
ing to Germany officially that what
Mr.. Ickes said in his prepared
speech was designed to convey to
the German people and the world
IN general that brutality cannot be
looked upon passively by a humane
nation, and that with every bit of
voice which our Government pos
sesses it, would articulate to the
whole world it's horror at what
has been happening unNr Nazi
rule.
DEGREES Initiated.
It takes dramatic incidents of
this kind to awaken the chieftains
Of Germany to the fact that the
American people, speaking through
their Government, look with sad
ness and amaZement at the medic
valism which has been revived in
Central Europe. For even the
smaller countries are beginning to
initiate the Nazi DEGREES and meas
ures, and thus human liberty is
being chiselled away in the states
adjacent to Germany.
The episode illustrates all too
well how isolated Germany is and
how little her chiefs of propaganda
isnow about what is going on in
the outside world. Had the Ger
man bureaucratS any sense of
American customs they would have
known that Mr.. Ickes would not have
made the type of speech he did at,
Cleveland last week without the
knowledge of his associates in the
American Government.
The German newspapers, con-
trolled as they are as to their edi-
torial expression by Berlin officials,
reflect, apparently, the unfamiliarity
of the German foreign office now
adays with the temper of the Ameri-
can people. AS for tactics, there is
notable lack of discretion, even
looking at the case from the stand
point of what is beneficial to Ger
many in the long run. The German
press could have ignored the \Ickes
speech or it could have let loose its
ElastS against the cabinet officer
and thus provoke another episode
through which Germanys repute
would be still further damaged in
world opinion.
Opinion Intensified.
Instead of letting the speech pass
as the informal expression of cabi-
net officer, the German government
leaped into the fray and received
in return an open rebuke, which only
goes farther than the Ickes speech
to intensity American opinion. For
anything which savors of an at
tempt to control American cabinet
officers, such as Herr Hitler has tried
in warning Prime Minister Cham
berlain that Anthony Eden, Win
ston Churchill and others must be
muzzled, is bound to be a BOOM
erang. The recent withdrawal of
German correspondents and the
German Embassy staff from the
Foreign Press Association dinner in
London because the Hitler govern
rnent, after reading an advance CODY
Of MIR. Chamberlain's remarks, didn't
like what he had to say, is an ex-
ample of the German concept of
how international comment should
be controlled.
> For a long time the believers in
moral force have argued that foreign
peoples can be reached sooner or
later by ideas better than by the
bombs and bullets of conquest. The
comments by Acting Secretary
Welles, undoubtedly concurred in by
6ecretary Hull and President Roose-
velt, are in line with this doctrine
Of reaching around the world and
perhaps even into the German ma
ton through public utterances
which frankly and fearlessly dis
cuss current international issues.
(Copyright, 1881