Evening star., 1939-01-13
|ckes Charges Press
Has Been 'Shackted'
By Publishers
Gonnett Holds Federal
Control Is Only Thing
To Be Feared
By the Associated Press.

NEW 1o1tn, JILL. lS,-ln Snarp
debate, Secretary Ickes asserted last
night the American press had been
put in "shackles" by the publishers
themselves and private financial in
terests, while Frank Gannett con-
tended no other form of control of
the press save governmental
domination or censorship" need be
feared.
They discussed the general subject
whether the press was free in
Americas Town Meeting of the
Air. a national radio forum.
Mr.. Gannett. owner of 10 news
papers and 3 radio stations, who
spoke last, was not able to finish
his prepared address and protested
as unfair the limitation placed
upon him.
He was asked by George V. Denny,
moderator of the program, to con-
clude with a paragraph or two,"
because, Mr.. Denny said, "the au-
dience has taken so much of our
time on the radio we haven't time
enough to finish your speech"
Attacks Gannett's Newspapers.
Mr.. 1ckeS attacked Mr.. Gannett's
newspapers directly, asserting
that in 1929 the Federal Trade Com
mission had found that the Inter-
national Paper & Power Co. had
owned "all of the preferred stock
and 80 per cent Of the common
stock of the Knickerbocker Press
and the Albany Evening News, as
well as a sizable share of the Ithaca
IN. " Journal-News"
These, he said, were Gannett
properties, adding: l.
II ask you, during the time that
this paper and power company had
very large interest in the Gannett
newspapers. was Mr.. Gannett free?
- Did he tell his readers, when
he wrote editorials against Govern
ment ownership of power, that he
was in hook to the power interests?"
Mr.. Gannett. saying that had he
seen the Ickes manuscript in ad-
vance Il would have given a good
and sufficient answer to every one
of the unfair charges that he has
made against me-" added it was
perfectly ridiculous to say that
others had control "over my edi-
torial policies
The facts are" he said in answer
to a question from the floor after
the end of the speeches, that had
a contract for paper with the Inter-
ational Paper Co.; it had nothing
to do with the power company"
Wanted High Interest.
Needing money for the purchase
of newspapers, he added, he found
'the banking community wanted
IAN eXhorbitant rate of interest,"
Is or 16 per cent-and that he had
obtained money from the 1nterna-
tional Paper Co. in exchange for
some of the preferred stock in some
of these papers"
Never at any time" he added,
had they control of, in any way,
any of our publications..
He added it was unfair, most un-
fair, to intimate that because I had
a business transaction with a paper
company-with which I had been
doing business for years, that that
meant that they had some control
over my editorial policies"
The hue and cry" against the
press, he said, had resulted from
newspaper opposition to President
Roosevelt's effort to "break down
the American Constitution by pack
ing the Supreme Court" to the
original reorganization bill, which
| he said was written in "a spirit OF
contempt for democracy" and to
the "so-called May war bill"
That bill, said the publisher,
would have clothed the President
with a complete economic dictator
Ship
At another point he remarked:
when corrupt men are exposed
they always retort by attempting to
smear the press"
Subject to Pressure.
Mr.. Ickes said "the chief accusa-
tions" against the press were that
it was subject to financial and ad-
vertising pressure and was unfair to
some citizens especially working
men whose interests conflict with
those of the newspaper or its flnan-
cial hackers or its advertisers"
Mr.. Gannett responded that there
was intense competition" in pub
fishing; that "the publisher who ha-
bitually suppressed important news
would sign his own slow death war
rant; that the newspaper day by
day have printed column after COL
umn of anti-business accusations
aimed against their best customers"
Mr.. 1ckes' proposition" said the
publisher, was for the passage of
legislation 'of such a nature that
any newspaper that opposes the
administration will be in danger of
persecution of some kind, or of CEN
sorship. " Whereupon Govern
ment propaganda, unrestrained and
unchecked by the vigilance of the
newspapers, will become the peoples
main source of information.
Il do wish to emphasize" said the
Secretary in summing up his argu-
ment, that it is not my intention to
bring an indictment against the press
as a whole, but charge, and the
record will bear me out, that while
as to Government regulation and
control the press is free, it is not
because of its own financial and eco
nofnic tieups-what it should be, a
free servant of free democracy"
"The lack of free press in Amer
| lea is the most serious threat con-
fronting our democratic government