Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-02-01
The Truth Is Strong
Enough
BY Hjalmar Petersen

10y AAJoAAAdA CeCASOh
A strong advocate of producers and
consumers cooperatives and of gov
eminent ownership, said the other
day that newspapers are controlled
by their advertisers" If the speaker
had said that to considerable eX-
tent the press is influenced" by its
advertisers, he would have gone far
enough. There would be much truth
in such statement, but, to say that
the press in controlled" by its adj
vertisers is going too far.
Some people undoubtedly are of the
opinion that the press is controlled,
which causes thinking people to scrut-
inize policies of the press for evidence
substantiating such grave charges.
We might take as an example the
Askov American. Certainly at no
time throughout its Is years of pub
LEGATION has it been controlled" by
those who advertise in its columns
True, the American is not a daily
newspaper, only one of the several
hundreds of rural weekly newspapers
in Minnesota, but, we do not claim
to be alone in the field of the self
reliant. There are other newspapers
that cling doggedly to an independent
editorial policy.
1t is different matter with news
papers owned outright or subsidized
by some large corporation, or polit-
ical organization. Such newspapers
may try to pose as being unbiased,
but their primary purpose is to mould
public opinion in behalf of the or
ganization or group they represent
They might well be classed as propa-
ganda sheets, and certainly can be
designated as controlled"
1t is also an easy matter to advo-
cate government ownership as sure
cure for all economic ills Radical
speakers may say that for every
government official who takes a bride,
there is also an Individual repre-
senting private industry who is the
bride giver. That statement is true,
but it does not excuse the Individual
in public office who holds a public
trust. The greatest of integrity and
stability are expected of public Of
icials, and rightly so. If a person
has not the character to withstand
bribery temptations, he does not be-
long in public life, and if there were
no public bride takers, the crooks
in private industry would get no.
where with those methods.
This, however, does not mean that
we should overlook or wink at dis
honesty in private industry. Ger
tainly, one cannot condone the act
of the Joint Legislative Investigat-
ing Committee in giving immunity to
nine road contractors for telling the
inside story of shady financial maneu-
vers so that the administration might
convict one individual, former high
way employee, and smear the polit-
ical opposition. The law should be
applied to all alike. There may be
just basis for immunity under GER
tain circumstances. Sometimes i'm
munity is given to one or two indi-
viduals in order to convict the many,
but, this time it was given to nine
to catch one.
If we had widespread public own
ership in the country, there would
be entirely too much at stake in
every election. The political party in
power would turn heaven and earth
to so remain, which eventually would
result in dictatorship and no more
elections. 1t is difficult enough to
remove from political life an en-
trenched political machine, though
that has been, and will continue to
be done, but, imagine the task ahead
for the voters to remove an en-
trenched political party if govern
ment ownership were complete. AS
it now stands, if political party is
defeated, there is still something else
to do for those who lost out. They
can build houses, raise livestock, go
into business, or do a hundred or a
thousand different things
The little country of Sweden has
set a good example for other democ-
racies in the handling of economic
problems. In Sweden there seems
to be happy combination of private
initiative, producers and consumers
cooperatives, and government owner
ship. Government ownership is es-
tablished chiefly when monopolies
spring up. but as rule, the coop
erstives hold private industry in
check.
There is danger of too much gov
eminent ownership when the attitude