Imperial Valley press., 1940-10-02
IF YOU LIVE ALONE
on A DESERT ISLAND

or if you have neither friends nor
love of freedom nor interest in lie, then
newspapers aren't important to you.
But if YOU are anything near normal
American. with friends and pride OF
country and feeling for freedom, imam
there isn't anything in the world that Is
more important to you
Imperial Valley newspapers, along with
those in all other parts of the nation, are
observing National Newspaper Week Oct.
| to 8. Fifty-one weeks out of the year
the newspapers tell their readers about
everything in the world except newspa-
pers This one week. we feel Justlfled III
telling about ourselves.
Not boasting. We'd like to steer clear
of boasting. We know as well as anyone
else does that there are good newspapers
and bad ones, and that there is some
thing good and something bad in every
newspaper. Newspapers are like human
beings that way If there is more good
than bad in them, generally they succeed.
The thing we want to talk about is the
broader scope of newspapers-the thing
they mean to the folks who read them.
A lot of those folks don't know, any more
than they know the medical explanation
of the hearts complete functioning.
A lot of people have never taken the
time to consider for themselves how ter
ribly lost they would be without the SER
vices newspapers perform. And not one
out of a hundred has ever considered
what a mess the people of this democracy
would be in if the newspapers came un-
der a total censorship, either private or
official. Possibly one make-believe in
stance can demonstrate the point.
Suppose the newspapers of the United
States were, somehow brought under the
exclusive control of one individual or
group of individuals Suppose the in
dividual or group in control had decided
two years ago that he or they did not
like President Roosevelt. Not liking him,
they might decide that his name should
never again be printed in any newspaper
If that had happened, no newspaper
reader would have seen the name of the
President for the last two years in any
newspaper.
''The radio :" you suggest.
Sorry to disilusion you The radio in
its news broadcasts, uses almost exclu-
sively the news gathered by newspaper
reporters. If the newspaper men did not
gather the news, the radio would not
broadcast it-because the radio would
not have it.
There would be speeches by the Presi-
dent, of course, and they would be broad
cast. But how many speeches of his have
you listened to in the last two years?
We're they enough to make you constantly
aware of his existence?
No-there would be little public dis
cussion of President Roosevelt today if
the newspapers had censored his name
every time it came up in the last two
years.
Impossible, you say. Yes, it is impos-
sible. But only in American newspapers.
The very thing we have been supposing,
in our make believe game, is ACTUALLY
IN PRACTICE in most of Europe today.
1t is censorship.
1t is not so much we, the newspapers,
who should raise our voices in a prayer
of thanksgiving that the American press
is still free press. 1t is you, the people.
For it is the duty of a free press to
print the news, whether the paper likes
the news or not And that is duty the
American newspapers have discharged
faithfully, and will continue to discharge
faithfully, as long as they are free.