Evening star., 1941-02-25

10 contain lIlSlu-
tous attacks on David Lawrence.
the free enterprise system.
There has developed out OF the
period of tension through which
America is passing spirit of SEN
sitiveness about what is printed or
said. The President was well with
In his rights in raising the question
with respect to the publication OF
military data and 1t is unfortunate
that there are not many persons left
hereaboutS who saw the voluntary
censorship formula in operation dur
ing the last war. 1t was a Splendld
example of cooperation in a de-
mocracy.
When a secret session of con-
ereSSional committee is held, the
custom in normal times has been
for the press to make inquiry OF the
members on the theory that the
exclusion of the press could not
mean secrecy for the peoples busl-
ness. but only a suppression of the
details, the idea being to furnish
some sort of digest of every session.
But during wartime or in times OF
International crisis it is not in the
public interest to reveal military data
which the Army and Navy would
like for the time being to keep secret.
A simple request to all the press to
refrain from such publication has
been made by the Navy Department,
but not by the War Department.
Unquestionably such request would
be respected.
Publicity Brings Remedies.
Members of Congress, on the other
hand. are in duty bound to protect
the public interest by determining
when it is desirable-whether a
week or a month later-to' tell the
public what they know about the
state of our defenses Only in this
way can the public interest be pro-
tected against a suppression which
prevents errors from being corrected.
Publicity sometimes brings correc-
tives which outweigh the dlSadvan-
tageS of secrecy.
There is no sound reason why
newspapers have to print military
data relating to airplane movement
or shipments of troops or transfers
of ships from bases at the very time
these things are occurring. When
Gen. Marshall testified last week IN
secret session he referred to move
ments of airplanes in the Pac1tlc
and this was promptly published.
The incident itself may not have
had serious results, but Mr.. Roose-
welt used it to illustrate the nature
of the problem. He insisted he had
no censorship plan and he left 1t to
the press itself to find formula.
The attempt to censor textbooks IN
the schools is not directly related to
the war situation, except that as
consequence of Investigations by the
Dies Committee, there has been an
agitation concerning the nature OF
the teachings in the public schools
which may approximate alien phil
osophieS The defenders of the free
enterprise system often charge that
Communists or FasciSts first tear
down the existing institutions as a
part of the technique Of introducing
dictatorial controls by government.
Undoubtedly some Of the writer's
of textbooks used in the public
schools are critical of the free
enterprise system. This tendency,
however, does not necessarily have
its inspiration in foreign philoSo-
phies, but in the class war which has
been carried on for the last several
years in which prominent men OF
governmental and governmental
positions have participated. If there
are textbooks which reclte abuses
in the capitalistic system, 1t may
be taken for granted that what is
said is often a mild reflection of
what has been outlined far more
vehemently in the public writings
of the New Dealers,
Disinterested Agency Urged.
But if there is to be an effort to
combat unjust attacks on the free
enterprise system in school text
books. it is questionable whether
the National Association OF Manu-
facturers is the organization to do 1t.
Certainly there are disinterested
agencies and organizations which
have been disassociated from the
class wars of the last few years and
which can undertake such a study
and carry greater conviction.
The critics of the free enterprise
system point particularly to the
failure of employers as a class or
business management as whole to
discipline itself. Many fine state
ments of policy have been adopted
outlining proper ethics of conduct
or denouncing unfair practices as
between competitors but trade as
sociations and business groups like
the Chamber of Commerce and the
National Association of Manufac-
turers have not yet found way to
apply discipline to the small per-
centage among their members who
insist on violating such codes of con-
duct.
Publicity, to be sure, is one
method that is being used to cor