Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-17
Advertising
As Safeguard
For Free Press
ProfitIess Paper Mig f
Have Dictated Policy
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

take 10 prove that nobody
in the newspaper business knows
less about advertising than / do.
l know nothing about the
rates for the ads which enable
my cherished employer TO re-
ward my unique talents, and I
think of advertising only when I
pick up our fearless journal and
say To myself, mice fat paper"
or kind of skinny today"
Some dumb instinct tells me
that when il is a fat paper tho
boys in the advertising end have
been booting in a nice piece Of
what il takes.
Having thus qualified myself
] invite your sympathetic atten-
ton to a suggestion that the
daily American press is more
important TO the American peo-
pie than the people realize and
that If the time ever should
come when the radio makes II
impossible for the papers to op-
crate at a profit on legitimate
advertising revenue, the big ad-
vertisers would be as sorry as
any one else.
When that happens. your press
goes wrong.
II then takes subsidies from
political parties and foreign gov
ernments. from big financial in
tereSts and groups led by dema-
gogues, and your free system IL
through.
nor examples, you have only
l. 10 consider the Scurrilous
intemperance and anti-Ameri-
can treachery of the Communist
papers which receive their edi-
torial policy and their support
over the party line from Moscow.
and the utterly dishonest racket
sheets produced in the name OF
organized labor by some political
unioneers who stick up mer-
chants for useless advertising
space.
Another fine example. now
fortunately eliminated. was tho
late Huey Longs Louisiana
Progress which passed from his
hands into those of Gov. Dick
Leche. and shook down even the
poorhouSes and lHhatie asylums
of the state for display ads.
All state and municipal en-
ployes were forced 10 subscribe.
Father Coughlin turned out a
fine example Of the demagogue
press. as violent. in its way. as
the worst of the Communist
papers, and there was a paper
called the Menace years ago
which went after the Catholics
a good deal.
No paper serving a party or
group under subsidy can ever
be expected 10 tell the truth OBJ
iectively, as the French people
have reason TO know and regret.
and country reduced 10 such
sources for its information on
events and issues viii surely fall
into bloodthirsty groups or come
together under one bloodthirsty
group as in Germany, Russia
and Italy.
THERE have been a couple OF
Il experiments in the ad-less
newspaper. with one of which l
was fairly familiar as cub re-
porter in Chicago.
l used 10 hang around the lit
lie cellar office on the West
Side. and saw il falter a little
while and die for various rea-
sons. chief Of which, / think,
was the fact II was not news
paper at all.
1t was Just one mans opinion.
translated into news stories and
interviews, and a very sour
opinion. at that.
The other experiment. cur
rently running in New York and
under subsidy from A multi
millionaire. has made bic is
sue Of anti-faScism, but. very
strangely. il started off with an
editorial staff which included
the most numerous cell Of Com
muniSt party-linerS ever gath
cred under one roof IN the
United States.
OUR advertisers Of course,
" are all businessmen, but
they are also American citizens
and a little above the average
in intelligence and citizenship.
As businessmen only ana
apart from their citizenship
they might stand 10 gain some
temporary business advantage
by patronizing the radio with
their advertising money 10 the
exclusion of the press.
But AS citizens, they would
suffer with all the rest of the
people If the free, Independent,
commercial daily press should
degenerate into a subsidized
press.
And | suggest that newspaper
employees. mechanical as well as
white collar might also give a
thought TO their own stake In
the free American press and
turn an an hours work for an
hours pay instead Of slowing
down the Job in the belief that
they are stretching the work.
A dollar will stretch inst so