The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-04-20
SECRET FOOD FARLEY


the New Leader, President Roosevelt expressed con-
Germ because "over wide Of the earth freedom
of the press is now but bitter memory He went
on to point out, truly "thot all free institutions ore
endangered by any encrooohment on liberty Of speech
or Of the press.
This" he said "shouId emphasize anew to all
of US the necessity for constant vigilance which now,
as always, is the price of liberty and particularly lib
erty Of the press"
simultaneously the President was sitting tight
on his dictum that the United Nations press shall be
barred from setting its npious foot on the So
cred soil Of the Hot Springs, w. hotel where allied
conferees ore to discuss international food problems.
There will be innocuous opening and closing ses-
sons at which reporters will be permitted For the
rest it is none Of the pubIics dashed business what
it's hired men doing about the food situation.
Repression feeds upon repression If the press
can be barred from foods conference it can be bar
red from any conference 1t can be kept Of every
public building in Washington 1t can be kept from
the Capital City entirely 1t won't be- But it can, just
as leeitinnotey it be forbidden to enter the
Hot Springs hotel.
In their anxiety to help win this war; the news
papers have leaned over backward to censor them
Selves With only OCCASIONAL usually unintentionoI
Iopses, they have relgousy needed the requests OF
Mr.. Roosevelt's censorship agencies, though they
we're under no legal oompuson to do
When the President made his famous secret tour
Of the nation the newspapers co-operoted, against
their better Judgment to the point of obsurdty For
better reasons they observed the same silence when
Mr. Roosevelt went to CosobIonco
This was not done without onxiety Nobody knows
better than working newspopermen how the demands
Of public officials grow, any slightest concession
hos been made in the withholding Of news
It has been supposed that Mr. Roosevelt delight
ed in the eive-ond-toke Of press conferences the bot
tie Of wits between skilled cross-exonners and reuot-
ant Witness With his power to turn coustc at will
without comeback from intervewers who, as man to
man, could pin his ears bock-ond to terminate the
conferences if the pressure became too great the
President never has appeared to need armed guards
to preserve his secrets
But it seems that he must have enjoyed the eos
Ter pokines at Cosobonco, when perforce the cor.
respondents could not do any ferreting and had to
accept canned news" without even the privilege Of
asking questions
Having imposed such terms in the bottle area,
where they obviously we're justified he seeks to
impose them the home 'front.' where question
Of presidential security is involved, where military
secrets to be protected.
The >unreosonobIeness Of his attitude is recoe-
nized by almost every other Official involved in the
conference preparations. If the Presidents own pub
city sense has otrophied tho he needs evidence,
it is to be hoped that he has read and rereod the
protest Of Of is most faithful admirers and de-
Tenders, Raymond CIopper who this subject writes
with bitterness entirely alien to his usually equobe
temper:
I'VE newspaper workers may not have the
social eroces that Groton and Harvard could have
given US We ore hired to try os best we can to
keep the American people informed about their gov
eminent = the government that people ore paying
taxes to finance, buying bonds to support and for
which their sons ore DYING in tropieo! unQ!es Qnd