The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-11-08

, publicity law Without a Squeak-gen
orally printing their statements Of
ownership on the editorial page. mex
to the classified ads, or buried deer
in the many pages of popular maya
zine
When Big Press Hit The Ceiling
But when the law was first enacted
in 1912, newspapers hit the ceiling,
employing all the old familiar epithets.
Newspapers like the Wall Street
Journal, New York Times, Boston
Transcript, New York Herald, and
Philadelphia Press walled: "Uncon-
scionable and unconstitutional inter-
ference; drastic and silly restric-
ton; utter absurdity and wicked
ness; freak, pure and simple;
base in origin and detestable in prin-.
ciple' and so on ad nauseum.
When counsel for the American
Newspaper Publishers Association
sent notice to all newspapers to dis
regard the Wagner Labor Relations
Act-and it was not until the
Supreme Court upheld the law that
ldliOSdil DtSdH W ODcy II
the Press Lords were merely acting
| from force of habit. For thirty-five
years earlier, many newspapers de-
cided the publicity law was "uncon-
lstitutionap and at first failed to COM
ply.
James M. Beck. New York attor-
ney, wrote an opinion for this self
same ANPA. declaring it was Obvious
that the act is intended to regulate
journalism and not the mails" He
called it, "a plain palpable, and
naked invasion of the rights of the
states"i
Assisted by the ANPA, the New
Journal of Commerce challenged the
publicity law in the courts. But the
Supreme Court upheld the law as a
measure for the public good and not
an infringement of the freedom of the
press"-and the nations newspaper
magazine press has been obeying the
law ever since.
But Publicity Law Is Not Enough
AS beneficial as the newspaper pub
licity law is, it is not enough The
books on journalism listed elsewhere,
current publications of newspaper
magazine ownership the every day ex-
amples of press manhandling of vital
news, combined with the fact that
publishing has become such a big
business monopoly that only million
aire like Marshall Field can afford to
start even one daily paper-all serve
to prove the oft-repeated observations
Of men like Upton Sinclair and George
Seldes, that:
The time is now long overdue for
abor, in the interests of its own
as well as the rest of the
public to begin publishing a string of
laily newspapers.
What Upton Sinclair Proposed
Ten years ago the world-famous au-
hor Upton Sinclair proposed:
THE American workers are like a
lock of sheep in the midst of raven
ng wolves. They have to be drawn
ogether They have to be organized,
nd it is not merely a matter of get
ing them to sign union card. 1t is
matter of getting them to read and
hink; of giving them real information
instead of falsehoods and distortions
If the capitalist press
Il know that the various Qabor) or
carnations have their own papers
ind each of those serve their own
purpose, but what the workers get
rom those papers is limited :.
What | am pleading for is a paper
Or the whole people-at any rate the
. or 80 per cent of the people whose
interests are today identical
18th labor and who only need to have
ne facts pointed out to them
lstead of the poisons which they are
citing from the hosts of newspapers
nd magazines which are owned and
perated for the exploiting interests of
Ir country"
And George SeIdes Recommends
At the conclusion of his very i'm
ortant book "The Facts are George
eldes wrote:
II am reduced to suggesting one
)lution for the press problem, and
lat is daily newspaper owned by
$ readers, and since ii Is apparently
npossible to organize millions of
saders, then / would propose a press
wned by organized labor :.
What | propose is a string of daily
ewspapers, cay five, published from
ew York to California which will
ave a double function. First, and
,remost, to publish the news. The
apers will be newspapers. They are
} follow the conventional pattern;
ut they will print all the news, and
icy will differ from SO per cent or
ore of the big city press today in
rintins the news honestly. In other
ores, news concerning labor, the ma
riig. will also be presented honestly.
The second function of tie labor
yned press will be to expose every
swspaper which is not honest, to
lestion every dishonest editorial, to
pose every fake and distortion, to
int the suppressed, to point out the
as, and in general to write every
rong .
I'm other words, the work of the
Dor weeklies, newsletters, ETC., would
multiplied a thousand times, and
It one lie would escape notice, so
at in a short time the 100000
'wspaper buyers would realize that
era of truth has dawned in Ameri-
n journalism, and they would turn
ON the Hearst, Howard. Mccormick
ltterson chains and other anti-labor
pers, and become the readers of
cir own press"