Evening star., 1946-09-30
Publisher Cites Need
For Free Thought as
Press Institute Opens
BY The Associoted Press


information is the only way to sth,
truth that leads to every great hu
man achievement, Sevellon Brown
editor and publisher of the Provi
dence Journal-Bulletin, said toda,
at the opening of the American
Press Institute.
Twenty-Five managing editors ane
news editors of newspapers from
coast to coast enrolled for the in.
stitute's first seminar at Columbia
University. They will exchange idea.
on covering news and discuss social
economic and political problems O.
the day.
1--WE know that every great human
achievement, spiritual or material
is the result of the free, uninhibitec
collaboration of many minds" sale
Mr.. Brown, who originated the idea
for founding the institute and is a
member OF its advisory committee.
I'VE know that the only way to
truth is through the free and un-
limited association of ideas and in
formation, and that what seems a
great truth today may be replaced
with a very different one tomorrow
When the flow of ideas and
information is blocked, human prog
ress and creativeness languish.
The very core of the sources of
current information in our demo-
cratic world is the news gathering
activity of cur daily press and the
worldwide news collecting instru-
mentalities which it supports. So
long as we are fired by ever-glowing
zeal to get the news, whatever the
difficulties or obstacles, and to pre-
sent it honestly, effectively and
UNDERSTANDABLE, however complex or
controversial the subject matter may
be, we may have faith in the sur
viVal of this creative way of life.
But it would be foolhardy to
minimize the moral hazards which
confront us. The atom bomb and
the rocket-propelled missile may be
the particular products of war which
make our flesh creep. But the war
brought to Infamous fruition other
weapons, just as deadly. I refer to
the psychological weapons by which
Goebhels, manipulating the in
struments of mass communication,
and assisted by secret police in every
city block and crossroads cQmmun-
ity, took control of the minds of
virtually an entire people and drove
it to mass madness"
Mr.. Brown said that sound public
opinion could be "nourished only by
full disclosure, by reporting all the
significant facts, statements and
conflicting opinions"
ut is the great moral strength of
soundly functioning democracy that
public action is motivated by in
formed conviction, not by passion or
servility," he said. I'VE we're not
afraid, even while at war, to print
fully the rantings of Hitler. A fully
informed people could not be cor
rupted by them. His rawlings ex-
posed his viciousness when read by
an enlightened people.
But the task of full disclosure, in
this headlong flow of complex
events, is enormous. We must guard
vlgilantly against incomplete and
misleading reports. This swift flood
stream Of news may motivate social,
political and economic action of in
calculable consequences; action
which may bring war or peace, pros
perity or depression, veal or woe.
"Yet we cannot withhold the news.
1t is not our lordly function to
tell the public only what we deem
to be safe or good for it to
know. In democracy, such power
cannot be delegated to any group
it is the first step towards tyranny
and stagnation."
He said the day was past when
events considered news were pri-
marily those involving novelty,
shock, violence or conflict.
1--WE are engaged in writing, edit
ing and interpreting news report
from direct contacts in remote parts
of the earth, reports that must COPE
with the enigma of Soviet Russia,
with the mysteries of India, with
the contradictions OF revolutionary
China" he said. Moreover the
news is compounded of the facts
and speculations of science, of the
dogmas of religious belief, of all
the social, economic and political
concernments of mankind"
Mr.. Brown said that the American
Press Institute was more an idea
than an institution" and that the
success of this two-year experiment
underwritten by SO newspaper pub
fishers could help all newspaper
men in "the fulfllment of as heavy
social responsibility as rests upon
the shoulders of any professional
group OF men in these United
States"