Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1949-12-30
Labor Press Gives
Daily Press Lesson
On Press Freedom
Bx NATHAN ROBERTSON

WASHINGTON LPA) - The daily news
w papers, which talk so much about free
dom of the press but so often abuse it, have
been given badly needed lesson on the mean
ing of that historic principle by the young but
rapidly maturing labor press
The lesson was given by the American
Newspaper Guild Reporter, one of the best
labor papers, and one which knows the mean
ing of freedom of the press from long and
close study of its application misapplication.
The Guild Reporter in its issue of Decen-
Der 9 carried article by Alan Barth, its
regular columnist and editorial writer for the
Washington Post sharply criticizng jim
Carey, secretary-treasurer of the CIO for his
statements on American courts and judges
This was a striking example of press free
dom because the Guild Reporter is ClO
newspaper. The ANG is a part of the CIO, and
its executive vice president, Sam Eubanks sits
on the CIO board with Carey and is subordi-
nate to him in the CIO hierarchy.
Nevertheless it was Sam Eubanks who de-
cided that Barth's critical column should run
in the Guild Reporter regardless of the Guilds
sffiliation with Carey and the CIO. Eubanks
not only agreed to run the column, but in
sisted on running it when Barth offered to
withdraw it in order to save him embarrass-
ment. 1t was demonstration of the belief OF
working newspapermen in real freedom of the
press
The column was written about state
ment made by Carey at the recent convention
of the new international Union of Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers Tried almost be-
yond endurance by a series of perplexlng
questions about handling the court suits the
communist UE has brought to block the new
union, Carey assailed "these irresponsible ac-
tions by irresponsible confused and ignorant
judges"
Barth, one of the nations leading writers
on individual rights and civil liberties, was
disturbed. Feeling Careys comment should
not go unchallenged he wrote his column for
the Guild Reporter on it. Complimentary to-
ward Carey, Barth pulled no punches in criti'
cizing what he had said.
"The time is not so far past as to be beyond
the memory even Of so young a man as Jim
Carey" Barth wrote, "when this interesting
doctrine of his was expressed by some of the
country's great employers All unions, they
said, were communistic and should therefore
be denied justice in the courts.
Barths language was strong enough to
raise a real issue as to whether it could be
printed in a CIO paper The question went to
Eubanks for settlement Meanwhile, Barth,
feeling that II was perhaps unfair to put Eu-
banks to such test, called and offered to
withdraw the column. But the Guild officer
refused He insisted on printing it, Afterwards,
he remarked to friends that he thought there
was still room in the CIO for disagreement"
Now without going into the merits of what
Carey said, 1t is certainly no exaggeration to
say it was a sound and iudicious statement
compared to many uttered by that great
American, Robert r. Mccormick publisher of
the Chicago Tribune Many of McCormcks
statements, l am sure, have aroused greater
indignation among his writers than Barth felt
toward Carey's statement Yet has anyone ever
seen criticism of any of McCormick's foolish
statement in the Chicago Tribune, or even its
puppet, the Washington Times Herald?
These, it seems to me, are fair comparisons
of the kind of test the ANG has just come
through with flying colors. The way the Guild
Reporter handled Barths column makes me
proud to belong to the Guild-proud to belong
to the same union with Barth and Eubanks
The moral of the story Is that the labor press,
despite some obvious weak spots has some
papers with more character than many of the
so-called independent daily papers The labor
press is coming of age.