Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-07-27
Guild Grievance

ShbSS
Much as dislike having to
disagree publicly with one
whom we once proudly well
coined as a member, I cannot,
in good conscience. permit GER
tain statements by Dorothy
Thompson in her column of
July IS to go unanswered.
In that column, Miss Thomp-
son noted that the recent in
ternational convention of the
American Newspaper Guild in
Toronto had taken positions on
a number Of public issues and
she suggested that, in so doing.
the guild was undertaking to
commit its writing members to
supporting :. political action"
thereby infringing their free
dom of thought and speech"
This is not so.
The actions OF which Miss
Thompson complains we're not
promulgated by the guild"
They were voted in public con-
vention by 249 elected dele
gates representing newspaper
men and women in SO cities in
the United States, Canada and
Hawaii. The delegates actions
commit no guild member
writing or otherwise-to sup
port anything in the course of
his work as a newSpaperman,
and the officers of the guild
would be the first to disavow
them if they did. They do rep
resent the thinking and desires,
and proposed policies, of guild
members in their private lives
as union members and citizens.
To deny newspapermen this
right would be to deny them
the simple rights of citizenship,
for we must not forget that
newspapermen, as citizens, en-
joy the same rights-and obi
gations-of citizenship as all
other citizens, including the
right to express themselves on
public issues through repre-
sentatives and organizations of
their own choosing, just as
Miss Thompson herself does
through the American Friends
of the Middle East and other
organizations of her choosing.
Delegates to the Toronto
convention expressed them
selves emphatically on this
point when they adopted a
report of the convention COM
mittee on human rights read
ing. in part:
1.-THE human rights and
privileges of a newspaperman
to contribute as a citizen to his
community should be asserted
strongly. A newspaperman is
not a political eunuch,' as one
employer has stated. He should
retain all his citizenship rights
and the obligation to accept
civic responsibility and leader
ship to the same degree that
any other citizen should. The
impartiality of his news re-
porting is a professional matter
not affected by his personal
desires and activities"
The Toronto Star, Canada's
largest newspaper circulation
$4,000, went even further.
In an editorial welcoming the
guild convention to Canada,
the Star wrote:
1.-THE guild might consider
-. whether it has been articu-
late enough on questions of
public policy, whether there
has not been too much of a
tendency to steer clear of COL
lective expression on wider
issues. This is admittedly a
sensitive problem; some people
think newspapermen are not
supposed to have opinions. But
newspapermen enjoy opportu-
mites to be we'll informed and
some way should be found to
make their views known to the
public"
One way is through the an
nual conventions of the Amer
lean Newspaper Guild and, it
seems clear to me, those who
would deny newspapermen this
right would infringe the very
freedom of thought and speech
they seek to protect.
joseph +. Collins.