The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1963-06-14
CENSORS BRING ABOUT
A SUBTLE CENSORSHIP

J that the most serious aspect of tn
problem is not in the examples 0
open combat but in the more subtl
censorship that works beneath tn,
surface. 1t is in the Recommendation
of that hidden danger that this bool
offers the most vital service. For i
seems to me that the outright de-
Tense of freedom should quite natu
rally be expected to be continuing
story. True, some of the skirmishes
are extremely unsavory, and reputa-
tions tend to be smeared in the
process. Worse, some of these Skin
mishes are lost by the defenders of
freedom, and there remain many COM
munities and even entire regions that
appear to love their censors more than
their liberty. But dangerous as those
islands of totaltarianism may be, they
are at least identifiable.
The invisible poisons in the sys-
tenn, on the other hand, are hardly
noticeable.
For example, the fact that most
high school history textbooks refer
only to the War Between the States
that Southpleasing euphemism-
a pretty sure indication that it would
be naive to expect truly honest dis
cussion of the Civil War in books
that aim at being adopted for mass
distribution in the South.
For long time, textbook publish
ers who, not unlike automobile manu-
facturers, were out to capture a maxi
mum share of the market in the COM
petition for book adoption, demon
strated their panic by the way in
which they replied to even the most
illiterate charges. One large textbook
house was confronted with the charge
that a cline count of the index"
showed Republican Presidents to be
given less space than Democrats. |
(Line counting is one of the stock |
yardsticks of the censors-a kind of |
textbook version of the equal-time |
theory of television.) The accommo-
iating reply, matching the attack in
soolishness, was that Lincoln, Cool
dye, and Hoover were single-term
while Wilson served two
rms and Franklin d. Roosevelt was
elected to four.
To the charge that the books of
mother firm failed to make it clear
that the government of the Unitd
,tates is a republic, not democracy
.one of the chestnuts of the extreme
light, which would rather have to-
replace popular govern
lent anyway serious 'reply"
ffers this justification: the word
republic" does not appear in the
constitution. By way of further
pology, the publishers said that the
ault was with the compilers of the
ldex, who failed to pick up the term
republic'' even though it actually
opeared ON three pags.
DOT OF AMERICAS FUTURE"
AIDE CHARGES
And who made the Charges" that
owed the publishers to apologize h
plies? E. Merrill Root, a professor ii
English who has figured as censor N
chief in many textbook battles, m
ID been hired by the Mississippi 81
legislature as an expert to investi- IL
tie textbook subversion, and had ic
en- called by an Illinois Legislative in
mmittee to testify on a textbook a
bill. An indication of the te
nd of books that would satisfy Pro- cl
ssor Root is available in his own in
'rds. He has said that he believes us
and his Administration are fc
en- softer on Communism than Eli dl
1hower was'. He thinks that if JEFF DC
son were alive today, he would ST,
a member of the John Birch So so
ty'' because he was against taxes lis
d coercive control by the central
And consistent through to
:, Root describes the John Birch GU
ciety as zone of the most conse- st,
ted and anti-Communist groups as
have and Robert Welch as man tn
"great wisdom and courage. Yet lis
OF merits the fearful consideration ed
at least two major textbook pub an
Iers. ma
OF course, the final blame must
!. borne by the school authorities. tel
publishers can make a M