EDITORIAL COMMENTS
EDITORIAL COMMENTS BY GRANTING unconditional amnesty to the political prisoners, President Coolidge has abated a national disgrace, and removed a condition that made free speech a mockery in the...
...Those messages could have but one meaning...
...It had intervened in the war at a time when the Al-lies were most desperate...
...Our own State Department grows more imperialistic day by day...
...More drastic action should be instituted against principals and accessories im the thievery of the nation's natural resources,—its oil» coal, timber and water power—when it occurs...
...and that instead these great journals would become like other farm publications—the weak servile tools of that Big Business which dictates editorial opinion as the price of its patronage...
...Advertisers have been given value received in the Pierce Publications, but that value has not included the subtle control over editorial policy which dishonest men continually seek, and which dishonest editors continually yield, to the reproach and destruction of a free press...
...Our Government is getting farther away from the people...
...If the spirit of the pledge is kept, the Amerka-n people should learn some el: (^ruths about the lying thai has beer: about RusrllE deatli of Frank Cobb, of The World, leaves the editorial side of the New York press in a sorry state...
...These reports are literally untrue, as every person who has visited Germany within recent months will testify...
...James M. Pierce laid down the principles upon which their commanding influence and great financial success was built...
...And he faced a hungry pack of wolves, held at bay while the father lived,—now determined to ^control or destroy the son, leaving them .'free to prey upon the farmer and the public...
...We have no feeling towards them but sympathy and friendship...
...The Federal officials who advanced those arguments and who used those methods, did more to undermine African institutions and discredit the demo- cratic theory of government than all the misguided zeal of eds could accomplish in a century...
...Here was the simple, noble creed, written as an editorial in his journal in his own words, to which James M. Pierce steadfastly adhered through a lifetime of service to humanity: "There are two paths which any man starting life as an editor may choose...
...Then we can again look the free nations of the earth in the face...
...But he was not the only man who was betrayed by his faith in the idealism which breathed from the pre-war messages of the President...
...A number of bills have been offered in' Congress proposing appropriations for the relief of Germany...
...But he did not...
...We will be waiting and watching for you to act, Mr...
...Democrats—Pittman, Jones (New Mexico), Kendrick, Walsh (Montana), Adams, and Dill...
...True, they are resourceful and persistent...
...This compact made before all the world constituted the pledge of this country and the Allied governments to Germany that its provisions were to be embodied in the formal terms of the treaty...
...There are counties in Wisconsin and Iowa in which practically every farm house receives each week a~.copy of The Wisconsin Farmer or The Iowa Homestead...
...Suit should be instituted to cancel these leases and recover this property...
...Before and after the declaration of war by Congress in April, 1917, President Wilson publicly proclaimed, again quarrel was not with out with the Prus e war-lords who were of Germany...
...Such an editor stands by the established order of things, accepts what is handed out to him from above, all cut and dried...
...But the citizen is helpless...
...One is the easy way of conventional platitude and harmless unction, in which nothing is said which could by any possible chance give- offense to anyone for whose support the editor cares...
...If he had been misled into believing that liberalism could achieve it/s aims through war, he was one of the first to try to retrieve the sad consequences of that error...
...But Dante Pierce is as wise as he is incorruptible, and is as well equipped to meet these subtle influences as he was to face the direct persecution and financial pressure of the exploiters of the farmers...
...this thought that has been expressed in the formula: *No annexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities.'" Referring further to the terms of peace when the war should end he said: "We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfish...
...The orders will have to come from him before legal proceedings are instituted...
...It applied hope to millions \yho rightly- regard the newspapers as mere tools used for the benefit of the rich men who own them, and the organized wealth with which the owners are allied in interest...
...Never did a man face a greater personal crisis than did Dante Pierce...
...In the previous memory of his father's* friendship, I hail Dante Pierce today an<J pay tribute to him as one American editor Who has kept the faith...
...And, in the second place, the record of the Department of Justice in the matter of red scares justifies no credence in anything it may say on the subject...
...He was the one editor that the metropolitan newspapers could least spare...
...Alas, little of all this is now remembered...
...The members -of this investigating committee are: Republicans—Lenroot, Smoot, Ladd, Stanfield, Norbeck, Bur-sum, Cameron...
...The suffering of the people of this distracted country passes description...
...His life was a passionate consecration to the best in journalism...
...He was speaking with full responsibility as President when he said in one of his official messages: "We have no quarrel with the German people...
...The least that can be done to atone for this terrible wrong is to restore citizenship to the prisoners who were deprived of it, and to remove the spiteful conditions imposed on those whose sentences were commuted last July...
...It violates the spirit of American neutrality which Washington established and we have maintained for more than a hundred years...
...Evidently, from his own decisions, what the naval reserves most needed protection from was Secretary Fall...
...SECRETARY FALL granted leases permitting the sinking of oil wells just outside the Teapot Dome, naval reserve...
...Dante Pierce succeeded to the control Of the journals founded by his father, with whom the son had enjoyed the most unusual and intimate companionship...
...In all the dark age of suppression, persecution, espionage and tyranny through which we have been passing the last few years, there has been no blacker blot than the imprisonment of American citizens for daring to express opinions contrary to those held by the men in control of the government...
...carry on ' and extend the work of his father...
...He took over the sole control at a time when the territory covered by the Pierce Journals was impoverished by the economic crime of deflation...
...After Germany had disarmed and put herself at the mercy of the Allies, and the German people had established a Republic modelled after our own, the wicked Versailles treaty despoiled her of her colonies and commercial rights, robbed her of her most valuable coal and iron resources, appropriated and apportioned among her trade rivals her shipping, and left her economically bankrupt, with an indemnity unparalleled in history saddled upon her...
...But I do not believe that this time to discuss this issue History decide the question of responsibility, the wisdom or folly of those who opp American participation and of those who favored it will be finally determined...
...It set The World apart from, and abov«c^^pmpetitors...
...He knew that circulation based upon public confidence was the key to the honest sale of advertising space...
...He met with disloyalty and scotched it...
...The most intelligent and enlightened opinion of the world now appears to be agreed that the World War resulted from the secret machinations of imperialists and ambitious rulers in all the •countries involved, and that no one nation can be charged with sole responsibility for the colossal tragedy which resulted...
...Relief For The German People THE question of whether the American people should assist in feeding starving Germany does not, in my judgment, rest upon the guilt or innocence of the German Empire in provoking the World War...
...Its surface has not been smoothed by as many feet as the other and easier road...
...Dante Pierce brought with him to a place of tremendous -responsibility a thorough schooling in sound principles of business...
...His action was the more creditable because it was taken in the face of a strong reactionary protest from interests that believe free speech dangerous to their designs, and over the opposition of a section of the press that never took the trouble to understand the facts in the cases of these men...
...The late Senator Knox, former Secretary of State and former Attorney-General, spoke the truth when he declared in the United States Senate that this "Punic peace" was the cruelest and most inhuman document of recorded history...
...He ably piloted the publications over the reverses which every great business suffers with the removal of its controlling, head...
...And it waa most effective...
...To this the Allied governments attached only two conditions, one reserving "freedom of the seas" for discussion, and the other claiming in connection with the restoration of occupied territory "compensation for damage done to the civilian population...
...It gave truth, sincerity, gi'ace and courage to a page which, in other newspapers, has lost almost all trace of those virtues...
...The Senate Committee on Public Lands is officially responsible for a searching investigation and a fearless truthful report of the facts connected with the Teapot Dome affair...
...Ease, force, and humor sat upon his pen...
...The principle involved is wholly wicked, and will set a precedent upon which great abuses are certain to occur...
...He absolved them from all responsibility for the war...
...It is not just, nor is it necessary, that the people shall suffer for the delinquency of their own officials, who betray them...
...His ' situation called not only for the strongest moral fibre, but for intellectual force and . matured judgment of the highest order* Dante Pierce determined to...
...The public has come to question whether the Department of so-called Justice "intercepts" evidence against Russia or incubates it...
...an inspiration to other men when many...
...No white-washing job will go...
...In this case our war material is to be furnished to the right side which we hope may triumph, A our war material may be furnished to the wrong side...
...and considers always his personal advantage rather than what is right...
...There is abundant evidence that the President's friendly and oft-repeated reference to the German people and his assurances that there was nothing in his peace program to "interfere with German greatness" was known throughout Germany and inspired a peace drive which was disastrous to their army at the most critical period...
...Let us remember that these are the people who aided in forcing an acceptance of the armistice, relying upon American good faith...
...The other path is a rough and rocky one to travel...
...We can do no less if we are to discharge a moral obligation we can not honorably escape...
...He condemned the rapacity and imperialism of France...
...He bent his energies to the purpose of holding the old readers and gaining new ones...
...Once the practice is established and made respectable, it would be entirely too easy to arm movements that had evil origin, such for example, as the desire of Amer-ican oil companies to force concessions...
...Secretary Fall validated the claim of the Standard Oil Company to a rich section of the middle of the Elk Hills naval reserve...
...Senators Borah and Norrls forced Senator Lodge to promise a full and open inquiry into the matter by the Foreign Relations Committee...
...Its voicewould be there to "base peace on generosity and justice to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors...
...It was not with their previous knowledge or approval...
...Frank Cobb had his weaknesses...
...The farmers of the great Middle West, whose confidence was the rock upon which the elder Pierce built his enduring monument, will continue to find in Dante Pierce a true friend, a matchless champion...
...The real issue at the root of our present policy toward Germany is the question of our own responsibility toward the people of that unfortunate country...
...He fought for the salvation of the unfortunate people crushed by our arms...
...He knew by instinct and training that his main reliance was the trust and- respect of the farmers who had reposed faith in his father...
...Season after season, in a time of profound agricultural depression, Dante P'erce shouldered his losses without flinching...
...The great predatory interests which have destroyed one publication after another in'" America have f dund Dante Pierce a man of iron, and they have retired in ignominious defeat from the field of open warfare against him...
...Prosecutions for malfeasance by any federal official or suit to annul any illegal lease must be brought by the Government at Washington...
...He has given his country its first and only taste of real liberty and racy...
...And in the very address referred to in the Armistice-he declared that: "The day of conquest and grandizement is gone by...
...Secretary Fall then decided that these wells were draining the reserve, and leased the whole of it to Harry Sinclair, for "protection...
...The people right to cho ment without outside interference, Even if they desire to overthrow a wise and liberal government—which is most deplorable—nevertheless it is their right, and their affair...
...of us are forgotten...
...EDITORIAL COMMENTS BY GRANTING unconditional amnesty to the political prisoners, President Coolidge has abated a national disgrace, and removed a condition that made free speech a mockery in the United States...
...The revolution is a reac movement, backed by the gre holders, and without real strength...
...No foreign pr will ever inflict one-ten the harm to our gov-ernment that has been inflicted by our officials in presecuting our citi-zens for exercising the right of free speech...
...Indeed, if documentary evidence consisting of secret treaties and heretofore suppressed diplomatic correspondence, published since the conflict ean be credited, France and Ru the aggressors in precipitating and had been plotting to that e prior to 1914...
...In all that wilderness of bigotry, reactionary partisanship and greedy self-interest, his was the one voice that cried clearly, vigorously and honestly through the daily press...
...Nevertheless, this is no justification for the decision of the American Government to supply Obregon with war material...
...His father's properties, affected directly by this condition, were menaced in their prosperity and growth...
...Our foreign policies rapidly are taking on the color of European diplomatic intermeddling and intrigue...
...Some of these bills have been introduced by men who favored the war and defended the Versailles Treaty...
...After enumerating the fourteen points" in this same address—afterward approved by the Allies as a basis of set tlement—he said: "We have no jealousy of German greatness and there is nothing in this program that impairs it...
...He confronted a concerted and persistent attack of enemies determined to dominate the editorial columns of The Iowa Homestead and The* Wisconsin Farmer or break them, and with his engaging smile he served notice upon all that he would continue to...
...The thrilling story of this young man's achievement, in the face of trials and obstacles as foreboding as those over which his father triumphed, will remain...
...To begin with, it is preposterous to suppose that'state^men as sagacious, and as eager for American friendship, as the soviet leaders have shown themselves, would compose such a childish and silly piece of propaganda...
...Everyone now knows that the Treaty of Versailles violated the terms of the armistice based upon Wilson's addresses and the 14 points, in nearly every particular...
...It is literally true that the German people did most effective work in bringing the Kaiser's government to seek a termination of hostilities based on President Wilson's fourteen points and his assurances of a just and generous peace repeated in many addresses and acquiesced in by the Allied Governments...
...But we are fallen upon sad times...
...Mark that...
...months prior to November, 1918, President Wilson in his messages and addresses expressed great friendship for the people of Germany...
...By developing electric light to an intensity one-fourth that of the sun's rays, experimenters hare been able to make flowers bloom at a predetermined time and to mature vegetables ifl from two to three weeks' less time than nor* mally transpires between planting and ripetti ing...
...Dante M. Pierce—Not For Sale AT Des Moines, Iowa, in the heart of the fertile Mississippi Valley, the home of the most progressive population In the United States, there have been published for a generation two of the greatest farm journals in the world: The Iowa Homestead and The Wisconsin Farmer...
...Calvin Coolidge is the head of that Government...
...In person, he was winning and altogether admirable...
...He can, neither investigate nor prosecute...
...sell advertising space, without the sale of conscience and honor...
...This is very gratifying and bespeaks early and favorable action upon this vitally important legislation...
...Thus we find ourselves in the humiliating position of having an administration that is at odds with itself upon an important question, and the President is placed in the embarrassing . predicament of hearing his Secretary of State tell the world that the President didn't know what he was talking about when he his address to Congress...
...Every family in America which can spare clothing, supplies or money should contribute directly to German relief through the channels provided for that purpose...
...He pinned his hopes to the sincerity and high-minded-ness of Woodrow Wilson, and went down with'them...
...To such an editor whatever IS, is right, and anyone who challenges that theory is a disturber, a destroyer and a radical who ought to be suppressed...
...When this heroic life ended in 1920, there were those who feared that with his death the Pierce Farm Publications would cease to be fearless defenders of the plain people, denouncing organized monopoly which controls the market price of everything the farmer buys and everything he sells, reducing him to little better than economic slavery...
...They were transplanted from the monarch-ial soil of Europe and Asia, just as the spy system employed in carrying it out was modeled largely upon the secret police of old Russia...
...For this government to intervene with aid for one side or another is plainly to embroil us in the internal affairs of a foreign government...
...Propaganda persists in the press that the Germans are in reality prosperous and that they are not in need of relief...
...But it has its compensation, and the man who chooses it needs no sympathy, and is not entitled to any particular credit, because he is simply acting out his natural impulses, which he is powerless to alter...
...Every word uttered by President Wilson which could serve to win the German people away from their imperial masters and weaken the morale of their army was carried to the German people by all possible channels...
...HIS message to Congress, Presi-t C plainly invited the Soviet Government to offer term upon which' it could be recognized by the Government of .the United Tchitcherin responded fairly and openly to the invitation—whereupon Secretary Hughe3 slammed the door in his face...
...Sometimes it leads to dark valleys and up steep inclines, and whoever chooses it must ofttime travel a lonely journey...
...Hughes based his reply...
...In men like him lies the great hope of the common people of this country...
...The Congress of the United States should act promptly and without stint to provide funds liberally for this same just and humane purpose, as we did in the case of starving Russia...
...As a writer, he had no equal in his line...
...He assailed the black reaction which followed the war—that follow all wars...
...It appears to consist of "red documents intercepted by the Department of Justice...
...We are ruled and committed to policies involving our national welfare and peace, by officials of great eminence who rankly abuse their power...
...Today the Pierce Publications have a greater circulation than any similar journals reaching a territory of equal area in any spot on the globe...
...claims to advantage, even on the part of the victors...
...TRUE friends of Mexico will wish President Obregon success in his effort to crush the revolution...
...They will try other and more insidious methods of approach...
...He marked out for himself a course of unflinching devotion to the editorial policies ; which had made his father a tower of strength for the public weal...
...stay down...
...Having failed to insist at Versailles upon the honorable fulfillment of our obligations to Germany under the armistice, one of the first things that the United States should do is to hasten to the aid of the destitute and starving millions of German .people...
...One false step would have been fatal...
...Most Americans seem to have forgotten that the Allies, in conjunction with President Wilson, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States, r.ade a formal compact with Germany to conclude peace on the basis of the liberal terms of Wilson's fourteen points in the following declaration: "The allied governments * * * declare their willingness to make peace with the Government of Germany on the terms of peace laid down in the President's address to Congress in January, 1918 (the 'fourteen points'), and the principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent addresses...
...Through the struggle of independent journalism against the rising power of predatory and corrupt wealth, in the crisis of the World War when every man who dared to speak the truth was subjected to personal villification and to persecution of every conceivable kind, James M. Pierce held aloft the standard he had reared and without compromise or equivocation struck again and again his giant blows in the service of the common people...
...The case is made worse by t"he flimsy evidence upon which Mr...
...And again: "No nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong...
...They had worked together, lived together, and made common sacrifices in promoting the father's great purpose...
...Secretary Fall then decided that these Standard wells were draining the reserve, and he leased the whole of it to E. L. Doheny, for "protection...
...The arguments advanced in support of this abominable persecution were not of American origin...
...He succumbed to the hysterical propaganda which pushed our peaceful people into the war, and he remained silent throughout the savage attacks upon free speech that besmeared that epoch...
...In many different German cities a few months ago, I saw hospitals in which' hundreds and thousands of babies, unborn when the war was fought, were dying of tuberculosis from lack of nourishment...
...I saw men, women, and children starving in their bare homes and the long lines of hungry, emaciated people packing the streets for blocks from morning till night waiting for their meager rations...
...The President was the respond sible spokesman of the American people and their Government...
...Upon this understanding with the United States and with the Allies, Germany laid down her arms...
...When he died in 1920, in the fullness of his strength and power, he left behind a record of achievement for a free and independent press dedicated to the common good which insures him the enduring devotion of the millions to whom his mem-pry is a precious heritage...
...It is...
...It was not upon their impulse that their government acted in entering this war...
...Advertising has come with this dominance in circulation...
Vol. 16 • January 1924 • No. 1
