“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one” - A.J. Liebling
My father Bob Wilson took this to heart, and bought one and started his own newspaper, the Prairie Post of Maroa, Illinois in 1958, and ran it until he died in 1972. It never had a circulation of more than 2500 or so, but every week, he would fire off editorials at everyone and everything from local events to the actions of the nations of the world.
He may have been a Quaker peace activist in a Republican district, but his love and support of the farming communities garnered him enough respect that he eventually ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962, though he lost. (He might have tried again, had he not died of an accident while only 49.) Many of his views ring true today. And he might have been willing to change the ones that fell behind the times. Although raised in the casual racism of the 1920s and 1930s, at the age of 15 he took stock of what he was being taught and discarded much of it as being wrong, and lived his life with respect for all.
I decided to transcribe his old editorials (I may make a book for some of my relatives) and every once in a while I will repost one here, as a view of how the world has changed wildly, or remained stubbornly the same.
April 21, 1960
MEMO TO THE BREWERS
The United States Brewers Foundation.
Gentlemen,
We have recently purchased a newspaper known as the Atlanta Argus, published in the fine, thriving city of Atlanta, Illinois.
We have just learned that this newspaper has a contract with you to publish a series of beer advertisements.
This is notice that the one scheduled to appear this week did not appear this week; the one scheduled to appear next week will not appear next week, and so on.
The advertisements themselves are well prepared, and not openly offensive. They stress over and over the theme that in this free country, one man has as much right to a glass of beer as another does to a glass of iced tea.
It is a premise difficult to disagree with. One stein of beer or one glass of win is not the straight road to Hell. We must remember that Jesus of Nazareth drank wine. (No, it was NOT Welch's grape juice.) Bigotry and intolerance can be nearly as unattractive as drunkenness.
We are not opposed to alcohol itself, but only to its improper use. The demon is in the man, not in the bottle.
So we do not argue the question; a citizen DOES have a right to his glass of beer. the point is, that we are not going to help sell it to him.
Any adult has a perfect right to smoke. The findings on lung cancer are available to anyone who is interested, and the smoker takes his own chances with cigarettes.
This newspaper, however, is not going to help sell them to him. As with cigarettes, which destroy the lungs, so also to whiskey, which destroys the liver, and beer, which destroys the kidneys. We shall interfere with no man's right to buy them, but we are not going to help persuade him to buy them.
We have been advised to “Shut up and take the money!” but we feel a certain responsibility for what we print. we accept to advertising which we feel to be false or misleading, or injurious to the health and morals of the community.
Radio, TV, the daily papers and the magazines carry enough liquor and tobacco advertising that anyone knows where he can buy the stuff; we hope no-one will mind if there is one little family weekly that does not.
Most certainly there are temperate people who can take one drink and not be affected by it; but if we accept money to ENCOURAGE the sale of intoxicants, we must accept our share of responsibility for drunken killers at the wheels of automobiles, and for promising young men who turn at fifty into beer-soaked rummies weaving along the sidewalks.
We need the money – but not that bad.
Sincerely,
THE EDITOR
May 26, 1960
DROP DEAD, NIKITA!
Nothing that has happened within the year may have so much bearing on the November election as the recent U-2 incident.
In one sudden flash of insight, the American voter realized that deceit has eaten away the integrity of our present administration both at home and abroad.
In the sick confusion that followed the disastrous summit meeting, one voice stood forth. “Mr. Krushchev wrecked the summit meeting”, declared Adlai Stevenson, “But our government gave him crowbar and sledgehammer with which to do the job!”
In that moment, the nation knew it was not without leadership. While hopeful candidates hesitated and measured public opinion, Adlai Stevenson told us, not what we wanted to hear, but what we needed to hear. It is this same awesome dedication to principle which caused him, in 1952, to address to the national convention of the American Legion a plea for more courageous dissent from prevailing modes of thinking.
America has a right to expect more of the presidency than a good game of golf and pious statements about balancing the budget. Adlai Stevenson has more to offer than eloquence and a profound intellect; he offers a moral leadership toward a better world order where peace can become the natural state of affairs.
President Eisenhower acquitted himself manfully at the Summit, if only by restraining his notorious temper, instead of engaging in public quarrels with the Communists, as Dick Nixon does.
As to Mr. Kruschev, he made a complete ass of himself. He made a reference to negotiating with a new U.S. administration after the fall elections, a thing which is none of his affair. He ranted at length about espionage activities, when he is master of the most widespread spy system in the world. He called on God to “be his witness”, when God has not even been granted diplomatic recognition by the Soviet Union. He hurled threats and abuse in every direction, accomplishing just one thing; he solidified the Western Alliance against him.
Nikita need not look forward with any joy to the coming change of administrations over here. Instead of bunglers who know nothing about Communism save that they are “agin” it, he may face men across the next conference table who can wither the Communist empire at its roots by offering the peoples of the Earth a purer and a mightier dream of what the future can become.
June 2, 1960
SQUIRRELS ENOUGH
We applaud the decision of the good people of Olney, Illinois, not to send any of their famous white squirrels to the White House.
We understand they checked on the situation, and found there were already squirrels enough in Washington.