“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.
September 21, 1961
FROM AN APPLE TREE
In a famous play a few years back, “De Lawd” addressed the other actors from an apple tree.
Having as He does the Universe to choose from, we still can understand the Lord's choice of vantage points.
We feel more people should contemplate the world from this favorite haunt of small boys, the branches of an apple tree.
There is good footing everywhere on the rough, friendly bark of the crooked branches. Often you lean against the thick growth and could not fall down without an effort.
A tree is a secret, quiet place. Only a few feet above the ground, yet on-one looks there. One may see more, and be seen less.
At this season at least, in an apple tree, one has only to stretch forth his hand to find food.
“De Lawd” chose his seat of mercy well. Climb an apple tree, and be convinced of the goodness of the Universe!
October 5, 1961
THE MAELSTROM
The undignified squabble in California prompts seasoned political observers to comment that Dick Nixon is simply running true to form again.
Those who are puzzled whom to believe will do well to recall that Governor Goodwin Knight has never in a long and distinguished public career been accused of having the ethics of a hungry shark, or of developing prevarication into a political way of life.
As for Richard Nixon, we must remember that he first achieved nationwide attention through the somewhat smelly deal that labelled Alger Hiss a spy.
The Hiss Case, like the Dreyfus Case in France a century earlier, was a political chessboard played by giants whose hands were sometimes seen but whose faces never appeared.
America had just muddled through to victory in Europe by the doubtful expedient of embracing the Russians as “Allies” and shipping them millions in “Lend-Lease” aid, none of which was ever repaid. Many people today wonder whether Churchill was not right when, with cynical Old-World realism, he proposed that we permit Russia and Germany to fight each other till they had bled each other white.
Instead, with our “Cops and Robbers” outlook, we were convinced there had to be a “right” and a “wrong”, and there had to be a clear-cut victory for the “right”, so we went into Europe to help the Russians against the Germans.
This writer said then, and repeats now, that there is nothing to choose between the German Nazis and the Russian Communists.
Afterward, there was great bitterness against our leaders for bringing us into this farcical brotherly entente with the Communists. Since we do not impeach our Presidents, the opposition party chose an advisor who was close to Franklin Delano Roosevelt both during the war and at the formation of the U.N. They chose Alger Hiss, and they threw the book at him.
They lined up a self-admitted liar, thief and traitor to his country who had changed his mind and had become a professional witness against others whom he accused of his own weaknesses. This was Whittaker Chambers. He set out to destroy Alger Hiss, but the whole effort came aground on one simple brute fact; they had no evidence against Hiss. Asked repeatedly to produce the secret information he claimed Hiss had passed to him, he repeatedly failed to produce it.
It was in this emergency that Dick Nixon went out to the Chambers farm with Whittaker Chambers, and the two of them “discovered” something Chambers had “forgotten” was there...... a roll of microfilm hidden in a pumpkin; IN A PUMPKIN.
So the headlines blossomed, the case went forward, the public hissed at Hiss and cheered Dick Nixon, the curly-haired All-American Boy who chased spies out of the pumpkin patch!
So black were the passions aroused by this case that few Americans realize today that Alger Hiss was never convicted of treason; he was a length imprisoned for perjury on a minor point of testimony.
While the steel doors closed on Alger Hiss – still protesting his innocence – Dick Nixon measured his newspaper clippings and began practicing his presidential image in the bathroom mirror.
By the narrowest of margins, the American people missed the turn-off toward the nightmare world of “Big Brother” and “1984”.
Dick Nixon has now entered a political maelstrom which may sink him permanently. He cannot blame Governor Goodwin Knight. He cannot blame Governor Pat Brown. He can only blame Dick Nixon. You can fool all the people part of the time; you can fool part of the people all the time.....