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 26, 1962
PROJECT ALERT
The Illinois State Journal and Register at Springfield is planning what they call “Project Alert”, another series of meetings designed to teach Americans to hate Communist subversion.
We recommend that everyone who finds time should attend, but not for the reasons one might expect.
The speakers they will present are a menagerie of Far-Right Lunatics including Dr. George S. Benson of Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas, an “educational institution” supported by the southern power companies to spread misinformation against the REA.
Without a doubt there will also be the usual trained bear pretending to be a reformed Communist spy. Personally, we do not know many people who want to be instructed in patriotism by anyone who by his own admission was once a professional liar and a traitor to his country.
This brings us to the stellar attraction of “Project Alert”, Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. No-one should miss Strom. You may remember him as the Dixiecrat who stood on his head on the Capitol steps in order to prove he was fit to be President. Some folks are still laughing about Strom and the Marine Corps; last year he tried to give them examinations to prove they did not know what America stands for, and succeeded only in proving the same about himself. Most comical of all was Thurmond's Senatorial investigation into the “muzzling” of General Edwin Walker, the John Birch hero, who appears to need not only a muzzle, but a leash, and two people to lead him.
We can tell you what you will hear at the meetings. “Everybody is a Communist except Strom Thurmond and the Copley Newspapers!” Just the same, we recommend you go, in order that all who have enjoyed reading about Strom Thurmond should find out how much funnier he actually is in person.
May 10, 1962
TWO BILLION WASTED
Appalling though it is to consider, this nation appears to be heading toward another Korea in South Viet Nam.
Can we have learned so little from the treasure and the blood we poured into that distant land? When will we realize that the miracles of American industrial production, and the heroism of American youth, are all wasted if the effort is based on an insecure political foundation?
In Korea, we drew a line and decided all the “good guys” were on one side, the “bad guys” on the other. Actually, almost none of the Koreans on either side of the line had any idea what Communism was, or what Democracy was. All they knew was that great powers were rending their country asunder; they fought when they were paid or conscripted to do so, and they waved the right flags in turn when contending armies occupied their cities.
Long after, we discovered that our “friend and ally” Syngman Rhee, was simply another stinking despot... one who pretended to love freedom while he denied free elections to his people and ruled with a hand of iron.
The situation in South Viet Nam is no better. To begin with, we have no friends there. The Vietnamese do not know where America is, or why we are there except as another foreign invader fighting over their soil. The term “Free World” is meaningless, as these people have never taken part in an honest election and have not the vaguest idea of how Democracy works.
Since the French gave the country up as hopeless, America has spent TWO BILLION DOLLARS in South Vietnam. President Ngo Dinh Diem and his American-supported army of 170,000 men has steadily lost ground against Red guerillas numbering from 8,000 to 12,000.
While publicly stating we are doing nothing of the sort, our military chiefs have committed 5,000 American “military advisers” to actions where they are exchanging fire with the guerillas. This is in open violation of the Geneva cease-fire agreement.
The writer of these lines, and every person who reads them, wants to shut off the Communist “seepage” into such countries... but we cannot do it by supporting a regime that is itself corrupt and dictatorial.
All these sorry facts came to light when Diem cancelled a technical assistance contract with Michigan State University. He had been very pleased when the good professors wrote nice articles about his country which helped his public image over here. After the faculty members got deep enough into the mess, however, they published further reports which caused Diem to explode with anger. Professors Milton C. Taylor, Adrian Jaffee, and Frank C. Child revealed that the Diem regime lacked popular support and would not survive another eighteen months. They recommended an end to all U.S. aid unless President Diem introduced a free press, free elections, freedom of movement and economic reforms.
It was also suggested he might free some of the 150,000 political prisoners he is holding, many of whom are not Communists at all.
A revolutionary war can only be won with the support of the common people. Any other view tends to reduce them to the status of so many cattle to be captured, herded, and protected.
An article in the March 29, 1962 New York Times reveals the frightening depths to which we can fall in attempting to “liberate” people without their co-operation.
“Operation Sunrise” is a test plan by which hundred of peasant families have been relocated in “security villages” to “protect” them from the guerillas. These villages are surrounded by sharpened bamboo spikes and barbed wire. One-third of the families, according to the story, volunteered to go. The other two-thirds were forcibly dragged from their homes, their homes were burned, and they were marched off to the open shed shelters provided in the stockades. Few of these camps contain any able-bodied men, as they either were active in the guerilla forces or escaped to the jungles in fear of being conscripted.
No matter what our intentions, this kind of experiment can only frighten the populace and turn them against us.
One of the chief reasons why an operation such as that in South Vietnam cannot be stopped is the money momentum; too many people in positions of power have their hand into these aid funds. Another reason is the blind arrogance of nearly all white foreigners in such lands; they do not learn the native language and customs. The facts are not to be found in the air-conditioned European bars and clubs, where reporters gather material for the stories printed in our national magazines.
Time is running out in South Vietnam. Will we lose it, or will we change in time? Neither money nor guns can save it. The solution is so simple as to be painful. ANY PEOPLE WHO ARE FREE, FED AND EQUAL ARE PROOF AGAINST COMMUNISM AND SUBVERSION.