He didn't have to go around with a police card ready to identity hhimselt "at any moment, nor was he summoned to serve "in a con~ script army nor did he have to Found hailing dictators. He could Eay what he liked about the government without any fear of going to prison, America was a country of free men, free speech and a free press, In other countries you had to. believe What you were told and a rigid ce: Sorship was imposed; but in "America that was not Next to an attack on the Constitution itself an attack on the freedom of the press was an issue which was most likely to arouse deep emotional Fesentment, If freedom of the press were destroyed an American might well be a European. 'The people Who hold this view most strongly. it need hardly be said, are the member of the press themselves. 'The Newspaper Publishers Association, Uke 9 Very. sensitive galvanometer, woul Getect the smallest current,' though that current would probably have to be several hundredfold stronger to shock the ordinary man.
"Among the resolutions dealing with freedom of the press was one recommending that criminal proceedings be Started against Senator Hugo Black Chairman of a lobby investigation. A lobbyist. in the American sense of the word. is a man, usually a lawyer or an ex-journalist, hired by some organization to place its views before Congressmen. Any organization which attempts to influence Congress is known as a lolfby.
Committee Demands Telegrams Very early in his investigation Senator Black discovered that since Jobbylsts carry on most of their work by word of mouth they were very difficult to investigate. Then it suddenly occurred to him that lobbyists used telegrams. He therefore told the two American Telegraph Companies to produce all telegrams which had been sent from Washington, or sent to Washington from February 1, last year on.. The Telegraph Companies Fefused. They are, however, subject the Federal Conimunications Commission and Senator Black enlisted the ald of this body. F.C.C. investigators" copied all interesting looking telegrams and sent them to Senator Black.
Even a Titus Oates would have found it dim cult to detect a plot in the evidence thus submitted so Sena-for Black decided to cast his net a Tie wider, He ordered the tele-grame sent from any of their ofoes specified people or organizations. All "Telegrams sent by the Duponts were demanded, all telegrams sent By political organizations such as the Liberty League or the Crusaders and finally all telegrams sent by a number of newspaper publishers includ~
the most powerful newspaper Me. Wiliam, Randolph Hearst biisher in the United States.
Mr, Hearst protested and found himself supported by most of his fellow Rewspaper publishers, "If informs lon, instructions and private messages sent to each other by members of a Rewspaper staff were to be subject to seizure and publication the freedom of the press would be threatened. Left wing organizations, such as the Civit™ Liberties Union, supported Hearst on the grounds that if Sena for Black's methods were not check-some other Committee might seize "all telegrams sent or received by liberal magazines, the minority political parties, progressive and reus organizations native in lenis tion." The final blow came when the House of Representatives refused to vole the sum Senator Black had requested to pay a lawyer to conduct the Committee's case against Hearst, The Senator's case was not improved when the lawyer was found to be the Senator's former law partner.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.