Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 August 1936 — Page 15

NEW YORK .'World-Telegram

CLEVELAND eo ofese ala. Press PITTSBURGH . syETunua gs Press

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BUFFALO a ~teresasare;s Times CINCINNAT . are * . Post

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I was Tike lighting a mech in a powder magazine... for that traveling salesman to atr bis political views in Si Putney’s General Stove. And when he began on, “What ails you farmers” oa dozen angry voices shut him up...plenty! It was then that AY; Putney stood up to his full six-foot-three. “Listen!” he said, “I don’t cotton to this stranger's kind o’ talk no more'n you. But Ill fight any man in the store who says he ain’t got a full and free license to speak bis mind!” And those grim-faced men fell silent, before that demand for tolerance, as free men

have always honored it since it was stated by Voltaire nearly

200 years ago, when he said: “I wholly disagree with what

\

Jou say, bur I will defend to the death your right to say #.”

HEN Voltaire made his famous dec-:

laration in behalf of free speech,

‘he defied every government on the face

of the earth. For the surest way, in Voltaire’s time, to meet the public hangman ‘was to advocate free and unrestricted expression of opinion.

Yet, a few decades later, in a new world, an American Bill of Rights gave that right of free expression—in speech

~or'in print—to every one of its citizens

...and, since then, has kept that right inviolate, againgt every pressure of changing times and conditions.

It is that spirit of tolerance and fair play. in America which inspires a fight

crowd to applaud the boxer who helps a fallen adversary to his feet. It encour-

ages 2 sticet corner gathering, contemp-

tuous of the rantings of a soap box orator,

to stay the hand of the police who would

“In such tolefance lies the strength of

our democracy. Willing to listen to both sides of any question, the average American can be trusted to render a fair and sound verdict.

To give him the news facts of both sides of every question, without bias or distortion is the aim of Scripps-Howard Newspapers. With no affiliations outside of the journalistic ficld, these newspapers are free to espouse in their editorial pages those causes, regardless of influence or popularity, which seem to them to be vital to the general welfare of the country.

Given all the facts by an unsubsidized,

untrammeled press, Scripps-Howard be- ° |

lieves there are no problems — economic, social or governmental — which cannot be wisely solved by the people themselves. Theirs is the stuff on which democracy thrives and endures.