“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.
July 7, 1960
FREEDOM ROAD
Routes 47 and 51, 54 and 121 are major highways. They cannot compare, however, with 66.
Route 66 is an artery which steams the lifeblood of the continent. The license tags on the trucks, and the dialects of the tourists tell their story of people and products on the move, from distant places to other distant places.
There are some excellent restaurants along this road to serve that trade; in Lincoln, in McLean, in Atlanta.
We enjoyed a meal in one of them last week, and thought about Independence Day.
Over the Fourth, we have seen Cub Scouts in Armington, marching in their first parade, holding the flag high. We have seen Legionnaires in Atlanta, hard at work serving their community. We have seen the star shells of Bunker Hill exploding in the night sky above Maroa. But last week in the restaurant over on route 66, we saw best what it was to be free men in a free country.
A negro family came in, obviously from the Deep South. Back home they knew where it was “safe” to go. On this strange highway, they had to take their chances.
As they waited to see if the waitress would serve them, we were reminded how little we can imagine, as white people, how it would feel to walk into a restaurant and be told, “Get out! You're not wanted here!”
The waitress took their order, with the same courtesy she showed everyone else. When the negro visitors saw that their food was not automatically brought them as “take-out” orders, they sat down, a little gingerly, in a booth. Then they relaxed, and began to converse with each other. They had uttered hardly a word since they came in the door.
We hope they knew then that they were not in the South, which had enslaved them, but the North, which freed them.
We were proud that we were in Atlanta, Illinois – not Atlanta, Georgia!
AMERICANISM & APPLE PIE
We cannot understand how Nelson Rockefeller could be so unkind as to state the Vice President Dick Nixon has never been known to state a principle or declare a program of his own.
Perhaps he has not made affirmative statements in so many words; but by a process of elimination, on can subtract everything which the Vice President has not denounced as a Communist conspiracy, and assume that he supports what remains.
It is therefore obvious to anyone that Mr. Nixon is squarely, one hundred percent in favor of Home, Mother, and the American Flag. One of our assistants, Mr. James Disbrow, has ventured to suggest that Mr. Nixon is also in favor of Apple Pie.
Mind now, not “a-la-mode!” The cheese manufacturers would raise a stink. Not “with cheese”, either, because the ice-cream lobby would freeze him out. “Deep-dish” or not is a very delicate question, because the dairy industry is involved.
So, Dick will just say, “Good old apple pie, THE WAY EVERY TRUE AMERICAN LIKES IT.” Dick will leave it to Stevenson to get himself in hot water by stating opinions and proposing solutions. Principles after all are for the eggheads; a politician cannot take chances.
July 21, 1960
THREE-TIME LOSER
The political battle ahead should be stirring to watch. It looks as if it is going to be the Organization Man (Republican variety) versus the Organization Man (Democratic variety).
We are confident of the outcome (it will NOT be Nixon) and therefore interested in the qualifications for the presidency of Senator John F. Kennedy.
He has shown exceptional ability as a practical politician. His boyish good looks and the Kennedy millions would not have been enough by themselves to have won him the nomination.
The “team” concept he has created has already laid the groundwork for victory in 1964, even before he has won this November. By recognizing the segments of the party and sections of the country with appointments and promises of appointments, he has guaranteed “unity.”
The choice of Lyndon B. Johnson as Vice President did have the sickening appearance of a sell-out to Southern Racism and Texas Oil. Not everyone, however, has the guts and the principles of peppery old Harry Truman, who in 1948 ignored the South – and won without them! Jack Kennedy is determined to win.
The only really moving incidents in the convention were those in which the delegates – and the galleries – expressed their affection for Adlai Stevenson.
“Do not turn your back on this man!” cried McCarty of Minnesota in one of the most stirring political orations of our times... “Our greatest leaders have not been those who sought power, but who had it thrust upon them!”
The rank and file knew that to turn their backs on this man was to turn away from their own weakness and their own failure in 52 and 56, and they were willing to face the past out of which future victory must come.
Stevenson, who had twice before borne the battle and the defeat, against the tide of the times and a great military hero, did not feel it proper to push himself forward as a candidate a third time. Had he asked for it, he could have won the nomination, and with it, the prize which his years of leadership have guaranteed to his party.
It should be a matter of pride to members of the Democratic Party here in the 22nd Congressional District that their delegates, alone in the Illinois delegation, cast their votes for Adlai Stevenson. These courageous men were Harold Pogue of Decatur and Charles Kelley of Monticello. They will be remembered as men of discernment and of principle.
America is swinging toward liberalism once more, tired unto death of corruption at home and disaster abroad. The country is finally ready for Adlai Stevenson, so they will get Jack Kennedy.
What is Stevenson Democracy, that this humble little man from Illinois should command such passionate loyalty? One reason is what Ed Murrow sneeringly called his “Infinite capacity for self-torture.” He searches, he suffers his way toward the truth. Your typical politician conceals his ignorance and his errors beneath a monolithic ego.
When Adlai speaks, his subject is illuminated by the probings of a brilliant mind. One feels his sincerity and above all, THE TRUTH OF WHAT HE IS SAYING.
“Stevenson Democracy” asks us to understand a world in revolution, half-free and half-fed, where we can no longer find safety by atomic threats or by buying the support of petty dictators. It calls for a giant effort to build a world where peace is possible.
“Stevenson Democracy” asks us for sensitivity to the needs of those at home who lack schools, medical care, and adequate support in straitened circumstances. It asks us to labor and to sacrifice for the high hopes of the future, rather than “living it up” in our precarious prosperity.
“Stevenson Democracy” recognizes only first-class citizens, with all the rights and dignities of citizens.
“Stevenson Democracy” is, above all, Jeffersonian Democracy. At the base of all is the people's right to know, and the people's right to decide. As Thomas Jefferson (he was an “Egghead” and proud of it) wrote, “No experiment can be more interesting than that which we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be to leave open all the avenues of truth.”
Jack Kennedy will be a dynamic president, capable of leading the people in their conquest of the “New Frontier.” He has shown already that there is room on his “team” for the party's other great leaders. We hope he will see fit to make Adlai Stevenson his Secretary of State, in order that the Governor may contribute his understanding and skill to the formation of the better, more human world toward which he has led us.
If Kennedy fails to do so, and passes by the “Two-time loser”, who sought nothing for himself, then not Adlai Stevenson but his nation – our nation – will have become a “Three-time loser.”