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 11, 1963
SOMEBODY READ IT
Fridays are wonderful around a weekly newspaper office. No week passes without the standard phone call, “Why didn't I get my paper?”
There is the anguished plaint of the loyal subscriber whose name we misspelled. Sometimes we fail to print the announcement of a meeting, and our apologies are sincere.
Since it is our testament that bread is not enough, that man's deepest hunger will not be satisfied without the truth, we do our earnest best to tell our readers the truth.
The cost is sometimes high, both to ourselves and to others. We will, however, have it no other way, for bread without truth is bread without salt.
Truth does not ask if a man be white or black, that he be Catholic or Protestant or Jew, that he be Republican or Democrat.
Last week we wrote an editorial entitled “Macon County Justice”.
This week we have an apology to make. We apologize to those who felt we would be silent regarding a bad situation that reflected on members of our own political party. We have disappointed them.
The editorial was read Friday morning in thousands of stores, private homes, and also in the Macon County Courthouse.
On Friday afternoon an official car pulled into the Editor's barnyard, and a deputy sheriff delivered a summons to jury duty.
Delivering such a summons is one more duty which sheriff's departments perform as ordered and without complaint; like gathering evidence and apprehending criminals. They do not pick jurors, and they do not try cases.
In theory any citizen is subject to jury duty, and may be called for it. In practice, jurors are generally chosen from lists prepared by the township supervisors. There is even competition among citizens who have the time and wish to serve.
Jury duty has, over the years, been used for another purpose. It has been used as a punitive device to harass anyone who criticizes the administration of justice. A busy person is expected to squawk, “Look, I haven't time to go down there and sit on a jury.” The answer invariably is, “If you're not willing to do your part as a citizen, what room do you have to complain?” We shall of course report for duty as instructed.
The summons arrived only hours after the critical editorial was read. No possible connection, of course, because the summons was dated April 3rd, two days before it was delivered. Still, we must note that the difference between the “5” and the “3” is just two inches on a typewriter keyboard; no connection of course... but isn't it a remarkable coincidence?
April 18, 1963
HOW IT IS DONE
John Curry, Circuit Clerk for Macon County, has kindly called to give us the complete rundown on the manner in which jurors are chosen. John even has a film on the subject, which he has shown about 200 times to various groups in the area. He explained that each September, the judges of the Sixth Judicial District indicate how many jurors they will need in the ensuing twelve months.
All precinct committeemen of both parties are asked to submit a list of men and women (equally divided) making up 10% of the voting list in their precinct. The Board of Supervisors at its September meeting agrees on an order in which to choose names; say that 2,000 are needed, and they decide to pick every third one; they go through the lists until they have reached the required number from the 198 lists.
The stories you hear about the Supervisors picking their friends and relatives for jury duty plainly must be untrue, because the Supervisors certainly would not sit down together and agree to place in the box only the names they wished drawn.
These names are made up on small individual cards, and dropped into a padlocked metal box about 2½' high and 14” in diameter. To pick the jurors for either county or circuit court, the Circuit Clerk himself draws these cards out of the box in the presence of a judge. He then hands them to someone else who reads off the name. If any question is ever raised of a card getting out of its proper order or anything of this sort, no-one could suggest that John Curry had misplaced it, because he was wearing a blindfold at the time.
If John Curry tells us this is the way it is done, we are confident this is the way it is done. We join nearly everyone else who knows him in considering John Curry one of the most able and dedicated public servants in the county. There is something about the office of circuit clerk which seems to attract the finest type of men; the office does not deal in money, it does not deal in power, it deals only in service.
Macon County is fortunate in having at the same time two young men in its service so highly regarded as Curry and Sheriff Charles Peters.
Oh yes, John told us one more thing; that the statutes automatically excuse from jury duty those whose work cannot be interrupted without disruption of the social fabric; this includes doctors, lawyers, mailmen, teachers, officers of the court... and newspapermen.