MR. COOLIDGE AND THE PRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 31, 7 February 1928, Page 6

MR. COOLIDGE AND THE PRESS.

It is regrettable that we do not know exactly what was in President Coolidge's mind when he said at the week-end that "Whenever any of the newspapers of our country undertake to exert their influence on behalf of foreign interests the candour of the situation would be greatly increased if their foreign connections were publicly disclosed." Does he mean to suggest that whenever an American newspaper supports foreign interests of any kind it is necessarily acting froni ulterior motives? There are, of course, numbers of men and women who cannot be persuaded that newspapers are ever honest, but the President of the United States should not be numbered among them. Sometimes the newspaper turns, as the editor of the "Morning Post" did the other day when Dr. Marie Stopes accused him of yielding to outside pressure in his attitude towards birth control. The verdict he secured should make Dr. Stopes and others a little more careful. Are we to take Mr. Coolidge to imply that, for example, if the New York "Times" says America is pressing England harshly for debt, the proprietary of the "Times" may have large investments in England, and may thereby be influenced in its editorial opinions? Surely the last thing the President should do is to give even the faintest support to the intense but narrow patriotism of gentlemen like the Mayor of Chicago.