EX-PREMIER’S ARTICLES

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 170, 6 April 1923, Page 5

EX-PREMIER’S ARTICLES

STATESMEN IN JOURNALISM. The “New York Globe” discusses the rather wide question whether former Ministers should or should not write articles and books. In a leader headed “Statesmen in Journalism,” it remarks: “Certainly there is no good reason in a democratic nation to enjoin silence upon those: lenders most capable of illuminating issues upon which public opinion must make choice. If Britain were governed by a few thousand members of the nobility and gentry it would be proper enough to restrict information upon national issues to those who hud a, share in the decision. But manhood and womanhood suffrage is the law of the land, and practically the entire nation musj ba arbiters of national policy. It is vital, therefore, that the people bo informed. “Retired Cabinet members should be particularly useful in this field. Poincare attained his present office ns a consequence of (i campaign conducted in the Press. The foinier President oil Franco experienced no embarrassment in composing newspaper articles, and his countrymen, whose eence of punctilio is as delicate as any, felt no sense of shame. Orlando and Nitti were both journalists both before mid after they held office, and the Italians nre a sensitive people. In this country, as a former President, Theodore Roosevelt wrote a weekly editorial for the 'Outlook,’ and (itarCng the interim between the presidency and the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court, William Howard Taft was a frequent contributor to the magazines. “The precedents are sound and numerous. Government has become public business. and it must be publicly determined. Assuredly the masses of tho people who will profit by such discussion are not likely to frown upon honest men who retire from office financially poor, but rich in experience. For even a former Primo Minister may enjoy the common right of free speech and of work for self-support.”