NOTED JOURNALIST

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 49, 27 February 1934, Page 10

NOTED JOURNALIST

ONCE-A TYPESETTER

ROOSEVELT'S POPULARITY

TARIFF ABSURDITIES

"I have travelled 20,000 miles to call on my old friend Mr. Robert.Boll, of Canterbury, who was president of tho World's Press Congress five years ago," said Dr. Walter Williams, honorary president of the World's Press Congress, who arrived today by tho Marama from Sydney. "I am on sabbatical leave from the Stato University of Missouri, where I am Dean of tho Faculty of Journalism. I was brought up in a printing office, starting on the typesetting side. I worked for 75 cents, about 3s of your money, a week, until I could set type. I could .still sot-typo.if my fingers were not too Stiff." _ Asa teacher of journalism' Dr. Williams 'considers' that in addition to v" general, liberal, broad education: and a wide experience of life, specialisation is nocessary, at least in America, if the .student of journalism intends to go far. THE WORLD'S PRESS. "I think that thero is an improvement in journalism in America," said Dr. Williams. "The depression has done somo good in the senso that it has, taken out tho weaker newspapers, and necessarily only the better-trained journalists have survived,*with the result that the newspapers arc better. One of the dangers I have seen in travelling round the world—and I have been almost everywhere except South ' Africa—is a govcrnmont:controlled Press. You get it especially in Europe. With two or three exceptions it is only the English-speaking countries where thero is freedom of Press, speech, and opinion. We spent a month or six -weeks'in Germany. I was thero last year, and again this yenr, and as ono journalist said, 'Silcnco is golden, and speech is a concentration camp.' -From what I saw of the newspapers in Australia, they are more informational -■than ours, but I; think not so light .in -their touch. There ,nre three distinct types of journalism in the world, the .3rilish, tho German," and tho French, and they are reflected in many coun.tries. The newspapers in Australia and Npw Zealand are more modelled on the British' typo. The German type of newspaper, before tho nitler control, was more concerned not so much with the news but: with tho philosophy of the news v ' The French type is more concerned with fino phraseology; this is seen also in Latin America. ROOSEVELT THE MAN. ■ Dr. Williams has a.frco admiration for. President Roosevelt, whom ho regards as the most popular President the U.S.A. have had for a long time. "If. he asked for the moon I think they would give it to him," he said. "That is partly duo to his human character and persuasiveness. Meet- him and talk with him, and you come' away admiring him, whatever you think' of his policy. Theu he is so ready to Confess himself in error when something he has tried out does, not succeed; Most people in public offlco do not like to admit that they have made mistakes. He. has .changed, his tactics several times, in the endeavour to find the best thing to do. Ho has brought, employment to some six or seven million people who wero unemployed before. It is' a great adventure ho has embarked upon —gamble would not bo tho right word—and within a year it will have been proved a success or' demonstrated a failure He is admired by Americans because ho takes action; he ,does not talk, ho does. Hia talks to liis radio audiences arc admirable, they are so simple that nobody could misunderstand him, so clear and persuasive that ho wins by his voice as well as by viis words." THE LIQUOR ISSUE. . Though Dr.- Williams voted for the Eighteenth Amendment, ho is now satisfied that Prohibition was a mistake. The return .to normal was' not -marked by any great swing-back, he said, but was accomplished with a few .outstanding features. "I was- ono of tho commission of ten set up by the regulations for the control of liquor 'after the amendment was repealed," he said, "and I was brought into 'close contact with it. Conditions are improved by tho repeal- of the Amendment./ It was, as Hoover said, h noble experiment, but it did not -work as people hoped . and sprayed it would. Thero was no special change in tho amount of liquor sold rafter the repeal and before, but there is a better class of liquor. The bootlegger is disappearing. The 'dangerous feature of Prohibition was that it made it a lark for young people to break the law. There is no doubt that the ■repeal of the Amendment will help to break up a lot of the gangster spirit. Many young fellows went into the bootlegging gamo simply for the adventure of it,, and wero insensibly drawn into the darker side of the gang life. They were largely helped by the large quantities of liquor smuggled in from Canada and Mexico and manufactured illegally in the United States. Personally I think the world would bo better 'off without: liquor, but it has been proved that Prohibition is a mistake." 1 TRADE BARRIERS HARMFUL. * "I am not sufficiently conversant with tariff details to speak about them authoritatively," said Dr.. Williams, "but all over the world there is developing an insane nationalism which puts up barriers against trado rather than making trado and commerce freer and. of more consequence.'* It is absurd to put up a .tariff against New Zealand products and lose trado thereby. Trade is the life-blood of the world's commerce. There are three general subjects of commerce—tho luxuries and tho raw materials, and in between the mass of manufactured products that can be manufactured anywhere. It is an absurd proposition to put a tariff on raw materials to destroy factories in countries where they cannot got raw materials. It is absurd to 'put a tariff on luxuries like fruit, because it can come only from countries that can grow fruit. The tariff system is unsatisfactory for the mass of the people. It supports coni- • panics, corporations, and combines who are protected by it, but it does not benefit the bulk of the people."