THE NEW ZEALAND TABLET THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1919. THE SERVILE PRESS

New Zealand Tablet, 30 January 1919, Page 25

THE NEW ZEALAND TABLET THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1919. THE SERVILE PRESS

T was said of old, The Truth shall make ye 311 >5 free. History proves that there is no V* || yk power, and no combination of powers vay greater than the truth that armies will be routed, and kings killed, and thrones overturned; that the poor shall overcome the rich, and the weak vanquish the strong, by the power of truth. The truth conquers primarily because truth is from God Who will not be mocked, and secondarily because truth wins to its banner every man in the world who loves honesty and justice and hates deceit and tyranny. . And as this love of justice and this hatred of deceit are normal in humanity, in spite of every perverting, and corrupting influence devised by the foes of mankind, it follows that truth must retain its unconquerable power as long as human nature in the main is sound and sane. A lie cannot live if truth gets a chance; and every injustice and every tyranny is at heart a lie which lives only so long as truth is suppressed and kept from the people over whose minds and hearts its power is still incalculable. Granted then that there are people whose interest it is to maintain injustice and tyranny it follows that it is also their interest to hid© the truth and to keep alive the lies on which their position is established. This obvious consideration is important inasmuch as it is the simple explanation of the corrupt and baneful influence wielded in our time by the unscrupulous capitalists who have made the press an instrument for promoting their own schemes at the, expense of the people. * There was a time when the press could be relied upon to tell the truth, and when its mission was to report public opinion faithfully; but, except in the

case of a few papers, in most countries, the press no longer fulfils that function. With the growth of Capitalism and Finance the press, in the main, passed into the hands of a wealthy oligarchy, for the greater part of low origin and of no estimable principles. It became in the main a commercial speculation, with all its force employed in the interests of the capitalists who controlled it; for although read by millions, there is no doubt that it is run by capitalists. In England lately one such capitalist managed to get control of a large number of widely circulated papers, which thenceforward became in every sense of the word his creatures. Such a power and such a control placed in his hands would be at all times a serious thing; but it was tenfold more serious considering the personality of him who now wields the power, and wields it for his own interests. In a word, we are face to face with the spectacle of a capitalist ruling through his own press and having the awful power in his hands to make puppets of politicians who for one reason or another have not the courage to save their souls. It is no doubt a sad spectacle; but no man who reads the few free papers still honest enough to defend the truth and the interests of mankind can doubt that it is a reality. The man who thus controls the press can practically print anything he wishes, provided it is not so outrageous as to run counter to the plain, common sense of his readers. There is indeed that limitation ; but even that is nothing. He must print news; news cannot be kept back from the public long by censorship or any other means; but as long as the controller has it in his power to garble news and to suppress whatever he wants to suppress, the news he issues is in matter of fact deceitful. Besides the plain way of telling a lie the end can be attained by a suggestion of the false and ~ by a suppression of the true methods which give us a lie all the worse for being presented under the garb of truth. No man who reads the newspapers nowadays requires to be furnished with instances of how this is done week after week. We have had the admission made in Parliament that the greatest perverter of the press the world has ever known is employed for what is by a sort of camouflage termed "press propaganda." And what sort of propaganda that is we know from .the falsehoods about Ireland circulated all through the Empire by the Harmsworth ring of newspapers and their ramifications. There is no need to labor this point. It is obvious to every intelligent person that the plea that the press represents public opinion and tells the truth is a piece of hypocrisy. « Papers such as the New Witness, the New Statesman-, and the Herald, are leaving no stone unturned in order to bring home to the English people the scandal of the Harmsworth influence over the Government. They do not hesitate to call it a Harmsworth " Government pure and simple they are not so'hopeless about the honesty and good-will of their countrymen as to think that it is not possible to break the fetters which the unscrupulous capitalists have forged for so many politicians in England to-day. The capitalist press dominates the situation. In the words of Mr. Belloc, "The tiny oligarchy which controls it is irresponsible and feels itself immune. It governs, and governs abominably." Here, then, is the key to the mystery. A fomenter of rebellion is • rewarded by the Government against which he plotted, and the men who aimed at forcing that Government to keep its pledges are exiled and killed. Generals against whom grave charges are made are retained until their incompetency brings about a national disaster. The enemies of small nations and the breakers of treaties are denounced from the house-tops while the oldest small nation in Europe is persecuted in the interests of a bigoted foreign minority. Men are arrested (and refused a trial) on alleged evidence which is never produced, and which could not in any case be stronger than similar evidence against members of the Government. Campaigns of b No-Popery are launched simultaneously in

every paper under the influence of the moving spirit and attempts are made to stir up bitter sectarian animosities in order to put the people off the scent of the incompetent creatures kept in power by the autocrat of the press. Within the past weeks we have seen it stated in bald words in two prominent London papers that the present Government cannot be trusted — one writer went so far as to say that no foreign statesman could, with safety to the interests of his country, trust the present Government. And all this is possible because England is ruled now by Harmsworth ! Who shall tell what bungling and what jobbery have been hidden from the people who are fighting and paying? Who shall tell how far the disasters which have occurred are due to the same baneful influence ? If through any fault of their own the British people have allowed this state of things to come to pass they are paying for it heavily. Their shame in the eyes of the whole world, , the opposition of America, the strong weapon placed in the hands of .Germany against England when she speaks of the rights of small nations are what she has to thank King Harmsworth for now. The on© ray of hope remains in the fact that there are still in England a few honest pressmen like G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and Austin Harrison who put their country and truth first and refuse to sell their souls to the dominant capitalists. Truth will prevail, but until it does the situation is serious.