NYT 1950: For Free Trade in Facts

In April 1950, the New York Times Editorial Board noted General Eisenhower’s defense of free speech even in times of war:

FOR FREE TRADE IN FACTS

When the newspaper men who compose the Board of Directors of The Associated Press come out against censorship that is not, with all due respect, stop-press news. When a retired soldier takes the same position, as General Eisenhower did yesterday at the A.P.’s annual luncheon, everybody, including the A. P. Board of Directors, will see it as a story to “play up.” A wartime general with the burden of men’s lives and the fate of nations on his shoulders might find it hard to understand the function of the newspaper. There are secrets it might be death and defeat to reveal. The habit of keeping secrets — even harmless secrets — might grow in a professional soldier’s mind.

But General Eisenhower has taken the broader view. As he said, “Only an informed public opinion can win the peace.” There cannot be an informed public opinion, obviously, unless the facts are fully presented and honestly interpreted. Precisely here lies the difference between the free and the unfree society. Government by consent is an illusion unless the consent is informed and intelligent. Government without consent won’t work if the governed are informed and intelligent. We have to believe in our own system and in ourselves, which means that we do not trust everything to inspired “leaders” but rely also on the wisdom of the street and home.

We are still missing our great opportunity in the use of this weapon. At home there is too much hush-hush in some fields — possibly, for example, in that of the atomic bomb. Abroad, as President Truman and others in authority have recently been recognizing, we haven’t told our story boldly and completely. It is time for free trade in facts and ideas among the democratic nations. General Eisenhower did well to use his forum yesterday to drive this truth home.