The Hays County Herald

 ”Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” - Thomas Jefferson

“A Modern Newspaper Published for the People in Progressive San Marcos and Hays County Texas”

26 July 1940: Editorial by Charles D. Brown

“Since 1936 at least newspaper editors have been less likely to write “dear reader” editorials instructing the helpless electorate on how to vote.  In was in that year the public re-elected President Roosevelt with a whollop while about 80 percent of the nation’s press, particularly the big-city dailies, were hailing a popular Republican landslide that didn’t pan out. 

Although the weeklies were not so guilty in this attempted misleading of the public, the tradition of advising the innocent electorate is dying slowly.  The weekly paper has always been closer to the reader than the metropolitan press. 

One service the newspaper can certainly render in the coming elections is to rail and holler and scream at the American people to get themselves busy at this business of popular government and put their best thoughts into it.  The little papers and the big ones can assist in the process of democracy by being as scrupulously fair as they can in the reporting and writing of political news. 

Another service the newspaper can render is to encourage public officials to take action in the interest of the community even when such action is opposed by selfish-interest; in other words, hold off criticism until the officials have had a chance to get something done.  The fellow that doesn’t vote is usually the loudest in clamoring for the head of some official. 

The lesson of Europe is that he who fails to put his own house in order is going to have some housecleaning done by another paperhanger. 

America will take the elections more seriously this year.  Democracy in Europe didn’t fail to work but failed because those who talked about it wouldn’t work.  In that respect, it’s like Christianity - we haven’t tried it yet. ”