Address by Telephone to the New York Herald Tribune Forum.

Anything that makes for tolerance of opinion and contributes to the general education of our people in the issues of governmental policy is of vast value. Therefore I like the Forum idea. May we have more of them and cover the country with them.

It is not likely that such a brief expression of a point of view as is possible on such an occasion as this will persuade the convinced political partisan to change his or her position, but it may start such people to thinking and convey the idea that prejudice is a rather weak substitute for logic in determining the questions that are of such vital consequence to our country as a whole and to each individual citizen thereof.

It is natural, I suppose, in a campaign year, for advocates and adversaries of any policy or process of government to relapse into exaggeration and invective, and so becloud the controversy as to make it possible for the future of the country to be determined in rancor and temper instead of by calm deliberation and clear thinking.

I do not know that there is any actual remedy for this state of affairs, but I believe that it is within the power and the province of the press to make whatever improvement is possible. I do not think that anybody objects to a statement of opinion or an argument, either pro or con, being put forth in the editorial pages provided the editorials do not contain misstatements of fact. That, unless I entirely misunderstand newspaper psychology, is what the newspaper editorial columns are for. I do not believe-and I do not think any disagreement is possible on this subject-that a journal's news columns ought to be tampered with, either by coloring news or by leaving out news. The news is the commodity that is marketed to the whole people. I may be accused of idealism when I suggest that a Republican reader of a Democratic newspaper is entitled to all the news that appertains to his segment of the political landscape and that a Democratic reader of a Republican newspaper should not be fed exclusively on a Republican diet. And I would apply the same idealism to the headlines.

The Forum idea, conducted impartially, is an indication of the objective which most fair-minded people seek. I cannot help contrasting a Nation which more and more is encouraging any friendly discussion on all manner of public problems with those countries which unfortunately have made public discussion difficult if not impossible.

In the welter of passion which is apparently still inseparable from our political campaigns, you and I hear about the liberty of the press- regimentation of the press against the Government and regimentation of the press by the Government. It is doubtful if the United States ever had an Administration since the days when Washington was accused of despotism and aspirations to kingship that had the slightest desire to muzzle anybody. The unchecked virulence of assaults on almost every Administration since the beginning of our history in itself is best proof of that statement.

An old friend of mine who, although a successful man of affairs in New York, has led a somewhat narrow existence, asked me the other day if it was true, as many of his friends had told him, that three-quarters of all the money spent for relief of the needy unemployed in these past few years had gone for overhead and only one-quarter to the needy unemployed themselves. He asked me further if it was true, as he had been told by his friends, that all our bank deposits were insecure and our insurance policies worthless. I wrote him that it would be best for him to look up the answers himself. I suggested that he attend your Forum yesterday and today. I hope he has been with you.

The time may come when the policies of the Nation will be determined with the serenity and logic with which any serious business problem is decided among the directors of the business, but I must reluctantly confess that we have not reached that day.

I wish I might have attended the Forum in person. If I had been with you, I might have been moved to take part in the discussion. My part, in that case, would at least have been tempered by good humor, an effort to develop the facts, and a desire to present constructive remedies for current ills. I send to you my compliments and good wishes.