The Potters Herald

TWO WAYS OF LIFE

THIS is Convention Time in the United States.

Once every four years, the various parties get
together with considerable fanfare and choose
their candidates for the Presidency of this country.
It is a notable affair always, and especially this
year when so many countries are at war and so
many lands are living under a system where one
party is all-supreme and unchangeable by the orderly processes of election.

In this country, the Communist party was one
of the first to meet. Small in numbers, it has been
loud in its insistence upon its rights in our democracy, rights which no citizen enjoys in Russia,
land of the party's birth. Respectful of the rights
of minorities--even a minority standing for everything that true Americans despise --the great radio networks of this country agreed to broadcast
the convention proceedings.

This gave hundreds of radio stations throughout the country the "opportunity" to schedule the
Communist Convention. It was at this point that
the true difference between two ways of life was
revealed, for almost all of the stations exercised
their democratic right to turn down the program
and play "canned music" instead. They knew that
their American listeners would not be interested.

If the same situation had occurred in Russia,
or Germany or Italy, the stations wouldn't have
had to make a choice. They would have been told
what to do. And there wouldn't have been any
minority party convention for them to accept or
refuse.

Little incidents like these point up the distinction between the two systems--and incidentally, the
stations in question exercised their democratic
rights well and judged the interests of their audiences very wisely!