Elmer Davis

“This is a people's war, and to win it, the people should know as much about it as they can.”

“The chief characteristic of 'The Tribune' under Greeley was an aggressive and even ostentatious purity. 'Immoral and degrading police reports,' and any notices of the existence of the theater, whether in news or advertising, were at first scrupulously excluded.”

“The first and great commandment is, don't let them scare you.”

“We are going to use the truth, and we are going to use it toward the end of winning the war; and we know what would happen to the American people if we lose it.”

“This nation was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle - among others - that honest men may honestly disagree; that if they all say what they think, a majority of the people will be able to distinguish truth from error.”

“The easiest way to propagandize people is to let a propaganda theme go in through an entertainment picture when people do not realize they are being propagandized.”

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”

“This nation has given the world an object lesson in the whole duty of neutrals, which is to furnish an outlet for the wrath of a belligerent who is annoyed because he cannot defeat his opponent.”

“The whole government publicity situation has everybody in the news business almost in despair, with half a dozen agencies following different lines.”

“One of the things that is wrong with America is that everybody who has done anything at all in his own field is expected to be an authority on every subject under the sun.”

“This republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it.”

“I believe that if the entire voting population of the United States could be taken in small groups on a personally conducted tour of even the neutral countries of Europe, 85 percent of them would vote next November for any presidential candidate of any party who could convincingly promise them a big navy and conscription.”

“When a middle-aged man says in a moment of weariness that he is half dead, he is telling the literal truth.”

“Large elements in Congress and the public were willing to fight for victory but wanted to be very sure that the struggle was not contaminated by any moral principles.”

“There are some patriotic citizens who sincerely hope that America will win the war - but they also hope that Russia will lose it; and there are some who hope that America will win the war, but that England will lose it; and there are some who hope that America will win the war, but that Roosevelt will lose it.”

“It is a curious foible of a certain type of mind that it is unable to imagine a newspaper editor as one who may, on some public questions, honestly have the same view as that held by other persons.”

“Tammany Hall and slavery usually found 'The Herald' on their side.”

“New York was growing so fast that the extraordinary prosperity which attended 'The Times' almost from the outset brought no real injury to any of its important rivals; for years thereafter, they all grew and prospered together.”

“You may not like Mr. Roosevelt, but if he loss the war, we all lose it with him.”

“There is an increasing demand that the president and Secretary Hull get rid of the unteachable group in the State Department of men who have not learned, after ten years of experience, that appeasement has never worked anywhere, at any time.”