Free Press Changes Tack

The isolationist press last week lost a major effective: the Willkie-Republican Detroit Free Press, Michigan's biggest morning newspaper (circ. 322,683).

Said Publisher John Shively Knight in a front-page Sunday editorial: "The Free Press has opposed every step leading toward involvement in a war which was not of our making. . . . But now the die is cast. We are in this war quite as though our Congress had made a formal declaration of hostilities. There is no turning back. To that end, the Free Press pledges its complete support to President Roosevelt as our Commander in Chief. ... In his memorable address he has defined our foreign policy in words of unmistakable meaning. His hand controls our ship of state. He alone is master of our destiny."

But the Free Press did not promise to support the President "in the mawkish sense of the sloganeer who mouths meaninglessly 'Stand by the President.' " Wrote Publisher Knight--also publisher of the Akron Beacon-Journal (Independent) and the Miami Herald (Democratic): "From time to time the Free Press proposes to speak quite as vigorously about the shortcomings in our national defense policies as does Lord Beaverbrook in his London Daily Express. This is no time to use a feather duster when a club may be needed. . . ."

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