Change Gimmicks

John Fox continues to pack mud on his molehill. But what started as an obvious attempt to turn cry Red into Post subscriptions, may end up making innocent librarians jobless.

Fox, in his emotional, bold-faced editorials, has called the Russians a pretty nasty lot. No one is going to disagree with him. But when he goes on from this to advocate the banning of all Russian literature in public libraries he's endorsing the same tactics he condemns. There is no need to repeat the arguments against book censorship: they are well-known. And Fox's fears that little children are going to wander into the library and pick up the Communist Manifesto or even the New World Review, thinking them the same as Crime Comics, is pure hogwash.

But the Post's circulation gimmick has snowballed. Recently, library employees signed a petition which asked that the "subversive" literature be kept in the library, and the Boston newspaper began swinging its cudgel again. Continued attack has caused Judge Frank Donahue, a trustee of the library, to say he will demand an investigation. And if the Post keeps up the way it has, many of these employees who are not covered by civil service may lose their jobs through political pressure.

As long as Fox's hot air merely floated away, he was just another red opportunist. But now that it is beginning to singe librarians, it is time for responsible citizens to make it clear that Fox should boost his sales in a manner more suited to his paper--like running Dick Tracy.