Date: April 24, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
One of the developments stimulated by the World War is the increased attention given by our press to foreign news. Like most things in journalism, it is partly a creation of the newspapers and partly a response to a public demand. No doubt now can exist as to the demand or as to the efficiency with which it is supplied.
The result that is so generally commendable is the accuracy and fairness of our principal news reports of the whole field of foreign affairs. To any one who has a knowledge of what is printed about us abroad and who has independent sources of information concerning the daily occurrences in distant countries, the superiority of our newspapers to those abroad in securing and printing important foreign news is very striking. We are building up a body of correctly informed public opinion concerning other countries that is more in accord with the facts than their estimation of us. From the condition of strangers to be held in suspicion, the rest of the world is being transformed into neighbors with whose aspirations we can sympathize and whose success we can applaud. Good will and peace are being strengthened by this better understanding.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of David McCann who prepared this document for digital publication.