Statement By Commissioner Of Education Earl McGrath

STATEMENT* The idea that television should be used to broadcast the proceedings of Congress, both the committee hearings and debates on the floor, seems to me to be a sound proposal for the education of our people. The current interest of the general public in the crime investigations is heartening. Many hearings would be of course less dramatic than those of the Kefauver Committee. But I believe a large percentage of our population would be interested in a great many types of questions which come before the Congress for discussion and legislation, and they ought to have the advantage of the type of education that television can provide. The success of our democratic processes is determined by the knowledge our people possess on public issues and the manner in which they are dealt with. In our increasingly complex society it has become difficult for citizens generally to be adequately and currently informed on public issues. Television is one of the greatest educational discoveries of our day, and it should be used to the maximum in the classroom. But it has an *By Earl James McGrath, U.S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., to Mr. George Beveridge of the Washington Star, Washington, D. C., on Saturday, March 24, 1951.