Revisiting Mr Smith Goes To Washington + Library

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington reconsidered

It's hard to say how many times I've watched the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12, I should think.  I taped it off of cable (WTBS - the Turner network home station) in the 1980's - it doesn't even have commercials, which means it was before Turner Classic Movies was established.  And it's not one of those pristine prints remade from the negatives.  It has scratches and pops, but not many.

Jean Arthur, who happened to be my mother's cousin, and one that I actually met and spent some time with in 1956, was a Turner favorite, and the director, Frank Capra, is considered one of the greatest.

In this film, Jean plays a good person - which she didn't always do.  She was really more of a comedienne than a serious, dramatic actress, and she moved in the most radical Hollywood circles.  After the anti-Communist Witch Hunts (which Sen. McCarthy and friends were smart enough not to include her among), Capra renounced most of his populist, radical beliefs - even claiming that he had never supported the positions dramatized in his films of the 1930's and '40's.  Jean never went that far, but after her last film, Shane, she more or less retired into oblivion, and never appeared in another feature film.

Since we're now in a very similar political and economic situation as that of the later 1930's, this film should be shown more frequently and widely.  The role of the press (now the media, but they had radio then) and the corrupt political machines has hardly changed at all.  Jimmy Stewart, who plays Jefferson Smith, is a proto-type Green - an environmentalist, and advocate of traditional self-help and rural values - especially harmony with nature and natural processes.  It is his first trip to Washington, D.C., and he is astonished to find that all he was taught or read about American government and national purpose and values no longer applies - indeed, he is practically laughed out of town for trying to be a real Senator who is not the puppet of special interests.

Whenever I stopped the tape, I had my TV tuned to PBS, and was able to segue right into The McLaughlin Group or Washington Week in Review.  Pretty scary.  McLaughlin and his gang, especially, seemed to be exact counterparts of the "Washington Insiders" of the 1930's portrayed in Mr. Smith.

I made my trip to Washington, D.C. in 1978.  This was just after Max Baucus's first Senate campaign, which he won.  I was very much opposed to Baucus and his pseudo-liberal campaign, while pandering to right-wing isolationists who opposed the return of the Panama Canal to Panama, which was was actually the Carter Administration's position (backed by the banksters whose only hope of collecting on Panama's debt was to give them the revenues from the canal).  I knew some high-ranking Democrats in Washington, and asked them about Baucus.  They assured me that he was OK.  But he sure wasn't Mr. Smith.

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I've wanted to revisit my "campaign" against the Great Falls Public Library and its weeding and other policies for a long time.  Here's a beginning.  I recently located my extensive files and correspondence about this from the early 1990's.  I shall publish some of that as required to restore the library to its former status as the centerpiece of our intellectual life - independent from the politics of the local school system and city government.

5 Demands for the Great Falls Public Library

1.  Define the GFPL as the central intellectual and cultural institution of our city.

2.  Form a committee of local intellectual and cultural leaders to set policy, hire staff, and otherwise organize and direct the library collections and policies.  [No, it don't mean the self-selected "Board" and "Foundation" which only answers to the City Commission mafia and D.A. Davidson and the Republican Party].

3.  Immediately halt the giveaway and sale of library books and other materials.  Reclaim or re-purchase all significant books which have been discarded over the past 25 years, at $1/copy.  The oversight committee can determine which are "significant" and need to be replaced in the library's collection.  [I have attempted several times to restore such books to the Library's shelves, and have been met with nothing but derision and contempt from Library staff.  They refuse to admit they ever made a mistake, or acted out of censorous motives.  And I have protested, in writing, many other times over particular books found on their "dollar shelf" - not one of which was ever answered except by a form letter.]

4.  Fire all those employees who were hired by Jim Heckel, and re-evaluate the Director's position, job description, etc., as well as other professional (MLS) staff.  In my many conversations with these people, I have yet to hear anything which resembles an understanding of what a public library is for, and what services it is supposed to provide - let alone the constitutional issues of freedom of information and local control of vital institutions.

5.  Expand hours of service from 8 am to midnight, 7 days per week.