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Show w .P.O. MUZZLING THE PRESS (The following excerpts are from a pamphlet entitled "Muzzling the Press," by Richard Barry, and copyrighted copy-righted by North American Review.) There exists in the United States today a control of the press and a suppression of vital news and public pub-lic discussion which Is difficult to parallel jin English-speaking countries coun-tries unless one goes back to the time of King James. As yet the eclipse is only partial, but unless effective attention is called to the fact, it is not inconceivable that it may become total. This condition has developed by such gradual stages stag-es that unless the picture of it is fully painted, most people would be Inclined to doubt its existence. How-lever, How-lever, if one will take into consideration consider-ation everything pertaining to this ' condition, including the operation of the Espionage Act, the supervision supervis-ion of the military censor, the orders or-ders of the War Industries Board, the apathy of many editors, and will realize that these are supplemented by the special efforts of countless government agents, assisted by the Department of Justice, the Secret Service, and others, all of which have a definite relation one to the other, he will realize that the total effect is the practical abolition of the constitutional guarantees respecting res-pecting free speech. I A case In point was the method used by these agencies in recording record-ing so momentous a matter as the report of the Senate Sub-Committee on Military Affairs on aircraft conditions. This report was undoubtedly un-doubtedly of stupendous detailed interest in-terest to the country. Yet only one newspaper, the New York Times, carried it In full, to the extent of a page. The Associated Press sent out little more than a column, largely large-ly generalizations, and very evidently evident-ly a dispatch previously submitted to official "guidance." . As Senator Lodge said on the floor of the senate: sen-ate: "Our enemies know the contents con-tents of the report, our allies know the contents of it, and the only people peo-ple who do not know about It are the people of the United Stotes." It can hardly be denied that the pie of the United States were the ones who had the most right to know what a committee of senators had to say after full investigation of the aircraft situation. Those who think that the activities activi-ties of the government In suppressing suppress-ing newspapers have been directed only against socialistic or proGer-man proGer-man publications should consider what happened to those who presumed pre-sumed to go beyond the reports of the Associated Press and other recognized rec-ognized news bureaus and published from their own sources, more complete" com-plete" details about this aircraft Investigation. In-vestigation. The Christian Science Monitor, for Instance, a newspaper certainly not radical in Its editorial policy and unusually conservative In its news policy, was denied circula- j tion for three days as a punishment for its publication of and comment on the aviation report. The De-j troit News for thesame reason, was barred from circulation in Canada. where it usually sends 30.000 cop-; ies. The absurdity of ihis may be i seen from the fact that the Mon-j treal Star, the direct rival of the News for its Canadian circulation, published the aircraft ieport almost in full and. of course, with impunity. impun-ity. The New York Times has always al-ways been a stalwart supporter of the Administration and has never been accused of divulging military secrets; moreover, it has always been studiously informed as to Its duties in upholding the strong arm of the United States; yet its foreign for-eign edition containing the aviation report was suppressed without notification. not-ification. Another event which has contributed contrib-uted to the isolation of the smaller communities of America is the order ord-er of the War Industries Board compelling com-pelling newspapers to discontinue their exchanges. Larger dailies are not embarrassed by this, because they pay cash for each other's publications. pub-lications. But the smaller publisher publish-er who must go down into his pocket pock-et for the metropolitan papers he hitherto received, often can not afford af-ford to dc this, so he is left without his independent source of genuine news material, curtailed though that is. As one editor recently expressed ex-pressed it in a personal letter to which I had access: "Nothing !s now coming In with which we can mix ammunition. We want to write, but we have no material. We want to print facts and keep the public potted, but we cannot reach Into the thin air and get them." As a direct result of the Postal Zone Rate Law and of the rulings of the War Industries Board the country coun-try editor and the small town are more Isolated and more provincial today thf.n at any time within the nast half century. It can readily be seen how this order cuts out the trained correspondent, corre-spondent, the special interpretation of news and attending editorial comment, com-ment, especially from contributors, whether these be professional or political. In fact it has had a tendency ten-dency to dry up at its source the wellspring of the Washington correspondent cor-respondent and to force ou; of existence ex-istence the period of war that small corps of specially trained newspaper and magazine writers who have furnished fur-nished the journalistic leaders ot public opinion. Discussion of policies, pol-icies, analysis of news, the "inside" of things as they really exist, are in a fair way of being stifled. A very painstaking friend of the newspapers is Mr. Burleson. Early in August he announced that in his very great zeal to serve the pre . purposed to take over the "news wire" so that (as he disingenuously disingenuous-ly announced) he might provide for the press the most efficient wire facilities fa-cilities under government control." The intent of this was obvious to all newspaper men, for the "news wire" has long been best organized function of the entire telegraph service. ser-vice. It has always been given preference over market and commercial com-mercial wires. It has always been the first wire up after disasters like the Galveston flood or the San Francisco Fran-cisco fire. It has always been humanly hu-manly perfect; it is less in need of attention or improvement than any mechanical service in the country. Therefore one need not be surprised sur-prised when he finds the allegation made that this bringing of the newB service under control of the Postmaster-General and the political Interests In-terests he represents means a censorship cen-sorship of all news; not by the frank method of official delay, holding It up until Its news value is lost. Mr. Burleson and his associates may expect ex-pect at any time to hear' the plea that "pressure of official business" is requiring the full capacity of the' news wires. One need not be unduly un-duly Imaginative to see how the mechanical control of the wire service ser-vice by such a potentate may hamper, ham-per, embarrass and even paralyze news, however legitimate, however vital to the safe conduct of public opinion it may be. There is another form of control exercised over newspapers which defies all but an official inquiry. Its character may be only inferentially given. I quote the editor of a daily in Portland Maine, who said to me: "Two editors of my acquaintance have been called to the phone recently rec-ently by local government officials who notified them that if further material fo the nature mentioned was published their papers would be suppressed." This occurred just previous to the Maine election early ear-ly in September. |