THE CENSORSHIP
THE CENSORSHIP (From Wisconsin State Journal) TODAY President Wilson has a bill before him, awaiting his signature, that is in principle the most drastic piece of legislation ground out by...
...not so many feel that way about Messrs Burleson and Lamar...
...The people at home, for whom the lawmakers are supposed to be working, say: "We gave you your jobs...
...Burleson's legal advisers—to the entire press of the country...
...The chief concern, however, is whether the President will give the act as it stands his signature and approval...
...However, as the act came out of conference, to be hastily vot a law by overburdened and time-pressed Senators and Congressmen, it contained a new clause extending the jurisdiction of Postmaster Goneral Burleson et al—meaning Solicitor General Lamar and the rest of Mr...
...We have a right to see how you attend to them...
...Shall we look to the President, then, as the real censor...
...The new clause makes it unlawful to publish in the first place, or to circulate in any way, by express, by carrier or news stand, to sell or to give away, ANY publication printed in EITHER a foreign language or in English, that the postmaster general may declare un-mailable...
...Burleson...
...When a democratic government attempts to hide itself from the people, to do business behind closed doors—for that's what a censorship really means—it staves off the light of criticism...
...Wherefore it is safe to say he will consider them carefully, along with that mis-named Trading With the Enemy Act that awaits his signature— or veto...
...So it is hardly conceivable that he will sit in on the job except in the most important cases...
...These are mighty important things to think of Mr...
...The postoffice department under the Espionage Act has power to bar from the mails any paper at its discretion—a sort of censorship in itself...
...The courts can grant a restraining order even against Mr...
...distrust and resentment are sure to be awakened...
...The ordinary German paper in this country circulates largely thru the mails...
...He can bounce Burleson and Lamar, as well as any of the members of his cabinet, out of office at will, and it is to be expected that he can control them to an extent...
...Of course, President Wilson is the court of last resort...
...Wilson in what is a matter of life or death to them...
...And if he does, then the chief concern is how it will work, out in practice...
...Many publishers feel they could trust Mr...
...Signed, we have actually got a real censorship in the hands of Postmaster General Burleson and Solicitor Lamar—a censorship that means that any paper in the country whose tone these men don't happen to like can be forced into shutting up shop and sacrificing its business...
...One provision was that for every article printed by such papers a full translation should be filed with the local representative of the postoffice department, "and a notice to the effect that such a translation had been so filed was required to be printed in English over the article in the paper...
...And they mean it...
...The new censorship clause has every appearance of a "joker," as it lies in the text of the bill, slipped between a jumble of sentences concerning the foreign language press, its real import scarcely discernible at a casual reading...
...Remains to be considered the effect upon the whole country of a drastic censorship law...
...THE CENSORSHIP (From Wisconsin State Journal) TODAY President Wilson has a bill before him, awaiting his signature, that is in principle the most drastic piece of legislation ground out by Congress since the declaration of war...
...Wilson is a conscientious man, a level-headed and a far-seeing man...
...This is the Trading With the Enemy Act—a misleading title so far as its purpose is concerned, which is to impose a censorship upon the press of the country, the native English as well as the foreign-language papers...
...Originally it was aimed at the disloyal German press...
...The question that agitates Washington is: How did this new clause get into the bill, and at whose instance is it there...
...That was the President's original idea when at the beginning of the war he established the publicity bureau under George Creel It was a PUBLICITY BUREAU, for the people, not a CENSORSHIP BUREAU, against the people...
...But going to court means delay, and delay is apt to be fatal and sure to be expensive in the case of a daily with active competition...
...If the folk with a finger in the lawmaking pie want to win this war and win it quickly, they will see that the government gets closer to the people, not farther away from them...
...If the President took the time to investigate the merits of every case that the postoffice department acts upon, the rest of the government would have to get, along pretty largely without his attention...
Vol. 9 • September 1917 • No. 10
