THE PRESS CENSORSHIP

...The New York Evening Post thinks that the censorship plan of Congress "puts us squarely on a par with the Kaiser's Government," under which Harden's truth-telling Journal is suppressed, without resource, at the will of a bureaucrat But The Evening Post does approve of the censorship provisions affecting cable and mail communications with foreign countries, which provide that "whenever, during the war, the President shall deem that the public safety demands it, he may cause to be censored, under such rules and regulations as he may from time to time establish, communications by mail, cable, radio, or other means of transmission passing between the United States and any foreign country he may from time to time specify, or which may be carried by any vessel or other means of transportation touching at any port, place or territory of the United States and bound to or from any foreign country...

...He can say anything he wants to within the limits 1 have marked out...

...Without it the amendment would have related solely to foreign-language publications, but with it control is implied over publications in English as well, and the Tribune's correspondent adds: "It was pointed out in the Senate that this part of the amendment gives the Postmaster-General authority and power to withdraw from any paper in the country the second-class mail privileges at his discretion and on his own interpretation of the Espionage Law, while as soon as the second-class mail privileges are withdrawn it becomes unlawful to distribute a publication by another means, and it is thus automatically put out of business...

...But he can't overstep that limit out inch...

...The whole question is the limit he attempts to go to in his criticism...

...The "joker" in the amendment, according to a Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, is the phrase "any matter...

...Burleson replied: "Nothing of the sort...

...The Press Censorship AC From The Literary Digest) CURB on foreign-language editors, especially those who express themselves in the tongue of the enemy, has been strongly urged upon Congress, as noted in The Literary Digest for September 22...

...But when a conference report on the Trading with the Enemy Bill was adopted with the King amendment, and also with what press dispatches called a "joker," making it applicable to all publications, not a few editorial observers became emphatic In protest against what they say is unlimited power provided for the Postmaster-General as censor...

...There can be no campaign against conscription and the Draft Law, nothing that will interfere with enlistments or the raising of an army...

...They can not say that this Government is the tool of Wall Street or the munitions-makers...

...The provision of the bill, aimed at the foreign-language newspapers alone apparently, states that once the law goes into effect and until the end of the war it "shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation, or association to print, publish, or circulate or cause to be printed, published, or circulated in any foreign language any news item, editorial, or other printed matter respecting the Government of the United States or of any nation engaged in the present war, its policies, International relations, the state or conduct of the war or any matter relating: thereto...

...The amendment reads in part as follows: "Any print, newspaper, or publication in any foreign language which does not conform to the provisions of this section is hereby declared to be non-mailable, and it shall bo unlawful for any per-son, firm, corporation, or association to transport, carry, or otherwise publish or distribute the same, or to transport, carry, or otherwise distribute any matter which is non-mailable by the provisions of the act relating to espionage, approved June 15, 1917...

...Among adverse critics of the measure is the New York Evening Sun, which speaks of it as allowing to creep in "censorship in its mo3t virulent form...

...When the Tribune correspondent questioned the Postmaster-General as to whether the Socialist party and Socialist papers were not building practically their whole creed at the present time on "the charge that America went into the war at the behest of Wall Street and the munitions-manufac-turers," and therefore it might become necessary to take up the Socialists from a special point of view, Mr...

...If the publisher of matter put forth in any foreign language does not conform to this requirement, the matter becomes unmailable and not legally transportable in any form...

...That kind of thing makes for insubordination in the Army and Navy and breeds a spirit of disloyalty through the country...

...It is a false statement, a lie, and it will not be permitted...

...The whole proceeding has savored of stealth from the outset, according to this journal, which reminds us that the amended bill was accepted by the Senate in spite of the protests of Senators Norris and Cummins, and adds that is went to the House, where it was "rushed through in the guise of a measure against foreign-language Journals before opposition could make itself felt...

...Such a thing is repugnant both to the President and himself, and he avers that any newspaper of any political opinion can say its word in legitimate criticism of the President, the Administration, the Army, the Navy, or the conduct of the war...

...It is provided, however, that thin section shall not apply when any publication In a foreign language, before being offered for mailing or other form of distribution, shall have filed in the form of an affidavit a true and complete translation of the article issued in a foreign tongue...

...In a Washington dispatch to the New York Tribune, Postmaster-General Burleson is quoted as saying that he is "not going a step beyond what the law means, and it does not mean a political censorship...

...And nothing can be said inciting people to resist the taws...

...But he points out: "There is a limit And that limit is reached when it begins to say that this Government got in the war wrong, that it is in it for wrong purposes, or anything that will impugn the motives of the Government for going into the war...

...Such a precaution, according to The Evening Post, will finally end the constant leakage of news of our military and naval activities to Mexico and other Latin nations, and through them to Holland and Scandinavia, and eventually to Germany...

...We won't look at any man or any paper with the thought in our minds that he belongs to the Socialist or any other political party...

...There can be nothing said to hamper and obstruct the Government In the prosecution of the war...