Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-10-09
CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS.

The criticism of the CITIZEN upon General WiIlcox's censorship of press dispatches led the clerk in the Generals headquarters to send the Star, by mail and not by wire, as our morning con- temporary eudeavors to create the i'm pression by heading it special dispatch to the Star," the following:
 The following telegrams will explain the censorship exercised over military telegraph lines by the military authOri- ties. The answer of General Wilcox to the Herald correspondent is sufficient proof that the military line Is now, and has always been. open for the transmits sion oi press telegrams, when 1t is not needed for the transmission of military business:
 CAMP THOMAS, October f, 1SSl-Gen- eral O. B. Wilcox, Wilcox: Have not had the wires for four days. Will you grant permission to the New York Her ald and send through its dispatches without further delay?
 (Sicned r. G. MCGowAS,
 Herald Correspondent
 The reply WAS as follows:
 WILCOX, October 1, 1SSl-The dis patch wire is at your disposal at all times when not taken uIswith urgent military business.
 (Signed) WILCOX,
 Brevet Major General.
 These dispatches do not touch the question. We say, and we know whereof we affirm h that aGs RGt0gs E. js e9ie3lseea 5fP 6 fee at Camp Thomas, during the time General Wilcox was in command there, it had to ne approved by military cen sor. The CITIZEN has all the time main tainad two correspondents in the field, and one Of its proprietors has been up tn Camp Thomas since the trouble be- gan. so there is no guess work about the matter.
 This same Herald correspondent and the Chicago Times correspondent have both sent dispatches by letter to Will COX to be wired from there, not because the military wire was in use, but be cause of the military censorship.
 The Star appears this morning with lame ipology for this attempt to throttle the press in the interest of military am bition. IL says:
 .cIews gatherers, hunting for sensatloni lsre likely to greatly eIaggerate the req focts an1 thus create a false impression 1 abroad. which is likely to result m dam
 IS concerned f- ! egperated reports could do nothing bu injure Us. To make an order so as . preveut misrepresentation from golni abroad, if done so by Gen. Nllico1' th oitizens of Arizona will most heartily az prove of and so wlll the people through out the whole country.
 But some Of these carping fault hnder have gone still further, and ailege Una tbe military refuse to allow special col respondents to send news over the mn tarv line at all. Any one who knows th manner in which the military line ha been conducted for the past two year , will not for a moment entertain til charge. The telegram of McCowanl, tI Herald correspOndent, to Gen. Nlllco and fine Generals reply, which we pul fish in our telegraph columns, settl' that matter conclusIvely.
 . The Star appears to be playing u ! svcophant as well as the associated pre- war correspondent who pretends to fu - nish news but makes an ignomlnio' failure. ] The public knows full well that Il
 military have been responsible for tl
 reports which have exaggerated the da
 ger and the difficultyrsnd 1t has all be- T in their interest. It has been for t
 purpose of preventing the criticism ,- their mismanagement that this censI H ship was established.
 The telegrams the Star published
 tablish nothing. The military did "l
 fnse to allow special correspondents
 send news over the military hne at a = unless the dispatches were first snohl ted to the military authorities for lnsp' tion and approval. | |. Now we are prepared to go further -' o+bis subject, if 1t becomes matter
 more public interest.