The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-15
KEY WEST CENSORSHIP
Newspaper Men Have Q Hard
Time Of Il.
HOT RACE TO FILE COPY
Nc Cipher 0ooe-Flve Seconds Advsu.
tage May Give . Newspaper IN TX
clusive-No News OF Fleets
Movement May Be Sent

fTees. from q stan Correspondent
Key West. May 1.-THE cable ONCE
In Key West since the world became
Interested In war talk has been the
most interesting spot on the island. The
most Interesting. the important
man by all odds here. il the censor.
One naturally comes to associate the
two together. The cable Office IL a
small brick building, which stands only
q few yards from the government dock.
When the newspaper dispatch boats
come In from the gulf they always
land as near h cable ONCE as posi-
bic. and when correspondents land at
the same time the race for the cable
office IL more interesting than any
steeplechase ever run. Some of them.
after a long cruise. go staggering on
their sea legs l X drunken men: 9TH
ers, weak from sea sickness, and 9TH
ers still are limping from bruises re-
ceived from being pitched about in the
rough sea. But sickness and bruises
are forgotten when land is reached.
every enor is put forth to be the
first to lille copy"
II 1t be late At night. Nv seconds
gained In the race from the dock to the
cable office may mean an exclusive
cA'S "a "S eiSok odiilSo Il
the North. Gable transmission is
necessarily slower tina by sending by
overland wires. and the correspondent
who files 5000 words at midnight Is
pretty sure that nc other paper will be
able to get anything for its morning edi-
ton from Key West hat night. But
after the copy has been filed the corre-
spondent's trouble Is not at an end.
Every word Of 1t must be read and
passed upon by the censor. No matter
how much time, hardship or expense II
has required to get the story, IL. in the
judgment Of the censor. IL ought not
TO be printed, 1t cannot be sent. II II
gives any information as to the move
ments of the fleet or the army, it cannot
go. There are something like $50 news
while most OF them appreciate the wis
dom.of the government censorship of
news matter, some of them have grown
impatient in their eagerness to tell the
Interesting stories that are to be old
and have tried all Of ingenious
statements for getting matter past the
censor. Usually, however, all plans
rave been detected by the censor. and
the apparently innocent or stupid dis
patch has been returned to the writer
with mo- written in red ink across
II.
epondents was or the day the feet
started on it's cruise eastward. Every
correspondent in Key West knew that
the great battleships were steaming
away from Havana in quest of the big
Spanish fleet. Every newspaper man
was lager to send the story, but not
a line. not a word. would the censor
permit to pass.
From a hundred papers came the in
quiry, Has the feet started?' Even
the answer Yes to this inquiry was
not permitted to go.
Some of the correspondents had ar
ranged a cipher code with their home
Offices. but the cipher was useless.
Everything that had the appearance of
solutely plain and explainable was
stopped. One correspondent worked
out a plan which he thought would
give the desired information to his pa
per. but he failed. Early in the morn
ing he filed a dispatch. the first read
Ing as follows: THE newspaper fleet
sailed this morning toward Porto
Rico
An hour later he went to file a per-
sonal message to his editor, reading:
"Correction-Omit second word in last
dispatch" When he handed the last
dispatch h censor met him at the re-
ceiving desk, and with a kindly smile
handed back the first dispatch with
these words written across it: "All
fleets look alike to me-"
The censor, however. Is greatly liked
by the newspaper men and spends most
of his time in chatting with them on
the porch of the Key West hotel. He is
an officer Of the regular army and SIM
ply discharges faithfully and well the
duties assigned him from Washington.
Such of the correspondents as have at
tempted to send nothing but very undis-
guised facts fare the best at his hands.