Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-09-18

below IS given complete and cor
rect copy OF the reply of the Asso-
ciated Press correspondent at Manila.
to the request of General Manager
Stone, of the Associated Press, for an
explanation of the circumstances
leading to the celebrated round rob-
in address to the American people,
exposing the un-American and monar-
ichal press censorship methods adopt
ed by Gen. Otis in the Philippines
That there should be no reason to
doubt it's accuracy the letter is given
word for word as it appeared in the
news columns of the Chicago Tribune,
a Republican newspaper.
Correspondents Letter.
Melville E. Stone Esq, General Man
ager Associated Press, Chicago, U.
S. A.
My Dear Mr.. Stone:-Your request
for a detailed record of all circum-
stances leading TO the statement ca
bled to the newspapers by all the cor
respondents in Manila is just received.
In the beginning ii should be explained
that the correspondents had the ques-
secure the right to send the facts
about the war, or, failing in that, to
explain to our papers and the public
why we were not telling the facts,
two months before the cablegram was
released.
1.-The censorship enforced during the
war and before the beginning of it
was, according to newspaper men who
had worked in Japan, Turkey. Greece,
Egypt and Russia in wa rtimes, and
in Cuba under the Weyler regime and
during the war. so much more strin-
gent than any hitherto attempted that
we were astonished that the American
authorities should countenance it, and
were confident that public opinion
would be overwhelmingly against it if
it's methods and purposes became
known.
For a long time we submitted to
the censorship because of appeals to
our patriotism and a feeling that we
might be accused of a lack thereof if
we made any trouble for the American
authorities here.
Admits the Real Purpose.
But when Gen. Otis came down in
the frank admission that it was not
intended so much to prevent the news
papers from giving information and
assistance to the enemy (the legiti-
mate function, and, according to our
Wow the only legitimate one, OF a
censorship, but to keep the knowl-
edge of the conditions here from the
public at home, and when the censor
had repeatedly told us, in ruling out
our plain statements of undisputed
facts, My instructions are to let moth
ing go that can hurt the administra-
tion,' we concluded that protest was
justifiable.
Otis Serves AS Censor.
"Otis had gained the idea from the
long submission that it was part of
the duty of the governor general to
direct the newspaper correspondents
as he did his officers. Much of the
censorship was conducted by him per-
sonally, the censor sending a CORE
spondent to the general with any dis
patch about which, he had doubts. The
process of passing a message was
identical with the correction of COM
position by a schoolmaster, Otis or the
censor striking out what displeased
him and inserting what he thought |
hould be said, of what came to the |
same thing, telling the correspondent |
he must say certain things if his story |
was to go.
In this way the entire American |
press was made the personal organ of |
Otis: we were compelled to send moth |
Ing but the official view of all events |
and conditions, even when the official |
view controverted the opinions of the |
great mass of the officers in the field |
and of intelligent residents and was a |
Justification of events which passed |
before our eyes. In this way every |
fight became a glorious American vic |
tory, even though every one in the |
army knew it to have been substanti- |
ally a failure. and we were drilled in |
to writing quite mechanically wholly |
ridiculous estimates of the numbers of |
F'ilipinos killed. knowing that if we |
wrote any other description than She |
sort being telegraphed to the war &C.
partment our work would be wasted. |
Frequent Appeals FruitIess.
Repeated appeals made by all the |
correspondents to their papers to Sc
cure change in censorship methods |
had been fruitless, and as conditions |
steadily grew worse, and failure was !
piled upon failure, while We were |
sending rose-colored pictures of sue |
cessful war and inhabitants flocking |
to the American standard. the repeat |
ed suggestions of correspondents that |
we must do something resulted in a |
formal meeting