The Worthington advance., 1899-12-29
GUas TESTED m sHcRIr.
Fer Reasons Of state t:ovexnmeut
Experiments Are strictly kepf
froM Pubyfe View.

Secretary Roots response to a re,
quest that representatives Of the press
be allowed to be present at the impor
tant tests Of guns and explosives at the
Sandy Hook proving grounds was: 81
am sorry, but i don't think IL is pos.
sible to allow you to go along The
government, in these, tests, is in very
much the same position anyone en-
gagged in any branch of trade is, where
there are competitors. Such a one
would not show his books to his rival
and enable him to learn all the scorers
OF his trade, and yet If you were to ae.
company US that is exactly what we
would be doing, for the government
would throw open its books and expose
to all its rivals this part of its meth
DDS of carrying on its business. Certain
tests are to be made that render IL nee
essary that it should be carried on pri-
vately, and be. in fact, sort of army
family affair"
Lieut.. I. n. Lewis, of the artillery,
the recorder of the board of ordnance
and fortifications. said to a newspaper
man: "Secretary Root is very anxious
that nothing definite should get into
print, either about the experiments al.
ready had or those to be held hereafter
I heartily agree with him and feel .ha:
no efforts too strenuous can be faker
to accomplish this end. There has been
altogether too much publicity in tne
past. Take thorite as an instance.
Nothing should be known OF this ex.
Plosive, yet the press has published
columns concerning it. The direct re-
suit of this publicity is that we are ex-
perimenting, not alone for ourselves
but for the whole civilized world as
we'll, and this publicity has become a
serious drawback to the development
of our modern high explosives. The
secretary is determined that IL shall
stop and that hereafter there shall be
no more leakage The publications
MISUNDERSTANDING open the gov.
ernment books and exposing TO all its
rivals this part of its method of car
rying on its business'-were not made
in the press alone. The fact is that the
too great publicity in the past and the
'leakages' were largely effected in gov
ernment official reports. where from
year to year minute details were given
OF tests and important experiments,
and for every column published in the
newspapers there were probably hun
dreds of pages of pub. docs contain
ing detailed accounts and accurate IL
1ustrations showing infinitely the prog
ress of experiments with guns and ex-
plosives and the plans and works OF
the Notifications and harbor defenses.
After the outbreak of war last year.
for instance, there appeared in the
Congressional Record complete list
of the coast Notifications of the United
States, with full details. which could
not have been furnished by anyone ex-
cept under authority of the war de-
partment."
The recorder of the board said fur
ther that "already too many attaches of
foreign countries are altogether too
we'll informed as to what we are doing.
Foreign newspapers also are getting a
deal too much information as TO our
doings in this line
One way to avoid exposing to rivals
this part of its business is to use the
"blue penciF' on government pub.
docs.," which would at least limit to
some extent the facility with which
attaches of foreign countries become
informed as to what we are doing" and
foreign newspapers also would get a
deal less Information az TO the govern
ment's doings in this line.-Washing-
ton Times.