Arizona republican., 1904-02-26

news sent out from St. Petersburg. By following her traditional policy Rus sia put herself in the hands of Eng land, her dearest enemy"
 Practically all telegraphic news printed in the United States concerning Russia has come from London. Even the matter sent out under a St. Peters burg dateline usually originated in London. For years Russian statesmen and public men have complained that secret agents of the British govern ment, in the employ of the press asso- citations of London, have manufactured Russian news for American consump- tioa, and with the settled purpose Of alternating American friendship from Russia. Whether there be any truth or not in the charge that the British government takes a hand in fixing up Russian news for American readers it cannot be doubted that the effect on public opinion in this country has been quite as marked as if it were the re- suit of official design from the British foreign office.
 Much of the news of continental countries is gathered from London. Substantially all Russian news printed in this country has passed through En- glish hands. It is enetirely reasonable | to suppose, as the Russians contend.
 that our English friends have taken care to "edit" the Russian news. and even manufacture it on occasion, for our benefit For long time the rress | associations in this country have ap- preciated the disadvantage they were under in having to depend upon Er- glish sources for our continental and especially Russian-news. At tlis time it is no violation Of confidence tc say that the Associated Press several | weeks ago took steps ;o sa.Ir2 q , cws service from Europe which ccul1 be relied upon as being 9nii,ely reliable. r. it be true that Russia has abolisned the censorship it is not .h.u;t 10 guess what influence promptcc the re- form.
  freedom now alleged to be granted 10 foreign correspondents in St. Peters | burg, Moscow, and other Russian cit les, is that the Russian government should have been so slow in reco gniz- ing the immeasurable power of the press. Prejudiced writers with this new freedom may lie about Russia and her people, about the czar and his institu- tions, but the truth will prevail. After all, there are no liars among rep putable newspaper men. The profes- sion now deservedly ranks as a third estate in the government of the world. American newspaper men stationed in Russia will send the truth as they see it and understand it, and if Russia has been maligned by English writers the world will know it before long.
 And we think the ear would act wisely to abolish also the censorship of the war news from the far east. In deed, both Russia and Japan. and ali other governments, make a great mis- l take in assuming that any benefit can be gained from suppression of the news. Plans of future operations must be concealed, of coures. but even in l case of severe defeat it is better to let the truth so forth than to suffer from multiplying rumors-a kind of news that always magnifes disaster The whole business of news censorship. in short, is of piece with the stupidity which in former years led most of tke railroads to attempt suppression of the details Of accidents on their lines. The result was that the rumor-mongers all ways made the news much worse thar the truth justified.