The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-22
TREPIDATION CREATED
 BY PRESIDENTS ORDER
rar-Reaching Ukase All Because the Driver of an Automobile Happened to Get in the Way of
 the Presidents Carriage.

back to the old practice of giving out a resume of what has been done by the cabinet which is undesirable. Mem bers of the cabinet will please refrain from discussing policies either of their own or those of the administra- tfon."
 Cabinet Members Surprised.
 This extraol dirsry letter, 1t goes without saying. has surprised the cabi- net gentlemen with anything but pleasant sensation. Heretofore they had been giving to whatever newspa- per men had the enterprise to be on hand to ask for 1t the news that was news, each cabinet officer giving what had occurred that concerned his own department and abstairing from at tempting to give information of any other de Apartment. That practice has long obtained among cabinet ofhcers.
 Naturally the Presidents letter is disagreesble reflection upon the dis cretior and fealty of the Presidents ministry as well as 8 stroke at the ltb- erty of the press. In this step Presi- dent Roosevelt, If he has not emulated the czar of Russia. ha, done exactly what is required by that imperial po- tentatc of his own ministry.
 In Russia news of the deliberations of he ministry is denied to special correspondents and all other newspa- per worl CTS except as censored for the representatives If press associations. In Great Britain the ministers of state are accorded the privilege of using their own judgment and discretion as to v'Lat is best to give to the press.
 Washington newspaper correspond ents. of whom there are nearly two huldred here. representing all the prominent newspapers of the country. all of which are patrons of the press associations, criticise and condemn the Presidents letter as establishing an oppressive censorship. the cold details or which are to go 10 the country through the colorless medium of the press associations. The cabinet officer must discuss nothing that may throw Illuminating light upon dark and ob- scure phases. He is gagged against exposition of what he may deem of im- portance to say in his own Justification. He can amplify nothing that may be to his advantage It must all go through the hands of Secretary Loeb and then only to the press associations.
 Cut on From Information.
 The hundreds of special correspond ents, many of whom have enjoyed the esteem and confidence of cabinet ofsi- cers, and have been accustomed to get ting from them the news most inter esting to the territory which they rep resented, are cat off from information and apparently embarrassed in their in- tercourse with cabinet officers. It Is to be expected that such an executive ukase will operate to seal the lips of other subordinates in the departments, specially since the civil service execu- tive order of October IT threatens dis missal of employees without hearing or defense.
 Newspaper men do not believe that fhfS nn1ipv of last even through his administration. The attempt to discourage and stife newspaper enterprise by turning the deliberations of the cabinet, in which the masters of 1t, the people, are in- terested, into star-chamber proceedings that shall be censored before the peo- pie know what has happened, and cen sored to the shape to suit the admin istration 1t is believed will be con demned by all the country.
 News May Re Garbled. It does not seem to be realized by the administration, including Secretary Loeb. that if the newspaper men don't get the news one way, they will get 1t in anotfer way that may, in the nature of the circumstances, be more liable to error and garbling than the old way, which save the cabinet officer and the newspaper man a chance to trust each ether. As it. is, the cabinet chief is as impctent, to all intents and pur- poses. as any of his bureau chiefs are in the right of giving information to the pcklic through the press. The opinion is freely expressed that "the plan will not work" that President Roosevelt himtelf will soon realize it., and that individuals of the cabinet will not remit themselves to be shut up and suppressed as though they were mere clerical employees.
 Newspaper men in Washington. who are almost to a man believers in old time-honored American institutions, do not believe that the methods of the Czar of Russia towards the American press can long endure in the Govern ment of ths United States.