The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-20
NO CENSORS THEN.
IN TIME OF CIVIL WAR THEY
 TRUSTED MEN.
Gave to Press Q Free Rein-The News of e Fight Was Printed From the Golden Gate to
 Maine,

T do not recall hearing the word censor used in the Army of the Poto- mac," said Major s. c. Brock, who serv- ed on the staffs of General Howell. General Foster and General Terry in the Civil War. to a Macon. Mo. corre- spondent of the Kansas City Star. There were always a lot of corre- spondents around headquarters, but they were given absolute liberty of action. with one exception. There was an English writer with us, who sent his matter to The London Times. This gentleman seemed to be dissatisfied with the way the war was conducted on the Union side, and sent out some very exaggerated and unfair reports. When his paper came over here these articles were copied by the American commanders. MT. Englishman was then courteously invited to move out. and he did so.
 The American correspondents, now ever, were almost universally trusted. have seen them come into the gene- ral's office and voluntarily tender their manuscript for his inspection.
 Thought I'd let you see how I ham, dled that little affair" of yesterday. general, they would say, I'd take it as a favor If you'd correct any mis-state- ment of facts
 When a secret movement was in progress there was no need to caution the boys of the press. They were pa- triotic and appreciated the value of discretion as highly as the soldiers. There were no yellow journals in those days, and while the correspondents were as ready and anxious to print the news as reporters are now, they were not given to exaggeration and high T1A haIl f,,tf vivid enough. The correspondent con- tracted the soldier habit of direct. terse language. That was just what the pub- lie wanted. The public mind was so wrought up that so-called fine writing or an attempt to make bad worse for the sake of sensationalism would not have been tolerated.
 'The soldiers liked the correspondA ents. From their work in the newspa- pers they first learned of the results of the moves they had been engaged in. The soldier who bore the brunt of the firing line was often ignorant of what his courage had accomplished until he read about it in the papers. You see, the front was otfen ten miles long and there was no means of knowing what was going on all along it except as gathered from the press reports. Of course, the correspondent rode up and QOWn tue lln6 lHIeTNl0Weu tne COtIl~ manders, viewed the field from all po- sitions and obtained information im- possible to the soldier. I have seen particularly patriotic newspaper man become so enthused over a battle that he would seize a musket and take a hand in the scrimmage. That sort of man, you could well imagine, would mt need press censor.
 'Tt was the respect engendered by these intelligent press workers of the sos that led me into newspaper work at the close of the war. I don't know what sort of things would happen now adays if the United States should be drawn into a great war, but I fear these new varieties of self-righteous journals that have since grown up in the large cities of the East would hard ly send to the front the same stamp of correspondents that shared trouble with the Army of the Potomac"