Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-10-21
CORRESPONDENTS TRUSTED
In Great Conflict of the Rebellion Word Censor Was Never Used
 Mo Need for It.

T do not recall hearing the word censor used in the army of the Poto- mac," said Maj. s. G. Brock, who served on the staffs of Gen. Howell. Gen. Foster and Gen. Terry in the civil war. There were always lot of cor respondents around headquarters, but they were given absolute liberty of ac- tion, 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 press, and fell into the hands of the commanders. MT. Englishman was then courteously invited to move out, and he did so.
 The American correspondents, how ever, were universally trusted. I have seen them come into the generals office and voluntarily tender their manu- script for 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 favor if you'd correct any mis- statement of facts
 When 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 dis cretion as highly as did 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 sounding phrases. The bald truth was vivid enough. The correspondents con- tracted the soldier habit of direct, terse language. That was just what the peo- pie of America wanted The public mind was so wrought up that so-called line writing or an attempt to make bad worse for the sake of sensational ism would not have been tolerated.
 "The soldiers liked the correspond tns. From their work in the papers they first learned of the results of the moves they had been engaged in. The soldier who bore the brunt of the fir ing line was often ignorant of what his courage had accomplished until he read about it in the papers. You see, the front was often 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 correspondents rode up and down the line interviewed the com manders, viewed the field from all po- sitions, and obtained information inn possible to the soldier. have seen particularly patriotic newspaper man become so enthused over a battle that he would seize musket and take A hand in the scrimmage. That sort of a man, you could we'll imagine, would n't need a press censor.
 Tt was the respect engendered by these intelligent press workers of the sixties that led me into newspaper work at the close of the war. I don't know what sort of things would hap pen nowadays if the United States should be drawn into a great war, but fear these new varieties of self-right- eous journals that have since grown up in the large cities of the east would hardly send to the front the same stamp of correspondents that shared trouble with the army of the Poto- mac. Macon (Mo.) correspondence, Kansas City Star