The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-04-30
BoLTED HARD AND FAST, NAILED
THROUGH AND CLlNCHED
ON OTHER SIDE.
If Any Good News Escapes, 1t Will Not
Be Through Lack Of Vigilance on
the Part of Taft's Cabinet.

tight, DOlteQ nara and IdSt, ana ndlleQ
and cline he'd on the other side.
If anything escapes. 1t is not be-
net or at any rate most of them, are
not seated upon the cover, each with
his pockets full of fiatirons to prevent
any stray news items from leaking
out a.d reaching the public.
In Other words. the press censorship
established by President Taft's adj
visers at the beginning of the admin
istration has become so thorough and
complete that if it were not for the
fact that congress happens to be in
extraordinary session, the outside pub
lie would scarcely know that Wash
ington is still on the map. The cabinet
officials who are the heads of the nine
great executive departments of the
government. arrive and depart from
their offices in e-inspiring state,
sign the various documents that are
placed before them by their secretaries
and assistants-who, by the way do
most of the real work of the afore-
said departments-and then depart for
their homes. During the five or six
hours that they are in juxtaposition
with their jobs the cabinet members.
see certain number of callers, shake
certain number of hands, and go
through a certain routine of confer
ence with their chief subordinates, but
seldom by any mischance do they give
out anything that makes a noise like
news item. The silence emanating
from the heretofore fruitful sources
of information is obvious enough to be
chopped with an ak and burned in
the crate.
The censorship, or lid" as the
newspaper correspondents term it,
merely emphasizes another one of the
points of contrast between the Taft
and Roosevelt administrations. Presi-
dent Roosevelt was ever ready to talk
and was a wonderful producer of
copy" The day seldom dawned dur
ing the seven and half years he was
in the White House that did not bring
forth its story of public information
or human interest. If events did not
transpire at the capitol or in the coun-
try at large to make news, the presi-
dent found his theme in the cables
from abroad. His restless spirit de-
manded that things happen-and they
did. Taking their cue from their chief
the cabinet members were always on
the move. Activity was the watch
word of the administration. and when,
as occasionally happened, a cabinet
officer did not measure up to Mr.
Roosevelts estimate of a real, live de-
partment head, there was another
h 4
not invite the slow going minister to
retire to private life. he made him
change places with some other mem
Der who was getting into the rut and
the result was that both gentlemen be-
stirred themselves nightly and the
public realized that something was
doing"
The Taft cabinet, taken as a whole,
doubtless owes its locked lips to the
fact that most of the members have
spent the best years of their lives
practicing corporation law Secrels
have been their stock in trade: pub
Lefty has been their bugbear Every
thing they learned in the line of evl-
cence or fact was reduced to writing
was riveted with affidavits, and was
then put in the strong safe of the firm
Nothing less gentle than dynamite
could extract the documents from the
safe before it was time to bring them
to the attention of the trial judges.
The lawyers, transplanted so suddenly
from their accustomed atmosphere of
fact suppression and secretion, find it
almost impossible to adjust themselves
to the open-door policy that has gov
10 an f.. fnY.
They shudder at the thought of tell
ing anything-without a retainer paid
in advance-and find difficulty in UNI
derstanding that they bear any differ
ent relation to the public now than
they did when they were defending the
practice of corporations.
The first cabinet official to fasten
down the lid was Attorney General
Wlckersham. He was closely followed
by Secretary Ballinger of the interior
department, Secretary of State Knox,
Secretary of War Dickinson. Secre-
tary of the Navy Meyer, and Secretary
Nagel, of the department of commerce
and labor. Postmaster General Hitch
cock, who has been known for years
as the dark secret'-in spite of his
blond hair-had the censorship in
force from the moment he took charge
If the department; so the locks were
| on and the bars were up Generally
throughout the government service
with the exception of the treasury and
the department of agriculture Secre-
| tary Wilson, Of the latter department,
has been for many years firm believ-
er in publicity, and announces that he
VIII continue giving out all the infor-
nation possible about his work Secre-
tary MacVeagh, Of the treasury, who
happens to be business man of large
interests in private life. also says that
there shall be no dark secrets be-
tween the public and the financial ma
chine of the government as long as he
is in charge.
The censorship in the lawyer de-
parunents of the government was es-
tablished by the PRONUNCIATION of an
order, practically identical in wording,
signed by the cabinet officials The fol-
lowing, issued by the attorney gen