The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-04-04
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.

There lies on The Evening Times
editorial desk. where it has been kept
safely for several days, a copy OF the
message Of the president of the Uni
ted States, to be delivered to the two
houses of congress at the beginning OF
the first session of the siXty-third con-
xress, and which is intended to be read
on April s. next Tuesday. Printed on
the title page in bold type are these
words:
"%confdential, to be held in conf
dence. and no portion. synopsis, or Inc
timation to be published or given ous
until its reading has been begun in
congress. While the message is dat
ed April s, 1913, some contingency
NAV arise to prevent its delivery to
congress on that date. and extreme
care must therefore be exercised to
avoid premature publication" This
IA signed by Joseph p. Tumulty. Sec
rotary to the president. The v
also bears the following injunction
signed by Melville E. Stone. general
manager OF the Associated Press:
The following matter must be held
until released, Notwithstanding any
other instructions printed or written
hereon."
Most people would conclude from
nil this that the message was tent u
In advance so that newspapers might
have It ready for publication as soon
n. it was released by wire. but that 1t
vas neither to be published in part
or entire, or used as h basis for any
publication Of any sort, prior to its de-
livery. any more than if advance copies
mad been sent out. The warnings
against premature publication are not
peculiar to this document. Most peo"
ple are aware of the fact that hun
dreds OF thousands Of documents are
cent out in the anne ann In the
course of a year. and the injunctions
against premature publication are sub
stantially the same in all cases. IT
The Evening Times were to publish
the message or any portion or synopsis
Of it before release it would be fined
by the Associated Press management,
the fines varying from a moderate but
very substantial sum for inadvertent
publication to a very large figure for
deliberate violation Of h release or
der. In an aggravated case the pen
atty would be expulsion from member
ship in the Associated Press. This has
been inflicted on more than one case.
notwithstanding all this We find in
the Washington Post an editorial con-
tanning a very complete summary Of
the message, not quoting it directly, of
course. but describing it in such a
manner that it is evident that the mar
who wrote the article must have had
the message before him when he did
1t. We are told Of the length Of the
message, Of the features which are dis
cussed, Of those that are not touched
on, and to all intents and purposes the
paper might as well have given its
readers the message entire. This has
been done in the one paper named,
and il it has not been lone in others
fl will be done. and before the end Of
the week there will have been sent out
all Eel the country in one form or
other quite accurate and complete de-
scriptions Of this very confidential doc
ument.
Either the injunction Of secrecy
should be lifted. and the whole thing
be thrown open, or the big papers
should be compelled to quit the prac.
tice which they follow in connection
with every advance document Of any
Importance, of publishing the news be-
fore it - ripe.