Grand Forks daily herald and the evening times., 1914-08-21
FRIDAY. AUGUST 81. 1914.
CENSORED NEWS.

The public is Just now getting its
fill of censored news. How does it
like it Unless it is snusgled through
and smuggling Is a pretty difficult
thing, under the circumstances-not a
word gets to the public from the the
alter of the greatest war that the
world has ever seen without being
passed upon by the representative Of
one government or another. Because
the means Of transatlantic communi-
cation are in the hands of the allies,
the reports which find their way to
this country are such as the censors
in London. Paris or Brussels choose
were reversed it would be Berlin
which would govern the sending of
news. And the results would be ex-
actly the same. except that all the re-
ports would he colored In favor Of
The Germans rather than of the allies.
es at present.
1t requires no great skill to pick
out some If the chaff from the mass
Of matter which is permitted to he
sent out. When we read of engage
ments here. there and everywhere
along the line from the North Sea to
the Swiss boundary. and read in each
case thai the Germans were driven
back or met with such stubborn re-
sistance that they desisted from their
attack, and vet that the great Ger
m a army io aln.,-1,- ,r,rnt,s F,~s,.o~l
We need not be greatly deceived. It
is not necessary to assume that the
reports which we have lead are man
ufactured out of the Whole cloth.
Doubtless they are not. But it is safe
to assume that the engagements Of
which We have been reading were
merely skirn1ishes between the out
posts of the advancing German army
and those Of the defending Belgians,
that while the German skirmishers
may have met reverses at the places
designated, and nave fallen back for
the time being on a main body. there
have doubtless been other similar en-
gagements in which defenders were
Worsted, but concerning which the
news bureaus Of the allies have
thought fit to maintain a. discreet 81
lence. All the reports are colored to
suit the governmental agencies
through which they pass, and the
reader must exercise his own judg-
ment as best he may.
People of a certain type Of mind
are fond of sneering at the newspa-
pers for their unrelia bility. 1t NAV
be worth while at this time to call
their attention. to the fact that the
newspapers Of the world, and all the
great agencies which are engaged in
gathering news for the
are just now making the most her
culean efforts to obtain the real truth
about this war in order that they may
present It just as it is to their readers,
n the only reason that they are un-
able to do so is that the great govern
ments of Europe will not permit them
to do so.
Every little while some mar comes
forward with the brilliant idea that
because the newspapers under present
conditions garble the news, We should
have government newspapers, papers
owned and operated under state or
national control, which would be free
from the domination of the advertiser,
n which could and would give to
the public the real truth, uncolored
and unbiased, without fear and with
out favor.
lust now we are having an illumin-
ating illustration of VIA govern
ments al n will do to the truth
when they undertake the task. How
would the public like this sort of thing
as a steady diet? And the advocates
OF the state newspaper need not make
the excuse that the thing under which
We are now struggling is the censor
ship Of European governments, and
not the direction and control of pub
lie journals by the government of
free and enlightened America. That
Is all bosh. oficialdom in free and
enlightened America can be and will
be as ~autocratic and oppressive and
unreasonable and untruthful as my
where else If the incentive n the
opportunity are present. and our gov
eminent would do. exactly what the
European governments are doing in
the of news under the same
circumstances. Let the newspapers
alone and give them a free hand, and,
while some Of them will lie, out Of
the ruck the truth will come and tho
public will get it . The advocates of
government papers have something
to think over.
JAPAN's INTENTIONS.