Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-12-02
THE DEMAND FOR WAR NEWS

"
Some of the demands made for war
news are highly amusing. For In
stance, one maj wants to know why
it is, when lists of killed and wounded
are published in all the bellegrent
countries, those lists are not publish
ed in the American papers. This man
happens to be an Austrian, and he
has Il relative at the front. He
would naturally like to know what
has happened to his friend, but he
does not stop to consider hat while
it would be possible to obtain these
lists, scarcely n person in a thous-
and would have the slightest interest
in them. and they would be. for most
people, merely long lists of meaning
less name.
Another man annot understand
how IT. is, when fighting has been go
Belgian section. the papers do not
tell who is getting the best of 1t.
Somebody, he feels certain is winning
und somebody is getting whipped. He
wants to know about it. The ans
wer to this is. that in hat particular
section nobody is winning much Of
anything. There has been fighting
every day, it is true, but at the end
of the day the armies remain approx
imately where they were. There has
been artillery fire, which has done
some damage on both sides. There
has beer rifle fire from trenches and
this has caused some loss OF life. But
in only Il few cases have men In
large bodies left their shelter and un-
dertaken an advance, and in most of
these cases the advance made has
been very slight, il any has been made
at all.
Then there is the constant COM
plant of the censorship. The various
war office. 1t is charged are suppress
sing information. Battles have been
fought. and the war office refuses to
give out the results. AS has been said
before, the wal offices. If they are
attending to their business. are busy
planning out campaigns and fighting
battles rather than in telling about
ii. And really there is no difficulty
in getting at the essential facts, after
the thing is done. 1t is scarcely reas-
enable to expect military staffs to In
form the general public what they
are about to do. e We do not ex-
pect a football captain, In the middle
of a fiercely contested game to meg
q nh0nn tho rrnurN 17ic dive ro, YS~r t.
cluded, Having failed In our at
tempt to break through the enemy's
center, we will now attempt to carry
the ball around the left end" Yet
is is just about this that seems to be
expected by some people Of the. gen
erals who are commanding the arm
les of millions of men.
Then there is the complaint Of ex-
aggerated claims. In all cases there
is a disposition to put the hest face
possible on existing conditions, for
the sake of the moral effect on the
home. people. Often this 10 overdone.
Sometimes It is absurdly overdone.
But if anyone think that this ten
dency is peculiar I 9 any European
power, or. to European powers in gen.
eral. let him recall the situation aft
er almost any election in this country,
when, sometimes for days after the
election and when the publication of
news, correct or incorrect. can have
no possible influence on the results,
rival candidate or committee chair
men continue to claim election by ma
jorities Of thousands. when all the
time one leader or the other knows
that he is whipped to a s%tandstill. =
Official bodies are often charged
with the statements made by private
individuals, The situation in Poland
is a case in point. Rumors Of a, de-
cisive victory by the Russians in that