University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-06
ORESSMAKER PATRON
SAINT OF CENSORS
Bureau Is Called "Anastasie'
for Woman of Second
Empire.
USED SHARP SHEARS
Like Newspaper Slashers,
Heroine of a Song Weld
ed Keen Scissors.
From the New York Herald.

from the New York Herald.
PARASITIC bureau of the French
censor, or Bureau de la Presse," as it
prefers to be known, is Familiarity
called "Anastasie," after a dressmak-
er who was the heroine of a popular
song and who, like the censor, was
busy with sharp pair of shears dur
ing the Second Empire; she has be-
come his patron saint
The propriety of the name is ques-
toned by every editor whose copy has
been slashed. The work of Anastasie
was methOdical, following rational
scheme and done with undoubted taste
and discrimination, while the censor
of today is compared by the Paris par
agraphers to an editor with bilious
view of life, supreme contempt for
the feelings of his fellow man and Il
sense of news approaching hysteria or
nightmare. This view grows out of
the apparent caprice, inconsistency
and Inconsistency of the censor. He cut
mercilessly yesterday what he let go
through the day before, and what he
killed yesterday he approves today.
He slashes the copy of one editor and
allows another to publish the same
thing. Parts of the same dispatch are
eliminated from the proofs of one
newspaper and overlooked in anoth-
er. and SO on.
The fact is, undoubtedly. that the
censor is doing the best he can. If
his work seems to be ragged to the
journalist it is because he is bound |
by instructions from many different |
sources that change and accumulate |
every day. If it is not uniform it is |
because large staff is required to do /
the work and the general result is .
bound to reflect different personal I
viewpoints.
Censorship Defined by Law.
The general scheme of the censor
ship was defined by the law of Au-
gust 5, 1914. forbidding publication of
news of movement of troops, compost
ton of units or detachments of the
army. details of defensive works, num-
bers of wounded. killed or prisoners,
facts concerning ornaments. material
Or supplies, sanitary situation, pro- :
motions or changes among general Of
icers and in general any information
likely to be of use to the enemy or act
narmfully upon the spirit of the army
,r the population.
The consequence of uncensored ref
,rences to bombarded towns was
shown in the case of a city certain
uarters of which that had been spared
we're indicated in newspaper article. ii
The next day the Germans directed
heir fire on the blocks of houses in
Heated in the article. Another article
,ited industrial establishments ex-
,loited by the French army not far
rom the lines. Immediately the Ger
mans bombarded them and the French J.
we're obliged to abandon them.
The censor's apprehensions are fire. I
uently declared to be exaggerated:
most of the news that he considers
angerous the editor considers abso-
utely inOffensive. 1t is not the censor
Tho always decides. The real head
f the censorship is the commend in
hief of the French armies. His Or
ers are transmitted every day. and
he bureau of the press must rigidly
pillow them
The staff of the Bureau de la
resse" is mixed, part military and
art civilian. including many retired
ficers who have resumed service and
lany others who have been wounded