The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-07
LE TEMPS IS R|LED
 OVER CENSORSHIP Is ArrOgating to Himself
 Powers of a King VIOLATING THE LAW Places Himself Above It-Law Con- ferring Liberty of the Press Still
 Holds and the People Are
 Still Sovereign
VIOLATING THE LAW

Paris, October 25.-Correspondenc of the Associated Press)-Le Temps, the most powerful political paper, prints on the front page chapter on the censorship, entitled the Censor and the Law 1t says: There are institutions which improve with custom. Such is not the case of the censorship. This estab- lishment, born of the meeting of our democratic regime with the war, at tributes to itself the rights and pre- negatives of king. The law of Au- gust 5, 1915, prohibits all information or articles concerning military or diplo- matic operations of a nature favoring the enemy and exercising an unfavora- ble infieunce on the spirit of the army and the people,
 As long as the censor observes these limited prescriptions it remains, as the law provides, the collaborator of the press in a common effort for the na- tional defense. But it aspires to extend its preventing Jurisdiction over every thing in the newspapers. Articles of a political nature, parliamentary infor- nation or even trifling local events do not escape it's suspicious rigor It watches not only the frontier but the capitol, which does not need the cen sor to defend it.
 Had an Encounter
 Three times this week it's sword fell on our columns. A municipal coun- cillor of Paris desired that the Ger mans captured in Champagne defile in the streets of our city. We mention this wish, which we are far from approv- ing, abstaining from all comment We are prohibited from using this news While 1t is authorized elsewhere (Here follows blank space, the censor hav ing suppressed a paragraph of the edi- tors comment). Finally M Peytral. president of the finance committee of the senate, introduced a proposition pro- vlding for a reduction in the number of ministers. We were not allowed to mention 1t. The publication first pro- hibited was, it is true, authorized 24 hours later but we were not permitted to recall the priority. Why does the censor thus throw on it's unfortunate victim the responsibility for a delay Tor which it is itself culpable? But especially where does the censor get the idea that its role Is to arrogate to itself the right to suppress the an- nouncement of a parliamentary initia- tive?
 IS the censor above the law or is M Peytral an unpatriotic Frenchman between the lines of whose proposition are concealed the germs of. discord? That Is what we have been unable to see and what the lynx-eyed censor soon ceased to see. This incident proves that if the government does not ex erclse over the censorship a legiti- mate surveillance the former will settle the question in the Official Journal it. self, as in the end this paper must re- ceive M. Peytral's text
 Above the Law
 The truth is that the censor in fact is placed above the law. The law of August D, 1914. does not abrogate that Of July 29, 1881, instituting the lib- erty of the press. The law granting lib- erty of the press has the importance of an organic law. The French people gained it by revolution. Having be- come soverein, they have the right to know facts and 4' actions of men to whom they have delegated their powers Who will inform the people if not the press? Moreover, in our republic. Par lament Is charged with controlling the government but the people are still the sovereign. that is to say they must control the legislators. How will this natural prerogative be exercised if the newspapers no longer have the possi- bility of discussing the ideas of the governors and to appreciate their in- itiatives?
 May this be warning: It does not concern solely the rights of the press and those of the nation; the future even of liberty in France, the destinies of republican institutions are at stake, for the day when the country becomes accustomed to an arbitrary regime a redoubtable habit will be formed with consequent lowering of morals The yokes will continue and will be alike. To bend with docility under some is to unconsciously prepare for others.
 Tt is regrettable to have to recall | these elementaary truths after 45 years of republican regime. Nevertheless we will rcall them until we nave been heard" -