The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-03-24
WAR COLLEGES AUTHORITY TO
SCAN DISPATCHES DURING
TINE OF PEACE
DENIED BY G. GARDNER
Press Correspondent Must Give Bond,
Put Up Check For $1,000
And Join Army.
(By ellison Gardner.)

WdSn1nRUOn, MdTCn losh SSh
sorship on all Mexican war news has
been instituted by the War Depart
ment. The Mexican affair is not
war yet-being, on the contrary, on
ly a punitive expedition, a little late
in starting-and there is no law au-
thorizing a censorship. But we have
it. Correspondents who want to
send stuff from the Mexican border
Cor interior) are obliged to give
bond for $4,000 and put up certi-
fed check for 81, 900 and to join the
army. Being in the army, they are
obliged to submit to all military rules
and regulations, which means that
no copy" goes over the wires or
thru the mails which would not
please the officer in command.
If a correspondent does not wish
to give bond or is not able to put up
a certified check, or is unwilling to
mortgage his freedom to tell the
truth or express a critical opinion,
he has the privilege of staying at
home The military authorities mere
ly say they will not allow him to &C
company the expedition.
villa Takes Horses, Report.
There is every evidence that the
censorship at Ell Paso and other
points ON the border is working as
censorships, generally work. For
instance, week after the event, it
is reported on what seems to be good
authority, that Villa and his raiders
took with them the horses of the
United States cavalrymen stationed
at Columbus, N. NJ, upward of 100
of them, having stampeded the cor
raj.
This was one reason, possibly, why
the soldier boys did not take up the
''hot trail" But for army reasons,
the fact did not get wired out with
the early accounts of the Columbus
attack. Another reason for not
pursuing Villa-a reason not report
ed-comes from similar sources,
namely, that Villa took with him the
two machine guns which failed to
work" The censored dispatches al
SO fail to explain why there were not
sentries posted when Villa and his
bandits were known to be within
twelve miles of this post. All this is
military information which might |
assist the enemy"
4. "COpy" Closely Censored.
Army officers at Ell Paso and other
border towns have been reading all
the press dispatches filed at the tele-
graph offices and even exercising |
supervision over the telephone lines
over which might be sent. Auto
mobiles, it is said, carrying dispatch
es have been stopped and censored.
If the United States were at war,
the military authorities would no
doubt be authorized to exercise CEN
sorship under proper limitations on
purely military news. In time of
peace the War Department, or the
army officers, have no more authori-
ty to interfere with the gathering,
sending or publishing of news than
the traffic officer on the street cor
ner. All this business at the Mexi-
can border is executive usurpation
of the crudest kind.
a ic
rather interesting. Studying the ex-
perience of foreign nations, the
Army War College took note of the
censorship as it worked during the
Russo-Jappanese War. That was
the first instance in which govern
ment took absolute charge of all pub
licity and not only kept news from
the press, but disseminated false re-
ports for the purpose of misleading
the enemy.
New School Developed.
From that experience new school
in censorship had developed abroad,
and was in operation in part in Ger
many. Following these general
models, the experts in the war col
lege drew up proposed set of rules
and field regulations for use by the
United States in case this country |
should find itself in a state of war.
These regulations were submitted to
Secretary Garrison and approved by
him.
All that remained was to give these
rules tryout. The chance came
when the United States made peace
full war on Vera Cruz April "a, 1914.
Correspondents who applied for ere
dentials to cover that assignment
were handled little folders OF the
War College setting out the War De-
partment's ideas about censoring the