Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-05-11

| shield or of armoring in the machines,
| and l have seen probably so per cent.
| of those used Four new planes ar
rived as / was leaving Columbus, and
| these are said to contain double the
power machines from any so far pur-
| chased by the Government But, even
! with these tremendous improvements
| the machines are but shells of cloth
apl wire and steel ribs and not the
| slightest protection from bullets is
| afforded
In France there is an electric heat
ing appliance in use which prevents
the hands of the fiiers becoming numb.
| Nothing of the sort has been applied
here, and the work of the pilot, if not
the safety of himself and the machine.
may hinge on keeping control of his,
which none can do if fingers freeze.
| Some of the aviation officers have been
threatened with courtmartial for talk
| ing of the conditions under which they
work. but they are so desperate over
what seems to be the hopelessness of
making the work of the service what it
| should be while the public is kept in
! ignorance some of them seem TO think
| il almost worth the loss of commission
and the disgrace to which he would be
| subjected for breaking the. iron-clad
| rule which prohibits the officers of the
| service from expressing opinions if
| what he has TO tell betters the cond-
tions for the other officers of the serv-
ice. at may be my duty to them is
bigger than the duty to cover up the
| conditions | know so well will take life
and accomplish nothing for my coun-
| try" said a young officer when warned
"he must not talk TO any newspaper
| representatives
1t might be helpful if the great free
| press of our great free CD country
would take up the matter of gag rule
| which seems to have been put over in
the Act OF March 3, 1911, for the pre-
yention of the disclosure of national
defense secrets. The censorship as
| enforced choking all news of military
movements in Mexico was followed up
| by threats of Federal prosecution of
| correspondents who disclose military
plans.
Major w r. Sample, commanding
officer at Columbus, received instruc-
atoms from Colonel Bundy, Chief of
Staff of General Frederick Funston.
calling attention to the charge that
| newspaper men were sending out from
the Columbus base uncensored matter.
| Colonel Sample, whom we all respect,
called the few representatives of the
news services and the fewer special
writer's to him and explained the sit
uation with the words" The American
people should be patriotic enough not
to ask details of the movement of our
troops. Every story of what we are
doing, or where we are going, may be
! pah for with the lives of Americans
Let the newspapers give the public
lesson in patriotism and calm the i'm
patience of the American nation"
1T is their patriotic duty to wait
few days or weeks when disclosing
the army movements to our enemy
may bring death. The man who sends
I information first gets the scoop for
his paper, as they say, and at the same
time gets the information to the emmy
is an arch criminal and a disloyal
American. Hereafter any effort to
evade censorship will be punished"
All the correspondents gave their
! promise and | do not believe that
! promise has been broken in any partic-
ular But whose is the ignorance of
matters that concern the American
public. Columbus is full of Mexicans
who go between that town and their
soldiers over the Mexican border with
out let or hindrance l have talked with
many Columbus residents and all of
them agre that there is but one Mex
( lean in the town that they can trust
He dashed in from 30-mile ride ahead
of Villa to warn Colonel Slocum. ar
irving a few hours before the bandit
reached the doomed town. He is liv-
ing at Columbus now, generally re-
spected.
One of the tire men representing an
| Akron, O., firm, and the Government.
! told me that Washington asked him to
write back the conditions at the Army
! base as the officials there could get
| little news now the newspaper men
! are muzzled l have his name and ad
dress. Now, thirty men representing
\ the best thought in the United States
were kept waiting twelve long hours
| to get some word from the conference
! between Gen. Hugh L. Scott and Gen.
| Alvaro Obregon. After a six-hour
/ wait. during which time the Mexican
J minister of war strolled through the
! crowd of representatives and asking
| who they were, smiled pittingly and
! condescendingly at them, saying in
Spanish THE poor things. I am sorry
! for them"
/ This man, an enemy TO our country,
| playing as every one here knows, for
| the applause of his Mexican followers,
| untrue to the hea,i of the de facto
| government, whom he does not even
mention in his conversation. man
| great as general. but from the ranks
of the poems, who hate with undying
| hatred. all gringoes, he knows every
thing that passed in the star chamber
session held last night with Gen. Fred
erick Funston. sitting outside with the
| reporters, or near them.
At midnight. as General Scott left
the hotel he declared: we have