New Britain herald., 1917-09-20
SEDITIOUS PAPERS
 MUST TOE MARK
More Drastic Regulations in
 Trading With Eenemy Bill

Washington, Sept 2O.-New and
 drastic provisions, giving the govern
 ment absolute control over foreign language publications and disloyal, seI dlt1ous and reasonable publications In the English language were added to the "trading with the enemy bill,' when 1t came out of conference yes- terday. The new provisions take the place of the King amendment, which was added to the bill while it was before the Senate.
 Senator Kings amendment required German language publications to print ] ill parallel columns an English trans lation of all articles. The new pro- Vlslon establishes a censorship over all foreign language publications, in-
 stead of confining itself to those in the
 German language, and makes it un-
 lawful either to print or circulate in any way any foreign language pub
 lication that has not passed the cen- sor. The local postmastefs are the censors.
 The second point in the new amend ment is that it is made unlawful to transport or distribute any publica- tion that is non-mailable under the provisions of the espionage law. This provision gives the government con- trol of the distribution and sale of of- fensive English language publications, as we'll as those in foreign languages. In the case of the English language publications, however, there is no pro- vision for special censorship by local postmasters.
 Recalcitrants Blamed.
 Successful efforts by offending pub lications to evade government control under the provisions of the espion- age law brought the proposed legis- lation about. It was found that when they were excluded from the mails they sent their publications by ex- press, and organized distribution agencies to supply their subscribers, news agents, and reach the public generally. Some of them even bragged that as a result of the action of the postoff1ce their sales had been materially increased.
 As the bill now stands 1t is made unlawful for any person, firm, corpor- ation or association to print, publish or circulate or cause to be printed, published or circulated in any foreign language any news item, editorial or other printed matter respecting the government of the Unitel States or any nation engaged in the present war, it's policies. international rela- tionS, the state or conduct of tho war or any matter relating thereto.
 A second paragraph lifts this ban to some extent. It provides that the foregoing section shall not apply if the publisher or distributor on or be- i fore offering the publication for mail l ing or in any manner distributing it l to the public has filed with the post | at the place of publication in l, the form of an affidavit a true and 1 translation of the entire l article containing such matter and has printed in English at the head of l the article statement that the trans lation has been so filed.
 Postmasters As Censors.
 In practice this provision makes the local postmasters the censors of language publications. For it will be their duty to declare the pub lication mailable or non-mailable af- ter reading the translation. In cases where they are in doubt it will be their duty to hold up the publication until the matter in question has been passed on by the solicitor of the post office department at Washington.
 An examination by the government has shown that there are AS Ger man-language publications in this country, of which nine are consid- cred loyal. To meet this condition the proposed legislation provides that the president can issue license to a publication to be printed and distributed free from tho