El Nuevo mexicano., 1917-05-17
The Newspapers

The Newspapers
The censorship provision was finally
eliminated from the administration espion-
age bill by the senate yesterday and the
vote for the bill without the press-gag was
~ to g..
This may be said to represent accurately
the sentiment of the country.
One Of the American institutions which
your average American is most attached to
is a newspaper which he can roast No
one would be satisfied with a newspaper
that was coiorless and neutraltinted and
never did anything to poke up the public.
One must have a home paper to fuss with.
Pro Bono Publico and One Who Wa
There; Taxpayer and Observer, Kicker and
Subscriber. all must have IN outlet; and
with a nationally gagged press they would
be in a bad way. No doubt it would ma
terially warp and permanently rasp their
dispositions to have a newspaper that they
could never differ with, or through which
they could not express their views.
Funny things are said about the news
paper business every time some peevish
statesman who has been goaded for his con-
duct utters structures on the press. 1t
must make the Great Average American
Editor smile a weary smile when he hears
about the extraordinary and malevolent
wealth of the Rich and Powerful Press-as
he meditatiyely feels of the, patches on his
editorial pants and pokes his Fluke's Mix
ture into the barrel of his pipe. Amusing
statements have been made as to how the
newspapers brought on the war. Some one
wanted all the editors sent to France in
the first line. Members of the congress
representing an enormously minor minority
declaim that the newspapers absolutely
-misrepresent the opinion of the great mass
of the people.
1t is interesting to speculate as to the
volume of the roar that would go up adj
over the land of the free If the newspa-
pers were forbidden to tell them the truth
about what is going on officially, if there
were no chance to carp at the government,
if the incompetent and the bureau bone
head were not susceptible of being pan
ned
Take them all around, the editors and
publishers are just average Americans. The
American newspapers don't create a false
sentiment; they reflect and foster as a rule
the best sentiment of their communities,
they give minorities a means of building up
maorities, and they correctly interpret. and
bring forth and encourage the dormant ma
GRITTY opinion and sentiment. Ii you will re-
feet on what is evidently the feeling of
the great majority OF Americans in the
present crisis, you will find that it is the
feeling for which the great majority of the
newspapers have been fighting for months
past. The things hat are being done are
the things which the press has advocated in
the face of bitter opposition; the awaken
ing which has come is the awakening for
which the press long ago issued a clarion
call. You will never find the American press
virtually q unit for something that is wrong
or unsound.
And who has i%nveighed against the news
papers during the past few months? The
men in public life whose stubborn resist
ance to the popular will has been overcome
only by overwhelming weight of numbers.
The men who have sought to apply auto
cratic methods to the newspapers now
are chiefly those who have suffered Justly
at the hands of the newspapers or who have
sought to 'stand by the presi-
dent" in a matter where the president
should have sat down.
You can always find q bunch of public men
willing to Soak the newspapers. You will
find that the great mass of Ameri
cans are most jealous Of the freedom of the
press. But in the present situation you
have also found that the newspapers have
been most responsive to every reasonable
appeal of the government Every day or
so a private and confidential communica-
comes over the wire from the Asso-
ciated Press, asking the editors and the
publishers to refrain from publishing this
or that information as a matter Of public
safety or POLLY; n they have invariably
acquiesceS. A reasonable voluntary CEN
is the only kind to which Ameri-
can newspapers and the American public
will submit; and an attempt to engraft any
un-American system Of supervision WI, uh
might protect ineficiency and dishonesty in
office or cover up a disastrous national
policy would be doomed to failure in any
event.
All of which applies, of course, to the
loyal American press, and there are only a
publications in the country which do
not come within the class. The country
needs its newspapers more in war time
than any other. England and France have
demonstrated it. The present agricultural
emergency in this country has demon
II. Everywhere you find the PEN
working overtime to scatter the
appeal and disseminate the information. to
awaken everyone to the crisis, to stimu-