The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1917-05-15
DON'T MUZZLE WATCH DOG?
DON'T GAG PUBLIC PRESS

/ II
DON'T GAG PUBLIC PRESS
By GoEveneur Morris,
(The Celebrated Writer.)
Washington, May 1.-THE curb on
free speech made Russia what sne
was: Germany what she is. II Lord
Northchfe had not defled the English
censorship. the British empire ana
the French republic might at this
moment be memories. Our enemies
could receive no greater aid and COM
fort than, the news that the shutters
Of the presidents house had been
closed, that the blinds Of the depart
1nents had been pulled down, and that
the faithful and deserving old watch
dog, the press Of the United States,
had been muzzled 80 that he could not
bite, and gagged 80 that he could not
even growl.
The times are thick with those dis
asters which are the offspring OF Sc
crecy.
If It we're not for secrecy the hing
dom OF Greece would be republic
II il we're not for secrecy the allied
ohancslloriss could by no means have
80 massacred IN the Balkans the In
terests OF the countries which they
represented.
II it were not for secrecy the Eng
ush ordnance would not have been
served with shrapnel when almost the
fate OF civilization hinged upon high
explosives.
II il were not for secrecy the Ger
man empire could never have deserY-
ed the execration OF mankind.
If it we're not for secrecy the Unit
ed States would have entered this
war in time to make the issue eeF-
tain.
II It were not for secrecy there
would never have been any war at
all
In to the declaration Of war there
was too much secrecy even In our own
conduct OF affairs. But stop ana
think to what an important and un-
American state public opinion might
have been led by a censorship as COM
nlete and rigorous as that which our
own government now demands the
power to exercise.
Ne might have been led to believe
that:
The American women raped in Mex
leo were mere street walkers, plying
their trade;
The men murdered committed sui
eide;
The babies succumbed to infantile
naralysis: the sniped seamen in Vera
Cruz to typhoid;
The Lusitania ran upon rock
OF lesser things We might never
tave heard at all.
IT,. ge now find ourselves glorl-
ously ranged in the ranks OF CIVIL
zation is because as individuals We
have weighed the evidence and so
willed. malignant ruler with com
plete power over the press could nave
made US believe that William OF Ger
many was a Christian martyr, ana
papa Joffre a Turkish assassin.
when a t-ee people gives with one
hand its right to free speech, wAth
the other it strikes liberty death
blow. Suppose that Mr.. Taft haa
worked upon our imaginatlons anui
We had presented him with this pre-
cious privilege Of ours. suppose
then that in 1912 we had elected 70
the presidency not woodrow wilson
hut some eminent pro-German IN
whose breast the real allegiance was
not to that country to which his for
bears had fed from persecution DuI
to the country from which they mad
fed.
The knowledge that the truth is be-
ine withheld from the American peo-
pie will give far greater aid and com
fort to our enemy than any lnfofma-
ton purveyed by an oVer-zeaious re-
porter and passed by a noddlns eo1-
tor.
For then he will know that he can
slip By the peoples watch dog fne
nress, and among the credulous ms
seminate his ruinous and cankerms
lies. >
A judgment based upon rumors is
not worth the breath with which 1t Is
spoken. Is the voice of the American
people which in every momentous
fnality has hpoken justly and for JUS
tice to become mere sound, s1snl-
flying nothing?
That is just what it will become
the moment the American people let
any group of individuals put q mus-
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