Arizona republican., 1917-05-07
Newspapers and Wars

Newspapers and Wars
 There is a better more economical way of rddihg a barn of feas than by burning the building down or up-though understand that some misguided barn owners have proved that that is effective Not @ flea has been found in the ashes, however carefully they been sifted after the confagraton
 The only voice raised in the senate on Saturday in favor of the censorship of the espionage bill was that of Senator Overman whose argument was that with the proposed tyrannca power in the hands of the administration postoffice department would he able to prohibit the practice" circulating north ern newspapers in the south urging the negroes to revolt MT Overman asserted that had been done, but certainly with frequency that would entte the affair to the of practice He calls atten- ton to only offense.
 It is not necessaryp though to establish tyranny all newspapers, to deprive all newspapers of constitutional privilege in order to prevent one or small number of newspapers from abusing that priv fege.' The of the in that case is already covered by existing laws Any newspaper which tries to stir up revolt. promote dis tur5ance of order be punished.
 There has been for three four years, beginning before the war broke out, disposition in this coun try to curtah the liberties the press. It has ap peared in various legislation usually affecting the postofce department. But this proposed censor ship was the culminatng effort
 There was never decent reason for it. It was, though, evidently regarded as a war measure some feature of preparedness imitation of something been done in the warning countries of Europe The censorship was intended for a paythng of some sort Probably it intended that it should be more than an imitation, pretense of European in stitution, but it could become and probably would have become an engine of tyranny
 Instead of being made to prevent the spreading of
 
 stances almost impossible, under the sweeping pro- visions Of the censorship clause there could have been prevented salutary criticism of the government and the conduct army and navy which in many in stances of the past have been improved by news paper criticism,
 Speaking ot the criminal bunders and frghtful in competence that followed the British and French vic tory the Alma in the Crimean blunders and incompetence concealed by official gazettes, leaving to the popuace only the belief of glorious triumph Justin Mccarthy says:
 Very soon, however. a different note came to be sounded The campaign had been opened under con- dtops differing from those of most campaigns that before it. Science had added many dis coVeries to the science of Literature had added remarkable contribution of her to the condi- lions amid which campaigns to be carried She had added the special correspondent" There fore while the fervor of delight in the courage and success of army still fresh in the minds of the public at home. while every music hall ring with the cheap rewards of valor in the shape of popular notifications of commanders and soldiers the readers of the Times began learn that things faring badly indeed with the conquering army of the Alma The hospitals in wretch edly disorganized condition Stores of medicines and strengthening food we're decayng in places where wanted them could well get them, while dying in hundreds among tents in the Crimea for lack of them. The system of clothing of transport, of feeding, of nursing-eyerythin had broken down. The special correspondent of the Times and other correspondents continued din these things into the of the public at home Exultation began to give way feeling of dismay The patriotic anger against the Russians changed for mood of deep indignation against authorities and administration. It became ap parent everyone that the whole campaign had been planned the assumption of the military authorities here at home-we do not speak of the commanders in the field-that Sebastopol fall like another Jericho, at the sound of the trunlpets' blast.
 The result of this publicity manifest Protests went up against the slow murder of British troops in the Crmea by British neglect and incom- petence. Then the world received the Angel of the Crimea Florence Nightingale and there was a begin ming of amelioration of the war. There afterward allied victories which would probably not have been the siege of Sebastopol if there had been such censorship in England it is proposed to establish in the United States