The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-03-06
WANTED POWER OF THE
PRESS Is NO MORE

Address by w. F. Wiley, managin
editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, a
the banquet Of the Associated Obi
Dailies, held at the Deshler hote
Columbus, Ohio. Tuesday evening
January 80. 1917:
Mr.. Wiley spoke as follows:
Ours is a %precarious profession
once an honorable calling. it has be
come an anathema in the mouths o
the mighty. From bulwarks of lib
erty, palladiums of freedom, torche;
of enlightenment and all the other
euphonistic and eulogistic things we
thought we were, we have been con-
signed to a realm of ignominy and
d~espicability. Our pockets are picked
by the labor unions with impunity;
our bank accounts are r%uthlessly ap-
propriated by the greedy paper max
er; our circulation is ~impeached by a
benevolent, p~aternalistic government;
our right to devise as to the brand of
varnish with which to paint the ali
mentary canal is about to be with
drawn, and III motives for discuss
ing public matters editorially are be-
ing examined carefully by paid hire
lings of societies Of regulation who
call upon government agencies to ap-
ply the screw and rack to our bleed
ing and broken bodies upon slightest
p~rovocatiion. The transmission of
our output through the mails is being
circumscribed and curtailed swiftly
and surely. Zone systems are to take
the place of unlimited mailing privi-
leges. Parcel post has already taken
precedence over newspaper mail, and
the dawn of a day can be seen when
we shall be as nothing. and all our
prideful boast and pomp shall have
vanished. More swiftly and as surely
as the glacier grinds its resistless
way down mountain slopes. sweeping
before it all life and growth and de-
velopment. so there is sweeping down
on the press of America the relent-
less. cold. merciless, un-American
avalanche of governmental censor
ship.
1t is inconceiyable to my mind that
Russianization of the American press
will be permitted to go on unheeded
and unchecked. And yet the end of
the effort TO throttle US is not in
To the local efforts of Ala
bama, West Virginia and other states
to prevent the sale or circulation of
newspapers containing advertise
ments OF a certain character is added
now the proposal Of the Congress OF
the United States to prevent the car
rying by mail anywhere of newspa-
pers containing such advertising mat
That proposal has already been
ndorsed by the Senate, and if reports
may be believed, it will receive also
he approval of the House Of Repre-
'entatives.
There is pending, too. in the Senate
! resolution declaring that United
States district courts shall have no
,ower to declare an act of Congress
unconstitutional. Let me read two of
he bills pending in Congress.
lMr. Wiley then read the Randall
ill Oh. X. 1885 and the Bankhead
ill Is. r. 1920, which regulate the
REGULATIONS in the mails of news
apers containing liquor advertise
lents. The last mentioned is now in
fleet, having been passed by both
of Congress and signed by the
resident last Saturday. i,
l am not here to make a defense of
he liquor traffic nor to plead for those
.ewspapers and other periodicals that
AIRY the advertising of this business.
'ersonally. | have no interest in the
..usiness. direct or indirect, nor have
ever defended it. Speaking to you
onight as man to man, | may add.
500 REWARD, 500