Evening journal., 1917-05-09

The press censorship scheme which |
the House of Representatives ap-
proved last Friday is a model of elem
ency compared with the Bismarckan
rigor Of Attorney General Gregory's |
original muzzle 1t gives any newspa- !
per editor or proprietor charged with |
publishing information which may be
useful to the enemy" a chance before |
a jury, instead of subjecting him to
punishment without trial at the hands !
of some irritated executive officer or
agency 1t allows the jury to say
whether the publication complained or
was really of such character as TO
be actually useful to the enemy.
The Gard amendment does not scrap
the Constitutions guarantees of free
speech and free press as completely
as the Attorney General wanted them
scrapped. But it undermines those
guarantees. IL is shifty in its language
and dangerous in its implications. The
power It gives the executive branch
of the government could be used ef-
fectively to intimidate newspapers
| and to suppress criticism of the acts
| and policies of the Administration un-
] WEl AlAh AAAAul HA1A'AAA Vi NANf'ANAAA1 .
useful information" from reaching
the enemy.
The vice OF the Gard amendment
and of all the other press gag amend
ments submitted to Congress is that
they try TO stigmatize as espionage
mere publication of news or a mere
expression of opinion. In any act of
espionage there must be an intent to
] rpf,, ,,,tffpaf- inforrnaffon fn fhn nnp.
my for his benefit. Persons who pub
lish what they know with the idea OF
thus putting it into the possession OF
. a hostile War ONCE are spies, and
can be dealt with as such. To reach
them there is no need at all of pass
ing a law making any and every pub
lication criminal, regardless of in
tent. which, il It ever should reacl
the enemy, might. I'm the judgment o.
United States officials or Fedora
juries, give him useful information Of
moral encouragement.
The chances are infnitesimal tina
any spy would ever choose such
clumsy method of conveying valuable
news to the German General Staff a
publishing it in an American news
paper No newspaper could leave on
shores without going through tn
hands of a censor, if the government
wished to take the precaution of in
posing such a censorship. No newspi
per, letter, cable dispatch or wireless
message can pass into Germany nov
except through a British, French, Rus
sian or Italian censorship 10 is a pra'
tical impossibility at present for an
information appearing in an America
newspaper to be conveyed to the en'
my which the censors of nations a
war with Germany are unwilling
pass.
Why, then, set up the insincere an
fraudulent pretence that military NJ
cessity requires a gag on the Anne
ican press? The only practical use
which such a gag provision could b
put would be 10 stop the publicatio
of information annoying to our ow
department officials, an exposure {
whose inefliciency, although vital
the countrys safety, might be held
them to be a form of dislOyalty, ca
: culated to comfort and cheer ii
enemy
The Gard amendment processes
leave a free field for legitimate crit
/, cism and the publication Of legitimaf
E information. Yet it seeks to abridl
% the freedom Of the press by submit
ing to a Jury the question whether
" newspaper "wilfully and without a
\ thority" published information whiC
p a Federal official might declare to
: useful to the enemy. without a
) thority" is one of the jokers in NJ
Cards amendment It would appa
emily classify as reasonable any G
preston of opinion or statement
fact which had not received the a
proval in advance of the official who