New-York tribune., 1917-06-01
No Russian-Prussian Censorship

Yesterdays vote in the House of Repre-
sentatves ended the dream of Creel-
Lansing Gregory press censorship. Even
the most obstinate of the muzzlers must
row see that Congress cannot be dragooned
into passing a law ~hich will set up
news dictatorship and armor-plate Cabinet
and bureau chiefs against legitimate pub
lie criticism.
The Senate has rejected the censorship
idea once The House Of Representatives
has rejected it twice. 1t is time now to
ring down the curtain on an Administra-
ton campaign which has been a melan-
choly failure all along the line-in the
laundering craftsmanship of its hackers
in Congress as well as in fatuous per-
formances Of the amateur censors chosen
nv the President to give the country fore
taste of what was in store for 1t when
censorship with real teeth and claws
should come.
The Administration agents presented
to Congress some thirty drafts of press
gag law. Not one stood up successfully
against attack. From the original Rus
sian-Prussian ukase of Attorney General
Gregory down to the last feeble-forcibe
compromise inserted in the espionage bill
by ratified conference committee, all
failed because they were subterfuges-be-
cause their authors tried to avoid either
meaning what they said or saying what
they meant They were attempting to con-
fuse two very different things. They were
foolishly trying to treat as an act of es-
pionage or treason a mere publication of
information or a mere expression of opln-
ion in which there need not be the slightest
suggestion of REASONABLE intent.
We have laws against treason and
against the intentional conveyance of in
formation to the enemy. In time of war
the Presidents power to punish persons
suspected of trying to aid the enemy or of
trying to interfere with the successful con-
duct Of military operations is almost with
out limit. He can deal with offenders, if he
cares to do So under martial law.
President Lincoln put sedtious editors
in Jail and denied them either trial or the
benefit of hGbeds corpus He was not en-
barrassed by the lack of press censor
shin law such as Mr.. Wilson has been
eager TO secure He got along with the
authority already granted him. He was
satisfied TO deal with individual cases of
newspaper sedition or Of espionage SER
vice to the enemy as they came along. He
did not think it necessary to muzzle the en-
tire Northern press in order to silence a
few possible secession sympathizers. He
realized that although in some cases sedi-
tious use might be made of the press it
was far better to run the risk of few
successful acts of treason than to clap the
lid down hard on all the newspapers and
thus deprive the country Of that free dis
oussion Of the conduct and policies of the
government which is so essential TO de
mocracy i'm the midst of war.
Lincoln was sensitive to criticism and
suffered keenly under it.. Yet he thought
that even unjust criticism was more toer-
able i'm the long run than any system Of
wholesale suppression. The trainers of
all the censorship provisions which have
failed in Congress have aimed primarily
at suppressing criticism Of the Admins
tration. But they have had to pretend
that they were only trying to prevent the
REASONABLE communication of informa-
ton to the enemy They have really been
shooting at very big game while seeking
10 give the impression that they were gun
ming for small fry traitors doing espionage
work for Germany
Giving information TO the public, and
therefore 20 the enemy" was a happy
phrase in one of the many short-lived cen
sorship law drafts submitted to Congress.
This exposed succinctly the theory on
which the muzzlers acted Though Ger
many is cut off completely from the United
States. though no American newspaper
can reach Berlin before passing through
Z hostile ring Of censorship, though under
present conditions the last thing in the
world an intelligent spy would do would
be 20 put the news he wants TO send to
Germany into an American newspaper, the
Administration and It's friends have sought
10 cram down the public's throat the be-
lief that publishing any unauthorized in
formation here Is absolutely equivalent 20
trying % communicate il 20 the enemy.
Using "the enemy" as stalking horse,
the advocates Of censorship have really
been seeking 10 destroy the freedom Of
the press in so far as that freedom
threatens % interfere with the comfort Of
officials who stand in fear Of the un-
vanished truth.
The conspiracy against free press has
failed. Il ought never 10 have had a chance
70 succeed. The power Of the President,
enormous as it is in ordinary times and
almost ilimitablc as it is in war times
- - IL. onnrlnI nnmII not nunr-