The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1918-04-15
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me sfiusiyely as laid the copy on the
bigh desk W. p he stoo- at work
Ahn American he .Ke.aimed I'm
Sery glad TO meet you. America today
Is the conscience OF th world all the
rest Of us have gone mad II will please
me greatly TO help YOU get the truth
back TO your country. The truth IS all
that we Germans ask"
Th,J Passed o. X.
He read over my story, folded Il up,
without changing a word, and handed
I II 10 me with TIE envelope.
"You may mail Il yourself" he said
IvI'm sure | can trust you"
| opened the folded manuscript and
started TO write the VOID Censored"
Dn II.
In a flash his kindness fell away
ipPleaSe do not say that your article has
been censored" he said. Let It 90 Just
rs Il is"
Twas forced, Of course, 10 yield to his
bemand. But there was a lie in that
piece OF manuscript; the absence OF the
word Censored" was lie that warped
khe news value OF my story. The OBJ
Ieet OF omitting that one word was to
barry TO the outside world the impress
bion that Germany was not hindering
Newspaper men in their expression OF
opinion
Censorship, - understood h Al the
kme, was intended 10 cover military
bnd political contingencies here Il was
towering . lie which | was being forced
p send to . then neutral country,
ID Then Came Real Right
III After that experience the entire Ger
nan system OF censorship challenged
Ne. ID great policies OF military and
politiesl safety / could understand; its
Dstty policy OF trying 10 mold public
opinion In small matters only spurred
ne on so beat II IL possible
II There was q rule OF the German cen
porship which was provoking. | was
pot allowed 10 know what had been cut
from my dispatches. Indeed, the whole
httitude OF the censor was one OF dis
b1ust and challenge.
H There came suddenly one dsy the re-
eFeat from Prremysl, when we were pu,
lbn train, and bundled off toward Buda-
pest We were informed that any
Istories which pictured our departure
trom PrIenysi As a hasty retreat would
be held up; and there was no way OF
|ttetting anything out without submitting
20 to the censor. Here was 4 story 10
beat a censor with. In hotel at Buds-
pest | sat me down to q typewriter and
drew forth oil my stock OF slang /
tried 10 think OF the fastest thing that
runs, and my mind settled on Koleh-
hainen. the great Finnish marathoner.
n began my story thusi Beating il
from Prremysl was one grand Koleh-
ssainen.' I wrote thirty paragraphs OF
che sheerest slang. covering the retreat
tte q baseball writer covering = worlds
beries game.
- II Went Over the Top
Our hnguage-loving censor, who wss
mordinsteiy proud OF his ability to
speak seven tongues. never batted an
eye over that copy; the chances were
that he did not understand one-third
Of IT, but no man with a head shaped
like his ever admitted that there was
anything in the world he didn't know.
phe story went
I had fsry expssted nat me
United Prsss would decode, or de-
siang the story; but II didn't. Out
over the wires went the story Of
that srewsoms retreat, written In
baseball slang, and several editors
wrote to the New York office sug-
gestins that turn out "some more
Of that snappy stuff like the Pre-
mysl retreat"
Il 6id not rspufrs many weekS ex-
eerienee in Europe to indicate to me
chat q reporter is measured by the tact
which he displays in the presentation
Of his stories to the censor. discov-
cred that censor-fghting was the least
productive pastime m which a war re-
porter could engage.
They Watch U. S. Newspapers.
A strict watch was kept on the news
papers here in the United States by all
the belligerent governments before
America entered the war Germany
kept especially sharp eyes on the work
OF American correspondents in Berlin.
An American correspondent was once
hailed before an outraged German censor
who showed him a clipping of one OF
his stories, taken from an American
country newspaper. The headline of the
Story-which had been stolen by the
country newspaper from metropolitan