Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-03-11
GETTING news
OF CONFERENCE
NOW REAL JOB
Continued from Page Ons.l

Of them printed it, but in a modi-
| fed form.
Three or four weeks afterward.
when the fact of the proposal had
been specifically denied BY some
OF the conferees, it was allowed to
be published and discussed.
OF course, being still guilelessly
trustful of our friend in the mission.
we made a howl about this muzzle
on the news. The official said he
would take it UP with the French.
He may have done so. If he did, he
got snubbed, for the censorship con-
tinued, undated. Soon after that
a correspondent of one of the New
York papers wrote and filed at the
cable dispatch a statement of what
Mr.. Wilson had told the French re-
garding American intentions. Iii
may or may not have been true. |
never saw it, sol don't know.
Denied ty Everybody.
The point of the matter was that
with all the talk about the lifting of
the censorship, this dispatch went
directly to Premier Clemcnceau
from the cable office. Mr.. Cleinen-
ceau took it TO Mr. Wilson, who de-
MED it, either in whole or in part.
Mr.. Clemenceau then took it to the
house of deputies, where he re-
peated MI. Wilson's denial and the
paper for which the dispatch was in
tended got the denial without eve
getting the dispatch.
That is the sort of thing that is
going on in Paris all the time. Wen
you read your peace conference dis
patches, in whatever paper you
buy, you may rest assured that YOU
are getting only the news that the |
French want you to get. And there |
begins to be disquieting evidence |
that our mission doesn't want YOU TO |
get any more information than the |
French do.
Secret covenants" secretely en-
tered into, seem to be the working
rule of the conference at present
What is going on in the session
which the conferees call pictur-
esquely Tin camera" is swathed in
the utmost secrecy.
In some cases it was found that
certain members of the American
mission itself knew nothing of the
proceedings. Certainly there is no
man in Paris who can positively
state from his own knowledge what
is to be decided upon save the few
heads of the greater nations who de-
termine these matters behind closed
doors.
The communicates issued by the
are models of brevity and
They always note that
the president of the United States,
the premiers of France, England,
etc, met at the Quai D'Orsay. and
important matters, but
the discussion they say
at all. ~
Not Any American Plan.
We American correspondents
could never get word out of our
about the American
plan. In fact, / am beginning to
think that there never was any
American plan. When we suggested !
that our fellow-countrymen were
to some extent in the
peace conference we were told that
to reveal our plan would. be to in
vite the hostility of other nations.
Inasmuch as the American plan was
never submitted to the American
people, but only the British plan the
dangers of this hostility seem to
have been averted.
When the commissioners are in
all leaks are guarded
against and ali clerks are forbidden
On pain of heavy penalties from
saying anything.
The presidents idea is to give out
only results-probably only the f.
lal result of all, and to furnish in
he meantime only dry and uninter-
ssting details of discussions that
never get anywhere.
Never in the world was such a
itar chamber proceeding and never
since the beginning of the world was
/ time when the people were more
italy interested in the delibera- ;
ions of great body.