Evening star., 1927-08-22
CENSORSHIP PLEA
DENIED BY GLASS.
Senator Says Criticism of
Washington Correspondents
Was Distorted.

Senator Carter Glass of Virginia,
who was represented in a dispatch
from Charlottesville, Va. August 70,
as having charged Washington cor
respondents with sensationahsm, ue-
| liherate misrepresentation ana diS-
/ tortion of facts regarding Washing
| ton happenings, has written letter
! to Richard V. Oulahan, washington
| correspondent of the New YORK
| Times and dean of the corps OF
! WASHINGTON correspondents, declar-
! inc that the dispatch and editorial
comment which followed it afford
complete illustration of the very
! thing which l deprecated in my brief
! talk at the university.
Explaining that stenographlc re-
port of his remarks is lacking, Sella-
! tor Glass included i'll his letter
statement from Victor Rosewater,
chairman of the meeting at which ne
spoke, which declares: Il am giad 10
| repeat what l said over the phoIie'
| that my recollection OF your remarks
accords substantially with yours, ana
/ I listened attentively to your state
mont as YOU made it. There was
nothing said about restriction on, OF
censorship of, news out of WASH
| ington."
Quoted Fayoring Restrictions.
The Associated Press account of
the Senator's remarks stated: The
relation of the press to the Federal
Government needs radical ADJUST
mcnt.' he said" and quoted the Seha
tor indirectly as having declared
| that restrictive measures are heeueu
TO curb the vicious activities OF the
newspaper men,.
"As n matter of fact" said Sen
ator Glass in his letter to MI. ouia
han, some of my most intimate anu
devoted friends are among tne news
uaper correspondents at NashiuStoh
and / am incapable of making Nlo-
lpnt or anv other sort of TRADE
against them. BY merest accloeh', oi'
reaching the university, l dropped IN
IN Mr, Victor Rosewater's round
table talk on the relation of the press
IN the Federal Government Most un-
expectedly and much to my confuslon'
Mr.. RoseWater asked me to say lew
words on the subject. AS primarily
a. neWspaper man and incidentally
limited States Senator, L remarked
that | could view the question I'M
partially from both sides, and whlle
having tribute to the literary ac-
complishments and painstakinS habits
of some newspaper editors ana cor.
respondents, l deprecated the hurtIul
haste and Indifference of others, as to
both accuracy of expression and or
facts. saving that it hurt my profess
sional pride as newspaper man more
than it irritated me as United
States Senator to find newspapers,
editorially and otherwise, accentu-
ating, and sometimes fabricating,
the sensational phase of incidents
rather than adhering to the unvar-
nished truth.
AssaiIs Indifferent Papers.
I'm a word, 1 contrasted the care
with which the editorial and news
columns of the great newspapers were
edited in the days of men like Charles
A. Dana with the rather indifferent
style which now characterizes so
many newspapers. I gave as one con-
crete example the widely published
reports that Senator Wheeler and /
had engaged in fisticuff on the floor
of the Senate, when nothing Of the
kind had ever occurred or was even
contemplated by either of us.
II did not imagine" said Senator
Glass, that there was newspaper
in the country, much less in Wash
in public life, that was credulous
enough to suppose that l could have
been preposterous enough to advocate
severe restriction or censorship of
the news in the face of the consti-
tutional guarantee of the freedom of
the press"