The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-08

ne senate call back for reconsideration a bin which it had already passed, giving con yressional authority to censoring of communication between the United States and Its territories and pos sessions such as Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Canal Zone.
 Background of Governor uruen. inas complaint against censorship reveals why he is sore, The gover~ nor of Alaska, as you know, is not an elected but a presidenially ap. pointed official, operating under the Department of Interior, Governor Guening recently went to the once of Censorship to ask that his mail be immune from censorship.
 Byron Price, director of the Office of Censorship, figured that if im- munity from censorship were grant, ed to the governor of Alaska, it would have to be extended to other government officials of equal or higher rank. That meant there would be created master White List" of individuals whose communi- cations from continental United States to points outside would be exempt.
 TOO BIG A RISK
 Price started adding up the peo- pie who would have to be on that list. All cabinet officers. 800 con- gressmen. 48 state governors, gov emors of all territories, heads of all federal agencies, federal judges - pretty soon he had list Of over 1000 names. It looked like too big loophole,
 Governor Gruering'S mail and other communications to and from Alaska are therefore still subject to censorship, even as your over seas mail is subject to censorship, but the governor obviously doesn't like 1t.
 If the Senate goes into a full dress Investigation of U. S. cen sorship, it can unQuestionably fino that censorship steps on the pri- vate rights of lot of people, That injures their feelings, and there is no more vociferous Americana than one who has had his civil liberties trampled and kicked around by his government
 This censorship business is ad- mittedly wartime nuisance, dis tasteful even to the cenSors them selves, who do it only as a duty, They are charged with preventing the passage of any information which may give aid or comfort to the enemy. Other way around, they are charged with aiding in the protection of American se- curity. Tn protecting American lives and property, they probably lean over backwards, figuring that in such cases too much censorship is better than too little.
 COULD BE A RUMPUS
 The one point on which the U. s. Office of Censorship will be open to criticism is if it has allowed mis- use of information which has come into its hands during the process of censoring. For instance:
 The U. s. Off1ce of Censorship prepares today an extremely con- fidential resume of information which it's censors have culled from communications coming under their inspection. This digest of informa- ton is given restricted circulation among top government officials, and 1t is considered valuable to the gov- ernment in shaping policies.
 But if it should ever be proved that this secret summary or any other censored communication has been copied, shown to any one who did not have an official right to see it. CT misused in any way to betray a constitutional right of privacy, as Governor Gruening and others may charge openly later on, then censorship will be in the soup and you will hear a lot of loud and loose yelling that U. S. censorship has become gestapo.
 The Office of Censorship natural ly takes every precaution to see this does not happen.