Evening star., 1942-03-15

second class mailing privilege for pub
lications and the cancellation of license
or the Communicating of radio stations.
In 1921, the Supreme Court, with Justices
Holmes and Brandeis dissenting, held
that Postmaster General Burleson was
within his administrative rights when
he had barred the Milwaukee Leader
from the mails in 1917 because Of Victor
Berger's articles.
If domestic censorship is voluntary"
international censorship is statutory and
compulsory. This is called censorship
at the periphery" and will account for
all but hundred or so of the IS 900 o. c.
employees. 1t is combination Of detec-
tive and censorship work
Every international communication,
whether by mail, cable, radio, telephone
or by hand-to-hand delivery through
persons aboard ships, is subject to scru-
tiny by censorship officials. Information
which may give aid to the enemy is sup
pressed, either by deletion or by con-
fiscation. officials listen in to all in
ternational telephone calls with instruc-
tions to cut off any conversation, even
that of high Government officials, if
military information is being disclosed.
Positive" Inquiry More Important.
Experts call this phase of censorship
negative The positive" investigation
is considered more important. This de-
tective work consists of noting and
collating suspicious information cross
ing our borders. Some may relate to
orders in South America and be referred
to the State Department for its black
lists; others may be in code, and be sent
to military and naval intelligence An
other may involve frozen assets" Of
enemy aliens and will 60 to the Treas
ury Department, still others may indi-
cate that residents within the country
are dealing with the enemy. Such latter
information goes to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation. Other 'intercepts" are
forwarded to the Board of Economic
Warfare for notation and possible action
In this and other phases of international
work close liaison has been established
with British and Canadian officials.
Judging from British experience, our
international operatives eventually will
have 5000 "intercepts" day, Mr.. Price
says. General stations have already been
established in New York, Miami, New
Orleans, San Antonio, Los Angeles, San
Francisco and Seattle Substations are
being set up as quickly as possible. Dur
ing the last war, the comparatively small
San Antonio station in one week in
spected 759 908 letters, of which 179 were
suppressed and So were suspended. This
office had 247 members of whom 180
were examiners.
The present international communica-
tions organization is the outgrowth of a
recommendation by the Joint Army and
Navy Board more than a year ago. The
Army was allotted mails" and the
Navy international cable and radio"
Schools were set up for officers and men,
and when Mr.. Price became censor he
found nucleus of workers who had
six months or more of training
Mr.. Price believes he has a far more
efficient administrative organization
than George Creel's Committee of Public
Information of the last war, whose CEN
sorship activities were governed by
cumbersome board composed of the rep
resentatives of the Secretaries of War,
Navy, the Postmaster General the War
Trade Board and Mr.. Creers outfit.
Funds for the organization were in the
Post Office Department appropriation
bill and the political reputation of the
Post Office under Mr.. Burleson caused
many qualified persons to refuse posi-
tions. Unframed workers were employed
and at the end of the war the committee
had list of more than 250,000 suspects.
Propaganda Assignments Split.
Mr.. Creel's committee, however, was as
much concerned with propaganda as
with censorship. In this war domestic
propaganda assignments have been given
to Archibald MacLeish's Office of Facts
and Figures and Robert Horizons publicity
division Of the ONCE of Emergency Man
agement. International propaganda is
handled by Col. william ]. Donovan as
co-ordinator of information and by Mel
son A. Rockefeller as co-ordinator Of
inter-American affairs.
An exhaustive review of the work of
the Creel committee has just been pub
lished by the Princeton Press. 1t Is
"Censorship-1917," by James NJ Mock,
associate national archivist and co-au-
thor with Cedric Larson of Words That
Won the War" Mr.. Mock accepts CEN
sorship as inevitable in war and insists
that democracy must take two risks:
First. some freedom of criticism must be
allowed to enable citizens to object to
bureaucratic or military inefflciency that
may endanger the nations war effort,
and, second, democracy must take
precautions against the possible carry
over into the postwar era of the re-
strictions upon citizens constitutional
rights.
There are no indications that the pres
ent voluntary censorship" seeks to stif1e
criticism, and with Mr.. Price as censor
there is little likelihood that even this
mild censorship will be carried into the
postwar era. More realistic and fun
damental objections can be leveled at
censorship at the source" and the in
references of timid or self-serving or
off1cious officers and officials.
Censorship has been described as "a
compromise with the unpleasant facts
of an imperfect world" That fits the
present temporary working arrangement
to resolve the conflict between constitu-
tional liberties and the necessities of war.
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