Evening star., 1943-09-11
Byron Price Praises
A. P. Editors for Job
Under Censorship
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, Sept. 11.-Byron Price,
director of the Office of Censorship,
expressed to the Associated Press
Managing Editors Association meet
ing today ''the appreciation and
commentator of the Government
for this great service" which they
have rendered in voluntary cooper
alton under the wartime censorship
code.
"As for the future" he said, ST
can not help feeling that your pa
triotic solicitude will continue to
safeguard voluntary censorship.
"By carrying to a conclusion what
you have SO we'll begun, you will
hasten the day when all censorship
will come to its unlamented end"
Troublesome Conflict.
"Of the many conflicts of interest
which arise inevitably in wartime"
Mr.. Price said, "one of the most
troublesome is in the field of public
information. On the one hand is the
military. schooled in the strategic
value OF secrecy and inclined to
subordinate all else to the prosecu-
ton of armed combat. On the other
hand are those agencies, including
the press, which are dedicated to
the preservation of certain civil
rights, among them the right of free
citizens to be informed.
TT is not difficult to justify either
OF these positions, when they are
considered separately. The military
has, In certain sense, a directive
which supercedes all other direc-
tives, namely, to win the war and
preserve the life of the Nation. The
press, on its part, has a traditional
obligation to keep national life on
a plane which will make it worth
preserving"
Charles F. Kettering, vice presi-
dent in charge of research of the
General Motors Corp, told the edi-,
tors last night that there ought to
be in the United States "130, 900 900
postwar planning organizations
each one should do his own think
ing"
you have responsibility greater
than any business In America be-
cause so many people depend on you
for their thinking" he said, assert
ing he did not believe human nature
was going to change after the war.
Long Term Foundations.
ut is up to your organization" he
continued, "to lay the long term
foundations" of various commune
ties, adding that mo man can pre-
scribe the rules by which civilization
Is to 60 forward any more than this
group"
Another speaker, Murlin Spencer,
war correspondent for the Asso-
ciated Press in the Southwest Pa
cific, told the conference that the
soldiers in that area want the people
back home to realize what this war
is and go about winning 1t in the
shortest possible time"
Mr.. Spencer asserted that Brig.
Gen. Hanford MacNider, stationed
in the Southwest Pacific, described
jungle warfare as like fighting in
side a mattress except that one
can't see so far. And I don't mean
a nice, decent dry and uninhabited
mattress. I mean the kind you've
seen half afloat in a puddle by the
city dump where the vermin like to
play" H. f.-'',.
Must Go to Front. '~'-
But the correspondent who would
write OF jungle warfare must 20 to
the front, watch the boys fight,
share their hardships and dan
gers said Mr.. Spencer, who made
Il trips to the front in the final %
days of the Buna campaign.
The A. P. correspondent told the
editors that 'ft isn't pleasant to see
men die In war. There are no bands
playing, no flags waving. Many
times there isn't even any one
around to tell him good-by. There
may be surprised look in his eyes
as though he can't quite understand
what power sent him into the jungle
to die from the bullet of some Jap
flagpole sitter Or at the end of an
enemy bayonet."
He also said it was important that
I'VE do not forget that the Jap is
fighter, specialist in murder"
Spencer continued he had the "ut-
most confidence" in Gen. Douglas
Macarthur, who, he said, knows
the Jap better, probably, than any
other OF our military leaders,