Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-08-11
kzC1ES1tX:{2s{ Digest
Army Fears Political Sna1
In Handling News for Oils -
Military Not DESTROYS of Cutting Off News From
Armed Forces; DisIkes Entering
Possible Controversy.
By BAUKHAGE
Ne,us Analyst and Commentator.

calculated to affect the election Of
any federal officer can be put in
| Jail for a year or fined thousand
dollars.
Now, the military fears political
embroglio as Br'er Fox feared
brambles. They are not particularly
| DESTROYS of cutting off news from
the armed forces. They have no OBJ
lection to having the boys get into
controversy so long as it doesn't
interfere in the argument with the
enemy. But they have decided
dislike for getting into controversy
the law. We don't intend to violate
| it."
Colonel Whites departure has
started a discussion, the end Of
which is not yet. Will "GI Joe"
get his political news? That de-
ponds on whether congress and the
army simply pass the buck back
| and forth or whether something
definite is done.
Senator Taft said when he spon-
sored Title Five that in the first
place he had no intention of banning
works accepted as textbooks in the
schools. The senator met with army
officials, members of the council on
books in wartime, and others in New
York on July 20 to discuss this ques-
ton.
Taft also said to me that he felt
the law need not interfere with fur
| ME hn
news generally circulated here. He
said if the army asked for clari-
flying amendment, he would be glad
to take it up with congress.
I have also talked with Senator
Lucas, coauthor of the original SOL
dier's vote bill. He said he con-
sidered it "a little short of stupidity
to deny the boys overseas or
wherever they are, of all the in
formation that any citizen in this
country can obtain" He said he
thought something ought to be done
to liberalize the regulations on pub
| licity."
Definition Needed
There is no sign at this writing
d
for clarifying amendment but it
will be all right with them if what
is considered propaganda directed
to the election of a federal office
| holder is clearly defined. Meanwhile,
why shouldn't the military want to
toe the line? Their communicating
chief Ga political candidate himself)
is a Democrat. Their secretary of
war, the venerable and party-loyal
Henry Stimson, is a good Republi-
can. What about Colonel White? He
must have known what was ahead
of him when he tried to make the
Stars & Stripes a metropolitan news
| paper. He must remember as l very
well do the headaches he and l and
the rest of the old Stars & Stripes
staff caused GHQ-G2D up in Chau-
mont, in the last war.
The Stars & Stripes of World War
II appears in London, Algiers, Casa
blanca, Gran, weekly edition from
Naples, editions out of Cairo for the
Middle East. That is a publishing
undertaking of no mean proportions
intended to suit real "GI."
But if a newspaper is any good
for anything, it is supposed to view
with alarm and point with pride
come election time. 1t takes real
argument to sprout a vote .And that
is what the army says congress says
the Stars g. Stripes must have no
/ part in. Meanwhile, you don't expect
political argument in the service
&c -
some honest colonel with a wife and
family to support, a thousand dol
lar fine or year in Jail. There
will have to be Qualification of the
law.