Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-21

Military Affairs Committee. But q
few days later the Senator from
Michigan moved to reconsider the
bill and it is now being held up un-
til the Senate can take another look.
The Senator attacked the bill
very vigorously indeed, terming it
AS sinister as any bill ever pre-
sented to Congress" He limited at
a purpose to prevent the real truth
about Pearl Harbor ever becoming
known. Newspapers, touched on a
sensitive nerve, responded instantly
and headlines such as "Bill to Stifle
Press Slid Past Senate" appeared
In papers that customarily keep
their shirts on.
Not So Awful.
The bill had been prepared by the
Joint Chiefs of Sta11-Admirals
Leahy and King, Gems. Marshall
and Arnold. The Senator'S who rec
commended its passage, in addition
10 Chairman Thomas, were Hill,
OMahoney, Maybank, Austin, Cur
ney and Wilson. So we were pre-
sented with the picture of our Army
and Navy command either conspir-
ing with seven Senators to gag the
American press or tricking the SEN
ators into doing that foul thing.
If you read the bill. however. you
will doubt that anything so awful
has been attempted. You will find
that the generals and admirals are
seeking, not SO much to protect Sc
cret information, as to protect their
secret codes and ciphers. The meas
ure is designed to prevent any Gov
eminent employe from divulging
any information that would enable
an enemy to decode our Government
messages. Radio and cable COM
munications can be intercepted and
our Government, like others, must
depend on its ability to make such
messages meaningless to the enemy.
The operation comes under the head
of cryptography.
Like other governments also, ours
has Its own methods of solving enc
my codes. This is called cryptanaly-
sis. The Army and Navy are said
to obtain good deal Of enemy in
formation through this process. It
Is vitality important that the enemy
shall not know how we do it. So the
bill provided severe punishment for
any person found guilty of telling
without authorization" any other
person anything about any part of
our secret code operations.
Seeking to guard against every
possible contingency, penalties were
made to apply to any one who
should communicate, furnish or
transmit to another or publish" any
such information or material. That
word publish" is the one that
caused the excitement. What the
Army and Navy seem to be seeking,
however, is something fairly simple.
II you intercept a coded message
and then find that message pub
lished In its decided form, you don't
have to be much Of a cryptologist to
figure out the code itself. So the
generals and adrnirals proposed
severe penalties for publishing" any
such information or material.
Penalties Limited.
These penalties by the language
of the act. however, seem intended
to apply only to any person who pos
sesses such information or material
by virtue OF his employment by or
performance OF services for the
United States"
A layman reading the bill might
possibly get the idea that q news
paper publisher would be subject to
the same penalties If he printed
anything that had at any time been
communicated in code. Maybe a
good lawyer might get the same
idea. but I doubt it; apparently none
Of the good lawyers in the Senate
Military Affairs Committee did.
If Senator Ferguson can demon