A GREAT RALLY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16272, 24 July 1918, Page 5

A GREAT RALLY.

WAR TIME DISTINCTION.

DEFINITION OF WAR AIMS AND PRESS RIGHTS. f

As a fitting climax to the work of the week, the banquet of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association at the end of April was in th© nature of a patriotic rally with three of the foremost men in America and a represents tive of the French Government as the guests and speakers. .Complete victory, both material and moral, over the Germans and an unfettered public opinion as an essential instrument to tiie winning of that victory wore demanded by ex-Justice Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of War Newton \D. Baker, Secretary of the Navy i Josephus Daniels and Stepliane Lauzanne, editor of tho Paris "Matin," who represented the French Ambassador, J. J. Jusserand. They all agreed in declarations for tho prosecution of the war to complete ata unqualified triumph. "There is no answer to the German docirino in soft words," declared Secretary Baker. "Thore is no answer vo the Gorman "poople in any words. Words cannot reach tiieYn ;■ that is a part of their civilisation; their ears are stopped with the dust of triumph. Nothing will win away tho worshippers of Moloch except the overthrow of their god." "Germany has tried to strike at the heart of Franco," said 1 Mr Hughes. "She cannot reach the heart of France, of England, of Italy. Germany's only hope is that we shall falter, but we will not falter." The right of criticism was defeated by every speaker, biit all alike insisted on the duty of honest criticism with the truth as the criterion. "For twenty-five years," Mr Hughes said, "I gave as much to public men as any man in the country, and for some time I have received a good deal of my own medicine. But there was never a timo when I did not realise that it was the very life of our Republic that public men should be adequately criticised.

"But it is difficult to draw nice distinctions in time of war. There are some distinctions which must be drawn. The effective prosecution of war involves of necessity certain restrictiohs in our accustomed freedom. With r<v spect to property and business, with respect to life itself, freedom is restrained. Witness our War Defence and Conscription Acts, our broad plans of regulation by which manifold activities .are controlled to an unusual degree. Of course, freedom of- speech and of the Press is "also a relative freedom. There is no license to destroy the nation or to turn it over helpless to its foes. 'There' is no constitutional privilege for disloyalty, or for efforts to obstruct the enforcement of the law or to inter fere with the war plans adopted by authority. But with du© recognition of the difficulty of exact definition and close distinction, it is quite obvious that there is a field for honest criticism which cannot be surrendered without imperilling the essentials of liberty and the preservation of the nation tself. Our officers of Government are not a privileged class. "Even when equipped with the ex traordinary powers of war they are the servants of the nation, accountable for i the exorcise of their authority. "It gees without saying that the country should have the facts. Plainly, there are matters which for military reasons must be concealed, so as not to aid the enomy. But anyone who conceals facts even in war time has a heavy burden of proof as to the necessity for such concealment. "Furnishing material for criticism 4s by no means the same thing as giving aid and' comfort toMhe enemy. Let the truth bo known. The anxiety should bo not to avoid disclosure, but rather to prevent error. Rarely will the enemy be the gainer from our knowledge of the facts. H e will thrive on our apprehensions and our misconcep tions. h "Publish the facts and disarm the critics. Or publish the facts and make amends, if there are amends to be made."

DANIELS PROUD OF HIS PROFESSION. Secretary Daniels began by saying that he was in attendance not in - n official capacitv, but as "a member of long standing in the Association, temporarily assigned to cover the Navy and to return to my old assignment when the period of larger usefulness comes to mo." H e reminded the audience of the fact that "in the two great wars this country has known the President called on an editor to take charge of the Navy," and said that his one ambition was to servo his country as well as Gideon Wejles. "There was never a time," he said, "when the Press of America exorcised so powerful and inspiring an influence as during the last twelve months. The contribution.of the American Press during the yoars of our neutrality was too great to estimate, too large for our generation to appreciate. The selfcensorship ha? justified the declaration of Thomas Jefferson, 'Where there is a free Press there can be nothing but a free government.' "The splendid way in which the Press as a who!© has risen to tho occasion and measured np to its responsibilities has given me an added pride in the profession.

"The Presa understands, and most of the newspapers act upon th© principle that when a country is engaged in a foreign war the President becomes the spokesman of the nation. When ©xocutive action becomes necessary in any and every measure for the successful conduct of tlie war, the world must know that the President is asserting the will of the nation which the people have decreed must be exocuted by force of arms, i Party differences, are _ overcome by the logic of the necessity of national unity. "Fortunately there exists, and has always existed between the best representatives of the Press and wise-public officials an appreciation of the reciprocal duties in times of war. No public official in a free country hh-s the right to deny the Press (the only quick medium of reaching the people) any item of information that can be given without jeopardising national interests." WHY ARMY INFORMATION MUST BE GUARDED. Probably most publishers present expected that Secretary Baker would explain to them in more detail than therotofore his war news censorship policy that has kept the people in the dark in the matter of information on the American forces abroad. He did not do it, however, but confined himself to saying: "I entirely endorse the doctrine that the American people have a right 1 o know all about their own business, and that everybody who is doing their business should be ready to tell them all there is to tell,, uifless it would endanger the lives or the success of our forces." "And I am here," said Mr Baker, "because I want your help. Yon are a part of the Army the threefold army that must fight for us—the army, the navy, and public opinion. I don't want to win a more physical victory. It is part of my task to bring into lino back of General Pershing's # army fche moral purpose of the American peopio as well as the physical force. I want +o organise atad regiment American opinion both as to the purpose of this war. how to win it, and what to do after it 's won. "The public opinion of this country is one of-the mcist powerful forces that can be brought to bear to win the "war, and we must bring it to bear to boat the German Thing—this Thing that makes a gun that can shoot seventyfive miles in order Hint it may blow up a church, if it is lucky, on Good Friday in an undelended and unattacked city.'' FRANCE'S WAR SPIRIT. Ambassador Jusserand of Franco was unable to be present, and sent his regrets a«d greetings to tlio American Press in a telegram. Mr Lauzaune spoke in his place and expressed the confidence of France that the Allies cause would be victorious. _ "A few days ago," he said, a man whose name will certainly appeal to this audience, for it is the name of a great journalist, M. Georges Clemen ceau, our Prime Minister, summed up what is to-day the French feeling when he said: 'All France foT all the war. Yes, all France, with her men, with her'women,' with her children, for the war, whatever may be tho sufferings of the war, whatever may be.the hardnoss of Destiny. And I may add, 'All the Alices for the war.' But all France and all the Allies for the whole victory, for a victory which not be. the victory of France or the victory of the Allies, but which will be the victory of tho immortal ideas for which we are fight--ing—the idea of Ri edit of _ Justice, 3f Humanity, and of Civilisation. |