Knox's Censorship

Voluntary censorship means that the press must not print anything which the Navy does not want it to print--that was the gist of the interpretation last week by onetime Publisher Frank Knox, now Secretary of the Navy, of his unilateral understanding that the press will censor itself. Equally extreme was his interpretation of what the Navy thinks is unfit to print.

He delivered his lecture at a press conference when he was asked about the truth of a U.P. dispatch reporting that a division of Marines and one of infantry had been given equipment priorities to groom them as a potential A.E.F. "task force"--for action overseas.

Bristled Secretary Knox: "That report is not true." Moreover, he added, it showed "a reckless disregard for the safety and lives of fellow Americans."

Reminded by another reporter that the information as regards the Army division came from the published testimony of Army Chief of Staff General Marshall, the Secretary snapped: "It's all right to let your offices know that you have heard a rumor, but before you write a line you should try to confirm it, and if you can't confirm it, don't print it." That, he explained, meant getting the Navy's O.K.

This manifestation of censorial logic was interesting. It was easy to see how the information in question could embarrass the Administration politically in dealing with its isolationist opponents. How it could bring any military danger to the safety or lives of Americans to have other nations know that the U.S. is making at least two divisions ready to fight, the Secretary did not explain. He just asserted it.

But the Secretary went further. Reporters also asked about the truth of a report by Columnists Alsop & Kintner that a U.S. destroyer on Atlantic patrol dropped depth bombs on a German submarine. The Secretary was really sore this time. Roared he: "I don't know where they got their information, but I know that it was a terrible thing to print it, right or wrong."

The reporter came back to the main question: Was the Alsop & Kintner story true? Answer: "I wouldn't tell you if I knew it to be true." But the Secretary did not say it was false.

Equally interesting was this second manifestation of Knox logic. If the Government has declared war, it may have military reasons for suppressing the news of a particular action. But in a democracy the people are presumably entitled to know when the shooting starts, particularly if the Government has not told them, and the function of a free, critical and informative press is to safeguard democracy by seeing that the people hear what they are entitled to know.

When true military secrets need protection, the only effective censorship is censorship at source, for so-called voluntary censorship, which is subject to many a dangerous abuse, is no solution. Said one newsman to Secretary Knox privately last week: "A Japanese friend of mine told me that a British warship is in a U.S. port. [He named the type of ship, the place and its commander.] The British Commander has seen a lot of action, has a fine story to tell, and we can't tell it. I'm just sitting on the story. It doesn't make any difference to me. But I just want you to know that a Japanese told me about it in the first place."

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