INTERNATIONAL CLUB DEBATE CENSORS PRESS

That the press in general and the American press in particular has been a malignant factor in international relations was the opinion of approximately 40 delegates convened at a meeting of the International Council held last night.

Among other instances cited during the debate and discussion on the subject "The influence of the Press as a Cause of International Conflict", the action of the Hearst papers during the Spanish-American war was especially viewed with disapprobation. The representative papers of the individual countries were laid open to investigation and severe criticism, and the policy of strict censorship followed by Mussolini which allows at the same time the invasion of diplomatic relations with both France and Switzerland.

Censorship, it was felt, is merely a worse situation than that of the existing press trust in America. In commenting upon typical American news papers, it was offered by one delegate that there are those to know and those to "know of" in which latter category were mentioned the Hearst combines and the Boston American as its local representative.

In conclusion a resolution was drawn up by the Council offering the opinion that. "The press is a preponderant factor in causing international conflicts."