Of all times, U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle chose last week to ask Congress for a censorship law. And what a law!
The War Secrets Bill, which would make all existing censorship seem downright lax, would make it a criminal offense to "communicate, divulge or publish to any person, in whole or in part, copies or the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of any file, instrument, letter, memorandum, book, pamphlet, paper, document, manuscript, map, picture, plan, record or other writing" declared secret or confidential by any department of the Government. It was a gag bill, with a touch of the garrote.
Too...