"They decided to do something utterly illegal and censor the mail of people inside the United States - which they have no right to do. So it had to be set up ve

"They decided to do something utterly illegal and censor the mail of people inside the United States - which they have no right to do. So it had to be set up very delicately as a voluntary thing. We would all volunteer not to seal the envelopes of the letters we sent out, and it would be all right for them to open letters coming in to us; that was voluntarily accepted by us. We would leave our letters open; and they would seal them if they were OK. If they weren't OK in their opinion, they would send the letter back to us with a note that there was a violation of such and such a paragraph of our "understanding." " Notice the implication that it was reasonable to censor mail going to soldiers outside the country, (in WWII) but not inside the US. "I get a letter from my wife that says, “It's very difficult writing because I feel that the _____ is looking over my shoulder." And where the word was, there is a splotch made with ink eradicator. So I went down to the bureau, and I said, “You're not supposed to touch the incoming mail if you don't like it. You can look at it, but you're not supposed to take anything out." They said, “Don't be ridiculous. Do you think that's the way censors work - with ink eradicator? They cut things out with scissors." I said OK. So I wrote a letter back to my wife and said, “Did you use ink eradicator in your letter?" She writes back, “No, I didn't use ink eradicator in my letter, it must have been the____ and there's a hole cut out of the paper" "I went to see my wife in Albuquerque that day, she said, “Well, where's all the stuff?" I said, “What stuff?" She said, “Litharge, glycerine, hot dogs, laundry.” I said, “Wait a minute - that was a list?" She said, “Yes." "That was a code", I said. "They thought it was a code - litharge, glycerine, etc."