The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-04-24

From this it will be seen that each story, with
its fund of human interest and useful information
combined, reaches a different circulation "the
distribution being governed entirely by the range
of applicab ility of the information it contains"
It is the desire of the Office of information to
prepare these stories that they may be printed
without editing revision It is in this that lies
one of the strengths of the agricultural depart
ment information service, for it that scien-
tifc terms and phraseology eliminated wher-
ever possible, that the significance to the people
of the bulletin which the story is based is
emphasized, and that specific, but easy instruc-
tons given to enable the people to do that
which the bulletin recommends. The stories,
therefore, be called Constructive news"
They tell the people what they do and how to
do it.
The department of agriculture takes great care
to make its stories accurate Everything that is
put out by the office of information is submitted
for approval, first to the author second, to the
chief of the Office bureau which has charge
of the subjects with which the story Is con-
cerned; third, to a second chief of bureau in
order that he may check up any undue en-
phasis particular aspect of a given prob
lem, and, fourth, to the secretary assistant
secretary of agriculture for final approval
1t would seem that with these safeguards moth
ing can be sent out which will be misleading to
the people. 1t can be said that since the Office
of information created it has been rigid
rule to avoid any appearance of personal pub
Hcity. In the information stories which sent
out neither the names of individuals nor even
the names of the different Offices and bureaus
in the department are printed unless they are
absolutely essential to the story. Every state
ment that is made is given upon the authority Of
the department and not upon that of part of it.
No stories are sent out from the Office of infor-
nation about what the department of agriculture
intends to do or hopes to do Neither is anything
said in praise of the departments work. Plain
statements are given of what has been done and
recommended This is all. 1t can be said that
seemingly this policy has brought about a very
appreciate change in the way in which the
newspapers regard agricultural news Once the
daily press inclined to consider that the
only interesting stories were those which were
personal in character, sensational what
might be called freakish. Now it is believed that
the newspapers are much more disposed to meas
ure the value Of story by the value
of the Information it conveys.
The Office of information does not measure the
worth of newspaper circulation by numerical
standards, but rather by the appropriateness OF
each story that it sends out to the necessities
of the readers. So it be said that the farm
papers regarded a much more valuable
medium than the daily press for purely agrfcul
tural Stories and the papers circulating in rural
districts much more valuable for the same
kind OF reading matter
No absolutely accurate information can be had
to the extent of the circulation given to nfor-
nation stories by the agricultural department
service. 1t is said that clippings are received