The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1915-04-23

ZtW w\ TO spread useful agricultural am
MyV W \ household information among tn
! \H4 people through the medium Of tn
! i press of the country. The attemp
| has been highly successful, as per
haps the readers OF newspapers d
not need to be told for the interesting and and a
! times compelling writings of the service men hav,
been before them from day to day
In the department Of agriculture there Is an of
nee OF information which created in June 1913
before It's establishment there had been no active
ehort to give directly to the people the results OF
the departments work Walter H. Page at pres
ent the American ambassador to Great Britain said
on thls subject or getting agricultural information
10 the people that the department Had been reser
Volrlng an enormous of information collected
with the peoples money and which the people were
entitled to get"
In the past there issue at frequent inter.
Vas publications largely in bulletin FORM but with
he exception OF more or less perfunctory notices OF
their appearances comparatively little was done 10
make the public aware that they were at ifs dis
posaL One Of the first things that the Office NJ q,
formation did, therefore, to develop a system
by which absolutely accurate newspaper storios
Dased on the material contained in these bulletins
@oouIu @ DC sent out to such newspaper, which, It
seemed reasonable to expect from the nature of the
various subjects, would be Interested in pubIiobin
theh TOT the sake OF their readers This work sti1
forms large part of the activities OF the office
some tlme ago there a criticism Of what wore
called the publicity efforts OF the department of o.;
culture Inc critics did not understand at all tho
nature OF the work which was being done Tbv
seemed TO think that press agency had been es
taDllshed simply for the purpose of boomipo tho
ac'lVlues or the agricultural department with view
perhaps as some of the critics may have tbouob,
OF saying something kindly occasionally about tho
officials Of government concerned in the r,
Crluclsm passed quickly, for congress was told IN
letter 10 speaker Champ Clark of the house of ran
resentatives of just what the information work ~
the department consisted, and sharn limo ,a
between nj he info
was being sent out and the usual stuff which g.
turned out by publicity bureau which is nor %
all necessarily an information bureau
In the letter to the speaker of the house tbe coo
retarE OF agriculture said this:
THE nation is spending through tho denor,
ment many millions of dollars in acquiring agr
cultural information. II would be little short of
criminal to spend millions of dollars to acquire
Information and not to use every possible eff.
cient agency available for placing il at the dis
posal of the people as promptly as possible II
is the purpose of the office 1.-THE office of informa.
toni with as little delay possible, through
every proper medium, to give the knowledge
which the department possesses as the result of
investigations and field work to all the people
who desire 1t should have It, The office un.
dertakes to deal solely with facts, with sugges-
tons of remedies and of methods of applying
them in every field of agriculture"
Prior to the time that the office of information
was created nearly all the printed matter con
veyng information in the form of bulletins
and circulars and the issues not very vol.
luminous Frequently great deal of time was
required finally to prepare the bulletin, to print
it and to distribute it. Il was inevitable for
many reasons that these bulletins could not
reach the great of the people who would
be interested in them. Many farmers did not
know that the service was at their disposal
They knew nothing about the bulletins which
of them would be helpful to them. nor did
they know how to secure them. Moreover, the
publications largely technical, were diff
fcult to interpret, TO understand and to apply.
One of the particular duties OF the depart
ments office of information is to pat the matter
which comes from the different bureaus in tech
nica scientific form into language which lay
readers understand 1t seemed easier and
better to the department officials that the Office
Of information should choose the matter of spe-
cial value to particular districts or sections of
the Union and TO have il distributed to such sec
tions quickly. 1t had been found that delay in
issuing the official printed bulletins and in mail
ing them often defeated the ends OF real Service
In case of the appearance in some district of an
insect plague or of disease that menaced the
stock, quick action. of course, It was realized,
necessary TO accomplish results.
The Inauguration of the service of information
IT is at present carried out necessitated most
efficient mailing system which would enable the
office to circulate its material among those
classes of publications and in those sections of
the country which could derive benefit from It,
and at the same time avoid distribution that
would be expensive to the government and use
less to the newspapers and If they should pub
lish it, TO their readers.
Now there is mailing system installed and
under operation by the division of publication
and by means of il the publications of the
try classified geographically and by their
character Now IL is possible to transmit
story to all the newspapers in the United States
TO all the newspapers in any city or group OF
cities, to all the farm publications in the country
or in any state. omtting the general newspapers
TO the trade papers OF any or all OF the
trades, to daily newspapers in big cities alone
or to those in small county seats alone-in short
practically any desired combination of pubca-
tions is possible