Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1915-04-23


haps the readers of newspapers do
not need to told for the interesting and and at
times compelling writings of the service men nave
been before them from day to day.
In the department of agriculture there is an OF
flee of information which created in June, 1913.
Before its establishment there had been no active
effort give directly to the people the results OF
the departments work Walter II. Page. at pres
ent the American ambassador to Great Britain said
on this subject of getting agricultural information
to the people that the department Had been reser-
voiring an enormous of information collected
with the peoples money and which the people were
entitled to get"
In the past there were issued at frequent inter
walls publications largely in bulletin form, but with
the exception of less perfu1ctory notices of
their appearances comparatively little was done to
make the public that they at its dis
posal One of the first things that the office of in
formation did, therefore, to develop system
by which absolutely accurate newspaper stories
based on the material contained in these bulletins
could be sent out to such newspaper which it
seemed reasonable expect from the nature of the
various subjects would be interested in publishing
them for the sake of their readers This work still
forms a large part of the activities of the office.
Some time ago there criticism of what
called the publicity efforts of the department of agr
culture. The critics did not understand at all the
nature of the work which being done They
seemed to think that press agency had been es
tabshed simply for the purpose of booming the
activities of the agricultural department with view
perhaps, as of the critics may have thought
of saying something kindly occasionally about the
officials of government concerned in the work
Criticism passed quickly, for congress told In
letter to Speaker Champ Clark of the house of rep
resentatives of just what the information work of
the department consisted, and sharp line was
drawn between the nature of the information which
being sent out and the usual stuff which is
turned out by a publicity bureau which is not at
all necessarily an information bureau.
In the letter to the speaker Of the house the sec
rotary Of agriculture said this:
The nation is spending through the depart
ment many millions Of dollars in acquiring agri-
cultural information 1t would be little short Of
criminal to spend millions Of dollars to acquire
information and not to every possible eff
cient agency available for placing 1t at the dis
posal of the people promptly possible 1t
is the purpose of the Office 1.-THE Office of informa-
toni, with 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 I'M
dertakes to deal solely with facts, with sugges-
tions 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-
veying information was in the form OF bulletins
and circulars and the issues were not very vol
luminous Frequently great deal of time was
required finally to prepare the bulletin, to print
it and to distribute it. 1t was inevitable for
reach the great of the people who would
he interested in them. Many farmers did not
know that the service was at their disposal
They knew nothing about the bulletins or which
ones of them would be helpful to them nor did
they know how to secure them. Moreover. the
notifications largely were technical, diff
hcult to interpret, to understand and to apply.
One of the particular duties of the depart
ments office of information is to put the matter
which comes from the different bureaus in tech
meal or scientific form into language which lay
readers understand 1t seemed easier ana
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 it 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 a disease that menaced the
stock quick action of course. 1t was realized,
was necessary to accomplish results
The Inauguration of the service of information
as il is at present carried out necesstated 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 a mailing system installed and
under operation Dy the DIVISION OF puohcduoh
and by means of 1t the publications of the coun-
try are classified geographically and by their
character Now it 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 emitting the general newspapers,
to the trade papers of any one 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 publica-
tons is possible.