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

~~ to spread useful agricultural and
QW \ household information among the
Va people through the medium or the
press of the country. The attempt
has been highly successful as per-
haps the readers of newspapers do
not need be told, for the interesting and and at
times compelling writings of the service men have
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 active
effort to give directly to the people the results of
the departments work Walter H. Page, at pres
the American ambassador Great Britain, said
this subject of getting agricultural information
to the people that the department Had been reser
voiring enormous of information collected
with the peoples money which the people were
entitled to get
In the past there we're issued at frequent inter
walls publications largely in bulletin FORM but with
the exception or less perfunctory notices
their appearances comparatively little done to
make the public that they at its dis
posa One of the first things that the Office of in
formation did therefore to develop a system
| by which absolutely accurate newspaper stories
based the material contained in these bulletins
could be sent out to such newspaper, which it
seemed reasonable to expect from the nature the
various subjects, would be interested in publishing
them for the of their readers This work still
forms large part of the activities of the office.
Some time ago there criticism of what were
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 Thew
seemed to think that press agency had been es-
| taDIShed simply Tor the purpose OF booming the
activities of the agricultural department with view
! perhaps. 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 was told in
letter to Speaker Champ Clark of the house of rem
resentatives of just what the information work of
| the department consisted and a 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 information bureau.
IN the letter 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 it at the dis
! posal of the people promptly possible It
is the purpose of the office 1.-THE office of infOrma
toni, with as little delay as possible. through
every proper medium to give the knowledge
which the department possesses the result of
investigations and field work to all the people
who desire it should have it. The office
dertakes to deal solely with facts, with sugges
| lions of remedies, and of methods of applying
| them every field of agriculture
Prior to the time that the Office of Information
was created nearly all the printed matter
veying information in the form of bulletins
| and circulars and the issues not very vol
| luminous Frequently a great deal of time
required finally to prepare the bulletin, to print
! it and to distribute it. 1t was inevitable for
| many reasons that these bulletins could not
| reach the great mass OF the people VINO WOuld
| be interested in them. Many farmers did not
know that the service 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
publications largely were technical were diff
| fcult to interpret, to understand and to apply
One of the particular duties of the depart
ment's Office information is to put the matter
which comes from the different bureaus IN tech
meal or scientific form into language which lay
readers can 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 it distributed to such sec
lions quickly. 1t had been found that delay IN
issuing official printed bulletins and IN mall
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, 1t was reahzed'
was necessary to accomplish results
The Inauguration of the service of information
as it 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 a 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 it 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 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
lions is possible