The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-11-23
GROWING APPRECIATION OF THE
MUCH ABUSED COMMITTEES
ON PUBLIC INFORMATION.
LAB0Rs UNDER DIFFICULTIES
Yelling People Why We Are In the
War and Spreading the Doctrine Of
Americanism Constitute Largest
Part Of Its Task.
BY EDWARD ..

mittee or public Information. There
have been criticisms In multitude Of
the work Of the committee. and con
one of the fault finders.
1t Is only right to say that as a more
proper understanding has come of the
work Of the committee, and the pecu-
liar d~if1culties under which 1t has la
bored. 1t seems that retraction Of criti-
cism I'm considerable part should be
made and that the members of the
committee should be given credit for
doing an enormous work well.
The committee on public informa-
lion as constituted by the president Is
composed Of the secretary of state, the
secretary of war. the secretary of the
navy, and a civilian chairman charged
with executive direction of the work.
The civilian chairman Is George Creel.
There val a feeling among newspaper
men at the outset that the committee
on public information was charged
almost solely with the duty of pro-
viding actual news for the press. In
part this was Its duty, and II still Is
continuing along the lines of an In.
formation bureau which has In 1t the
features which ~differentiate the faces
of real news stories from those Of hui
man interest and purely informative
stories. But II also has a greater
work Of information to do.
A man feels, once In awhile at any
rate. that he ought to make an at
tempt to be fair, and IL he 10 peni-
tently inclined for past deeds to try
TO make that which the classically In
clined call the amende honorable.
Doing q s~tupendous Work.
Certain II Is that the committee
on public information has had Its trou-
bles and still is having them to a less
er extent. Its work is s~tupendous, a
fact which does not seem to be known
thoroughly to the country, nor to be
understood In full by some people who
see little or no good In anything that
the committee does or tries to do.
The newspaper correspondents In
Washington had all kinds Of difficult
ties at the outset with the committee
and the difficulties as yet are not any
thing like entirely cleared from the
track. Newspaper men here. however.
are getting a better understanding OF
the real constructive work which the
committee Is trying to do. and the at
titude towards II l believe Is changing.
In the first place 1t has been dis,
covered that the committee on public
Information is not In the largest sense
news disseminating body. The real
news that 1t turns out forms about
pne-tenth Of the bulk OF Its product.
II was only recently that some Of us
discovered the magnitude Of educa-
tional work of the right kind which
these newspaper men laborers are try
ing to do.
Some Things Have Gone Wrong.
There have been some unfortunate
happenings so far as the newspaper
world Is concerned, In the Creel bu-
reau. The things that have gone
wrong are the things that everybody
points to and knows about. while the
things which have gone right are
those things with which the CORE
spondent In Washington does not have
to concern himself with intimately.
In the cases of "awryness." real news
has been involved and therefore some
papers have suffered and their corre-
spondents with them.
Americans who have been heart,
soul and spirit In war endeavor have
known In many parts of the country
there are millions Of people who have
been wondering and asking why we
are In the war, and among the millions
there have been hundreds Of thou
sands who have thought and some Of
whom perhaps are still thinking that
we ought not to have entered Into hos
tilities.
The committee on public informa-
tion has been engaged from the day Of
its organization In giving to the peo-
pie Of the country who hitherto had
not received II, the reasons for Amer
cas- entry into the war. the story Of
Germany's aggressions and inhumani-
ties and Ut the workings Of a govern
ment which even today thinks that 1t
can dominate the world and make au-
tocracy Its ruler.
Through thousands of the
gospel Of Americanism has been sent
forth by the committee. The duty is
= high one and the men who are try
Ing to do 1t seemingly ought to have
eommendatiOn In their work.
It has been a hard thing for the
men charged with the work Of giving
out information to learn Just what
they can and just what they cannot
make public. judgment becomes LENT
ent and criticism Is In part disarmed
when one learns the facts In the case.
Whatever else may be said, the COM
mittee on public Information Is spread
Ing the doctrine Of Americanism and
this certaihly sesms to BE- q thing en-
tlrely worth while n this day Of tho
presence II places - n attsnuateo
0n1nkn1tsm.