The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-08-25

H4HS y MM person Is q comedian VINO can't
n comede. Pardon the assumption,
~ ESzzS$ SIC. but l can prove this. In fact, 1
HTTS would bet one of Samuel's per-
&1Hlnaz@@D fectly good beaver hats on It.
The other day 1 took dinner at
the Doughnut Cabinet in the New Willard hotel, in
our capital city, and had a talk with Uncle Sam
and a few of his congressman. Oh, no, this Dough-
nut Cabinet has nothing to do with a kitchen cabi-
net, nor that tasty breakfast morsel-its the room
which some of your Uncle Sans servants are said
TO seek when they want to talk it over and dine a
bit at the same time. l simply took notes as l
talked with Uncle Sam and his servants. One
congressman was in a particularly loquacious Mood
and his thoughts turned toward agriculture.
You Know" said the congressman, II was hack
home a while before election and I met Farmer
Smith whom l knew as a boy. Naturally l was
glad to see him, but 1 couldn't help pulling my time
worn offer on him, the formula for which runs like
TINS; My dear Smith, I have at my disposal a long
list Of bulletins published by the department Of
agriculture at Washington l also have a few pack
ages of seeds selected for me by the departments
scientists. 1t would afford me great pleasure, my
old friend, TO send to you either the goods or some
Of the bulletins. What will it be, SMITH
Now, Smith has no moss growing on his dome,
even if he did take off his cap and scratch his head
before he made his decision. He had received both
bulletins and seeds from me many times before.
Well said Smith, Il think 1 would rather have a
bulletin with a live thought in it than a seed with a
, dead germ"
Apparently Farmer Smith appreciates my bulle-
tins" exclaimed Uncle Sam. I'm glad to hear
that, for I'm making every effort to put into them
the practical knowledge dug out by my scientists
and Investigators. Last year l distributed through
you congressman and the department of agriculture
upward of 100000 copies of Farmers Bulletins,
the subjects of which covered in some respects the
entire gamut of the widely varied activities of the
department. But it is impossible for me to supply
even the six million farm families with all Of the
bulletins issued. Consequently the bulletins of the
department are regarded as a foundation work
upon which the superstructure is built.
ITO supplement these bulletins I decided about
three years ago to have a regular service bureau
such as is provided by some of the large business
enterprises, only mine was to tap a reservoir so
great and so deep as to contain an inexhaustible
fund of unbiased, scientific information. 1 chris
tened this innovation office of information and it
has lived up TO its name.
"In order to start the Office of information on the
right basis from the standpoint of the newspapers
and other periodicals., l secuted about for some
time and finally secured the services of two old
New York newspaper and advertising men and put
them into the Office with instructions to get their
facts right by referring the stories to the scientists
for a final o. X but TO write or edit them so the
periodicals would publish them and the people
would read them. 1t was a difficult task, but 1t has
been accomplished, as evidenced by the miles Of
clippings of stories sent to Inc by the various clip
ping bureaus. This convinced me that 1 was get
ting more of the departments information before
the people-supplementing the bulletin service.
you wouldn't believe it, but some people con-
fused this maiden effort and thought l had started
a publicity campaign. Far from it! They did not
realize the difference between the giving out of in
formation of a purely educational character, based
upon facts for which the people already had paid
their money, and the usual publicity matter. The
office of information performs the service of max
ing available to newspapers and other periodicals.,
in the form with which they are familiar, the
practical knowledge dug out by the departments
scientists In field and laboratory Investigations.
These men, trained In their specialties, are neces-
sarily not newspaper or advertising men and, there
fore, do not know the periodicals want their ar
ticles prepared.
"Only occasionally does a scientist possess a
nose for news and even less frequently can he ex-
press his news in a way that would escape the
vigilant eye and active blue pencil of an editor.
Only the other day l heard a congressman say: An
investigator is a man who has found out what ev-
crybody already knows and tells about it in Ian
guage which nobody can understand
1.-THE statement about the language used by
many scientists certainly is true, but / have to pay
my respects to them as Investigators. Their diff
fcult lingo is necessary to them, although to the
layman it may not always be advisable to de-
scribe common rainfall as falling meteoric water
or to write about the elimination and toxicity Of
cuffein in unprecedented rabbits-whatever that
means. The scientist, however, insists on 1t for &C
curacy's sake, and accuracy is his middle name.
"You might as well try to pump the ocean dry"
continued Samuel with emphasis, "as to exhaust
the information of my scientists along their special
lines. Much to the delight of the boys in the
office, however, 1t is not always necessary to-
,pump' this knowledge. Scientists frequently are
very susceptible to attack by the Bacillus scribendi.
The manuscripts resulting from the work of this
s~cribbling bacillus are put into news shape by the
office of information. But, for one reason or an
other, this germ at times becomes encysted and 1t
is necessary to inoculate in a new spot. This the
Office does by interviewing scientists who are busy
chasing heterogeneous, which the newspaper man
can't do. or are exhausted from telling the people