Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1917-11-02
GROWING APPRECIATION OF THE
MUCH ABUSED COMMITTEE
ON PUBLIC INFORMATION.
LAB0RS UNDER DIFFICULTIES
Telling People Why We Are in the
War and Spreading the Doctrine OF
Americanism Constitute Largest
Part of Its Task.
BY GEORGE w. CLINTON.

NO~A~
mittee on public information. There
have been criticisms in multitude OF
the work of the committee, and con-
fessedly the one who writes this was
one of the fault finders.
1t is only right to say that as more
proper understanding has come of the
work of the committee, and the pecu-
liar difficulties under which it has Ia
bored, it seems that retracti of crit
ciSm in 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-
ton 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 was 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 it still is
continuing along the lines of an In
formation bureau which has in it the
features which differentiate the faces
of real news stories from those of hui
man interest and purely informative
stories. But it 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 if he is peni-
tently inclined for past deeds to try
to make that which the claSsically In
-clined call the amende honorable.
Doing a Stupendous Work.
Certain it is that the committee
on public information has had it's trOu-
bles and still is having them to less
er extent. It's work is stupendous, 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 better understanding of
the real constructive work which the
committee is trying TO do, and the at
titude towards it believe is changing.
In the first place it has been dis
covered that the committee on public
information is not in the largest sense
news disseminating body. The real
news that it turns out forms about
one-tenth of the bulk of it's product.
1t 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 CORE
spondents with them.
The committee on public infOrma
ton has been engaged from the day OF
its organization In giving to the PEG
pIe of the country who hitherto had
not received it, the reasons for Amer
,cn's entry into the war, the story OF
tSermany's aggressions and inhumani
ties and of the workings of a govern
ment which even today thinks that II
can dominate the world and make au
tocracy its ruler.
Through thousands of avenues the
gospel of Americanism has been SEN
forth by the committee. The duty /:
a high one ana the men who are try
ing to do it seemingly ought to have
commentator In their work.
Treasury Busy Place.
n seems hardly possible that An
drew Jackson when he laid the
corner stone of the United States
treasury could have had any thought
in the back of his head of the
day when the building which soon wa:
ia spring before his eyes would be th'
hive of industry that it is today. Tbs
treasury is as whirring inside as th'
state. war and navy building. ant
when this is said it means business
The treasury is more than treas
ury. 1t is not only the place where
Uncle Sam keeps large part OF III
boards of gold, silver, and banknotes
bnt IL is the place where means o
raising the wind" to meet every emer
rencv of war and peace must be givei
thourht. Ii is the very center o
finance.
Even in times OF peace the treasur,
,,wavs is heavily guarded. hut then
nevertheless. it is possible in bushes
l.mrs to get into IT through fifteen 9