The Carlisle independent., 1917-11-01
CREEL BUREAU IS
DOING BIG WORK
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
Americansm Constitute Largest
Part of Its Task
BY GEORGE w. CLINTON.

BY GEORGE w. CLINTON.
Washington. = Some months ago
/ President Wilson by executive order
/ established what is known as the COM
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 1t has la
bored, il seems that retraction of criti-
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
OF public information was charged
almost solely with the duty of pro-
viaiag 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
rete, 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 Stupendous Work
/ Certain it 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 stupendous,
/ 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 Il better understanding Of
the real constructive work which the
committee is trying to do, and the at
titude towards 1t l 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 il 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
i papers have suffered and their CORE
/ spondents with them.
The committee on public informa-
ton has been engaged from the day of
i its organization in giving to the peo-
/ pie of the country who hitherto had
not received it, the reasons for Amer
cas- entry into the war; the story of
I Germany's aggressions and inhumani-
/ ties and of the workings of a govern
ment which even today thinks that it
can dominate the world and make au-
tocracy its ruler.
Through thousands of avenues the
| gospel of Americanism has been sent
+ forth by the committee. The duty is
a high one and the men who are try
Ing to do it seemingly ought to have
commentator in their work.
Treasury Busy Place.
1t seems hardly possible that An
drew Jackson when he laid the
corner stone of the United States
treasury could hnve had any thought
In tbs back of his head of the
day when ;hs bailding which soon was
to srrsna before his eyes would be the
hive Of Industry that It is today. The
treasury 10 rs wliirring inside as the
state. w'ar and navy building. and
when this is said it means business"
The treasury Is more than a treas
ury. 1t is not only the place where