Arizona republican., 1918-06-28
Mr. Creel's Handicsps

We have before the report of the subcommittee of the house committee appropriations the subject of appropratng g O9s 900 for the Committee Public Information. Mir Creel, the head of the committee was of course, the chief witness Mir. Cree described at length the trials of the Com mittee Public Information largely, gather. from the fact that there connected with it who know nothing about the business of distributing n- formation and who satisfied with lesser degree of accuracy than newspaper generally For instance, some of the men on whom Mir. Creel had to depend content to make a guess at what going in their several departments and let it go out for a fact.
 At one time in the discussion there seems to have been attempt to arrive at the point where boosting could be safely abandoned for fact. Altogether. Mr. Greet made fair showing before a somewhat hostile committee of the important work of his organization and which had nothing do with boost ing. Such stories had subjected the committee to criticism, Mir. Creel said from authoritative sources and the committee had no opportunity to verify them.
 One of them frankly mentioned by Mir Creel in this wise:
 The other (criticism) believe was alleged in connection with airpane motor. The I had in mind, though it a criticism that directed at myself rather than public attack related the issuance of story to the effect that perfect
 
 and that, a result of their labors per cent perfect type of motor had evolved When it developed later that there about 250 things wrong with it. it rather worried and started me this train of thought, which directed to pro- tectng the committee against the issuance stories that were not verified in every degree, and upon which would not be able to stand absolutely within our own statements to the accuracy of the statements.
 Another thing that had previously worried MT. Creel the publication of the now famous state ment regarding airpane production. That story, Mr. Creel said, came to the committee from the war de- partment and had the approval of General Squier and also that of General Mcintyre Tt was so phrased," said Mr. Greet, "as to show that it was issued under the authorization of the secretary of and we issued that statement" It was in that publication that the statement was made that air. planes had been shipped to France.
 It was after this contretemps that Mir Creel se- cured from Secretary Baker permission to install civilians in the department that they might check up such information originated there. Another incl dent in connection with the airplane industry was the issuance by the Committee on Public Information of certain pictures that had been given out by Colonel Deeds showing airplane production the factories The pictures themselves genuine and not imag- mary but they were pictures of training planes a fact that was not announced in the caption and the public naturally took them for battleplanes. We were asked by the senate committee" said Mir Creel to withdraw these pictures. ana we did so at once"
 Another story to which some objection had been made said Mir. Greet, that of the battle between the transports and enemy submarines about July of last year The story, Mir. Greet said, was based on cabegram received at the navy department from Admiral Gleaves. The story was prepared by Mir. cree himself with help from navy officer, and was sent out the signature of the secretary Of the navy It turned out afterward it was sub stanaiy true. though Mir. Greet says there were certain flamboyancies perhaps, about it's connection with the Fourth of July inasmuch incident oc cured about two weeks before the Fourth or on June 22.
 Previous to the substantial confirmation of the story the Associated Press had another yer sion to the effect that there were no submarines but that the gunners of the were practicins on some floating logs. But extended report iron, Admiral Gleaves, supplemented by a French report. confirmed that the convoy had actually been at- tackled.