The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1926-01-14
WASHINGTON LETTER

Washington, Jan. 13-Trere is n
mistakable evidence that Congress
has settled down to it's old tactics
declarations Sin the peoples interest
have found their wat into the Con
1gressional Record. There are thous
ands of bills that have been dumpe'
into the Legislative hopper and nov
the committees are endeavoring tt
separate, the wheat from the Chaff
The renewal of Investigations indi
Gates that humdrum days are at hand
Experienced observers in Washing
ton are watching the developments il
the battle of propagandists, The
Monograph machines are CONSTANT!
in action turning out statements b!
various groups on pending Legislation
and on economic questions dealing
with the Government. Many of these
organized campaigns are based upor
sound arguments which can only be
put over through coordinated effort
1t is seldom that Congress listens to
the voice of one man or unorganized
groups. The Government, however
is the greatest contributor to the
propaganda campaigns with every
bureau turning out reamS of copy
which is frequently worthless to news
paper readers.
This new branch of activity relat-
ing to governmental affairs is an out
growth of the war. 1t will be recalled
that George Creel, Director of Pub
lie Information sponsored this meth
cd of contributing canned" inter
views or official statements. ;" Pre-
vious to the advent of the Creel era
of public relations, the White House
was almost exclusive in the "hand-
out" of mimeographed statements
Nowadays every government office,
no matter how small, has publicity
representative and hundreds OF
mimeograph machines.
1t requires considerable skill for
newspaper correspondents to dig out
real information from the censored
statements. In order to hold their
jobs special correspondents are oblig-
ed todevote some time to inquiry
behind the scenes so that they can
rightly interpret the trend of affairs.
There is growing resentment against
government press agents and the sup
preston of personal interviews. with
Federal executives. 1t is said on re-
liable authority that one of the Sc
crets of Herbert Hoover's tremendous
power is his frankness in dealing with
writer's, although he, too, maintain
large publicity bureau.
With the primaries in several states
close at hand it is expected that the
debate on the tax bill in the Senate
will produce political capital. The
country does not seem particularly
interested in the World Court de-
bates, although some very forceful ar
guments have been made on both
sides. Prolonged discussion of the
League of Nations coming at the
close of the World War when the
people were especially attuned to
world affairs attracted unusual atten-
ton. The personality of Woodrow
Wilson marked that debate At the
present discussion of international
affairs Mr.. Coolidge is not featured
and public interest has apparently
waned.
Therefore, it is reasonable to be-
1ieve that the tax bill will be passed
just before March Is, when millions
of American citizens must figure out
their tax returns and make the usual
payments. A subject dealing with the
pocketbooks is more important to the
average citizen than foreign affairs :;
than the Nations position on arma-
ment, as the selfish interests pre-
dominate.
The economy arguments relative to
the Government are not featured in
discussions these days. The Bureaeu
of Efficiency which was created for
the purpose of studying efficiency
ratings and duplication of work and
methods of business in the various
branches of the Government service
has functioned quietly. Out of 33
made in the report
submitted to Congress in 1922, eight
have already been adopted in whole
or in part. Recommendations dealt
primarily with the transferring to a
single organized unit under the De-
partment of Commerce the collection
and dissemination of all statistics.
T.
In every town tire are ambition
folks wanting to enroll as workers fol
the government. The annual report
of the United States Civil Service
Commission has been discussed by
several members of Congress who,
we're concerned over theeir patronage
list. It is significant to note that the