Evening star., 1939-10-22
Control Of Public Opinion
Is Essential in Time of War
Uncle Sam Has Developed Blue Print, Subject to
Amendment, for Such an Organization
in Emergency
By Cedric Larson.

" LUZ oOHs
is much more delicate problem. It is
proposed to meet this dilemma some-
what as Britain and France have done
by officially establishing superagency
of public information, in our case, the
blueprints giving it the name Of Public
Relations Administration, or P. r. A., as
it would doubtless be called.
The duty of the P. R. A. might be said
to be the dissemination at home and
abroad of official publicity material re-
lating to the successful prosecution Of
the war, and at the same time to prevent
information of value from reaching the
enemy.
President Would Create p. r. A.
Upon the theoretical outbreak of war,
the President will be clothed with vast
powers as President Wilson was in 1917.
He would establish p r. A. by execu-
tive order, just as in the case of Wilson
and the Creel Committee on Public In
formation in April, 1917.
At the head of P r. A. would be an
administrator, appointed by the Presi-
dent and responsible to him. The ad-
ministrator would be member of the
Advisory Defense Council and would be
assted by deputy administrator.
Working with the administrator would
be the Public Relations Council, COM
posed of the deputy administrator, the
director of publicity, the director of COM
munications control and member of
the Joint Army and Navy Public Rela-
tions Committee. The purpose of the
council would be to advise and assist
the administrator in formulating policy
and executing plans agreed upon.
What might be called the legislative
branch of P. r. A. would be the CO.
ordinating and Liaison Committee COM
posed of representatives of the executive
departments, emergency agencies, Fed
eral corporations, commissions or boards
lishments. Each governmental entity
would enjoy one representative on this
central committee which would be pre-
sided over by the deputy administrator.
The purpose of this committee would be
to make known the needs of each and
every governmental establishment, to
thresh out problems in common to CO.
ordinate effort and insure uniform policy.
Another key position of P. R. A. would
be that of director of publicity, who would
have to be man having a wide knowl-
edge of public relations. His Office would
have on call an advisory committee
composed of leaders from the different
fields of publicity analogous to the divi-
sions of his Office. Roughly, nve major
subdivisions are contemplated: News,
radio, advertising, pictures (still and
.moving) and civic cooperation lex
hibits, patriotic and religious organiza-
tions, welfare activities, speakers, etc..
The personnel of his Office would COM
prise competent journalists, advertising
specialists, radio commentators, talking
picture experts and others Of recognized
ability in allied fields. Their combined
training, competency and prestige as a
group would be such as to obtain un-
questioned cooperation from all impor-
tant publicity media.
Communications Director.
Counterbalancing the civilian organi-
zation headed by the director of pub
licity, would be the director of COM
munication CONTROL or in less ambitious
language, the censor. This man should
possess an intimate grasp of communi-
cation systems Working with him would
be an advisory committee composed of
representatives of the Post Office De-
partment, Federal Communications
Commission, as well as top men from
the telephone, telegraph, cable and radio
industries, civil and military. AS was
the case with President Wilson, actual
supervision of means of external commu-
nication would be intrusted to the armed
forces, such as radio and cables to the
Navy, and mail, telegraph and telephone
to the Army.
AS in World War No. /, the chief
appeal would be directed by P. r. A.
for voluntary cooperation" of the prin-
cipal media of publicity In the case of
newspapers, for example, such voluntary
cooperation might be secured through
personal representatives of newspapers,
press associations, syndicates, news pho
tographers and so on
Seven basic functions for P. r. A. are
to: Cd Coordinate publicity programs
OF all governmental agencies for the best
results for the common welfare; CO
function as bureau of information for
energetic dissemination of the war aims
of the Government both at home and
abroad; 90 combat domestic disaffec-
ton; Cd combat enemy propaganda in
ternally and externally; (5) integrate
all existing publicity media to the best
advantage for prosecution of the war;
60 guide the press, radio and motion
picture industries so that information
injurious to the country or helpful to
the enemy may not be disseminated, and
CD establish regulations for supervising
the functioning of all channels of ex-
ternal communication so that informa-
ton useful to the enemy may be pre-
vented from going abroad.
Room for Amendment.
The foregoing outline is an authentic
blueprint of p. R. A., but it must be
remembered that it is a blueprint and
could be amended or changed to suit
circumstances. Basically it follows the
type of organization eventually evolved
by George Creel during the World War
in the Creel Committee on Public In
formation.
The great difficulty during the World
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