Evening star., 1940-11-17

VARIOUS private agencies are en-
deavoring, through the creation
and mobilization of public sentiment, to
influence the action of the Government.
But far more powerful in the field of
propaganda than any private group that
could be imagined is the Government
itself.
This is true in the very nature of
things. Any government seeks by the
acts and words of its officials to win
public favor for its policies. 1t Identifies
its perpetuation in Office with the public
interest and claims that the fact of its
election gives it mandate to promise
public understanding and acceptance
Of its program.
The stronger and more centralized
the government, the greater amount of
propaganda it will pour out. For with
Capitalization come new complexities and
new functions, and, with these, an in
creasing compulsiOn on the government.
from its point of view, to sell" itself
and its measures to the people.
Attacks Miss Real Point.
Another form of compulsion arises
from the outside from the newspapers,
as represented by their correspondents
at Washington. Properly, in the public
interest, the newspapers demand the
day-by-day story of the multifarious
activities of the government depart
ments Without the press officers Of
the departments, or the information
chiefs, or the educational officers, or
whatever they may be called, this story
could never be gathered save by the
increase of the Washington newspaper
corps to prohibitive size.
The necessity of publicity activities
as a function Of modern government
must be conceded. AS John Dewey has
written, There can be no public without
full publicity in respect TO all conSe-
quences which concern it. Whatever
obstructs and restricts publicity, limits
and distorts thinking on social affairs"
To attack government publicity in and
of itself, as many unthinkingly do is to
miss the real point in which the citizen
should be interested. That point con-
Germs the ever-preSent possibility of
abuses in the handing out of official
information and of "craCkdC ms" by the
Government to bring the p.-yate pur-
veyors of information into line with its
views.
Here is a subject which defes OBJ
ieCtiVe ANALYSIS. There are too many
imponderables involved, there is too
fundamental a disagreement as to the
proper boundaries of governmental ac-
ton.
Power in Hands of Press.
A comprehensive study of the workings
of the Government publicity machine
was made in 1887 and 1888 by James
L. McCamy, professor of government at
Bennington College, and published by
the University of Chicago Press last
year. McCamy is now an assistant to
the Secretary of Agriculture. He found
that. short of Justification, the inevitable
-sidedness of Government publicity
SIS not damning practice in the present
condition of informing citizens by COM
petitive publicity from numerous sources.
The publicists of other interests and
opposition parties can be on the job to
keep Government publiCists from domi-
mating the field"
This, as it seems to the writer from a
considerable experience in Washington,
| is a sound conclusion. 1t should be
added that a duty rests on the news
papers to sift the wheat from the chaf
of Government press releases, and to
check for accuracy any questionable
| statement from a Government source.
| If there is an oEerplus of published Gov
| ernment news, or if that news is biased,
| the fault is more with the newspapers
than with the Government. They have
the corrective power in their own hands.
"Craek-Downs" Are Rare.
"Crack-d down is a vague word If it
| is taken to include criticism of individual
reporters by officials of the Government,
then, of course, crack downs" occur
they are bound to occur--in the relation
| ship of reporters to the Government.
Even so, these "crack-downs' are COM
paratively rare, and they are more likely
| than not to heighten the critical attitude
| of the reporter.
Unquestionably, press agents for the
| Government display now and then an
excess Of zeal in promoting the work