The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-08

VVVp44A 4 JNUI AVA printing by both the Government Printing Office and outside jobs.
 The departments publications number 25 magazines, yearbooks and reports.
 In addition, the department will publish in an average year some 30 or more technical bulletins, passing on to scientists the results of agri- cultural research.
 Tn addition, the department will publish annually about l2 million copies of farmers bulletins and leafiets--four to eight-age pamphlets which give farmers the results of the scientific research in language they can understand. Also, to ex- plain how the triple-A program works how to borrow money from Farm Security, how to take out federal crop insurance, and so on.
 Tn addition, there is an extensive press service, set up to make in- formation available to the press as- sociations, individual newspaper correspondents, farm papers, trade journals and technical publications. There are more than 30 principal sections in the Department of Agri- culture. Half of them have press sections, ranging from two or three men to whole city rooms big enough to put out metropolitan newspaper. There are at least 100 people in the press work, and that does not include the editors of the 25 pulp lications or the editors of the leaf- lets. Just press contact men. On an average day, these press sections will grind out about six stories. The total number of releases for 1940 was 1900.
 RADIO NOT
 FORGOTTEN
 Tn addition, there is & radio sec- ton. It prepares the 15 to 30-minute programs broadcast five days a week as the National Farm and Home Hour. More than 100 stations carried this program last year.
 Tn addition, there is & once-a-week program on consumer education carried by 47 stations.
 Tn addition, script are prepared for seven minute daily programs on useful information for farmers and scripts of information for home- makers. These are sent on request to the little independent stations, 294 getting the programs for the farmers, and 256 aking the stun for the farmers wives.
 In addition, there is 8 department for distributing agricultural infor- nation directly to the public. This includes the handling of queries. Requests for information come into the department at the rate of nearly 4,500 a day. Some letters require i1- dividual answers. Others ask stock questions for which stock answers have been prepared. A leaflet or gov- ernment publication is mailed out and the question Is answered. Writ ing letter has been estimated to cost 30 cents. Pamphlets cost cent and half to 3 cents, and the poS- tage, of course, is free.
 In addition, there are photogrop- hic sections and moving picture sec- tons in many of the divisions, and art departments, poster campaign divisions here and there, mailing, multigraphing and multilithing divisions, editors who consider and buy some 16,000 manuscripts year for the various department publi- cations.
 Some of these publications are sold. At least they carry price per copy and annual subscription rate on the masterhead. But the bulk of all this flood of material is given away cold, and here the clammy hand of the congressman reaches in- to the government gravy boat to rock 1t nigh unto singing, Four fifth-80 per cent of the copies of most of the farmers bulletins are made available to the congressman for free distribution to their con- stituents. Four hundred copies of the agricultural yearbook are assigned to each congressman, and though these are paid for with congressional funds, the money all comes out of the taxpayers pockets in the first place,
 IT'S THE LAW, ...s SAY THEY
 To list all the publications issued by the department would make the piece too long, and besides, anyone who Is interested can get the list free, by writing to the Department of Agriculture and asking for the Monthly List of Publications and the Farmers Bulletins list. But these publications run all the way from statistical indexes on crops to magazines on agricultural research, home economics, information for consumers, fire control, forestry, land policy, rural electrification, soil conservation, and annual statistical reports.
 When you ask about the justifica- ton for all this g million publicity and information work, you are in- formed bluntly that this is the law of the land. For proof, you are re- ferred to the act which created the Department of Agriculture, way back in 1862, and the act of 1889 which enlarged its powers and the duties. That law directs the department to esquire and diffuse useful informa- ton on subjects connected with agriculture in the most general and