The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-11

BuSV AAA RAOE&6eA4ANtsNe 0A@ SAAS SSAANAs It's neat summary of the case.
 The people who think the United States should initiate the Hitler propaganda methods have wanted the Mellett OGR or the Donovan OCT (Office of the Co-ordinator of Information) or somebody, to start out-gobbling Goebbels. The people who have been scared of propaganda and censorship in any form have viewed with alarm the existence of these organizations, and have there fore accused them of doing things they haven't been guilty of.
 It is the mere size of the Ofhce of Government Reports which scares a good many people. Its Washington staff numbers 328 people with a '-- "-'' cf Se27,4S6. Its field staff, now being built up to have an office ... L,-.y sv.ve, h>4s 199 eople with an authorized payroll of $523, APO. Its total budget for this year is $1.5 million-and the contention of OGR's critics is that a powerful lot of damage can still be done with 8 million and half, in spite of in- flation.
 OGR has grown from nothing to this size in seven years and whether OGR is propaganda or not, its growth is characteristic of the way the whole public relations program of the government has rnushroomed beyond anything imagined in boom times before the depression. The first allocation for its job came to OGR's predecessors in the form of $127 ,000 out of the National Indus trial Recovery act funds. Tn 1886 the money began coming from Finer gency Relief act funds, which made the OGR practically a WPA project.
 In 194o, OGR got a direct appro- priation of $85o,0o0, plus $300,00o from the presidents emergency funoS. An act of Congress this year makes OGR part of the executive office of the president andi gives 1t an annual appropriation of not over SIS million, without further asking. It is 8 perfect example of the way temporary and emergency measures become fixtures in government.
 Up until this year, 1t was the boast of Director Melilett that OGR never issued a handout, never put out a press release. Advent of the defense program has changed that. One of the jobs OGR has given itself is to take all the press releases of all the other government agencies and boil them down into & daily infor- nation digest.
 This is available only to other government offices, congressman and officials who request 1t specifically but 1t is news service of the gov- ernment for the government.
 NEWS DIGEST FOR
 BUSY OFFICIALS
 On top of that, CGR issues daily bulletin which Is digest of the im- pcrtant news as carried in $50 lead- ing daily papers. This digest now has a circulation of more than 30,000 copies, again strictly confined to government agencies.
 Every item in the digest is in- deXed. Officials supposed to be too busy to read the newspapers can glance at this condensation, see what interests them, and then ask OGR to send over the clippings, or copies of them. It takes a staff of 100 to do all this clipping and index ing and filing. Last year, 1,77o,oo0 duplicate clippings were furnished.
 On top of these daily news serv- ices. OGR has several weekly sum- maries. The most popular is It's Weekly Abstract, which does Read CTS Digest on articles about the gov ernment appearing in 50 weekly and monthly magazines, boiling them down for easy and qnick reading. Though 1t is strictly limited to gov- ernment officials who request 1t, the circulation is s3000 and the depart mentS which get 5000 copies or more per week include Agriculture, Con- gress (9,0oo copies, though Congress has only 500 members, Executive Offlce of the President, Federal &c., curity Agency, Federal Works Agency, Department of Labor, Na- tional Defense, and War Depart mert.
 Then, there is another weekly boil-down of government news for the weekly newspapers. There are 20, 900 of these newspapers and most of them haven't much money to spend on news. At the request of the National Editorial association of weekly newspapers, therefore, a summary of government news is made for these papers and it's sent gratis to the country weeklies that ask for 1t.
 Every two weeks, OGR issues the official tabulation of national de- fense contracts and expenditures. The overall edition, covering every contract let, is prepared in an edi- ton of 2,400 copies, and the state edition, which breaks down the con- tracts awarded within each of the i states, has a run of 27,000.
 Then there is a This Week in Defense" issue of 6,700 copies, and miscellaneous pamphlets on Defense Employment, Training for Defense, | ana so on.
 MOVIE, RADIO GO-BETWEEN
 From the above half-dozen para graphs 1t can be seen that OGR Is now definitely in the handout bus mess, though not on the wholesale proportions of some of the inde- pendent departments and bureaus. But OGR's work is not limited to the press.
 It has radio and moving picture departments, and is the official con- tact ofiice for the radio chains, the independent stations, the newsreels and Hollywood producers.
 ''It may be that we propagate the doctrine of democracy by the sim- pie process of making available to the people all possible information | A. IA