The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-13

I @Amz- IAC
 government is- sues no directory of its information services, 1t should be explained.
 There is no average size for c government bureaus office of pulp lie information. Some of the agen- cies hold their press activities down to such a point that one man and Q girl do the whole job on a part time basis. Others maintain a reg lilar labyrinth of offices with Statfs elaborate enough to get out a con1- plete daily newspaper. Biggest de- partment of public information in Washington today Is the Ofilce for Emergency Management, which has staff of over 200 and budget Of | $75oOoo.
 Averaging those two extremes and then multiplying by the number of public relations oft1ceS gives an ex- aggerated picture of the public in- formation machinery in Washing ton, and there Is only one overall offi:ial figure that gives any Idea as to the size of the output of these machines at all. This is the postage equivalent for the ranked mail sent out by the administrative end of the government. For 1940, the figure was $39,000,000, or over $i00,O0O a day--juSt for postage. Compare those figures with the $737 900 which is the total of 1040 cost of frank | ing congressional mail, hitherto as- sumed to be one of the worst abuses | of government privilege, and you get some idea of how big this ma chine has grown.
 Only real way to get at the size of the public relations job in Wash- ington Is to take the list of 100 of- Aces having public relations offices and check 1t of, office by oftice. Or check through the voluminous hear 1 ingS before the congressional appro- | priation committees for the budg- l etary figures of those departments i that have been open enough to list | their public relations activities. KEEPING PUBLICITY A SECRET
 First of, you run into the fact that good many of the depart- ! mentg are afraid to have their pulp lie relations activities delved into.
 Charges that government depart ments operate propaganda bureaus have thrown a scare Into many of the agencies and they are not too anxious to have their various &C., tivities explored. Or, they want to make sure that their public infor- nation programs are thoroughly un- derstood and presented only in favorable light. Or they wish 1t made clear that this public relations work is specifically authorized by 1 Congress, and they would be yio. lating the law If their full program were not carried out.
 First and most important activity of every government public rela. tons man is to protect his boss from nuisance questioning. That is perfectly, legitimate and com- mendable function.
 Where the public relations man comes in, therefore, is to know his boss business, know the routina functions and policies of his par. ticular department and be able to give prompt, official and intelligent answers to every question asked. WHAT'S WRONG WITH PRESS AGENTS
 It is when the public relations de. partmerlt is given assignments out side this perfectly ethical and not too complicated field that the whole system of government public rela- tions goes haywire, and that Is all too often the case.
 What has happened is that legiti- mate public relations work has been allowed to degenerate into the low- est kinds of extravagant press agen- try:
 1. Public relations men are as- signed to write their bosses speech es and radio talks.
 2. They are given the job of glori- flying their chiefs personal virtues and covering up their mistakes. 3. Publicizing the activities of a department is Subordipated to pub- licizing the personality of the head of the department.
 4. When a department head is called before an investigating com mittee, his public relations man is taken along to give counsel on what to say, and particularly on what not te- say, in order to avoid getting 6 bad press. 5. Public information depart mentS are used as mere clipping services, compiling Scrapbooks, studying editorial reaction, and then planning publicity campaigns to overcome unfavorable press com- ment.
 6. Public relations men are used as censors to cover up activities of a department which should be given fullest public airing.
 2. ReamS Of unnecessary hand outs are prepared for fiattering the vanity of . section chief, with nt- tie or no possibility of the hand outs being used.
 Q. Elaborate radio and newsreel appearances are staged, and all too often are carried unwillingly by the theaters and hroadcasters in the be- lief that SO doing wins favor with ! gOVernmAnk reRulatory bodies.