The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-11-15

Eds0n Hospital buildings a couple of splits from the Potomac river, way out by the Lincoln Mem- orial. It's good hideout. His re- search stan under pr. James Phin- ney Baxter, III, president of Wil- Hams College, and Dr. Ernest Stacey Grifnth, chief of the famed Congress sional Legislative Reference Service, will be quartered way at the othor end of Washington in the Library of Congress, where Silence" is the motto, and Q man can be let alone.
 All this hush-hush ernbarraSses Donovan and his staff of unknown size, made up of the darndest ar- ray of college professors, poets, play wrights, foreign correspondents, newspapermen, broadcasters and their ilk. All of them are conscious of the fact that this is Q democracy and that the people are entitled to know what goes on. Most of them, before they got into the govern ment, devoted their private lives to trying to tell the people what went on. They are still dealing with pub lishable material-propaganda, In Q sense--hut they don't want anybody to know that it's propaganda they're dishing out, and that's why all the mystery and secrecy.
 NO BAL0NIST
 As @ matter of fact, their output isn't exactly propaganda. That word has been pretty badly abused and has become synonymous with ba- loney. Donovan wants its understood that he is not dealing in baloney. The only way to beat a barrage of verbal baloney is with @ crossfire of truth, laid down before the enemy can start Its barrage to rolling, And there Wild Bill" Donovan of the Fighting 69th" believes is where the GOT job comes into lay down 2 counter-propaganda of truth and facts that will make the German haloney type of propaganda look as silly as 1t is.
 Outside pressure on Washington to open a ful-hedged Ministry of Propaganda has been tremendous. Donovan feels that such procedure would not be the way the American democracy should proceed. For this reason, COT has been organized as Q kind of brain trust operation plan ming the counter-propaganda, but letting established agencies of the government, privately-owned radio stations and the privately-owned, independent, free and uncensored press be the issuing media. The af- firmative end of COT functions through its Foreign Information Service, headed by Playwright Ro- bert Sherwood in New York, and Nelson Poynter in Washington.
 HOPE TO CATCH
 THE WORM
 They get up early at the GOT offices. There are staff meetings at 8 in the morning. There are shifts working around the clcck, seven days a week. The news Is analysed How can this development be coun. tered? What is the answer to that? Where can the Nad propaganda machine be outwitted, beaten to the punch? In what ways is the axis most vulnerable to counter-propa- gandaP COT thus plans its battles of words.
 In spite of all the secrecy sur- rounding operations of the Donovan office, certain developments of re- cent days reveal how effective coun- ter-propaganda can be. There was the incident of the new German map for redividing South America according to Nazi notions. President Roosevelt mentioned 1t in a speech and 1t set the Germans to bowling abusive denials.
 Assistant Secretary of State Breck- enridge Long made a speech direct. ed at Italy, in which he said Italian troops sent to aid Germany were put hostages to keep the Italians at home in servitude to the Nazls. That one caught both the Germans and Italians off guard.
 There are other incidents of the same kind which reveal how this battle of worjs is to be fought. But most of them probably won't be told about until the war is over, if then.