Imperial Valley press., 1941-10-14

WASHINGTON. Oct. Il OF
1ial handbook>. telephone dlrectog-
.rs ana 81 >u,h publications. LIS
aboa; 500 government departments.
agencIes or bureaus III the capita.
with which thc general public ,an
be expected 70 have contact That
count does ne. include the 500 con
eressmen or ;he nne Justices -
the supreme Court The 500 ase
simply The principal offices ot t.e
administrative branch OF the ~
ernmen.
Obviously. not every one OF ,hose
500 offices has a press agent, pubic
specialist. director Of information.
propagandiS;. oy whatever you H1nt
10 call hlm Bu. checking eft Vie
list as carefully rs You can. = =
no trouble 4. al % set lis ot
100 offices which deai IN public M
formation Tie government i>~Ue~
ne directory q is information
services. il should be explained.
There .S ne average size to. q
government bureaus office of public
information Some Of the agencies
ho.d their press activities down 10
~urn pom, that one man and Il
arl do the whole Job on Part
time basis Others maintain 4 re-U-
lar labyrinth Of offices with Statls
elaborate enough to get out CON-
plete daily newspaper. Biggest de
partment OF public information IL
Washington today IS the Office tOs
Emergency MANAGEMENT which has
staff OF over POO and 4 budget
OF S750000.
Averaging those two extremes and
then multiplying By tie number Of
public relations offices gives an eX-
aggerated picture OF the public III
formation machinery in Washing
ton. and there is only one overall
official figure that gives any idea
as 10 the size of the output OF these
machines az all This is the postage
equivalent for the franked mail
sent out by the administrative END
Of the government For 1910. the
figure was S39,0C0.0O0. or over Sl00-
zoo a day-just for postage. Com
pare those figures With the S737.000
which is the total 1910 cost OF
ranking congressional mail. hithe.-
10 assumed to be one of the worst
abuses OF government privilege, and
YOU get some idea of how big this
machine has grown
Only real way to get at the size
Of the public relations job in Wash
ineton is to take the list of 100
offices having public relations OF
fees and check il off, office by
office. Or check through the v0-
luminous hearings before the con
greSsional appropriation committees
for the budgetary figures OF those
departments that nave been open
enough to list tbeir public relations
activities
KEEPING PUBLICITY 4 seer q
First off. you run into the f"rt
that a good many Of the depart
mentS are afraid 70 have their pub
lie relations activities delycd in r
Charges that government depart
mentS operate propaganda bureaus
the agencies, and thoy are not tOC
ANXIOUS 10 have their various ac.
rlyitieS explored o.. they Want L
% make sure thai the.r public IN
formation programs are thorough,
understood and presented only il
z favorable light. Or they wish i
made clear thai this pubic rela
tons work is specifically al hOriGet
by Congress, and they would b
violating the Law il their tGll pro
gram We're not carried out
First and most importan; actirit,
CT every government public rela
tions man is TO protect his Dos
from nuisance questioning That i
a perfectly Legitimate and com
mendable function.
Where the public relations MAJ