Imperial Valley press., 1942-01-27
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

- -
WASHINGTON. Jan. 27-The Of
fiCe of Facts and Figures - that
new branch of government which
is intended to sive aid and COM
fort to the people of he United
States and to shape policies for
he public relations departments III
war announced originally il
would issue no publicity handouts
10 sugar-coated. soothing syrup
propaganda. ma was last Oc-
.ober
II comes as somewhat of
shock. therefore. 10 find that
OFFS first public act is TO is
sue a handOut--a $4,000 word
handOut, 4 pocket size pamph-
let of 60 pages called Report TO
the Nation" which is double
dipped in SacCharine and repre-
SentS the state of the country
OH Jan. l, 1912, as being just
dandy. And the Honorable
| Archibald MacLeish. poet Ii
brarian of Congress who also
heads Office of Facts and Fig
ureS, now confeSSeS OFF will
have TO issue more information
than he thought.
So here you have another gov
,rnment press agency Setup, top
super -duper, high hat press agency
working amid the scholarly stack
Of the Library of Congress, en-
2loying 81 people already, though
not vet fully stated and doing /
| questionable job. 1t is safe to Say
! majority OF the working news
PAPER correspondents in Washing
| .on who have most Of the direct
dealings With these government
press offices, cant understand ant,
don't appreciate. Here is wal
boondoggling on 4 scale as yet un-
| dreamed Of
THREE MONTHS TO PERFORM
II this is an unfair opinion shot
from the lip, it is only because al
the activities OF OFF don't meet tht
eye From brown October t.
bleak mid January is three months
of chill weather in which the heaG
should be reasonably clear even in
WashingtCn, and in that time from
one to "a people working in the
Library of Congress should be able
to bring forth something pretty
tangible-Or what is this much
vaunted productive capacity Of the
Arsenal of Democracy, anyway?
If OFF has produced other
stuff of war-SecretS nature
which can't be revealed, okay
let il live. But ii its labors to
date arc what meet the eye
fancy table of organization
including divisions labeled Bu-
reau of Intelligence, Bureau OF
Liaison, Bureau of Operations
and Bureau of Production, plus
paper-bOund tract OF rehaSh-
ed pap-then by all means let
il go the way of the other war
dodOs, OPM, SPAB, NDMB,
NDAC. and the like.
From its very inception, this Of
flee of Facts and Figures has OPP
Grated behind seven wells CT myS-
terv No one understood clearly
what il was to do when set up by
the president. The distinguished
director Of OFF, shutting between
two offices and behind three sec
retaries. became one of the hardest
men in Washington to see. And
fer three months the puzzle IN
washington was what is OFF Tor?
Full blame for OFFS first BRAIN
child. this pamphlet Report to the
Nation" should probably not be
placed on the iambic pentameter
brow of the director. President
Roosevelt asked for it on Dec. 2
All right, he got 1t. II ms.
HONEYED REHASH
The pamphlet is being mailed TO
newspaper editors CT the country
and no doubt excerpts Of it will
appear in various places, AS a
matter of fact, OFF has thought
fully prepared a three part, 3O0O-
word boil-dcWn Of the original text
which should be handy for filler
The full text is simply repetition
of the pretty facts AID great eX-
pectations YOU have read in your
newspapers for the last l8 months
or more. None Of the ugly facts
appears. You will search these CO.
odd pages in vain for any mention
of the waste and inefficiency dis
closed by the Senate committee IN
yestigating national defense or the
House Naval Affairs Committee
looking into excessive profits.
One average string rewrlte
man on any newspaper, working
with nothing more than NOR
qued clippings, could have pro-
duced the equal of this Report
to the Nation" i'm less IMAM
4O-hour, non overtime week.
Yet the Office of Facts and Flg-
ures. employing some OF the
eunnosedly best editorial brains
Of the country and with the full
resources of the Budget Bureau
to call upon, takes SIX weeks
for this one job alone. The cost
NJ production in man hours and
dollars is undoubtedly tremend-
ous and the result is B-n'inuS
term paper for sophomore
course in contemporary history.
The booklet will have It's uses.
Patriotic Spellbinders will find 1t a
convenient source Of trite facts
figures and phrases, including the
one which says that 1872 million
Americans now face the graveSt
crisis in their history
To give the opus full credit there
is one phrase in the text "hicn VIII
probably 60 down in history IT Is
The sun never sets on the men
and materials of the Lcase-I1nc
Il,AIial1 EhllILG LlLE LII.