Imperial Valley press., 1942-10-08
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

In addition to this miXup owe
/ the Presidents trip two, other re
cent cases of t,nfuSion over new
policy have served to illu,srat,
how difficult is the job of Elme
DaviS'S Office of War Information
in trying to coordinate the gov
ernmentS policy on the war stor,
given to the public.
The first Of these is the case o.
Rear Admiral Ben Morell. who
popped off in speech before tht
building trades department of the
American Federation of Labor con-
venticn in Toronto to the effect
that although people can't liz,
without labor, they can live with
out labor unions as people are liv-
ing without them in Germany, ia
pan and Italy.
Admiral horcll, being chief of
the Bureau of Yards and Docks,
is responsible for the Navy's en-
tire construction program. And
il may be that in his official ca
pacity he has had so much grief
with the building trades of the
A. +. of L. that he was justified
in giving them a piece of his
mind in salty, blue air. sea dog
style. But il so happens that
the Navy has been under such
criticism from the labor organi-
cations themselves that the Navy
has been gradually overhauling
its policies on dealing with the
union.
Rear Admiral c. H. Woodward
was put in charge of a special Of
flee to improve labor relations and
Edwin A. Lahey, a free-swinging la
Dor reporter from Colonel Knox's
Chicago Daily News, was brought
in as adviser, and Assistant Secre-
tary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard an
ncunced establishment of person.
mel divisions in shore establish
ments to handle all questions of in
duStrial relations Just as benefic-
ial result were being noted from
these various moves, along comes
Admiral Morells speech, in mark
ed conflict with every announced
administration labor policy.
POINTING THE PROBLEM
Leaving aside questions of the
tactfulnesS and the rightneSS or
wrongneSS of the Morell threat,
there is raised the point of how
the admiral could make this speech
and get away with it,
In the Office of War Information
there is set up what might be
known as the Office of Oratcry
Control. 1t is headed by John R.
Fleming an ex-neWspaperman
whose job it is to scrutinize the
manuscript on all speeches to be
delivered by cabinet officers and
the heads of government agencies
to make sure that the ideas there
in expressed are in the groove, and
in close harmony with adminiStra-
ton policies.
But young Mr.. Fleming's au-
thOrity is limited to the top men
only. In the Navy Department,
Fleming can review the text of
Secretary Knox, UnderSecretary
FOrrestal and assistant secretaries
Bard and Gates but he can't
touch the speeches of single
admiral or lesser officer.
The only check there is on the
remarks CT a naval officer is two
sections of Navy regulations which
prohibit officers from divulging
information of security. Navy Off
GERS may submit the manuscript
of a speech or an article to the
Bureau of Public Relations for
clearance if he wants to. But the
Office of War Information has
nothing to do with it.
The second case of confusion also
concerns the Navy. In a special
press conference at the Navy De-
partment, Lieut.. Comdr. John
Smith Tratch stated that no major
battleship of the enemy has been
sunk by horizontal bombing in this
war implying thereby that Capt.
Colin Kelly of the Army did not
sink the battleship Haruna in spite
cf all the evidence which the Army
has that he did. This officially
sponsored Navy statement certain
llv added fuel to the flames of dis
cussion on the relative merits OF
land-based heavy bombers versus
carried based short-range dive
bombers.
In the order creating the Office
of War Information among other
things Owl was charged specific
ailv tc coordinate the war infor-
national activities of all federal
departments and agencies for the
purpose of assuring an accurate and
consistent flow Of war information
tc the public
But the way this works out IS
that while owl has authority to
pass on all the press releases and
prerared statements to see that
consistent story is told Owl has
no control over what may be said
orally. And as i'm the case of Ad-
miraI Moreell, it has no control
over the public statements of Of
ficials below cabinet and sub
cabinet rank.
From these examples 1t can be
seen that Owl doesn't have the
control over war information that
was perhaps intended. There are
loopholes and lodges which the va
rious government departments car
and do use to put out ideas which
may net be exactly orthodox.
Cn the other hand there is some
news which owl thinks should be
given out which other departments
want TO suppress. Spot news or
the sabotage trials and on the
Presidents recent trip are the no.
table examples. Either way, it car
no caar how difficIIlt is the lob OF