Evening star., 1942-06-21
By Blair BoHes.

beset the public during the past several
months arose from difficulties which
we're essentially international in char
acter-information thoroughly unco-or-
dinated.
The people were told by the Office of
Price Administration that sugar ration
ing was necessary because the sugar in
the continental United States is needed
for making alcohol from which to make
powder the better to kill our enemies.
They were told by the Agriculture De-
partment that the rubber crisis could be
relaxed by making surplus grain into
alcohol and the alcohol made into rub
Der.
Contradictory Announcements.
They were told by the. ofzice of Price
Administration that gasoline should be
rationed on the East Coast because the
tankers CARRYING the oil we're going down
under torpedo fre and leaving the East
with too little gas for all. They were told
by the War Production Board that gas
oline should be rationed on the East
Coast in order to conserve rubber
They were told by the Federal Loan
Agency that the official program for
making synthetic rubber would be sat-
isfying our military needs. at least. in
1943. They were told by the WPB that
rubber available during the coming two
years would be insufficient even for mil
itary needs, synthetic program or not.
They were told from the White House
three weeks ago that the shipping ques-
ticn was rapidly being worked out. but
the news of sinkings in the Atlantic in
dicates that the ships go down in Greater
numbers than new ships are commits
stoned.
The whole capital is ringed with con-
tradictions which serve not only to con-
fuse the populace, but to imperil public
confidence in Government officials. At
the very moment that the WPB was
driving home how critical is the rubber
shortage, the President himself indicated
at press conference that it was not a
matter to worry about.
What those instances of confusion
imply is not so much failure to formu-
late an information policy as failure
to formulate rubber policy, a gasoline
policy and a sugar policy and failure,
above all, to consider the rights of the
people to know in detail what the Off
cial problems are, what possibilities are
open toward the problems solution and
what needs to be done to make those
possibilities work.
Trod on "AIlied Toes"
We know how the Office of Petroleum
Co-ordinator Ickes and the WPB have
differed publicly on the question of con-
structing an oil pipe line to the East
Coast region. AS Mark Twain said of
horse races, difference of opinion keeps
them and the world going but agencies
of the administration have refrained
from settling their differences before
making announcements for public con-
sumption.
The OFF since January has been the
public relations counsel for the United
Nations, and events in the USA
dramatizing our Allies were arranged by
the OFF. Yet the agency. trod on the
toe of at least one of our Allied United
Nations in March in its pamphlet en-
titled Divide and Conquer.
There the OFF attributed the fall of
Belgium partially, at least, to the success
of the German system of terror. Only
six weeks earlier the Belgian government
had issued a Gray Book whose whole
purpose was to demonstrate that Bel
gums fall resulted completely from mil
itary conquest.
The failure of government information
has been just as striking and disturbing,
in those instances where the hand of the
whiz-bang public relations counsel has
been plainly evident as in those in
stances where the hand of the wise in
formation man has been obviously alb
sent.
The most elaborate public announce
ment yet arranged by the administration
was the belated disclosure that Brig. Gen.
James H. Doolittle led the air raid on
Toxic. The raid on Toxic came April IT,
1t was followed by long official silence
about the base of the planes and the per-
sonnel of the raiders. Then on May 49,
after a month in which there had been
little good news since the battle of the
Coral seaEse White House gave out the