Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-17
Press 10 Be STRONGER
In Public Confidence
After War, Davis Says
owl Chief Believes
Emergency Won't Kill
Free Speech
Earlier Story on Page A-6.)

Earlier Story on Page A-6.)
By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Nov. 17.-Elmer
Davis, director of the Office of
War Information, said today
there was every indication that
the Nations free press, "by doing
a superlative job of newsgather-
ing, is coming through this war
stronger in the confidence of the
people than ever before"
'AOur other free institutions, what
is called our way of life,' are likely
to survive if we are wise enough
to fight a democratic war" he said
in an address prepared for delivery
before the Herald Tribune Forum on
Current Problems.
I'VE did it before under Wood
row Wilson-we can do it again
under Franklin Roosevelt. We can
run citizens war and we are doing
it, in fact"
Disagrees With "Alarmists."
Mr.. Davis said he could not 60
along with "alarmists" who pre-
dicted that wartime restrictions
would kill free thought and speech,
the free press and the democratic
system.
mo body-least of all the director
of censorship, himself-my distin-
guished colleague Mr., (Byron) Price
would deny that censorship is a
dangerous instrument which must
be handled with scrupulous care, y
Mr.. Davis said But to suppose
that our free press cannot survive
the kind of censorship of news we
now have is to insult great Ameri-
can institution"
Mr.. Davis said that some people
are not satisfied with the
amount of news that is being re-
leased from Washington.
well, we are doing the best we
can to balance the need of public
information against the require
ments of military security" he con-
tinued. Il believe that Americans
are entitled to know everything that
the enemy knows-that the better
they understand what this war is
about the harder they will work ano
fight to win it. And I believe, too
that we are tough enough to take
the bad news with the good"
Mr.. Davis said that in the last
war there was continual and some
times violent criticism (of the ad-
ministration)-and some of it was
deserved"
Praise for Washington.
Yet as we look back today, it seems
that on the whole that war wa.
pretty successfully run by the either
army under President Woodrow vii.
son." he said. AT that time the sizt
of the job seemed staggering-yet il
was relatively simple, compared K
the complex responsibilities of wa
in 1912. And yet many old-timer
who knew Washington in 1917 ant
have occasion to know it now declar,
that this is better run war thai
the last.
They say this thing we cal
washington is more courteous, NOR
efficient and is learning its bushes
more quickly than the Washington
in 1917. - With all this happier
to agree. -.~
g" Money, glory, fame are no
to be found in Washington-indeed
sometimes it seems that, the chic
emolument of Government servic
is a one-way ticket to the dog
| house.
Washington is neither gay cit,
nor is it the madhouse it is sup
posed to be. The citizens army i
too tired to be gay. When the,
do foregather, they talk shop. Thu
newcomer to Washington is apt t,
mistake overcrowding for confu
sion. There is. of course, confu
sion-plenty of 1.-THE kind of con
fusion you would find in any bi,
business that is trying to Absorb
and digest and sort out and trair
thousands of newcomers in a hurry.