Evening star., 1942-10-02

-
the movements
of the President &sl1
be attended David Lawrence.
with as little public knowledge as
possible so that enemy saboteurs
shall not have the opportunity to
do harm to the train or auto in
which the Chief Executive may be
travelling.
This is a we'll recognized rule. The
correspondents here observed it
when Prime Minister Churchill
came and went, and they par
ticularly refrained from printing
anything whatsoever about the visit
of Foreign Commissar Molotov of
Russia until after he had left the
United States.
Wherever the Presidents life may
pc involved, the customary rule is
to err on the side of suppression,
hence the reasons for secrecy in this
instance are well founded. 1t has
been suggested that. the news in ad-
vance Of the trip was properly with
held, but that press dispatches
could have been permitted a day or
two after the President visited each
city or area. This, however, merely
would have made more difficult the
problems Of the Secret Service,
which is charged by law with the
duty Of protecting the. Chief Execu-
tive.
The moment any dispatches had
been printed telling that the Pres
ident was en- route it would have
been easy for any enemy agents on
the Pacific Coast to have surmised
that Mr.. Roosevelt might 60 there.
And since the principal objective
probably was to inspect Pacific
Coast stations and plants, the i'm
portance of secrecy for the whole
trip can be well understood.
Great Responsibility.
1t is being asked why the Presi-
dent took the, trip when he has &C
cess to reports from high Army and
Navy officers who are constantly
making inspection trips. The answer
is that. with the biggest war in his
tory and the biggest responsibility
ever placed on a President, it was
natural for Mr.. Roosevelt to want
to. see with his own eyes what was
going on throughout the. country.
He has always liked to get the feel
of things first hand and, though the
trip had its hazards, it Is under
standable how he came to decide
on it.
One may disagree with the re-
port that the President has made to
the press. He appears to come back
rather critical Of the news reports,
which regrettably are inadequate
because censorship and the pre-
occupation of high ofiicials make it
difficult to get accurate informa-
ton on some highly controversial
subjects.
Mr.. Roosevelt didn't stay out long
enough perhaps to get an overall
picture Of what the people are
thinking, nor could he appraise in a
couple of weeks the validity of the
news reports. There are always, to
be sure. minor irritations and
articles that are not palatable to
persons in a position of RESPONSE
bility who grow impatient with the
free processes of an alert press
which in the very nature of things
makes mistakes. 60
What Is important is whether the
people know what's going on in
Washington or whether they mag
nifty the items to which the Presi-
dent has referred as indications of
a on-co-operative attitude inside
the Government There is no way
to verify these things because the
censorship sometimes prevents the
press from getting access to the
truth.
1t is safe assumption that the
matters complained of by the Pres
ident can be corrected by more
Intimate contact between the press
and the Government, something
that Elmer Davis is expected to
work out.
ENCOURAGING Sign.
A war is too big a thing to be run
perfectly. Mistakes will happen and
reports will get out piecemeal. some
times before the whole story can be
learned. On the whole, it is re-
freshing that a man as important
as the President can travel from
coast to coast in America for two
weeks and all the newspapers and
magazines and radio stations re-
spect his wishes and keep q news
item of that sensational nature from
the people till off1cially released.
1t is an encouraging sign. too. that
the Commander in Chief can leave
Washington in the midst Of war and
rely on staff of Army and Navy
officers back home to take care of
the hour-by-hour decisions that
must be made on war strategy and
other vital matters related to it. 1t
is sign that the cause of the
United Nations is progressing IA
vorably when the President can take
two weeks out and see things for