Imperial Valley press., 1942-03-10
EACH BRANCH
DOES OWN TALKING

.
EACH BRANCH
DOES OWN TALKING
ReconCiling the points Of view o.
the military and naval branches o.
the government. which is to cover
up and conceal LeWS. and the civil
Ian branches OF the government
which like to tell what they're do
ing. is one of the tougher problem,
which the Office of Censorship has
10 face. Not all the headaches OF
+ censorship come in dealing with tht
public the press and the radio. JuSt
aS big a pain is the problem oi
j dealing with government agencies
IL determining which of their war
time activities are CenSOrable anC
to what degree.
The policy in this war, as YOU
know, is not to have one central
knCW-all and tell-little agency
like the Creel Com. of the last
war. Instead. every government
agency has its own service of
information and ii tells what
it thinks should be told. subject
only to a general supervision
policy worked out by an Inter
department Committee on War
Information, on which are rep
reSentativeS of l6 federal de-
partmentS.
Officially, the armed services dc
not criticize or question this pro-
cedure, which is an administration
pClicy tina. can be traced right back
10 the White House where sits the
commander chief of the Army
and Nav Privately. however, there
ere plenty of officers who think
this policy leads to l6 different
kinds Of confusion.
If this scribbling kibitzer inter-
pretS this criticism correctly, 1t bOllS
down 20 a belief that there IS too
much civilian advice and too much
needing of military govern
glent agencies in matters that are
Il. final analysis the concern OF the
f4ghtin men Putting It bluntlE,
Army and Navy men tend to re-
stnt interference of the Office OF
Facts and Figures, the Office OF
Government Reports, the Office tor
Emergency Management and the
Office of Censorship in shaping
policy on what military information
10 give to the public And by mill
tary information is not meant Just
the news of troop movements and
actual combat. but the much broad
cr field of training and equipplng
the Army, and the whole Wal pro-
ductlon program.
ARMY NAVY BABY
LAST TIME
The ARM and the Navy do have
a valid claim on d knowledge OF
censorship. They ran Their mill
tarv censorship in the last War
They exercise censorship over news
that goes out of camps and bases
today. They have had staff - n.
and training for setting up censor
ship for years. Even now, the Nav
controls censorship of cables anc
international communications anc
the army censors mail over anc
above the work done by the Office
ct Censorship.
Army and Navy procurcmo
branches exercise further CENSORSHIP
Oh war production. The Army In
dustrlal Information Branch recent
l. issued an extensive set Of rGIc-
restricting publication and broad
casting of many types Of news ol
military construction. supply con
tracts. production. The publication
Ief newspaper special war lndustr'
editions, giving a roundup ON
community's entire war production
efforts has been suspended A cAcc
is kept on the 2s09 house organ
# leading industrial firms with 7.l
contracts. TO keep them from IL
adyertently giving away mil'af
industrial secrets and the Location
Of troops through the publication Q
hDnor rolls Of employees in the scr
yisre Army and Navy cOmmunIquc
ale Of course prepared and ccn ore
b. the services themselves