Evening star., 1943-11-18
Elmer Davis Explains
Supply Of News to Troops.

To the Editor Of The Star:
In his column Of Wednesday, Noven-
Der II, Frank Kent charges that the Of
hce OF War Information lis the one
channel through which will be trans
mitted the political information de-
signed to help our soldiers and sailors
abroad vote intelligently in the next
election" and suggests that am 'un-
supervised and unchecked In this busi-
ness OF deciding what political facts TO-.
100000 soldiers and sailors should have"
Unfortunately, Mr.. Kent does not ap-
pear to have had access to the facts. BY
an agreement made last spring with
Maj Gen. Frederick Osborn, director of
the Special Service Division Of the Army,
the Army itself supplies the news and
entertainment which our troops overseas
may receive. AL radio programs going
to our troops overseas are prepared and
produced by the Special Service Division,
which shares our short-wave transmit
tiers for this purpose. We have not
asked any appropriation for supplying
information to our troops overseas. Our
work abroad is confined to the people
Of foreign countries.
These facts have not oily been stated
publicly by me on several occasions but
are available on the public record of
the Senate Appropriations Committee
Chearings on HR 1868, June 26, l943,
pages 243 and 244.
Whatever arrangements may be made
for supplying news of the 1914 election
campaign to our troops abroad will have
to be made by the War Department au-
thorities and will be In no way within
the province Of the OWL.
ELMER DAVIS, Director.
Supports Capper- Summers Resolution
In Behalf of Representation for District.
TO the Editor Of The Star
The people of the District are deeply
indebted to The Star for its able and
persistent efforts to secure their ade-
quate representation in Congress and
in the electoral college.
According to the 1910 census, the Dis
trict in that year had greater popula-
ton than any of IL States, and more
people than three of them combined;
yet, the latter are represented in Con-
gress by three members of the House
and six Senators. These startling facts
have been repeated so often that they
seem to have lost their force.
At present, the chief hindrance to the
rectification of this wrong is the di-
vergence Of views as to what should be
done. Almost every day brings out a
fresh scheme. As see it, the first move
should be to get a closer upion between
Congress and the District it is required
to govern. Direct representation in
Congress would accomplish that I
mean no reflection upon the work OF
the District committees in Congress,
which, under the circumstances, have
done well, but no one can doubt that
Representatives and Senators, elected
from and by the people of the District
and giving their first attention to its
affairs, would constitute more effective
representation,
In my opinion, we should have two
Representatives and one Senator, who
would be ex ofhcio members of the
District committees, Of course having
all the rights Of other members OF Con-
gress. Although each State has two
Senators, the District is not State
and never can be. Equal representa-
ton in the Senate was q condition Of
acceptance OF the Constitution by the
States, and it has no bearing here. Two
Representatives would b ths OastRdet's