The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-10-30

be printed ana broadcast as freely
as In peacetimes, declared that, I'VE
are reviewing other sections of the
press and broadcasting codes to see
whether additional relaxatons may
not be possible end advsble n the
national interests"
Last revision Of the censorship
code was In February, and the war
has admittedly moved into new
phases since then. Also, the de-
mands have increased for relaxation
on some of the censorship restric-
tons which may have seemed like
good ideas when first adopted, but
are unnecessary II not downright
harmful today.
HANDICAPS
The handicaps imposed on farm
ing, aviation and shipping, by hav-
ing inadequate weather informa-
ton, are now greater than the dan
gers of giving the enemy o little
dope on U. s. weather. There Is still
some protest from Army and Navy
security officers, but this opinion Is
outweighted by a belief that in case
a German or Jap raid against U,
s. shores should become q threat,
1t would be possible to clamp down
again with an immediate and effec-
tive censorship on weather news.
Another type Of information on
which industry would like some re-
Taxation Is the release Of business
statistics, now restricted by CEN
sorship, Army and Navy procure
ment services and the War Produce
ton Board. Originally, one reason
for secrecy on many war production
figures was to conceal from the en-
envy the smallness Of U. s. reserves
Of rubber, aluminium, steel and
other critical raw materials, as well
as the relatively small production
OF planes, tanks, guns. But as the
production battles have been won,
the need for all this secrecy has in
q large measure been removed. IN
stead, the production Of ships,
planes, tanks and materials Of war
Is something to brag about interna-
tionally, to impress the enemy with
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DEMAND FOR DATA
The war production effort has
seer O tremendous increase In the
demand by government agencies fos
statistics on business Of all sorts.
The complaints Of office managers
over the time they were forced to
spend in gathering data for reports
to the government is now an old
story.
Most Of the resentment has been
heightened by q general belief that
the effort was wasted because the
statistics would never do anybody
any good. The grand totals may
have ben useful to some few top
policy -making officials, but the
members Of the industries out IN the
country never expected to see them.
Government agencies were, IN fact,
in the position of sitting on q lot
OF business data which are now be-
coming increasingly valuable IN
considering reconversion and post
war development plans.
- Trade associations in particular
have been building bonfires around
in various places to get these fig
ures released.
All import and export trade fig
ures, for instance, have been kept
under wraps since September, 1941.
With an apparent easing In shipping
over some trade routes and desire
to increase trade to places like
North Africa and Latin America,
imports and exporters want to know
what's moving.
The whole demand for release Of
more information Of this kind ties
in closely with the Office Of War
Information's recently. announced
determination to get out more news
about the war. The end result
means modification of the censor
ship code, with due regard for keep
ing the lid on information that by
any stretch of the Inauguration
might give aid or comfort to the
enemy.