Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-03-16

VIM oCIVlCC, !,
Washington, D. C.
By the time these lines are in print
the biggest publicity job for the big
gest institution the world has ever
planned will probably have been
launched by the heretofore least
publicity minded department of
the government-the state depart
ment. 1t is a build up" for the
meeting of the United Nations to be
held in San Francisco. April Is.
I am writing this a few minutes
after returning from the Office of the
man who is planning the program,
Archibald MacLeish, assistant Sec
rotary of state.
The location is journalistically IA
miliar to me and it lies nearby. Only
one block, then across Lafayette
park, across Pennsylvania avenue
and then along almost another block
of tome very familiar marble cor
rider. I have had many interviews
in that ancient, impressive rococco
state department building, but new
er one in which a member of the
staid and conservative institution
stuck his neck out farther and with
such abandon. MacLeish is the ia
tf1er of the plan mentioned-the
plan to tell the country, by means
of every available publicizing medi-
UNI, what the international gather
ing on the Pacific coast is all about.
Assistant Secretary MacLeish has
announced as his creed, mo for
eign policy can succeed in these days
unless it has the full understanding
and support of the people,"
Sets Stage for
Open Covenants
To put his words into deeds he
has planned program which will
"open covenants openly arrived at"
that theory, so noble in its concep-
ton, which Woodrow Wilson pro-
claimed but found himself unable to
put into effect when it came to for
eign affairs. MacLeish has gone all
the way out on very tenuous limb
and he realizes where it will leave
him if the meeting in San Francisco
crawls into cavern of secrecy and
pulls the cavern in after it.
Foreign relations" are tradi-
tionally established and carried on
by diplomatists who are trained to
work in the dark. Like mules in
mines, they probably would not be
able to see the most persuasive ar
gument if it were displayed in the
light of pitiless publicity. And, it is
impractical to carry on all interna-
tional relations in front of news
reel camera and in earshot of press
and radio. One doesn't wash ones
linen, Soiled or otherwise, in public
and the board of directors doesn't
meet in the presence of the stock
holders.
But MacLeish believes there can
be compromise and he is going to
risk the unpleasant reaction that
might take place if it fails. He is
going to insist that the dignified and
discreet state department use up
to-the-minute press agent methods
to prepare the people for the San
Francisco meeting. And then, if the
meeting goes underground on them
it will just be too bad, MacLeish
says.
The public is already keenly in
terested. Hundreds of organizations
have besieged the department with
questions, demands for material for
debate and discussion, explanation,
Interpretation. Schools, churches,
labor unions, business associations
all want information on what really
happened at Dumbarton Oaks, Te-
heran, Yalta-and what's next.
With a pretty good idea of what
the public wants to know the state
department is preparing a set of out
lines on such topics as: WAR: how
can we prevent it?"(the main pur-
pose of the UN) "Frosperity: how
can we attain it?" (that takes in the
economic plans such as the none.
tary program agreed upon at Bret
ton Woods, the function of the pro-
posed international economic coun-
Gil, credit for reconstruction y
Another topic, Social Progress ::
how can we work for it?" will ex-
plain the various programs for
health and education which have
been discussed here and elsewhere.
There are other documents includ-
ing a short explanation in simple
language of exactly what was agreed
, upon at Dumbarton Oaks and is to
be discussed at the San Francisco
meeting.