Evening star., 1950-02-12
u. 5. Agency Rush
For Places in Capitol
Press Galleries Seen
Continued From First Page

OF the departments overseas in
formation service.
The Standing Committee has ar
ranged to hear the appeal Wednes-
day night. and has invited cor
respondents and other interested
parties to attend.
Congress lays down general
rules to govern the press galleries.
These rules are administered by
the Standing Committee of five
correspondents. elected by the
newspaper men and women ac-
credited to the press galleries.
If the Standing Committee
again rejects the State Depart
ment application, it could appeal
to- the Senate Rules Committee,
which, with the Speaker of the
House, passes on the rules.
The. issue appears to be, not
whether State Department repre-
sentatives may move about Capt.
tol Hills as freely as newspaper,
magazine and radio correspond
ents. They do that now, but they
have not been admitted to formal
membership in the press galleries.
Given Facilities Temporarily.
Last year, while the House and
Senate chambers were being reno
waited and both bodies were meet
ing in cramped quarters, the two
State Department news gatherers
were extended the courtesies of
the press galleries temporarily.
Since their applications for regu-
lar admission were turned down,
they have been using temporary
facilities in the periodical GAL
leries.
Undoubtedly a stronger case
can be made out for State De-
partment admission than could
be presented by most other Gov
ernment agencies, If they sought
to take advantage of a precedent.
The problem confronting future
standing committees and future
rule-making committees of Con-
gress would be where and how to
draw the line.
The presence in the Press Gal
leries Of representatives of foreign
news agencies, including Tass, the
Russian agency, is one factor that
might suggest to some a special
reason for admitting the State
Departments writer's of overseas
news.
The State Department is under
stood to feel that it is important
that 1t get news quickly for
its overseas information service,
which is called Wireless Bulletin.
AT the same time, the department
contends its service is almost
wholly non-competitive with any
private news agency"
The nature of the State De-
partment's overseas information
service was defined last fall by
former Assistant Secretary of
State George v. Allen.
MFR. Allen estimated the depart
ment's news service is used in one
form or another by 10000 publi-
cations, many of them in ex-
tremely remote areas of the world,
making available to very large
numbers of persons who are
primary targets of anti-American
propaganda, straight factual news
about the United States and our
work and hopes for world peace"
The problem confronting the
standing committee, however, is
to interpret the rules, and the
committee decided unanimously
last October that the State De-
partment applications do not come
within the rules.
Standards Laid Down.
The standards laid down in the
rules for passing on new appli-
cations follow:
''The Standing Committee of
Correspondents shall limit mem
bership in the press galleries to
bona fide correspondents of repute
In their profession, under such
rules as the Standing Committee
OF Correspondents shall prescribe
Provided. however, that the
Standing Committee of Core
spondents shall admit to the gal
leries no person who does not
establish to the satisfaction of
the Standing Committee all of the
following:
"a. That his or her principal
income is obtained from news
correspondence intended for pub
lication in newspapers entitled
to second class mailing privileges.
"B. That he or she is not en-