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Government Pamphlets on the War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
In a democracy, understanding is an essential ingredient of intelligent action. We the people cannot be expected to play our proper rôle in the drama unfolding before us today if we are not kept informed about the why and the how of the war. We ought to know our enemies, and their mad dream of world conquest. We ought to know our Allies and the sacrifices they are making to win a war which we could never have won without their help. We ought to know what we as individuals can do to bring our enemies to their knees more quickly. And finally, we ought to know something about the things we are fighting for. In the words of Mr. Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information, “This is a people's war, and to win it the people should know as much about it as they can.”
To help “facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent understanding … of the status and progress of the war effort”—according to the executive order creating the OWI—the federal government has utilized five main media: motion pictures, the press, radio, graphics, and face-to-face discussion. While reaching a more limited audience, government pamphlets have served as an invaluable sixth medium. A review of a select list of the pamphlets about the war on the world front may be of particular interest to political scientists for two reasons: (1) the publication and distribution of such pamphlets is one important phase of the wartime activities of our government; and (2) they are an excellent source of information for teachers and other community leaders upon whose shoulders has fallen much of the responsibility for keeping our people informed about the war.
- Type
- American Government and Politics
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1944
References
1 For purposes of summary and evaluation, the writer has selected some thirty pamphlets which have appeared during the first two years of the war. Those dealing primarily with domestic problems have not been included. It should be kept in mind, too, that the government's pamphlet program was changed materially in July, 1943, when Congress reduced the appropriations of the domestic branch of the Office of War Information and forbade the further distribution of OWI pamphlets. In many cases, however, copies may still be obtained from local libraries or war information centers. Copies of the other pamphlets referred to in this article may also be secured as follows:
(1) Coördinator of Inter-American Affairs—from the CIAA office in Washington. Available free in limited quantities for groups and organizations.
(2) Office of Lend-Lease Administration—from the Foreign Economic Administration, Washington. Available free in very limited quantities.
(3) Office of Education—the supply of the pamphlet referred to is exhausted.
(4) Department of State—at prices indicated, from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington.
(5) National Resources Planning Board—at slight charge from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington.
(6) War Production Board—very limited quantity available free from the WPB, Washington.
(7) United Nations Information Office—the office in New York City.
2 In the light of recent experience, we should be buying insurance for the future if we should move now to create, in the Department of State, a thoroughgoing, up-to-date Bureau of Public Information. For only if the people know what is happening, and the Department in turn understands what the people are thinking, can our policy be safely and soundly formulated. [The reorganization of the Department announced on January 15, 1944, provides for an Office of Public Information. Man. Ed.]
3 See, for example, such pamphlets as The Job Australia is Doing, and South Africa at War.
4 See, for example, Americas United, p. 2.
5 On January 25, 1943, Lend-Lease Administrator Stettinius also submitted to Congress a summary report of lend-lease operations, covering the period from March 11, 1941, to December 31, 1942. This was printed as House Doc. No. 57, 78th Cong., 1st Sess. (pp. 91). Of considerable interest, also, in this connection is War Production in 1942 (1942, pp. 19), issued by the Division of Information of the War Production Board. The writer has been informed that a similar report on the progress of production during 1943—with an analysis of the major problems involved—will be available from the WPB early in 1944.
6 The twelfth report, submitted to the Congress on November 11, 1943, deals in detail with reverse lend-lease aid from the British Commonwealth. Apparently designed to answer, as House Leader John McCormack put it, some of the “lying, sniping rumors and attacks on lend-lease,” the report pointed out that “by the help which our friends and allies have given us, and by the help which we have given them in the common cause, we have not only made progress in the war, but we have saved the lives of many of our own boys as well as those of our allies.”
7 For the study of postwar problems in general, the pamphlet series of the National Resources Planning Board is highly recommended. Since it deals, for the most part, with such domestic problems as transportation, security, city planning, the consumer, unemployment, etc., it falls outside the scope of this article.
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