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Show Army Fears Political Snarl T In Handling News tor GIs yM Military Not Desirous of Cutting Off News From Armed Forces; Dislikes Entering i fis Possible Controversy. ,:-jL liy BAUKIIAGE Venn Amilytl and Commentator. WNU .Service, Union Trust Building Washington, 1). C. There Is a great deal of talk, some of it sincere and from the heart, tome of it so dripping with sentimentality senti-mentality that it offends good taste, about "GI Joe" and what the country owes him. After a bitter battle, a bill was passed in congress, following all kinds of political badminton, to provide pro-vide means for the men and women In the armed services to vote In the coming election. Then, a fortnight ago, came a dispatch from the correspondent cor-respondent of the New York Herald-Tribune Herald-Tribune in Algiers which said: "Unless some provocative discussion discus-sion of the presidential campaign appears in the Stars & Stripes (the service newspaper) only a small percentage of the troops will vote." A little later, Col. Egbert White (I worked with him on the original Stars & Stripes in Paris In the first World war) was relieved of his directorship of the Mediterranean editions of the Stars it Stripes and ordered to report to Washington. About the same time, it was revealed re-vealed that books like "The Republic" Repub-lic" and similar works which have been accepted as standard textbooks are on the war department's prohibited pro-hibited list because congress has forbidden "political argument and propaganda" in the armed forces. Colonel White wanted to make the Stais & Stripes as much like a metropolitan met-ropolitan newspaper as possible. He wanted to send reporters to cover both the Republican and Democratic conventions. He wanted to have the use uf a regular news report from the Associated Press wire, like any other newspaper, instead of being limited to the army news service (a digest of the news carefully screaned in New York). calculated to affect the election of any federal officer can be put in jail for a year or fined a thousand dollars. Now, the military fears a political ernbrogllo as Br'er Fox feared brambles. They are not particularly desirous of cutting off news from the armed forces. They have no ob- ( jection to having the boys get into controversy so long as it doesn't interfere in the argument with the enemy. But they have a decided dislike for getting into a controversy themselves. They say, "There is the law. We don't intend to violate It." Colonel White's departure has started a discussion, the end of which is not yet. Will "GI Joe" get his political news? That- depends de-pends on whether congress and the army simply pass the buck back and forth or whether something definite is done. Senator Taft said when he sponsored spon-sored Title Five that in the first place he had no intention of banning works accepted as textbooks In the schools. The senator met with army officials, members of the council on books in wartime, and others In New York on July 20 to discuss this question. ques-tion. Taft also said to me that he felt the law need not Interfere with furnishing fur-nishing the service newspapers with news generally circulated here. He said if the army asked for a clarifying clari-fying amendment, he would be glad to take it up with congress. I have also talked with Senator Lucas, coauthor of the original soldier's sol-dier's vote bill. He said he considered con-sidered it "a little short of stupidity to deny the boys overseas or wherever they are, of all the information in-formation that any citizen in this country can obtain." He said he thought "something ought to be done to liberalize the regulations on publicity." Receives Legion of Merit Jjist how far Colonel White had gone with his ambitious plans when th pressure began, I do not know. I do know that when he first went t Africa, while General Eisenhower Eisen-hower was still there, the Colonel's work was apparently so satisfactory that the General made him a member mem-ber of his staff and he received the Legion of Merit award. But General Gen-eral Elsenhower departed, and another an-other Pharaoh came to Egypt (or I ahould say to Algiers). For a time, White seemed to have a pretty free hand but there were no great innovations inno-vations noticed in the papers he was publishing. He did start a reprint of the Reader's Digest which caused some disturbance, not because of the content, but because other magazines objected. I believe some reprints from the Saturday Evening Post were also used. Then General Surles, head of army public relations, and Secretary Secre-tary of War Stimson both appeared in the war theaters and about that time White's demission occurred. He had left when President Roosevelt Roose-velt agreed to run again and the GIs who read the Rome edition of the Stars & Stripes learned about it in a 190-word story given third place, well down on page one under a two-column head. The Normandy campaign was given first play and the Russian offensive, second. The coverage by the Rome Stars & Stripes of the Dewey Bnd Bricker ' nominations was a 550-word story, halfway down the page, with a box containing highlights of the convention. conven-tion. There were also 200 words on how New York papers covered the nominations; seven paragraphs on Hoover's speech; two paragraphs on Farley. The Herald-Tribune correspondent cor-respondent described this as "meager" coverage due, not to the wishes of the editors, but to the re-. re-. ttrictions. No Public Statement At this writing, White has not made any public statement officers offi-cers don't talk. Since the action occurred oc-curred in the Mediterranean theater, the-ater, Washington army officials cannot can-not comment. They merely point to Title Five, sponsored by Senator Taft, in the soldier's vote law passed by congress. This Title Five says that anyone responsible for permitting publication publica-tion in a service organ paid for by government funds, of political argument argu-ment or propaganda designed or Definition Needed There is no sign at this writing that the army will make a request for a clarifying amendment but it will be all right with them if what is considered propaganda directed to the election of a federal office holder is clearly defined. Meanwhile, why shouldn't the military want to toe the line? Their commander-in-chief (a political candidate himself) is a Democrat. Their secretary of war, the venerable and party-loyal Henry Stimson, is a good Republican. Republi-can. What about Colonel White? He must have known what was ahead of him when he tried to make the Stars Si Stripes a metropolitan newspaper. news-paper. He must remember as I very well do the headaches he and I and the rest of the old Stars & Stripes staff caused GHQ-G2D up in Chau-mont, Chau-mont, in the last war. The Stars & Stripes of World War II appears in London, Algiers, Casablanca, Casa-blanca, Oi'an, a weekly edition from Naples, editions out of Cairo for the Middle East. That is a publishing undertaking of no mean proportions intended to suit a real "GI." But if a newspaper is any good for anything, it is supposed to view with alarm and point with pride come election time. It takes a real argument to sprout a vote. And that is what the army says congress says the Stars & Stripes must have no part in. Meanwhile, you don't expect "political argument" in the service publications if it is goii.g to cost some honest colonel with a wife and family to support, a thousand dollar dol-lar fine or a year in jail. There will have to be a clarification of the law. Nazi Civilian Morale A significant editorial appeared in a Cologne newspaper-Cologne, the ; home of the once happy, carefree j Rhinelanders who cheerfully boasted i of "German wine and German song" and one of the first cities to feel the horror of the early mass raids "It is not easy to calm one's raging nerves," says this newspaper, news-paper, and then counsels restraint re-straint and studied concealment of one's personal feelings lest others be affected, and warns against the use of sedatives. This quotation is but one link i in a growing chain of evidence re- j vealing the state of German civilian morale. j |