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Show U.S. State Dept. Seeks to ' C 1 Bring Diplomacy in Open , ;i ; . Assistant Secretary MacLeish Resolved to y(, Inform People of United Nations Dicker- V,J. : ings; Plans to Develop Public Interest. By BAUKIIAGE Vpw.i Analyst and Commentator. There will be other forms of publicity pub-licity through the press and radio j and a movie picture projecting the j story of the United Nations some 20 years into the future, showing how j it is hoped that the organization will fit into the world of tomorrow. Communications Broaden Interest By the time the San Francisco meeting begins its deliberations if. would be fair to assume that the general public will have heard enough about its purpose to have considerable curiosity concerning what goes on at the negotiations. In other words, it will become "must" j news and press and radio will ham- I mer loudly on any doors that are closed too long. Mr. MacLeish's theories will have an excellent opportunity op-portunity for a very thorough test. If the doors don't open he will be decidedly on the spot. The reason he insists on this bold, frontal attack on the "open covenants" cov-enants" problem is because he believes be-lieves the world Is confronted with a condition and not a theory. "Modern electrical communication," communica-tion," he says, "has in fact created the Parliament of Man about which Tennyson dreamed." "It is possible to dislike the Parliament Par-liament of man," he explains. "There are those who do dislike it who would like to return to the old system of foreign relations conducted conduct-ed exclusively through the chancelleries chancel-leries in secret codes. But it is impossible im-possible to ignore that the Parliament Parlia-ment of Man is now convened in continuous session, thanks to public channels of communications, without rules of order, limitations of debate, de-bate, or privileges of the house and those who refuse to take account of its proceedings may wake and find that 'those proceedings have taken no account of them." Of course, the press has been fighting to achieve just such a kind of free news sources as MacLeish is talking about. They almost had to push back bayonets to get within shouting distance of the international internation-al food conference at Hot Springs which produced UNRRA; they have fought and occasionally won, for a slackening of the censorship on war news. But I attended a luncheon not long ago when MacLeish outlined out-lined his theories and I saw more than one mouth go down in cynical doubt of his possible success. He is aware of this feeling, aware of the pressure of tradition and of habit, but he intends to go ahead. And one thing that gives bim more aid and comfort than anything else is the widespread and happy admission admis-sion that the report on the Yalta conference was so much more frank and detailed than anybody had dared hope. Perhaps MacLeish's neck is not out too far, after alL One of the greatest difficulties which any governmental institution meets in deciding on a course of action which doesn't have to be submitted sub-mitted to an actual vote either of the people or of congress, is an ability abil-ity to judge public opinion. Frequently, Fre-quently, the tendency is "when in doubt leave out." The army pursued that policy in regard to the acceptance of Negro nurses for a long time. Finally, either ei-ther by force of necessity or good guessing, it ruled that Negro nurses were eligible. A few weeks later along came the results of a poll taken tak-en by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Denver a nonpartisan, noncommercial organization or-ganization whose reputation is high among the professional poll-takers. It confirmed the army's judgment ' by revealing that the majority of those white, civilian adults, men and ' women, young and old, rich and poor, in cities, towns and rural areas, questioned, said "yes" to the following question: "If you were sick in a hospital, would it be all right with you if you had a negro nurse, or wouldn't you like it?" The majority 57 per cent said "yes," 1 per cent was "undecided." Of the "yessers," 3 per cent said if they had a choice, they would take a white woman. Only 4 out of 10 southerners said "yes," which seems strange since so many of them had "mammies." WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. By the time these lines are in print the biggest publicity job for the biggest 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 department. depart-ment. It Is a "build up" for the meeting of the United Nations to be held in San Francisco, April 25. I am writing this a few minutes after returning from the office of the man who is planning the program, Archibald MacLeish, assistant secretary sec-retary of state. The location Is journalistically familiar fa-miliar to me and It lies nearby. Only one block, then across Lafayette park, across Pennsylvania avenue and then along almost another block of to-me very familiar marble mar-ble corridor. I have had many Interviews in that ancient, impressive impres-sive rococco state department building, build-ing, but never one in which a member mem-ber of the staid and conservative institution stuck his neck out farther and with such abandon. MacLeish is the father of the plan I mentioned the plan to tell the country, by means of every available publicizing publiciz-ing medium, what the international gathering on the Pacific coast is all about. Assistant Secretary MacLeish has announced as his creed, "no foreign for-eign policy can succeed in these days unless it has the full understanding and support of the people." Seta Stage for Open Covenants To put his words into deeds he has planned a program which will set the stage at San Francisco for "open covenants openly arrived at," that theory, so noble in its conception, concep-tion, which Woodrow Wilson proclaimed pro-claimed but found himself unable to put into effect when it came to foreign for-eign affairs. MacLeish has gone all the way out on a very tenuous limb and he realizes where it will leave him if the meeting in San Francisco crawls into a cavern of secrery and pulls the cavern in after it. "Foreign relations" are traditionally 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 argument ar-gument if it were displayed in the light of pitiless publicity. And, it is freely admitted, it would be highly impractical to carry on all international interna-tional relations in front of a news-reel news-reel camera and in earshot of press and radio. One doesn't wash one's linen, soiled or otherwise, in public and the board of directors doesn't meet in the presence of the stockholders. stock-holders. But MacLeish believes there can be a 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 interested. 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, Teheran, 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 outlines out-lines on such topics as: "War: how can we prevent it?" (the main purpose pur-pose of the UN) "Prosperity: how can we attain it?" (that takes in the conomic plans such as the monetary mone-tary program agreed upon at Bret-ton Bret-ton Woods, the .function of the proposed pro-posed international economic council, coun-cil, credit for reconstruction .' . .) Another topic, "Social Progress: how can we work for it?" will explain ex-plain the various programs for health and education which have been discussed here and elsewhere. There are other documents including 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. I BARBS . . by Baukhage The supply of German wines has been reduced 37 per cent. That may be just propaganda to keep the G.I.s out of the country. ( ' ' ' The Nazis say that Marshal Petain, now in a southern German town, displays "an undiminished agility of mind," but probably too Vichyated to leap back Into French popularity again The WPB offers to help out farm- 1 ers who need lumber for emergency maintenance and repair. And they need it these days when all you can get off the old block Is a chip. In a little over one week in February, Febru-ary, 468 applications to hold conventions con-ventions were turned down by ODT, Showing how the war has made the country unconventional. i |
