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Show 'GREENWOOD PLAN' . Grass Roots Drive Proposed to Counter Russian Propaganda From the small southern city of Greenwood, S. C, located about 75 miles northwest of Columbia, has originated a plan that amounts to a grass roots campaign to promote peace and combat Russian propaganda. prop-aganda. Greenwood, settled in 1800, is a town with a population of less than 14,000 people. Situated in a hilly region, it is the trading center of an area producing cattle, dairy products and small grains, peaches and cotton. Its main industries are the manufacture of cotton textiles, cotton .oil, shirts, dresses and men's underwear. Greenwood Mills have worked on a 3-shift basis since the end of World War I and in 1948 were operating "the largest single unit manufacturing spun rayon cloth in the world." One of the more unusual un-usual industries is a bell carillon foundry, a branch of the Dutch foundry that produced the Callie Self Carillon. Ideas From Small Towns It is one of the grass root towns of America and from it has come a plan that is claiming the attention of the nation. Sponsored by the Greenwood chamber of commerce, the 'Greenwood 'Green-wood Plan' is an expansion of the 'Marshal plan of ideas' as suggested sug-gested by Sen. William O. Benton of Connecticut, and would be set up on a nationwide level. As envisioned, a 'Greenwood Plan' committee would be established es-tablished in every community in the nation. To this committee commit-tee would be sent the ideas of the average citizen for telling the American story to the peoples peo-ples of the world, especially those behind the iron curtain of Soviet domination. The local committees would screen the ideas and forward the best ones to a national committee in Washington, which would put the ideas to work. The plan was originated with the beuef that many excellent ideas for piercing the iron curtain and promoting pro-moting permanent peace could be had from Americans in small towns. Sell America Abroad A typical suggestion from a stenographer sten-ographer as received by the 'Greenwood 'Green-wood Plan' committee in Greenwood: Green-wood: "I suggest that the Voice of America select refugees and displaced dis-placed persons now in this country and schedule them on Voice of America broadcasts beamed to their respective countries. These refugees and displaced persons would have great influence on the people in the areas from which they have come and could and would effectively 'sell' America to their countrymen abroad." The Greenwood chamber of commerce is serving as the central cen-tral clearing agency until an overall over-all Marshall plan of ideas organization organi-zation is set up in Washington to do the job. |