| Show W 0 rel U S state dept seeks to 14 bring diplomacy in open assistant secretary macleish resolved to inform people of united nations dicker ings plans to develop public interest by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service union trust building washington D C by the time these lines are in print the biggest publicity job for the biggest institution the world has ever plan planned ned will probably have been launched by the hereto heretofore for e least publicity minded department of the government the state department it is a build up for the meeting of the united nations to be held in san francisco april 25 I 1 am writing this a few minutes after returning from the office of the man who is planning the program archibald macleish assistant secretary of state the location is journalistically familiar to me and it lies nearby only one block then across lafayette park across pennsylvania avenue and then along almost another block of tome to me very familiar marble corridor I 1 have had many interviews in that ancient impressive state department building but never one in which a member of the staid and conservative institution stuck his neck out farther and with such abandon macleish is the father of the plan I 1 mentioned the plan to tell the country by means of every available publicizing medium what the international gathering on the pacific coast is all about assistant secretary macleish has announced as his creed no foreign policy can succeed in these days unless it has the full understanding and support of the people sets 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 arr arrived ived at that theory so noble in its conception which woodrow wilson proclaimed but found himself unable to put into effect when it came to foreign affairs macleish has geneall gone all the way out on a very tenuous limb and he realizes where it him if the meeting in san francisco crawls into a cavern of secrecy and pulls the cavern in after it F foreign relations are traditionally tio nally established and car carried ried on by diplomatists who are tra trained ined to w work ork in the dark like mules in mines they probably would not be able to see the most persuasive argument 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 relations in front of a newsreel camera and in earshot of press and radio one wash ones linen soiled or otherwise in public and the board of directors meet in the presence of the stockholders 0 O iders but macleish believes there can be a compromise and he is going to risk the unpleasant reaction that might take place it 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 te 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 yalta and neat next with a pretty good idea of what the public wants to know the state department is preparing a set of outlines on such topics as war how can we prevent atthe it the main purpose of the UN prosperity how can we attain it that takes in the economic plans such as the monetary program agreed upon at bretton woods the function of the proposed international economic council credit for reconstruction another topic social progress how can cance we work for it will explain the various programs for health and education which have been discussed here and elsewhere there are other documents including 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 there will be other forms of publicity through the press and radio and a movie picture projecting the story of the united nations some 20 years into the future showing how it is hoped that the organization will fit into the world of tomorrow communications comm broaden interest by the time the san francisco meeting begins its deliberations it 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 news and press and radio will hammer loudly on any doors that are closed too long mr theories will have an excellent opportunity port unity for a very thorough test if the doors dont open he win will be decidedly on on the spot the reason he insists on this bold frontal attack on the open covenants problem is because he believes the world is confronted with a condition and not a theory modern electrical communication he says has in fact created the parliament of man about which tennyson dreamed it is possible to dislike the parliament of man he explains there are those who do dislike it who would like to return to the old system of foreign relations conducted exclusively through the chancel ceries in secret codes but it is impossible to ignore that the parliament of man is now convened in continuous session thanks to public channels of communications without rules of order limitations of debate 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 food conference at hot springs which produced they have fought and occasionally won for a slackening of the censorship on war news but I 1 attended a luncheon not long ago when macleish outlined his theories and I 1 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 him more aid and comfort than anything else is the widespread and happy admission that the report on the yalta conference was so much more frank and detailed than anybody had dared hope perhaps neck is not out cut too far after all one of the greatest difficulties which any governmental institution meets in deciding on a course of ac action tion which have to be submitted to an actual vote either of the people or of congress is an ability to judge public opinion frequently quent ly 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 by force of necessity or good guessing it ruled thaine that Ne negro gro nurses were eligible A few weeks later along came thie the results of a poll taken by the national opinion research center of the university of denver a nonpartisan noncommercial organization whose reputation is high among the professional poll takers it confirmed the ardys judgment by revealing that the majority of those white civilian ad adults tilts 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 you like itt it the majority 57 per cent said yes I 1 per cent was undecided of the jessers yes sers 3 per cent said it 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 cammies mammies mam mies |
