Editorial Note
On July 14 the United States Advisory Commission on Information (comprising Mark F. Ethridge, Publisher of the Louisville Courier Journal and Louisville Times, Chairman; Erwin D. Canham, Editor of the Christian Science Monitor; Mark A. May, Director of the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University; Justin Miller, President of the National Association of Broadcasters; and Philip D. Reed, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Electric Company) addressed a letter to President Truman expressing the urgency of an immediate acceleration of the government’s international information program and unanimously endorsing and urging early action on the President’s request for supplemental appropriations for the program (see the editorial note, supra). Copies of the letter, which also constituted the Commission’s quarterly report to the Secretary of State, were also sent to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chairmen of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. For the text of the letter, see Department of State Bulletin, July 31, 1950, pages 194–195.
In a statement issued to the press on August 31 by the Department of State, it was announced that the members of the Advisory Commission on Information called on President Truman that same day to review with him the Department of State’s plans for broadening and intensifying the international information program. It was also announced that the Commission conferred with Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Barrett and his staff concerning an improved information strategy. See ibid., September 11, 1950, page 416.