Propaganda On the Run

Already at war five months, America still doesn't have a uniform or effective propaganda policy. For months, much of the concrete work that has been accomplished in this vitally important branch of warfare has been done at Harvard by members of the Psychology Department. Seminars, to study morale here at home and the effect of Nazi propaganda abroad, are a creation, and a much needed one, of this Department. Its findings are sent to the offices of MacLeish in Washington, where they are tabulated in an attempt to gauge the amount of dissent and unrest in the country as well as interpret the latest machinations of Goebbels and Company.

There can be no doubt that this kind of work is vitally important to the war effort and the whole propaganda front that the United Nations must establish. To date, however, the Psychology Department to do this specialized war work has had to use its own funds. Now it needs money to continue. There is need for a government subsidy not only to provide what is needed now, but enough to expand the whole program to a size worthy of the kind of work being done.