Editorial: Too many rumors (10-28-42)

The Pittsburgh Press (October 28, 1942)

Editorial: Too many rumors

Senator Willis of Indiana, in a public speech, said the U.S. Navy is “almost out of commission in the Pacific,” and, like Wendell Willkie and others, attacked the government’s secrecy policy.

For a Senator to make such sweeping statements about the condition of the Pacific Fleet is regrettable and harmful. Unfortunately, many in Congress and many more citizens are whispering what Senator Willis shouted, and more.

Some of this sort of thing is inevitable in war, when a necessary censorship to keep military information from the enemy causes a certain amount of uneasy gossip at home. So, the War and Navy Departments, charged with this disagreeable duty, deserve the sympathetic support of the public.

But every policy must be judged by its results and, after every allowance has been made for the difficulty of making decisions on publication of losses, the net result is very bad. Bu withholding news of ship losses from five to 10 weeks – and by still suppressing Pearl Harbor and Manila plane losses after nearly a year – the government is making the public a sucker for natural fears and unchecked exaggeration, not to mention enemy propaganda.

All this has been pointed out repeatedly by the press and by close advisers of the President, who have tried in vain to get a more intelligently effective information policy. The British government has proved that this is possible.

We do not believe the Willis statement, and we hope the public will not believe it, though naval losses doubtless have been heavier than yet announced. But there is something more important than naval losses, however large. That is loss of public confidence.

The government must find some way, quickly, to kill panicky rumors with facts. Americans are fair enough and strong enough to take in stride the increasingly heavy losses in offensive war, if their government will tell them the truth.

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