t would help the war effort. The Advertising Council did the
important job of screening--of presenting projects which were legitimate
and urgent.

Even the advertising agencies and public relations firms, which
contributed free services, profited from the arrangement. They earned
experience and prestige as agencies which had prepared nationally
successful campaigns.

* * * * *

The Advertising Council continued after the war to perform this same
service--selecting, for free promotion, projects that are "importantly
in the public interest." Indeed, the service is more valued in peace
time than in war by many advertisers and broadcasting officials who are
badgered to support countless causes and campaigns, most of which sound
good but some of which may be objectionable. Investigating to screen the
good from the bad is a major job. The Advertising Council does this job.
The Council is respected by industry, by the public, and by government.
It is safe to promote a project which the Advertising Council claims to
be "importantly in the public interest."

Thus, officials of the Advertising Council have become czars in a most
important field. They arbitrarily decide what is, and what is not, in
the public interest. When the Advertising Council "accepts" a project,
the most proficient experts in the world--leading Madison Avenue
people--go to work, without charge, to create (and saturate the media of
mass communication with) the skillful propaganda that "sells" the
project to the public.

Officials of the Advertising Council are aware of their power as
moulders of public opinion. Theodore S. Repplier, head of the
Advertising Council, was quoted in a June, 1961, issue of _Saturday
Review_, as saying:

"There are Washington officials hired to collect figures on about
every known occupation, to worry about the oil and miners under the
ground, the rain in the sky, the wildlife in the woods, and the
fish in the streams--but it is nobody's job to worry about
America's state of mind, or whether Americans misread a situation
in a way that could be tragic.

"This is a dangerous vacuum. But it is also a vacuum which explains
to a considerable degree the important position the Advertising
Council holds in American life today."

Note, particularly, that the Advertising Council is responsible to no
one. If a business firm should decide on its own to includ