Word: mellett
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...heart of downtown Washington, erection was rushed at emergency tempo on a $600,000 building, to house Lowell Mellett's Office of Government Reports, the glorified clipping service which digests newspapers for busy bureaucrats. The Washington Post in a front-page editorial called it "The Great Boondoggle" of the war, pointed out that Congress had specifically refused to appropriate money for the building. The Post also dubbed it "Mellett's Madhouse." Mellett's defense was that the work of his bureau had expanded, and anyway the President wanted him to have the building...
...Designated wry, dry, slick Lowell Mellett, Director of the Office of Government Reports, to be Coordinator of Government Films as well...
Appointed to a policy board to advise him on "coordination and integration" are Vice President Wallace, the Secretaries of War, Navy, Treasury, Attorney General Biddle, Postmaster General Walker (chair man), OGR's Lowell Mellett and OFF's Archibald MacLeish - but how much active part they will take is still problematical...
...first time the President had similarly tried to bring order out of chaos. Two years ago the President set up the Office of Government Reports. Purpose: to keep the President informed. He put Lowell Mellett, a keen-eyed onetime news editor, at its head. This year it got $1,500,000 appropriation from Congress. Three months ago, with another fiat, the President installed Colonel William J. ("Wild Bill") Donovan as Coordinator of Information. Purpose: to keep the President informed. Besides these special agencies, every Government department has its own information service to keep track of the nation's defense...
...Mellett's critics charge that he is an impractical idealist who runs a spy service-an accusation at least partly belied by his executive ability. His friends, vastly admiring, sometimes charge him with excessive sweet-temperedness. But at times Mellett has shown sufficient temper to scare the daylights out of those who envision him as a future Censor-in-Chief of the U. S. Press. However, it is not too likely that President Roosevelt would give him such a job. Mellett himself declares he wants no part of any "Information Ministry" and adds: "I simply don't believe...