Elmer Davis Office of War Information

Davis spent two and a half years reporting the news on radio and gaining the trust of the nation. Then, in 1941, his colleagues persuaded President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to appoint Davis director of the newly created United States Office of War Information, a sprawling organization with over 3,000 employees.

Even though Davis was being paid $53,000 per year from CBS, he left the network to work in government during the crisis of World War ll.

Elmer Davis (American journalist)

As Director of the Office of War Information, Davis recommended to President Roosevelt that Japanese-Americans be permitted to enlist for service in the Army and Navy and urged him to oppose bills in Congress that would deprive Nisei of citizenship and intern  them during the war. Davis has been termed one of the “unsung forefathers” of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all-Nisei combat unit in the war.  Read more here

Elmer Davis Quotes

♦One of the things that is wrong with America is that everybody who has done anything at all in his own field is expected to be an authority on every subject under the sun.

♦The first and great commandment is, don’t let them scare you.

♦This nation was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle – among others – that honest men may honestly disagree; that if they all say what they think, a majority of the people will be able to distinguish truth from error.

♦This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

♦This republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it.

♦This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

♦When a middle-aged man says in a moment of weariness that he is half dead, he is telling the literal truth.

SOURCE: www.brainyquote.com/

Listen to Elmer Davis and the News (October 7, 1939)

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