The collection includes correspondence, Nov. 13, 1931-Feb. 26, 1945. Most of the letters are concerned with NBC's progress in developing short wave facilities, and with Mr. Mason's activities as special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy during World War II. There are a few letters, in the late 1930's, from Joachim Streseman, son of Germany's “Peace Chancellor,” and two letters from Herbert Hoover, July 8, 1941, and Oct. 26, 1942.
There are also telephone logs of calls, kept while Mason was special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. Most of these calls are concerning military matters, with some personal ones. In addition, there are daily appointment sheets kept by Mason during this period.
Mr. Mason's speeches cover three main topics: newspaper-radio relations, short wave broadcasting, and propaganda. The short wave and propaganda subjects are related and make up the bulk of the addresses. A typescript of Mason's testimony before a Congressional hearing in 1938 concerns short wave.
Also retained in the collection are mimeographed copies of the news conferences of the Secretary of the Navy. Most of them concern the war in the
Pacific against the Japanese, but there is some material on the Normandy Invasion. Reports, not by Mason, concern short wave and reconversion of industry after the war.
