By
June 10 million men had signed up for the draft, and over 500,000 men were
in the training camps. Topics that were discussed included: "Why
We are Fighting", "What Our Enemy Really Is", they were to emphasis the
ideas of service and sacrifice of the war. Creel hoped to develop
a strong war will in the American public.
There were several working factors that made the Four Minute Men so successful. Creel hired the best speech writers and teachers around; he set up inspectors all over the country to evaluate the speeches; he also had requirements to become a Four Minute Man--which included at least 3 prominent of your town to nominate you. The country seemed to catching Four Minute Men fever, speeches were now not only limited to movie theaters but to lodges, unions, and even Indian Reservations. Branches of the FMM were being established with the soldiers, so they could encourage their fellow "doughboys". There also developed a junior league of FMM, were high school youth were recruited to give speeches to their classmates.
Creel's second project were the Red, White, Blue books. These booklets were supposed to expand on the Wilson's speeches and they were also written in a concise format so the average American could understand the message. The CPI also created the Division of News. It was reported that this department was responsible for at least 6,000 press releases a day. John W. McConaughy was its first director, followed by Leigh Reilly. The press releases were featured in about 20,000 newspapers. The committee also had the Division of Syndicated Features. Creel understood that the majority of the public usually passed the front page and go directly to their favorite sections in the paper. He recruited the best novelists, writers, and essayists of that time to help write daily columns about the war.
The Division of Civic and Educational Cooperatives was a group of scholars who Creel hired to write pamphlets. Under the directorship of Guy Stanton Ford,they produced writings, such as "The German Whisper" and "German War Practices". This division was responsible for producing 105 publications. This division was able to recruit the top American intellectuals, like John Dewey and Walter Lippman.
The division
of Pictorial Publicity dealt with the print media. Charles Dana Gibson
was head of this unit and it was established on April 17,1917. The
headquarters were in New York and the budget of about $13,000. This
division dealt with posters and illustrations. Also print ads
in magazines and newspapers came under this division, amazingly the committee
was able to receive free ad space in these publications. Everyone
was doing their part in the effort. This division also included contributors
such as N.C Wyeth,
who produced massive patriotic canvases and of course the famous pictorials
of Uncle Sam, created by James Montogomery
With the
barrage of pro-war sentiment filtering through all forms of media, the
next step was obviously going to be films. The CPI did not enter
the movie field formally until July 1917, and the Division of Films was
not set up until September. Just like the ads and pamphlets the movies
were used as a way to promote the war. By the first week in April
the CPI already had several movies prepared to be released. The films
that were produced mainly for informational and documentation purposes.
Under the directorship of Charles S. Hart, who had been the advertising
manager of Heart's Magazine had five distinct functions:
to cooperate with the photographers of the Signal Corps and Navy; writing
of scenarios and issuing permits for the films about government work; production
of the documentary films; distribution and promotion of the films, and
exporting the films abroad.(5) The movie industry was more than willing
to help the CPI. The movie producers wanted to shed their images
as sleazy and shady people and let their support in the film making.
The CPI was able to recruit the producer D.W.
Griffith who produced the the first blockbuster of American films,
"Birth of a Nation"
Movies like "To Hell with Kaiser", "Wolves of Kultur" and "Pershing's Crusade" was able to rally even more support for the war. CPI's methods were to aim at the emotional gut feelings and not at the intellectuals. These movies were made to easily defining who were the enemies and who were the victors. It gave simplistic characteristics to the enemy and it tugged at the heart strings of the public.
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