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From  the  collection  of  the 

d 
x:     z   n  m  * 

o  Prelinger  h 
v    JJibrary 


San  Francisco,  California 
2007 


HOW   WE    ADVERTISED 
AMERICA 


GEORGE  CREEL,  CHAIRMAN 


'y  NEWTON  D.  BAKER, 
SECRETARY  OF 'WAR 


JOSEPHUS  DANIELS, 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY 


EGBERT  L.  LANSING, 
SECRETARY  OF  STATE 


HOW  WE 
ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  First  Telling  of  the  Amazing  Story 
of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
that  Carried  the  Qospel  of  American* 
ism  to  Every  Corner  of  the  Qlobe 

By 

GEORGE  CREEL 


Author  of 
"IRELAND'S  FIGHT  FOB  FREEDOM" 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


How  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 


Copyright,  1920,  by  Harper  &  Brothers 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Published  June,  1920 

F-U 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

DEDICATORY ix 

FOREWORD xi 

PART  I— THE  DOMESTIC  SECTION 

CHAP. 

I.  THE  "SECOND  LINES" 3 

II.  THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 16 

III.  THE  "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" .  £8 

IV.  THE  COMMITTEE'S  "AIRCRAFT  LIES*'   .     .     «     .     .     .    '.  45 

V.  RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS    ....          51 

VI.  THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 70 

VII.  THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 84 

VIII.  TlIE   FIGHT   FOR   THE   MIND   OF   MANKIND 99 

IX.  THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   FILMS 117 

X.  THE  "BATTLE  OF  THE  FENCES" 133 

XI.  THE  WAR  EXPOSITIONS 142 

XII.  THE  SPEAKING  DIVISION 148 

XIII.  THE  ADVERTISING  DIVISION 156 

XIV.  THE  "  AMERICANIZERS  " 166 

XV.  WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 184 

XVI.  A  WONDERFUL  FOURTH  OF  JULY   ........  200 

XVII.  THE  "OFFICIAL  BULLETIN'* 208 

XVIII.  DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 212 

XIX.  OTHER  DIVISIONS 222 

XX.  SHOWING  AMERICA  TO  THE  FOREIGN  PRESS 227 

PART  II— THE  FOREIGN  SECTION 

I.  THE   FIGHT   IN   FOREIGN   COUNTRIES 237 

II.  AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 250 

III.  THE   FOREIGN   MAIL   PFIRVTCE     .  261 


CONTENTS 

CHAP. 

IV.  FIGHTING  WITH  FILMS 273 

V.  BREAKING  THROUGH  THE  ENEMY  CENSORSHIP  ....  283 

VI.  FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND  ITALY 290 

VII.  THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 303 

VIII.  THE  WORK  IN  SWITZERLAND 317 

IX.  THE  WORK  IN  HOLLAND 327 

X.  THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 336 

XI.  THE  WORK  IN  SCANDINAVIA 348 

XII.  THE  WORK  IN  THE  ORIENT 358 

XIII       THE  WORK  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 365 

XIV.       THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 374 

PART  III— DEMOBILIZATION 

I.  AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 401 

n.  "AMERICANIZING"  MITTEL  EUROPA 417 

in.         CONFUSION  AND  NEGLECT 427 

APPENDIX 

I.  THE  AMERICAN  NEWSPAPER  PUBLISHERS'  ASSOCIATION  437 

II.  "SAVAGERY"  vs.  SANITY 443 

PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  PUBLIC  INFORMA- 
TION IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 455 

INDEX  461 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

GEORGE  CREEL,  CHAIRMAN;  NEWTON  D.  BAKER,  SECRE- 
TARY OF  WAR;  JOSEPHUS  DANIELS,  SECRETARY  OF 
THE  NAVY;  ROBERT  L.  LANSING,  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  Frontispiece 

MARLEN  E.  PEW,  HARVEY  J.  O'HiGGiNS,  LEIGH  REILLY, 

MAURICE  F.  LYONS Facing  p.  70 

CLAYTON  D.  LEE,  WILLIAM  H.  INGERSOLL,  WILLIAM 

MCCORMICK  BLAIR,  E.  T.  GUNDLACH "  84 

J.  J.  PETTIJOHN,  GUY  STANTON  FORD,  ARTHUR  BESTOR, 

SAMUEL  G.  HARDING "  100 

F.  DESALES  CASEY,  CHARLES  S.  HART,  CHARLES  DANA 

GIBSON,  L.  E.  RUBEL "  118 

CHICAGO  WAR  EXPOSITION "       134 

W.  C.  D'ARCY,  HERBERT  S.  HOUSTON,  L.  B.  JONES,  W.  H. 

JOHNS,  THOMAS  CUSACK,  JESSE  H.  NEALE,  O.  C.  HARN  '  *  156 

ALEXANDER  KONTA,  JOSEPHINE  ROCHE,  JULIUS  KOETTGEN, 
ROBERT  E.  LEE,  EDWIN  BJORKMAN,  DR.  ANTONIO 
STELLA "  184 

F.  W.  McREYNOLos,  L.  AMES  BROWN,  CLARA  SEARS 

TAYLOR,  E.  S.  ROCHESTER "  208 

CARL  BYOIR,  WILL  IRWIN,  HARRY  N.  RICKEY,  EDGAR  G. 

SISSON "  238 

PAUL  KENNADAY,  ERNEST  POOLE,  W.  S.  ROGERS,  PERRY 

ARNOLD "  250 

LLEWELLYN  THOMAS,  JULES  BRULATOUR,  GUY  CROSWELL 
SMITH,  E.  L.  STARR,  LT.  JOHN  TUERK,  WILBUR 
H.  HART "  274 

JAMES  F.  KERNEY,  ROBERT  H.  MURRAY,  CHARLES  E. 

MERRIAM,  HENRY  SUYDAM,  PAUL  PERRY "  290 

ERIC  PALMER,  GEORGE  Rus,  H.  H.  SEVIER,  VIRA  B. 

WHITEHOUSE,  FRANK  J.  MARION 304 

MALCOLM  W.  DAVIS,  GRAHAM  R.  TAYLOR,  ARTHUR 

BULLARD,  READ  LEWIS "  374 


DEDICATORY 

THE  Committee  on  Public  Information  was  wiped  out  of 
existence  on  June  30,  1919,  by  action  of  Congress.  The 
work  of  the  Committee  had  been  discontinued  months 
before,  and  only  an  orderly  liquidation  was  in  progress. 
It  was  this  liquidation  that  Congress  desired  to  interrupt 
and  confuse.  No  one  was  left  with  power  to  rent  a  building, 
employ  a  clerk,  transfer  a  bank  balance,  or  to  collect  a 
dollar.  This  condition  of  chaos  endured  for  weeks — for  it 
was  not  until  August  21st  that  the  President  found  power 
to  turn  the  records  of  the  Committee  over  to  the  Council 
of  National  Defense — and  it  is  only  to-day  that  a  final 
accounting  to  the  people  is  able  to  be  made. 

At  the  time  of  the  Committee's  annihilation  a  complete 
report  of  its  activities  was  on  the  presses  in  the  Government 
Printing  Office.  This  was  included  in  the  general  slaughter, 
for  not  only  was  it  the  purpose  of  Congress  to  prevent  any 
final  audit,  but  also  to  keep  the  Committee  from  making 
a  statement  of  achievement  for  the  information  of  the 
public. 

It  was  to  defeat  this  pwjrpose  that  this  book  has  been 
written.  It  is  not  a  compilation  of  incident  and  opinion, 
but  a  record  and  a  chronicle.  I  have  followed  through  the 
work  of  the  organization  from  beginning  to  end,  division 
by  division,  both  as  a  matter  of  duty  and  as  a  partial  dis- 
charge of  my  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  men  and  women 
who  worked  with  me. 

ix 


DEDICATORY 

It  is  to  them  and  to  Woodrow  Wilson — great  and  in- 
spired leader  in  the  fight  for  the  moral  verdict  of  mankind 
— that  this  volume  is  dedicated. 

THE  AUTHOR. 

NEW  YORK,  May  lt  1920. 

A  very  special  word  of  thanks  is  due  to  Mr.  Maurice 
Lyons,  secretary  of  the  Committee  from  first  to  last,  and 
to  Mr.  Harvey  J.  O'Higgins,  associate  chairman. 


FOREWORD1 

IN  view  of  the  fact  that  the  works  which  Mr.  Creel 
has  performed  are  supposed  to  have  been  performed  under 
the  guidance  of,  or,  at  least,  in  association  with,  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information,  consisting  of  the  Secretary 
of  State,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  the  Secretary 
of  War,  I  am  afraid  that  if  I  were  to  indulge  in  extravagant 
eulogy  of  the  wise  and  helpful  things  Mr.  Creel  has  done 
it  might  be  assumed  that  I  was  seeking  to  reserve  for  the 
remainder  of  the  Committee  some  share  of  the  praise. 
I  feel  sure,  however,  that  if  the  Secretary  of  State  were 
present  he  would  assent,  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
being  present,  I  know  does  assent,  to  a  statement  of  the 
attitude  of  the  remaining  members  of  that  Committee 
toward  Mr.  Creel;  the  feeling  is  that  while  our  names 
have  been  used  as  members  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information,  its  labors  have  been  the  labors  of  Mr.  Creel, 
and,  for  myself,  at  least,  I  can  say  that  the  helpfulness  has 
been  from  him  to  me  rather  than  in  the  reverse  direction. 

I  remember  a  statement  of  Sir  William  Hamilton  that 
there  is  nothing  great  in  the  world  but  man,  and  nothing 
great  in  man  but  mind.  It  is  obviously  too  soon  to  begin 
to  appraise  either  what  this  war  means  to  mankind  or 
what  forces  have  correlated  in  the  winning  of  the  war, 
and  yet  our  minds  have  been,  I  think,  rather  more  occu- 
pied in  observing  the  correlation  of  physical  forces  than 

1  Being  the  informal  address  of  Mr.  Newton  D.  Baker,  Secretary  of  War,  at 
a  dinner  given  to  Mr.  Creel  in  Washington,  November  29,  1918. 

xi 


FOREWORD 

they  have  in  observing  the  correlation  of  mental  forces; 
and  I  have  a  feeling,  a  very  strong  feeling,  that  future 
historians,  when  they  are  farther  removed  from  the  events 
of  to-day,  will  lay  stress  upon  the  latter,  not  neglecting, 
but  at  least  less  emphasizing,  the  former.  When  you  are 
near  the  trenches  the  biggest  thing  in  the  world  is  the  man 
in  the  trenches,  and  he  is  a  very  big  thing  in  the  world 
while  the  war  is  on.  Our  minds  are  fascinated  by  the 
presence  of  Americans  in  France.  We  see  stretching  over 
France  the  products  of  our  mills  and  our  factories;  we 
see  the  boys  we  have  taken  from  field  and  workshop  and 
factory  and  office  and  school  manufactured  overnight 
into  an  altogether  unsuspected  stature  of  heroism  and 
capacity  for  sacrifice  in  the  field.  We  see  the  trained  and 
veteran  armies  of  the  countries  which  have  long  maintained 
a  great  military  policy  caught  up  with  by  our  own  recruits, 
hastily  trained;  we  see  the  ocean,  filled  with  new  and 
difficult  perils,  carrying  larger  numbers  of  American  sol- 
diers than  have  ever  been  transported  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  Perhaps  the  greatest  foreign  army  that  ever 
crossed  a  sea  in  the  history  of  the  world  prior  to  the  present 
war  was  the  Persian  army  of  a  million  men,  which  bridged 
and  crossed  the  Hellespont,  and  here  the  American  army 
has  sent  two  millions  of  men  across  the  Atlantic.  We  see 
workshops  and  factories  in  America  transferred  from  civil- 
ian occupations  and  learning  new  and  difficult  arts,  ac- 
customing their  tools  to  the  manufacture  of  war  supplies, 
and  we  see  American  labor  learning  new  skills,  new  mechan- 
ical inventions  brought  into  quantity  production  among  us. 
So  we  think  of  the  physical  things  accomplished  because 
we  are  close  to  them  and  because  they  are  visible  to  the 
senses.  Our  minds  naturally  dwell  chiefly  upon  the 
physical  things  that  have  been  done.  There  are  many 
people  in  this  room  who  have  been  in  Europe  since  we 
entered  this  war,  and  nobody  could  possibly  go  to  France, 

xii 


FOREWORD 

enter  a  port,  and  travel  from  any  port  of  France  to  the 
front-line  trenches  without  recognizing  the  energy  and 
efficiency  of  his  own  nation;  the  strength  and  skill  of  his 
own  fellow-countrymen;  the  inventive  genius  of  America; 
the  large  capacity  for  industrial  output  of  America  stamped 
all  over  France. 

These  things  form  our  imagination;  it  is  our  disposition 
to  think  of  the  war  as  a  great  conflict  of  physical  forces  in 
which  the  best  mechanic  won,  and  in  which  the  nation 
that  was  strongest  in  material  things,  which  had  the 
largest  accumulation  of  wealth  and  the  greatest  power  of 
concentrating  its  industrial  factors,  was  the  victorious 
nation.  Yet,  as  I  said  at  the  outset,  I  suspect  the  future 
historian  will  find  under  all  these  physical  manifestations 
their  mental  cause,  and  will  find  that  the  thing  which 
ultimately  brought  about  the  victory  of  the  Allied  forces 
on  the  western  front  was  not  wholly  the  strength  of  the 
arm  of  the  soldier,  not  wholly  the  number  of  guns  of  the 
Allied  nations;  but  it  was  rather  the  mental  forces  that 
were  at  work  nerving  those  arms,  and  producing  those 
guns,  and  producing  in  the  civil  populations  and  military 
populations  alike  of  those  countries  that  unconquerable 
determination  that  this  war  should  have  but  one  end,  a 
righteous  end. 

The  whole  business  of  mobilizing  the  mind  of  the  world 
so  far  as  American  participation  in  the  war  was  concerned 
was  in  a  sense  the  work  of  the  Committee  on  Public  In- 
formation. We  had  an  alternative  to  face  when  we  went 
into  this  war.  The  instant  reaction  of  habit  and  tradition 
was  to  establish  strict  censorship,  to  allow  to  ooze  out  just 
such  information  as  a  few  select  persons  might  deem  to 
be  helpful,  and  to  suppress  all  of  the  things  which  these 
persons  deemed  hurtful.  This  would  have  been  the  tra- 
ditional thing  to  do.  I  think  it  was  Mr.  Creel's  idea,  and 
it  was  certainly  a  great  contribution  to  the  mobilization 

xiii 


FOREWORD 

of  the  mental  forces  of  America,  to  have,  in  lieu  of  a  Com- 
mittee on  Censorship,  a  Committee  on  Public  Information 
for  the  production  and  dissemination  as  widely  as  possible 
of  the  truth  about  America's  participation  in  the  war. 
Undoubtedly  for  the  country  to  adopt  the  censorship  plan 
would  have  been  to  say,  "Now,  we  must  all  sit  still  and 
breathe  cautiously  lest  we  rock  the  boat."  It  was  an 
inspiration  to  say,  instead:  "Now,  this  boat  is  just  so 
many  feet  long,  it  is  so  many  feet  wide,  it  weighs  just  so 
much,  and  the  sea  is  just  so  deep.  If,  after  having  all  of 
these  facts  before  you,  you  think  rocking  the  boat  will 
help  the  cause,  rock'9  That  is  what  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information  did,  and  it  required  a  stroke  of  genius 
— perhaps  not  a  stroke  of  genius,  but  something  better 
than  genius — to  see  that  it  required  faith  in  democracy, 
it  required  faith  in  the  fact;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  our  demo- 
cratic institutions  over  here  would  enable  us  to  deal  with 
information  safely;  that,  as  Mr.  Creel  believed,  if  we  re- 
ceived the  facts  we  could  be  trusted. 

Now  the  men  who  said  that,  and  started  out  to  give  the 
American  people  all  the  facts  there  were,  to  see  that  the 
story  was  fully  told,  to  dig  it  up  out  of  hidden  places  and 
put  it  before  the  people,  performed  a  very  distinct  service 
in  the  war,  and,  if  I  may  say  so,  it  seems  to  me  a  very 
great  service  to  the  future  of  our  development,  and  in  the 
application  of  the  fruits  of  the  victory  which  democracy 
has  just  won  in  the  world.  But  it  did  not  stop  there.  Of 
course,  as  the  head  of  the  War  Department  I  am  committed 
irrevocably,  and  no  matter  what  my  private  opinions  may 
be,  to  a  belief  on  the  much  mooted  question  as  to  whether 
the  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword.  I  am  obliged  to  be- 
lieve that  the  sword  is  mightier  than  the  pen.  But  this 
war  wasn't  to  be  won  by  the  sword  alone.  It  was  to  be 
won  by  the  pen  as  well  as  by  the  sword,  and  I  am  not 

speaking  now  of  a  purely  military  victory,  because  the 

xiv 


FOREWORD 

victory  is  simply  a  point  in  time.  The  Germans  signed  the 
armistice  and  began  to  go  pell-mell  toward  the  Rhine; 
they  turned  over  a  certain  number  of  ships  and  railroad- 
cars  and  big  guns,  etc.,  and  if  that  were  to  end  the  war,  the 
end  of  it  would  be  no  end  whatever.  The  question  which 
still  remains  as  a  part  of  winning  the  war  is  gathering  up 
the  results  of  that  war  and  extracting  the  real  fruits.  Of 
course,  we  should  all  be  happy  over  the  military  victory, 
but  the  things  in  the  victory  that  will  make  for  our  happi- 
ness and  for  the  happiness  of  our  children  twenty  years 
from  now,  and  our  grandchildren  forty  years  from  now, 
are  the  real  winnings  of  the  war;  these  are  the  things  that 
will  count  most  both  for  our  enduring  happiness  and  the 
profit  of  our  children  and  grandchildren,  the  things  that 
will  make  most  for  the  truth  and  the  freedom  and  liberty 
of  mankind  always;  and  these  are  the  things  that  are  to 
be  won  out  of  this  war,  not  by  our  way  of  fighting,  but  by 
what  we  fought  for,  and  what  other  people  believe  we 
fought  for. 

So,  it  was  of  the  greatest  importance  that  America  in 
this  war  should  be  represented  not  merely  as  a  strong  man 
fully  armed,  but  as  a  strong  man  fully  armed  and  believing 
in  the  cause  for  which  he  was  fighting.  It  was  necessary 
to  have  somebody  who  understood  why  we  were  at  war, 
and  in  saying  that  I  speak  not  of  a  man  who  could  com- 
prehend merely  the  difficult  international  problems  with 
regard  to  it,  but  the  spirit  that  made  us  go  into  this  war, 
and  the  things  we  were  fighting  for.  Wars  are  sometimes 
fought  for  land,  sometimes  for  dynastic  aspiration,  and 
sometimes  for  ideas  and  ideals.  We  were  fighting  for  ideas 
and  ideals,  and  somebody  who  realized  that,  and  knew  it, 
had  to  say  it  and  keep  on  saying  it  until  it  was  believed. 
That  was  a  part  of  the  function  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information.  Its  body  was  in  Washington,  but 

its  hands  reached  out  into  the  capitals  of  neutral  countries 

xv 


FOREWORD 

and  elsewhere;  its  representatives  were  in  constant  com- 
munication by  cable  and  telegraph  and  letter  with  the 
central  place  here  in  Washington  where  there  were  gathered 
together  men  of  talent  and  genius  and  comprehension,  and 
the  inspiration  of  their  appreciation  of  America  had  to  go 
out  from  Washington  to  all  of  these  outlying  places. 
Sometimes  it  appeared  in  the  newspapers  of  neutral  capi- 
tals, and  sometimes  it  dropped  from  balloons  in  written 
statements  that  were  meant  to  convey  to  the  enemy  not 
the  size  of  our  army,  not  the  dreadfulness  of  our  means  of 
conducting  warfare,  but  the  invincible  power  of  our  ideas. 

So,  when  the  military  end  came  to  this  war,  it  was  a 
composite  result  which  was  won  undoubtedly  in  part  by 
the  superb  heroism  of  the  American  soldiers  and  the 
veteran  soldiers  of  the  nations  with  whom  we  were  asso- 
ciated. Nothing  that  is  said  about  any  other  part  of  it 
ought  to  be  permitted  to  take  away  from  these  splendid 
soldiers  in  their  hour  of  triumph  any  part  of  the  imperish- 
able glory  which  they  have  brought  to  themselves  and  to 
the  nation  which  they  have  served.  But  it  was  this  un- 
seen but  persuasive  and  unending  flood  of  ideas  that 
aroused  a  correct  apprehension  of  the  true  spirit  and 
idealism  of  America  in  the  war,  and  when  the  armistice 
was  signed  and  peace  came  back  into  the  world,  it  came, 
led  by  one  hand  by  the  military  prowess  of  the  great  free 
peoples,  and  led  by  the  other  hand  by  the  conquering  idea 
of  justice  and  freedom  as  expressed  in  America's  idealism. 

Now  we  are  all  facing  the  future  rather  than  the  past. 
We  are  thinking  of  what  we  are  going  to  get  out  of  this 
war,  and  nobody  is  counting  it  in  gains  which  can  be 
deposited  in  a  bank;  nobody  is  thinking  of  it  in  terms  com- 
posed of  subject  peoples,  but  in  terms  of  the  return  of  law, 
the  reign  of  justice,  and  the  establishment  of  that  com- 
plete morality  in  the  relations  of  people  which  we  have 
always  observed  as  necessary  in  the  relations  of  individuals. 

xvi 


FOREWORD 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  fought  in  this  war.  Every 
man  who  fought  in  this  war,  and  every  woman  who  fought 
in  it,  will  for  the  rest  of  his  or  her  life  be  telling  those  who 
gather  round  of  the  stirring  things  which  took  place  during 
the  years  of  the  war.  We  shall  be  telling  the  new-comers 
on  the  stage  of  life,  or  those  who  were  very  young  while 
the  war  was  on,  of  the  unselfishness  of  the  sacrifices  which 
were  made,  of  the  beauty  of  community  co-operation, 
and  of  the  great  strength  of  a  nation  which  is  strength- 
ened by  high  purposes.  We  shall  be  telling  them  all  the 
rest  of  our  lives,  and  I  say  we  because  we  share  with  the 
soldiers  who  went  to  France  the  dignity  and  the  glory  of 
having  fought  as  they  fought,  along  a  somewhat  different 
front  and  with  not  quite  the  same  peril;  but  we  fought  with 
the  same  spirit,  we  fought  for  the  same  cause,  we  fought 
with  them,  and  when  the  night  was  dark  in  France,  when 
the  stars  were  not  visible  over  the  trenches  and  the  noise 
of  hostile  artillery  was  menacing  and  fearful,  when  it  was 
lonesome  for  the  sentinel,  the  thing  that  sustained  him 
there,  the  thing  that  made  it  possible  for  him  to  stay,  was 
the  unseen  but  almost  palpable  hand  of  his  country  resting 
on  his  shoulder.  That  country  has  kept  true  to  its  ideals 
and  its  cause,  and  these  have  been  kept  untarnished  by 
the  principles  which  were  worked  out  in  this  country  for 
a  democratic  nation;  our  ideals  have  been  strengthened 
by  their  wide-spread  dissemination  throughout  the  world. 

It  would  be  impossible,  if  anybody  wanted  to  do  it,  to 
pick  out  the  particular  persons  to  whom  credit  is  due  for 
these  great  things.  Of  course,  it  is  very  easy  to  know 
where  the  chief  credit  lies.  Nobody  could  deny  that  the 
chief  credit  lies  with  the  Chief  Executive  of  this  nation. 
As  to  all  the  rest,  it  is  glory  enough  and  credit  enough  to 
have  been  permitted  to  serve  under  his  leadership,  and 
in  the  cause  of  which  he  was  the  leader;  but  I  want  to  close 
what  I  have  to  say  by  pointing  out  that  the  mobilization 


xvn 


FOREWORD 

of  America,  superb  as  it  was,  was  a  mobilization  not  of 
men  alone,  nor  of  money,  nor  of  industry  or  labor,  but  a 
mobilization  of  true  appreciation  of  the  rights  of  man. 
It  was  a  democratic  movement  which  made  this  great 
result  possible,  and  in  that  mobilization  of  ideas  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information  played  a  part  of  great  dis- 
tinction and  value,  and  when  I  speak  of  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information,  of  course,  I  speak  largely  of  Mr. 
Creel.  The  land  forces,  for  which  I  speak  especially,  recog- 
nize with  gratitude  the  debt  which  they  owe  for  making 
their  victory  possible,  and  also  making  it  worth  while. 


Part    I 
THE   DOMESTIC    SECTION 


HOW   WE   ADVERTISED 
AMERICA 


THE  "SECOND  LINES" 


S  Secretary  Baker  points  out,  the  war  was  not  fought 
in  France  alone.  Back  of  the  firing-line,  back  of 
armies  and  navies,  back  of  the  great  supply-depots,  an- 
other struggle  waged  with  the  same  intensity  and  with 
almost  equal  significance  attaching  to  its  victories  and 
defeats.  It  was  the  fight  for  the  minds  of  men,  for  the 
"conquest  of  their  convictions,"  and  the  battle-line  ran 
through  every  home  in  every  country. 

It  wTas  in  this  recognition  of  Public  Opinion  as  a  major 
force  that  the  Great  War  differed  most  essentially  from 
all  previous  conflicts.  The  trial  of  strength  was  not  only 
between  massed  bodies  of  armed  men,  but  between  op- 
posed ideals,  and  moral  verdicts  took  on  all  the  value  of 
military  decisions.  Other  wars  went  no  deeper  than  the 
physical  aspects,  but  German  Kultur  raised  issues  that  had 
to  be  fought  out  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  people  as  well 
as  on  the  actual  firing-line.  The  approval  of  the  world 
meant  the  steady  flow  of  inspiration  into  the  trenches; 
it  meant  the  strengthened  resolve  and  the  renewed  de- 
termination of  the  civilian  population  that  is  a  nation's 
second  line.  The  condemnation  of  the  world  meant  the 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

destruction  of  morale  and  the  surrender  of  that  conviction 
of  justice  which  is  the  very  heart  of  courage. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Information  was  called  into 
existence  to  make  this  fight  for  the  "verdict  of  mankind," 
the  voice  created  to  plead  the  justice  of  America's  cause 
before  the  jury  of  Public  Opinion.  The  fantastic  legend 
that  associated  gags  and  muzzles  with  its  work  may  be 
likened  only  to  those  trees  which  are  evolved  out  of  the 
air  by  Hindu  magicians  and  which  rise,  grow,  and 
flourish  in  gay  disregard  of  such  usual  necessities  as  roots, 
sap,  and  sustenance.  In  no  degree  was  the  Committee  an 
agency  of  censorship,  a  machinery  of  concealment  or  repres- 
sion. Its  emphasis  throughout  was  on  the  open  and  the 
positive.  At  no  point  did  it  seek  or  exercise  authorities  under 
those  war  laws  that  limited  the  freedom  of  speech  and  press. 
In  all  things,  from  first  to  last,  without  halt  or  change, 
it  was  a  plain  publicity  proposition,  a  vast  enterprise  in 
salesmanship,  the  world's  greatest  adventure  in  advertising. 

Under  the  pressure  of  tremendous  necessities  an  or- 
ganization grew  that  not  only  reached  deep  into  every 
American  community,  but  that  carried  to  every  corner  of 
the  civilized  globe  the  full  message  of  America's  idealism, 
unselfishness,  and  indomitable  purpose.  We  fought  prej- 
udice, indifference,  and  disaffection  at  home  and  we  fought 
ignorance  and  falsehood  abroad.  We  strove  for  the  main- 
tenance of  our  own  morale  and  the  Allied  morale  by  every 
process  of  stimulation;  every  possible  expedient  was  em- 
ployed to  break  through  the  barrage  of  lies  that  kept  the 
people  of  the  Central  Powers  in  darkness  and  delusion; 
we  sought  the  friendship  and  support  of  the  neutral  na- 
tions by  continuous  presentation  of  facts.  We  did  not 
call  it  propaganda,  for  that  word,  in  German  hands,  had 
come  to  be  associated  with  deceit  and  corruption.  Our 
effort  was  educational  and  informative  throughout,  for  we 
had  such  confidence  in  our  case  as  to  feel  that  no  other 

4 


THE   "SECOND  LINES" 

argument  was  needed  than  the  simple,  straightforward 
presentation  of  facts. 

There  was  no  part  of  the  great  war  machinery  that  we 
did  not  touch,  no  medium  of  appeal  that  we  did  not  em- 
ploy. The  printed  word,  the  spoken  word,  the  motion 
picture,  the  telegraph,  the  cable,  the  wireless,  the  poster, 
the  sign-board — all  these  were  used  in  our  campaign  to 
make  our  own  people  and  all  other  peoples  understand  the 
causes  that  compelled  America  to  take  arms.  All  that  was 
fine  and  ardent  in  the  civilian  population  came  at  our  call 
until  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  and 
women  were  devoting  highly  specialized  abilities  to  the 
work  of  the  Committee,  as  faithful  and  devoted  in  their 
service  as  though  they  wore  the  khaki. 

While  America's  summons  was  answered  without  ques- 
tion by  the  citizenship  as  a  whole,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  during  the  three  and  a  half  years  of  our  neutrality 
the  land  had  been  torn  by  a  thousand  divisive  prejudices, 
stunned  by  the  voices  of  anger  and  confusion,  and  muddled 
by  the  pull  and  haul  of  opposed  interests.  These  were 
conditions  that  could  not  be  permitted  to  endure.  What 
we  had  to  have  was  no  mere  surface  unity,  but  a  passionate 
belief  in  the  justice  of  America's  cause  that  should  weld 
the  people  of  the  United  States  into  one  white-hot  mass 
instinct  with  fraternity,  devotion,  courage,  and  deathless 
determination.  The  war-will,  the  will-to-win,  of  a  de- 
mocracy depends  upon  the  degree  to  which  each  one  of 
all  the  people  of  that  democracy  can  concentrate  and  con- 
secrate body  and  soul  and  spirit  in  the  supreme  effort  of 
service  and  sacrifice.  What  had  to  be  driven  home  was 
that  all  business  was  the  nation's  business,  and  every 
task  a  common  task  for  a  single  purpose. 

Starting  with  the  initial  conviction  that  the  war  was 
not  the  war  of  an  administration,  but  the  war  of  one 

hundred  million  people,  and  believing  that  public  support 

5 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

was  a  matter  of  public  understanding,  we  opened  up  the 
activities  of  government  to  the  inspection  of  the  citizen- 
ship. A  voluntary  censorship  agreement  safeguarded  mili- 
tary information  of  obvious  value  to  the  enemy,  but  in 
all  else  the  rights  of  the  press  were  recognized  and  furthered. 
Trained  men,  at  the  center  of  effort  in  every  one  of  the  war- 
making  branches  of  government,  reported  on  progress  and 
achievement,  and  in  no  other  belligerent  nation  was  there 
such  absolute  frankness  with  respect  to  every  detail  of 
the  national  war  endeavor. 

As  swiftly  as  might  be,  there  were  put  into  pamphlet 
form  America's  reasons  for  entering  the  war,  the  meaning 
of  America,  the  nature  of  our  free  institutions,  our  war 
aims,  likewise  analyses  of  the  Prussian  system,  the  pur- 
poses of  the  imperial  German  government,  and  full  ex- 
posure of  the  enemy's  misrepresentations,  aggressions,  and 
barbarities.  Written  by  the  country's  foremost  publi- 
cists, scholars,  and  historians,  and  distinguished  for  their 
conciseness,  accuracy,  and  simplicity,  these  pamphlets 
blew  as  a  great  wind  against  the  clouds  of  confusion  and 
misrepresentation.  Money  could  not  have  purchased  the 
volunteer  aid  that  was  given  freely,  the  various  universi- 
ties lending  their  best  men  and  the  National  Board  of 
Historical  Service  placing  its  three  thousand  members  at 
the  complete  disposal  of  the  Committee.  Some  thirty- 
odd  booklets,  covering  every  phase  of  America's  ideals, 
purposes,  and  aims,  were  printed  in  many  languages  other 
than  English.  Seventy-five  millions  reached  the  people 
of  America,  and  other  millions  went  to  every  corner  of  the 
world,  carrying  our  defense  and  our  attack. 

The  importance  of  the  spoken  word  was  not  under- 
estimated. A  speaking  division  toured  great  groups  like 
the  Blue  Devils,  Pershing's  Veterans,  and  the  Belgians, 
arranged  mass-meetings  in  the  communities,  conducted 
forty-five  war  conferences  from  coast  to  coast,  co-ordi- 


THE  "SECOND  LINES'* 

nated  the  entire  speaking  activities  of  the  nation,  and  as- 
sured consideration  to  the  crossroads  hamlet  as  well  as  to 
the  city. 

The  Four  Minute  Men,  an  organization  that  will  live 
in  history  by  reason  of  its  originality  and  effectiveness, 
commanded  the  volunteer  services  of  75,000  speakers, 
operating  in  5,200  communities,  and  making  a  total  of 
755,190  speeches,  every  one  having  the  carry  of  shrapnel. 

With  the  aid  of  a  volunteer  staff  of  several  hundred 
translators,  the  Committee  kept  in  direct  touch  with  the 
foreign-language  press,  supplying  selected  articles  designed 
to  combat  ignorance  and  disaffection.  It  organized  and 
directed  twenty-three  societies  and  leagues  designed  to 
appeal  to  certain  classes  and  particular  foreign-language 
groups,  each  body  carrying  a  specific  message  of  unity 
and  enthusiasm  to  its  section  of  America's  adopted  peoples. 

It  planned  war  exhibits  for  the  state  fairs  of  the  United 
States,  also  a  great  series  of  interallied  war  expositions  that 
brought  home  to  our  millions  the  exact  nature  of  the 
struggle  that  was  being  waged  in  France.  In  Chicago  alone 
two  million  people  attended  in  two  weeks,  and  in  nineteen 
cities  the  receipts  aggregated  $1,432,261.36. 

The  Committee  mobilized  the  advertising  forces  of  the 
country — press,  periodical,  car,  and  outdoor — for  the 
patriotic  campaign  that  gave  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
free  space  to  the  national  service. 

It  assembled  the  artists  of  America  on  a  volunteer  basis 
for  the  production  of  posters,  window-cards,  and  similar 
material  of  pictorial  publicity  for  the  use  of  various  govern- 
ment departments  and  patriotic  societies.  A  total  of 
1,438  drawings  was  used. 

It  issued  an  official  daily  newspaper,  serving  every  de- 
partment of  government,  with  a  circulation  of  one  hundred 
thousand  copies  a  day.  For  official  use  only,  its  value  was 
such  that  private  citizens  ignored  the  supposedly  pro- 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

hibitive  subscription  price,  subscribing  to  the  amount  of 
$77,622.58. 

It  organized  a  bureau  of  information  for  all  persons  who 
sought  direction  in  volunteer  war-work,  in  acquiring  knowl- 
edge of  any  administrative  activities,  or  in  approaching 
business  dealings  with  the  government.  In  the  ten  months 
of  its  existence  it  gave  answers  to  eighty -six  thousand 
requests  for  specific  information. 

It  gathered  together  the  leading  novelists,  essayists, 
and  publicists  of  the  land,  and  these  men  and  women, 
without  payment,  worked  faithfully  in  the  production  of 
brilliant,  comprehensive  articles  that  went  to  the  press  as 
syndicate  features. 

One  division  paid  particular  attention  to  the  rural  press 
and  the  plate-matter  service.  Others  looked  after  the 
specialized  needs  of  the  labor  press,  the  religious  press,  and 
the  periodical  press.  The  Division  of  Women's  War  Wrork 
prepared  and  issued  the  information  of  peculiar  interest 
to  the  women  of  the  United  States,  also  aiding  in  the  task 
of  organizing  and  directing. 

Through  the  medium  of  the  motion  picture,  America's 
war  progress,  as  well  as  the  meanings  and  purposes  of 
democracy,  were  carried  to  every  community  in  the  United 
States  and  to  every  corner  of  the  world.  "Pershing's 
Crusaders,"  "America's  Answer,"  and  "Under  Four 
Flags  "  were  types  of  feature  films  by  which  we  drove  home 
America's  resources  and  determinations,  while  other  pict- 
ures, showing  our  social  and  industrial  life,  made  our  free 
institutions  vivid  to  foreign  peoples.  From  the  domestic 
showings  alone,  under  a  fair  plan  of  distribution,  the  sum 
of  $878,215  was  gained,  which  went  to  support  the  cost  of 
the  campaigns  in  foreign  countries  where  the  exhibitions 
were  necessarily  free. 

Another  division  prepared  and  distributed  still  photo- 
graphs and  stereopticon  slides  to  the  press  and  public. 

8 


THE  "SECOND  LINES" 

Over  two  hundred  thousand  of  the  latter  were  issued  at 
cost.  This  division  also  conceived  the  idea  of  the  "permit 
system,"  that  opened  up  our  military  and  naval  activities 
to  civilian  camera  men,  and  operated  it  successfully.  It 
handled,  also,  the  voluntary  censorship  of  still  and  motion 
pictures  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  disclosure  of  in- 
formation valuable  to  the  enemy.  The  number  of  pictures 
reviewed  averaged  seven  hundred  a  day. 

Turning  away  from  the  United  States  to  the  world  be- 
yond our  borders,  a  triple  task  confronted  us.  First,  there 
were  the  peoples  of  the  Allied  nations  that  had  to  be  fired 
by  the  magnitude  of  the  American  effort  and  the  certainty 
of  speedy  and  effective  aid,  in  order  to  relieve  the  war- 
weariness  of  the  civilian  population  and  also  to  fan  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  firing-line  to  new  flame.  Second,  we 
had  to  carry  the  truth  to  the  neutral  nations,  poisoned  by 
German  lies;  and  third,  we  had  to  get  the  ideals  of  America, 
the  determination  of  America,  and  the  invincibility  of 
America  into  the  Central  Powers. 

Unlike  other  countries,  the  United  States  had  no  sub- 
sidized press  service  with  which  to  meet  the  emergency. 
As  a  matter  of  bitter  fact,  we  had  few  direct  news  contacts 
of  our  own  with  the  outside  world,  owing  to  a  scheme  of 
contracts  that  turned  the  foreign  distribution  of  American 
news  over  to  European  agencies.  The  volume  of  informa- 
tion that  went  out  from  our  shores  was  small,  and,  what 
was  worse,  it  was  concerned  only  with  the  violent  and 
unusual  in  our  national  life.  It  was  news  of  strikes  and 
lynchings,  riots,  murder  cases,  graft  prosecutions,  sensa- 
tional divorces,  the  bizarre  extravagance  of  "sudden  mill- 
ionaires." Naturally  enough,  we  were  looked  upon  as  a 
race  of  dollar-mad  materialists,  a  land  of  cruel  monopolists, 
our  real  rulers  the  corporations  and  our  democracy  a 
"fake." 

Looking  about  for  some  way  in  which  to  remedy  this 

9 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

evil  situation,  we  saw  the  government  wireless  lying  com- 
paratively idle,  and  through  the  close  and  generous  co- 
operation of  the  navy  we  worked  out  a  news  machinery 
that  soon  began  to  pour  a  steady  stream  of  American 
information  into  international  channels  of  communication. 
Opening  an  office  in  every  capital  of  the  world  outside  the 
Central  Powers,  a  daily  service  went  out  from  Tuckerton 
to  the  Eiffel  Tower  for  use  in  France  and  then  for  relay  to 
our  representatives  in  Berne,  Rome,  Madrid,  and  Lisbon. 
From  Tuckerton  the  service  flashed  to  England,  and  from 
England  there  was  relay  to  Holland,  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  and  Russia.  We  went  into  Mexico  by  cable 
and  land  wires;  from  Darien  we  sent  a  service  in  Spanish 
to  Central  and  South-American  countries  for  distribution 
by  our  representatives;  the  Orient  was  served  by  telegraph 
from  New  York  to  San  Diego,  and  by  wireless  leaps  to 
Cavite  and  Shanghai.  From  Shanghai  the  news  went  to 
Tokio  and  Peking,  and  from  Peking  on  to  Vladivostok  for 
Siberia.  Australia,  India,  Egypt,  and  the  Balkans  were 
also  reached,  completing  the  world  chain. 

For  the  first  time  in  history  the  speeches  of  a  national 
executive_were  given  universal  circulation.  The  official 
addresses  of  President  Wilson,  setting  forth  the  position 
of  America,  were  put  on  the  wireless  always  at  the  very 
moment  of  their  delivery,  and  within  twenty-four  hours 
were  in  every  language  in  every  country  in  the  world. 
Carried  in  the  newspapers  initially,  they  were  also  printed 
by  the  Committee's  agents  on  native  presses  and  circu- 
lated by  the  millions.  The  swift  rush  of  our  war  progress, 
the  tremendous  resources  of  the  United  States,  the  Acts 
of  Congress,  our  official  deeds  and  utterances,  the  laws 
that  showed  our  devotion  to  justice,  instances  of  our  en- 
thusiasm and  unity — all  were  put  on  the  wireless  for  the 
information  of  the  world,  Teheran  and  Tokio  getting 

them  as  completely  as  Paris  or  Rome  or  London  or  Madrid. 

10 


THE  "SECOND  LINES" 

Through  the  press  of  Switzerland,  Denmark,  and  Hol- 
land we  filtered  an  enormous  amount  of  truth  to  the  Ger- 
man people,  and  from  our  headquarters  in  Paris  went  out 
a  direct  attack  upon  Hun  censorship.  Mortar-guns,  loaded 
with  "paper  bullets,"  and  airplanes,  carrying  pamphlet 
matter,  bombarded  the  German  front,  and  at  the  time  of 
the  armistice  balloons  with  a  cruising  radius  of  five  hun- 
dred miles  were  ready  to  reach  far  into  the  Central  Powers 
with  America's  message. 

This  daily  news  service  by  wire  and  radio  was  sup- 
plemented by  a  mail  service  of  special  articles  and  illus- 
trations that  went  into  foreign  newspapers  and  magazines 
and  technical  journals  and  periodicals  of  special  appeal. 
We  aimed  to  give  in  this  way  a  true  picture  of  the  American 
democracy,  not  only  in  its  war  activities,  but  also  in  its 
devotion  to  the  interests  of  peace.  There  were,  too,  series 
of  illustrated  articles  on  our  education,  our  trade  and  in- 
dustry, our  finance,  our  labor  conditions,  our  religions, 
our  work  in  medicine,  our  agriculture,  our  women's  work, 
our  government,  and  our  ideals. 

Reading-rooms  were  opened  in  foreign  countries  and 
furnished  with  American  books,  periodicals,  and  news- 
papers. Schools  and  public  libraries  were  similarly  sup- 
plied. Photographs  were  sent  for  display  on  easels  in  shop 
windows  abroad.  Window-hangers  and  news-display  sheets 
went  out  in  English,  French,  Italian,  Swedish,  Portuguese, 
Spanish,  Danish,  Norwegian,  and  Dutch;  and  display- 
sheets  went  to  Russia,  China,  Japan,  Korea,  parts  of  India 
and  the  Orient,  to  be  supplemented  with  printed  reading- 
matter  by  the  Committee's  agents  there. 

To  our  representatives  in  foreign  capitals  went,  also,  the 
feature  films  that  showed  our  military  effort — cantonments, 
shipyards,  training  -  stations,  war  -  ships,  and  marching 
thousands — together  with  other  motion  pictures  expressing 

our  social  and  industrial  progress,  all  to  be  retitled  in  the 

11 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

language  of  the  land,  and  shown  either  in  theaters,  public 
squares,  or  open  fields.  Likewise  we  supplied  pamphlets 
for  translation  and  distribution,  and  sent  speakers,  selected 
in  the  United  States  from  among  our  foreign-born,  to  lect- 
ure in  the  universities  and  schools,  or  else  to  go  about 
among  the  farmers,  to  the  labor  unions,  to  the  mer- 
chants, etc. 

Every  conceivable  means  was  used  to  reach  the  foreign 
mind  with  America's  message,  and  in  addition  to  our  direct 
approach  we  hit  upon  the  idea  of  inviting  the  foremost 
newspaper  men  of  other  nations  to  come  to  the  United 
States  to  see  with  their  own  eyes,  to  hear  with  their  own 
ears,  in  order  that  they  might  report  truly  to  their  people 
as  to  American  unity,  resolve,  and  invincibility.  The 
visits  of  the  editors  of  Mexico,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Den- 
mark, Sweden,  and  Norway  were  remarkable  in  their 
effect  upon  these  countries,  and  no  less  successful  were 
the  trips  made  to  the  American  front  in  France  under 
our  guidance  by  the  newspaper  men  of  Holland  and 
Spain. 

Before  this  flood  of  publicity  the  German  misrepre- 
sentations were  swept  away  in  Switzerland,  the  Scandi- 
navian countries,  Italy,  Spain,  the  Far  East,  Mexico,  and 
Central  and  South  America.  From  being  the  most  mis- 
understood nation,  America  became  the  most  popular. 
A  world  that  was  either  inimical,  contemptuous,  or  indif- 
ferent was  changed  into  a  world  of  friends  and  well-wishers. 
Our  policies,  America's  unselfish  aims  in  the  war,  the  ser- 
vices by  which  these  policies  were  explained  and  these 
aims  supported,  and  the  flood  of  news  items  and  articles 
about  our  normal  life  and  our  commonplace  activities— 
these  combined  to  give  a  true  picture  of  the  United  States 
to  foreign  eyes.  It  is  a  picture  that  will  be  of  incalculable 
value  in  our  future  dealings  with  the  world,  political  and 

commercial.     It  was  a  bit  of  press-agenting  that  money 

12 


THE  "SECOND  LINES" 

could  not  buy,  done  out  of  patriotism  by  men  and  women 
whose  services  no  money  could  have  bought. 

In  no  other  belligerent  nation  was  there  any  such  degree 
of  centralization  as  marked  our  duties.  In  England  and 
France,  for  instance,  five  to  ten  organizations  were  in- 
trusted with  the  tasks  that  the  Committee  discharged 
in  the  United  States.  And  in  one  country,  in  one  year, 
many  of  the  warring  nations  spent  more  money  than  the 
total  expenditure  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
during  the  eighteen  months  of  its  existence  in  its  varied 
activities  that  reached  to  every  community  in  America 
and  to  every  corner  of  the  civilized  world.  From  the 
President's  fund  we  received  $5,600,000,  and  Congress 
granted  us  an  appropriation  of  $1,250,000,  a  total  working 
capital  of  $6,850,000.  From  our  films,  war  expositions, 
and  minor  sources  we  earned  $2,825,670.23,  and  at  the 
end  were  able  to  return  $2,937,447  to  the  Treasury. 
Deduct  this  amount  from  the  original  appropriations,  and 
it  is  seen  that  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  cost 
the  taxpayers  of  the  United  States  just  $4,912,553! 
These  figures  might  well  be  put  in  bronze  to  stand  as  an 
enduring  monument  to  the  sacrifice  and  devotion  of  the 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  and  women  who  were 
responsible  for  the  results.  A  world-fight  for  the  verdict 
of  mankind — a  fight  that  was  won  against  terrific  odds— 
and  all  for  less  than  five  millions — less  than  half  what 
Germany  spent  in  Spain  alone! 

It  is  the  pride  of  the  Committee,  as  it  should  be  the  pride 
of  America,  that  every  activity  was  at  all  times  open  to 
the  sun.  No  dollar  was  ever  sent  on  a  furtive  errand,  no 
paper  subsidized,  no  official  bought.  From  a  thousand 
sources  we  were  told  of  the  wonders  of  German  propaganda, 
but  our  original  determinations  never  altered.  Always 
did  we  try  to  find  out  what  the  Germans  were  doing  and 
then  we  did  not  do  it. 

13 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

There  is  pride,  also,  in  the  record  of  stainless  patriotism 
and  unspotted  Americanism.  In  June,  1918,  after  one  year 
of  operation — a  year  clamorous  with  ugly  attack — the 
Committee  submitted  itself  to  the  searching  examination 
of  the  House  Committee  on  Appropriations.  Every  charge 
of  partizanship,  dishonesty,  inaccuracy,  and  inefficiency 
was  investigated,  the  expenditure  of  every  dollar  scruti- 
nized, and  the  Congressmen  even  went  back  as  far  as  1912 
to  study  my  writings  and  my  political  thought.  At  the 
end  of  the  inquiry  the  appropriation  was  voted  unani- 
mously, and  on  the  floor  of  the  House  the  Republican 
members  supported  the  recommendation  as  strongly  as 
did  the  Democrats.  Mr.  Gillett  of  Massachusetts,  then 
acting  leader  of  the  Republican  minority,  and  now  Speaker, 
made  this  declaration  in  the  course  of  the  debate: 

But  after  examining  Mr.  Creel  and  the  other  members  of  his 
bureau  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  as  far  as  any  evidence 
that  we  could  discover  it  had  not  been  conducted  in  a  partizan 
spirit. 

Mr.  Mondel  of  Wyoming,  after  expressing  his  dis- 
approval of  Initiative  and  Referendum  editorials  written 
by  me  in  1912,  spoke  as  follows: 

Having  said  this  much  about  Mr.  Creel  and  his  past  utter- 
ances, I  now  want  to  say  that  I  believe  Mr.  Creel  has  endeavored 
to  patriotically  do  his  duty  at  the  head  of  this  bureau.  I  am 
of  the  opinion  that,  whatever  his  opinions  may  have  been  or 
may  be  now,  so  far  as  his  activities  in  connection  with  this 
work  are  concerned,  they  have  been,  in  the  main,  judicious,  and 
that  the  work  has  been  carried  on  for  the  most  part  in  a  business- 
like, thoroughgoing,  effective,  and  patriotic  way.  Mr.  Creel 
has  called  to  his  assistance  and  placed  in  positions  of  respon- 
sibility men  of  a  variety  of  political  views,  some  of  them  Repub- 
licans of  recognized  standing.  I  do  not  believe  that  Mr.  Creel 
has  endeavored  to  influence  their  activities  and  I  do  not  believe 
there  have  been  any  activities  of  the  bureau  consciously  and 

14 


THE  "SECOND  LINES" 

intentionally  partizan.  A  great  work  has  been  done.  A  great 
work  has  been  done  by  the  Four  Minute  Men,  forty  thousand 
of  them  speaking  continuously  to  audiences,  ready-made,  all 
over  the  country.  A  great  work  has  been  done  and  will  be  done 
through  the  medium  of  the  picture-film.  A  great  work  has  been 
done  through  the  medium  of  the  publications  of  the  bureau, 
which  I  believe  can  be  commended  and  approved  by  every  good 
citizen.  Much  remains  to  be  done,  and  I  believe  the  committee 
has  not  granted  any  too  much  money  for  this  work. 


II 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 


THE  initial  disadvantages  and  persistent  misunder- 
standings that  did  so  much  to  cloud  public  estimation 
of  the  Committee  had  their  origin  in  the  almost  instant 
antagonism  of  the  metropolitan  press.  At  the  time  of  my 
appointment  a  censorship  bill  was  before  Congress,  and 
the  newspapers,  choosing  to  ignore  the  broad  sweep  of  the 
Committee's  functions,  proceeded  upon  the  exclusive  as- 
sumption that  I  was  to  be  "the  censor."  As  a  result  of 
press  attack  and  Senate  discussion,  the  idea  became  gen- 
eral and  fixed  that  the  Committee  was  a  machinery  of 
secrecy  and  repression  organized  solely  to  crush  free  speech 
and  a  free  press. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  censor- 
ship bill,  and  delayed  acceptance  of  office  until  the  Presi- 
dent had  considered  approvingly  the  written  statement 
of  my  views  on  the  subject.  It  was  not  that  I  denied  the 
need  of  some  sort  of  censorship,  but  deep  in  my  heart  was 
the  feeling  that  the  desired  results  could  be  obtained 
without  paying  the  price  that  a  formal  law  would  have 
demanded.  Aside  from  the  physical  difficulties  of  enforce- 
ment, the  enormous  cost,  and  the  overwhelming  irritation 
involved,  I  had  the  conviction  that  our  hope  must  lie  in 
the  aroused  patriotism  of  the  newspaper  men  of  America. 

With  the  nation  in  arms,  the  need  was  not  so  much  to 
keep  the  press  from  doing  the  hurtful  things  as  to  get  it 

16 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 

to  do  the  helpful  things.  It  was  not  servants  we  wanted, 
but  associates.  Better  far  to  have  the  desired  compulsions 
proceed  from  within  than  to  apply  them  from  without. 
Also,  for  the  first  time  in  our  history,  soldiers  of  the  United 
States  were  sailing  to  fight  in  a  foreign  land,  leaving  fami- 
lies three  thousand  miles  behind  them.  Nothing  was  more 
important  than  that  there  should  be  the  least  possible  im- 
pairment of  the  people's  confidence  in  the  printed  informa- 
tion presented  to  them.  Suspicious  enough  by  reason  of 
natural  anxieties,  a  censorship  law  would  have  turned 
every  waiting  heart  over  to  the  fear  that  news  was  being 
either  strangled  or  minimized. 

Aside  from  these  considerations,  there  was  the  freedom 
of  the  press  to  bear  in  mind.  No  other  right  guaranteed  by 
democracy  has  been  more  abused,  but  even  these  abuses 
are  preferable  to  the  deadening  evil  of  autocratic  control. 
In  addition,  it  is  the  inevitable  tendency  of  such  legisla- 
tion to  operate  solely  against  the  weak  and  the  powerless, 
and,  as  I  pointed  out,  the  European  experience  was  thick 
with  instances  of  failure  to  proceed  against  great  dailies 
for  bold  infraction. 

Censorship  laws,  too,  even  though  they  protest  that  the 
protection  of  military  secrets  is  their  one  original  object, 
have  a  way  of  slipping  over  into  the  field  of  opinion,  for 
arbitrary  power  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on.  "Information 
of  value  to  the  enemy"  is  an  elastic  phrase  and,  when 
occasion  requires,  can  be  stretched  to  cover  the  whole 
field  of  independent  discussion.  Nothing,  it  seemed  to 
me,  was  more  dangerous,  for  people  did  not  need  less 
criticism  in  tune  of  war,  but  more.  Incompetence  and 
corruption,  bad  enough  in  peace,  took  on  an  added  menace 
when  the  nation  was  in  arms.  One  had  a  right  to  hope 
that  the  criticism  would  be  honest,  just,  and  constructive, 
but  even  a  blackguard's  voice  was  preferable  to  the  dead 
silence  of  an  iron  suppression. 

17 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

My  proposition,  in  lieu  of  the  proposed  law,  was  a  vol- 
untary agreement  that  would  make  every  paper  in  the 
land  its  own  censor,  putting  it  up  to  the  patriotism  and 
common  sense  of  the  individual  editor  to  protect  purely 
military  information  of  tangible  value  to  the  enemy.  The 
plan  was  approved  and,  without  further  thought  of  the 
pending  bill,  we  proceeded  to  prepare  a  statement  to  the 
press  of  America  that  would  make  clear  the  necessities  of 
the  war-machine  even  while  removing  doubts  and  distrusts. 
The  specific  requests  of  the  army  and  the  navy  were  com- 
paratively few,  and  were  concerned  only  with  the  move- 
ments of  troops,  the  arrival  and  departure  of  ships,  loca- 
tion of  the  fleet,  and  similar  matters  obviously  secret  in 
their  nature.  As  illustrative  of  the  whole  tone  of  the  dis- 
cussion that  accompanied  the  requests,  these  paragraphs 
are  cited: 

The  European  press  bureaus  have  also  attempted  to  keep 
objectionable  news  from  their  own  people.  This  must  be  clearly 
differentiated  from  the  problem  of  keeping  dangerous  news  from 
the  enemy.  It  will  be  necessary  at  times  to  keep  information 
from  OUT  own  people  in  order  to  keep  it  from  the  enemy,  but 
most  of  the  belligerent  countries  have  gone  much  farther.  In 
one  of  the  confidential  documents  submitted  to  us  there  is, 
under  Censorship  Regulations,  a  long  section  with  the  heading, 
"News  likely  to  cause  anxiety  or  distress."  Among  the  things 
forbidden  under  this  section  are  the  publication  of  "reports 
concerning  outbreaks  of  epidemics  in  training-camps,"  "news- 
paper articles  tending  to  raise  unduly  the  hopes  of  the  people 
as  to  the  success"  of  anticipated  military  movements.  This 
sort  of  suppression  has  obviously  nothing  to  do  with  the  keeping 
of  objectionable  news  from  the  enemy. 

The  motive  for  the  establishment  of  this  internal  censorship 
is  not  merely  fear  of  petty  criticism,  but  distrust  of  democratic 
common  sense.  The  officials  fear  that  the  people  will  be  stam- 
peded by  false  news  and  sensational  scare  stories.  The  danger 
feared  is  real,  but  the  experience  of  Europe  indicates  that  censor- 
ship regulations  do  not  solve  the  problem,  A  printed  story  is 

18 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 

tangible  even  if  false.     It  can  be  denied.     Its  falsity  can  be 
proven.     It  is  not  nearly  so  dangerous  as  a  false  rumor. 

The  atmosphere  created  by  common  knowledge  that  news  is 
being  suppressed  is  an  ideal  "  culture "  for  the  propaganda  of  the 
bacteria  of  enemy  rumors.  This  state  of  mind  was  the  thing 
which  most  impressed  Americans  visiting  belligerent  countries. 
Insane  and  dangerous  rumors,  some  of  obvious  enemy  origin, 
were  readily  believed,  and  they  spread  with  amazing  rapidity. 
This  is  a  greater  danger  than  printing  scare  stories.  No  one 
knows  who  starts  a  rumor,  but  there  is  a  responsible  editor 
behind  every  printed  word.  But  the  greatest  objection  to  cen- 
soring of  the  news  against  the  home  population  is  that  it  has 
always  tended  to  create  the  abuse  of  shielding  from  public 
criticism  the  dishonesty  or  incompetency  of  high  officials.  While 
it  certainly  has  never  been  the  policy  of  any  of  the  European 
press  bureaus  to  accomplish  this  result,  the  internal  censorship 
has  generally  worked  out  this  way.  And  there  are  several  well- 
established  instances  where  the  immense  power  of  the  censor 
has  fallen  into  the  control  of  intriguing  cliques.  Nominally  striv- 
ing to  protect  the  public  from  pernicious  ideas,  they  have  used 
the  censorship  to  protect  themselves  from  legitimate  criticism. 

A  proof  of  the  statement  was  sent  to  every  member  of 
the  press  gallery,  and  after  sufficient  time  for  proper 
study  a  meeting  was  called  at  which  Mr.  Arthur  Bullard, 
Mr.  Edgar  G.  Sisson,  and  I  presented  ourselves  for  ques- 
tioning and  full  examination.  We  explained  that  as  the 
agreement  was  to  be  both  public  and  voluntary,  their  assent 
must  not  be  qualified  by  any  doubt,  and  that  we  stood 
ready  to  make  any  proper  changes,  either  in  phraseology 
or  principle.  The  temper  of  the  gathering,  hostile  at  first, 
grew  more  friendly  as  understandings  were  reached,  and 
when  we  left  it  seemed  a  certainty  that  the  plan  would  be 
approved.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  papers  of  the  fol- 
lowing morning  contained  a  letter  from  the  President  in 
which  he  entered  denial  of  the  report  that  he  had  with- 
drawn his  support  from  the  proposed  censorship  law. 
This  was  the  position  of  the  military  authorities,  and  as  the 

19 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

President  had  agreed  to  their  suggestions  in  the  beginning, 
he  felt,  without  doubt,  that  his  pledge  of  approval  could 
not  be  canceled  while  the  various  generals  and  admirals 
were  still  unchanged  in  their  insistence  that  they  must 
have  the  protection  afforded  by  an  explicit  statute. 

Even  though  we  knew  the  utter  hopelessness  of  it,  we 
went  ahead  with  our  plans  and  issued  the  statement  to 
the  press  exactly  as  presented  to  the  Washington  corre- 
spondents. What  followed  quickly  was  another  act  in  the 
serio-tragic  drama  of  misunderstanding.  The  Secretaries 
of  State,  War,  and  the  Navy  had  each  been  asked  to  give 
his  views,  and  those  that  came  from  the  office  of  Mr. 
Lansing  read  as  follows: 

The  Department  of  State  considers  it  dangerous  and  of 
service  to  the  enemy  to  discuss  differences  of  opinion  between 
the  Allies  and  difficulties  with  neutral  countries. 

The  protection  of  information  belonging  to  friendly  countries 
is  most  important.  Submarine-warfare  news  is  a  case  in  point. 
England  permits  this  government  to  have  full  information, 
but  as  it  is  England's  policy  not  to  publish  details,  this  govern- 
ment must  support  that  policy. 

Speculation  about  possible  peace  is  another  topic  which  may 
possess  elements  of  danger,  as  peace  reports  may  be  of  enemy 
origin  put  out  to  weaken  the  combination  against  Germany. 

Generally  speaking,  articles  likely  to  prove  offensive  to  any 
of  the  Allies  or  to  neutrals  would  be  undesirable. 

Convinced  that  a  trick  had  been  attempted  and  eager 
to  find  something  to  sustain  their  suspicions,  the  papers 
seized  upon  Mr.  Lansing's  ideas  and  held  them  up  to  heaven 
in  witness  of  the  Administration's  dark  plot.  Not  one 
took  into  account  that  the  whole  proposal  rested  upon 
voluntary  agreement  entirely,  not  upon  law,  and  that  the 
suggestions  of  the  Department  of  State  were  advisory 
only  and  without  larger  power  to  bind  than  that 

allowed  by  the  individual  editor.    Equally  did  every  paper 

20 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 

ignore  the  fact  that  the  statement  itself,  in  the  outline  of 
fundamental  principles,  contained  these  explicit  guaranties: 

Nearly  all  the  European  belligerents  have  also  tried  to  prevent 
the  publication  of  news  likely  to  offend  their  allies  or  create 
friction  between  them.  The  Committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the 
more  full  the  interally  discussion  of  their  mutual  problems  the 
better.  Matters  of  high  strategy,  and  so  forth,  will  of  course 
have  to  be  kept  secret  by  the  war  council,  but  the  more  the 
people  of  the  Allied  countries  get  acquainted  with  one  another 
through  their  newspapers  the  better.  If  any  case  arises  where 
one  of  our  papers  uses  insulting  or  objectionable  language  against 
our  comrades  in  arms  it  had  best  be  dealt  with  individually. 
But  so  far  as  possible  this  Committee  will  maintain  the  rule  of 
free  discussion  in  such  matters. 

The  clamor  refused  to  be  stilled,  however,  and  Mr. 
Hearst  and  the  Republican  Senators  reached  the  stage  of 
hysteria  in  their  passionate  defense  of  the  "freedom  of  the 
press,"  that  "guardian  of  liberty,"  that  "palladium,"  etc. 
The  bill,  brought  again  into  consideration,  was  defeated 
decisively  and  finally.  And  with  this  irritation  out  of  the 
way,  we  had  hope  of  a  return  to  common  sense  and  so, 
without  more  ado,  we  issued  the  following  card: 

WHAT  THE  GOVERNMENT  ASKS  OF  THE  PRESS 

The  desires  of  the  government  with  respect  to  the  concealment 
from  the  enemy  of  military  policies,  plans,  and  movements  are 
set  forth  in  the  following  specific  requests.  They  go  to  the 
press  of  the  United  States  directly  from  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  represent  the  thought  and 
advice  of  their  technical  advisers.  They  do  not  apply  to  news 
despatches  censored  by  military  authority  with  f  he  expeditionary 
forces  or  in  those  cases  where  the  government  itself,  in  the  form 
of  official  statements,  may  find  it  necessary  or  expedient  to 
make  public  information  covered  by  these  requests. 

For  the  protection  of  our  military  and  naval  forces  and  of 

3  21 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

merchant  shipping  it  is  requested  that  secrecy  be  observed  in  all 
matters  of — 

1.  Advance  information  of  the  routes  and  schedules  of  troop 
movements.     (See  Par.  5.) 

2.  Information  tending  to  disclose  the  number  of  troops  in  the 
expeditionary  forces  abroad. 

3.  Information   calculated   to   disclose   the   location   of   the 
permanent  base  or  bases  abroad. 

4.  Information  that  would  disclose  the  location  of  American 
units  or  the  eventual  position  of  the  American  forces  at  the 
front. 

5.  Information  tending  to  disclose  an  eventual  or  actual  port 
of  embarkation;    or  information  of  the  movement  of  military 
forces  toward  seaports  or  of  the  assembling  of  military  forces  at 
seaports  from  which  inference  might  be  drawn  of  any  intention 
to  embark  them  for  service  abroad;    and  information  of  the 
assembling  of  transports  or  convoys;    and  information  of  the 
embarkation  itself. 

6.  Information  of  the  arrival  at  any  European  port  of  American 
war-vessels,  transports,  or   any  portion  of   any  expeditionary 
force,  combatant  or  non-combatant. 

7.  Information  of  the  time  of  departure  of  merchant  ships 
from  American  or  European  ports,  or  information  of  the  ports 
from  which  they  sailed,  or  information  of  their  cargoes. 

8.  Information  indicating  the  port  of  arrival  of  incoming  ships 
from  European  ports  or  after  their  arrival  indicating,  or  hinting 
at,  the  port  at  which  the  ship  arrived. 

9.  Information  as  to  convoys  and  as  to  the  sighting  of  friendly 
or  enemy  ships,  whether  naval  or  merchant. 

10.  Information  of  the  locality,  number,  or  identity  of  vessels 
belonging  to  our  own  navy  or  to  the  navies  of  any  country  at 
war  with  Germany. 

11.  Information  of  the  coast  or  anti-aircraft  defenses  of  the 
United   States.     Any   information   of  their   very   existence,   as 
well  as  the  number,  nature,  or  position  of  their  guns,  is  dangerous. 

12.  Information  of  the  laying  of  mines  or  mine-fields  or  of  any 
harbor  defenses. 

13.  Information  of  the  aircraft  and  appurtenances  used  at 
government  aviation-schools  for  experimental  tests  under  military 
authority,  and  information  of  contracts  and  production  of  air 
material,  and  information  tending  to  disclose  the  numbers  and 

22 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 

organization  of  the  air  division,  excepting  when  authorized  by 
the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 

14.  Information  of  all  government  devices  and  experiments  in 
war  material,  excepting  when  authorized  by  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information. 

15.  Information  of  secret  notices  issued  to  mariners  or  other 
confidential  instructions  issued  by  the  navy  or  the  Department 
of  Commerce  relating  to  lights,  lightships,  buoys,  or  other  guides 
to  navigation. 

16.  Information  as  to  the  number,  size,  character,  or  location 
of  ships  of  the  navy  ordered  laid  down  at  any  port  or  shipyard, 
or  in  actual  process  of  construction;    or  information  that  they 
are  launched  or  in  commission. 

17.  Information  of  the  train  or  boat  schedules  of  traveling 
official  missions  in  transit  through  the  United  States. 

18.  Information  of  the  transportation  of  munitions  or  ol  war 
material. 

Photographs. — Photographs  conveying  the  information  speci- 
fied above  should  not  be  published. 

These  requests  to  the  press  are  without  larger  authority  than  the 
necessities  of  the  war-making  branches.  Their  enforcement  is  a 
matter  for  the  press  itself.  To  the  overwhelming  proportion  of 
newspapers  who  have  given  unselfish,  patriotic  adherence  to  the 
voluntary  agreement  the  government  extends  its  gratitude  and 
high  appreciation. 

COMMITTEE  ON  PUBLIC  INFORMATION, 

By  GEORGE  CREEL,  Chairman. 

Will  any  American  deny  that  these  requests  proceeded 
properly  and  inevitably  from  the  necessities  of  war,  and 
that  each  one  had  its  base  in  common  sense?  Do  they  sug- 
gest any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  curb, 
influence,  or  confine  the  right  of  criticism?  Even  to-day, 
when  the  war  is  a  thing  of  the  past,  can  it  be  said  that  the 
card  contained  a  word  or  a  phrase  to  which  any  decent 
American  could  take  objection?  Newspaper  men,  it  must 
be  remembered,  were  holding  peace-time  jobs  while  others 
sacrificed  or  fought.  Should  it  not  have  been  their  glad 
duty  to  aid  enthusiastically  in  the  provision  of  a  veil  of 

23 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

secrecy  that  meant  larger  safety  for  American  ships  and 
troops  and  larger  chances  for  American  military  success? 

Our  European  comrades  in  arms  viewed  the  experiment 
with  amazement,  not  unmixed  with  anxiety,  for  in  every 
other  belligerent  country  censorship  laws  established  iron 
rules,  rigid  suppressions,  and  drastic  prohibitions  carrying 
severe  penalties.  Yet  the  American  idea  worked.  And  it 
worked  better  than  any  European  law.  Troop-trains 
moved,  transports  sailed,  ships  arrived  and  departed,  in- 
ventions were  protected,  and  military  plans  advanced,  all 
behind  a  wall  of  concealment  built  upon  the  honor  of 
the  press  and  the  faith  of  the  individual  editor.  Yet  while 
the  thing  itself  was  done  there  was  no  joy  and  pride  in 
the  doing.  Never  at  any  time  was  it  possible  to  persuade 
the  whole  body  of  Washington  correspondents  to  think  of 
the  voluntary  censorship  in  terms  of  human  life  and  na- 
tional hopes.  A  splendid,  helpful  minority  caught  the  idea 
and  held  to  it,  but  the  majority  gave  themselves  over  to 
exasperation  and  antagonism,  rebelling  continuously  against 
even  the  appearance  of  restraint.  Partizanship,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  played  a  larger  part  in  this  attitude,  but  a  great 
deal  of  it  proceeded  from  what  the  French  call  "profes- 
sional deformation."  Long  training  had  developed  the 
conviction  that  nothing  in  the  world  was  as  important  as  a 
"story,"  and  not  even  the  grim  fact  of  war  could  remove 
this  obsession. 

In  face  of  the  printed  card,  with  its  simple  requests  un- 
supported by  law,  the  press  persisted  in  spreading  the 
belief  that  I  was  a  censor,  and  with  mingled  moans  and 
protests  each  paper  did  its  best  to  make  the  people  believe 
that  the  voluntary  censorship  was  not  voluntary,  and  that 
the  uncompelled  thing  the  press  was  doing  was  not  really 
uncompelled  at  all. 

When  one  paper  violated  the  agreement,  as  many  did 
in  the  beginning,  all  the  others  were  instant  in  their 

24 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 

clamor  that  the  Committee  should  straightway  inflict  some 
sort  of  "punishment."  This  was  absurd,  for  we  had  no 
authority,  and  they  knew  that  we  had  none,  yet  when  we 
made  this  obvious  answer,  a  general  cry  would  arise  that 
the  "whole  business  should  be  thrown  over."  Never  at 
any  time  did  it  occur  to  the  press  to  provide  its  own  dis- 
cipline for  the  punishment  of  dishonor. 

All  through  the  first  few  months  it  was  a  steady  whine 
and  nag  and  threat.  Every  little  triviality  was  magnified 
into  an  importance,  and  the  manufacture  of  mole-hills 
into  mountains  was  the  favorite  occupation.  The  follow- 
ing letter,  written  on  July  12,  1917,  to  the  editor  of  a  great 
metropolitan  daily  may  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the 
general  attack: 

Your  signed  article  on  censorship,  "What  We,  and  You, 
Are  Up  Against,"  is  written  so  fairly,  and  in  such  evident  honesty 
of  purpose,  that  I  feel  sure  you  will  be  glad  to  have  me  inform 
you  with  respect  to  its  various  inaccuracies. 

1.  Never  at  any  time  did  this  Committee  ask  suppression  of 
the  name  of  the  monitor  Amphitrite  that  rammed  the  steamer 
Manchuria.     It  is  the  policy  of  the  navy  to  give  instant  and 
complete  publicity  to  all  accidents  and  disasters,   and  a  full 
report  of  the  ramming  was  sent  out  at  once.     Your  own  corre- 
spondent argued  that  the  name  of  the  Amphitrite  should  not  be 
used,  and  if  you  did  not  get  the  information  it  was  because  he 
did  not  send  it.     Even  so,  you  had  the  name  in  the  Associated 
Press  despatches  with  full  permission  to  use  it. 

2.  With  regard  to  the  closing  of  the  port  of  New  York,  this 
was  done  by  order  of  the  port  commandant.    The  Navy  Depart- 
ment was  not  informed  officially,  and  when  queried  by  the  press 
asked  that  the  news  be  withheld  until  an  explanation  could  be 
gained  from  the  New  York  authorities.     This  was  at  11  A.M. 
At  one  o'clock  this  Committee  gave  out  a  complete  statement 
as  to  the  closing  and  reopening,  and  all  the  afternoon  papers, 
in  their  later  editions,  carried  the  story.     No  request  of  any 
kind  was  made  upon  the  morning  papers. 

3.  You  state  that  your  paper  applied  to  the  Committee  for 
permission  to  print  that  the  Root  Mission  was  passing  through 

25 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Chicago  on  its  way  to  Russia,  and  that  it  was  given.  Your 
Washington  correspondent  cannot  tell  us  the  name  of  the  man 
that  answered  the  telephone,  nor  have  I  been  able  to  discover 
it  myself.  I  do  not  doubt  for  a  minute  that  the  call  was  made, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  it  was  not  until  a  full  week  after  the 
Root  incident  that  this  Committee  commenced  its  day  and 
night  reference  service.  At  the  time  we  were  about  ten  days 
old  and  trying  to  get  offices. 

4.  The  facts  regarding  the  landing  of  the  first  contingent  of 
the  Pershing  expedition  are  few  and  simple.     The  War  Depart- 
ment had  requested  that  no  announcement  of  any  kind  be  made 
until  the  arrival  in  port  of  the  last  troop-ship.     The  Associated 
Press  released  the  news  from  its  New  York  office.     This  was 
done  without  the  consent  or  knowledge  of  this  Committee  or  of 
the  War  Department. 

Our  first  intimation  was  a  telephone-call  from  the  United 
Press,  stating  the  action  of  the  Associated  Press,  and  informing 
us  that  the  United  Press  felt  itself  released  from  its  word,  and 
was  sending  the  news  out  over  its  own  wires.  I  told  the  United 
Press  manager  that  the  War  Department  still  insisted  upon 
secrecy,  and  he  straightway  issued  a  bulletin  asking  a  "kill." 
I  called  up  the  Associated  Press  at  once,  and  was  informed  that 
the  story  had  been  released  from  the  New  York  office  an  hour 
before,  that  it  was  "on  the  street,"  and  that  a  "kill"  was  im- 
possible. I  then  telephoned  the  United  Press  that  it  was  at 
liberty  to  disregard  my  request  for  the  "kill."  I  have  no  apology 
whatever  to  make  for  this  honest  attempt  to  protect  good  faith. 

5.  With  regard  to  Secretary  Daniels's  statement  of  encounter 
with  submarines,  any  doubt  you  may  have  had  as  of  its  accuracy 
should  have  been  dispelled  by  a  careful  reading  of  your  own 
paper.     In  the  same  issue  that  carried  your  article  on  censorship 
there  appeared  a  front-page  story  that  told  of  two  separate 
attacks  by  submarines,  making  the  claim  that  two  U-boats  were 
sunk.     If  you  should  be  worried  again  as  to  the  truth  of  Secre- 
tary Daniels's  statement,  I  would  urge  you  to  read  your  own 
vivid,  convincing  narrative. 

So  much,  then,  for  what  you  term  "hodge-podge  official 
handling  of  information."  In  view  of  my  explanations,  will 
you  still  insist  that  we  are  to  blame  for  the  "hodge-podge*'? 
But  if  all  that  you  allege  were  true,  if  we  had  been  guilty  of  the 
blunders  that  you  charge,  what  of  it? 

26 


THE  "CENSORSHIP"  BUGBEAR 

The  secrecies  sought  to  be  obtained  by  the  War  and  Navy 
Departments  have  concern  with  the  lives  of  America's  youth. 
Irritation  and  impatience  are  the  worst  that  can  possibly  befall 
you  and  your  readers,  but  death  may  be  the  fate  of  the  soldiers 
and  sailors  that  are  called  upon  to  run  the  gantlet  of  submarines. 
When  men  are  going  forth  to  fight  and  die,  surely  it  is  not  a  time 
for  those  who  remain  at  home  in  ease  and  safety  to  wax  angry 
over  things  that,  even  if  true,  are  essentially  trivial. 

Very  sincerely, 

[Signed]    GEORGE  CREEL. 

This  voluntary  agreement,  having  no  force  in  law,  and 
made  possible  only  by  patience,  infinite  labor,  and  the 
pressure  of  conscience  upon  the  individual,  was  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information's  one  and  only  connection 
with  censorship  of  any  kind.  At  no  time  did  the  Com- 
mittee exercise  or  seek  authorities  under  the  war  measures 
that  limited  the  peace-time  freedom  of  individuals  or  pro- 
fessions. Not  only  did  we  hold  aloof  from  the  workings 
of  the  Espionage  law,  operated  by  the  Postmaster-General 
and  the  Attorney-General,  but  it  was  even  the  case  that 
we  incurred  angers  and  enmities  by  incessant  attempt 
to  soften  the  rigors  of  the  measure. 


Ill 


THE  "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 


ASIDE  from  the  regulation  "censorship"  cry,  the  thing 
2\  that  worked  principally  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information  was  the  charge  that  I  "elab- 
orated" a  "cryptic"  cable  sent  by  Admiral  Gleaves,  and 
gave  to  the  country  an  utterly  false  account  of  submarine 
attack  upon  our  first  transports.  Although  disproved 
fully,  the  falsehood  persisted  to  our  hurt  and  discredit, 
and  even  to  this  day  there  are  people  honestly  of  the 
opinion  that  the  initial  troop-ships  had  a  "safe  and  un- 
eventful voyage."  Of  the  many  lies  leveled  against  the 
Committee  during  its  existence,  I  think  I  minded  this  lie 
the  most,  for  not  only  was  it  peculiarly  indecent  in  its 
groundlessness,  but  its  contemptible  course  carried  far 
beyond  me  and  struck  down  a  people's  pride  in  their  navy 
at  the  exact  moment  when  that  pride  was  a  war  necessity. 
For  the  first  time  in  history  American  soldiers  were  being 
sent  to  fight  on  foreign  soil,  traveling  ocean  lanes  thick 
with  U-boats,  and  the  period  of  suspense  was  our  "zero 
hour."  The  news  of  safe  arrival,  of  dangers  met  and  con- 
quered, was  a  clarion  to  the  courage  of  the  nation,  yet  this 
helpful  enthusiasm  was  changed  into  a  sneer  for  no  greater 
reason  than  that  a  press  association  might  have  a  "story" 
and  that  partizan  Senators  might  take  a  fling  at  the  Ad- 
ministration. Here  are  the  facts: 

The  first  transports,  leaving  in  June,  sailed  in  four  sep- 

28 


THE  "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

arated  groups  to  minimize  the  danger  of  submarine  at- 
tack. We  had  no  cable  censorship  at  the  time,  and  out  of 
fear  of  enemy  communication,  the  press  was  asked  to 
make  no  announcement  of  departure  or  arrival  until  the 
last  of  the  four  groups  reached  St.  Nazaire.  On  June 
27th,  however,  through  some  blunder  in  France,  the  As- 
sociated Press  received  a  despatch  announcing  the  arrival 
of  the  first  group,  and  without  reference  to  the  War  De- 
partment or  to  the  Committee  it  put  the  news  upon  its 
wires  from  its  New  York  office.  By  way  of  contribution 
to  the  general  confusion,  various  correspondents  attempted 
to  prove  that  I  had  given  the  Associated  Press  authoriza- 
tion for  the  release,  and  printed  the  falsehood  that  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  had  "broken"  relations  with  the  Committee 
in  consequence. 

At  the  very  time  of  the  premature  announcement  we 
knew  that  the  other  three  groups  were  either  in  or  near  the 
danger  zone.  Adding  to  the  anxiety  occasioned,  a  cable 
came  from  Admiral  Gleaves  in  command  of  the  transports, 
telling  of  attacks  by  submarines,  their  repulse,  and  the 
certain  sinking  of  one  U-boat.  Even  without  this  news 
the  tension  was  extreme  and  there  was  not  a  heart  in  any 
department  in  Washington  that  did  not  wait  in  sick 
impatience. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  July  3d  the  navy  received  the 
flash  that  announced  the  safe  arrival  of  the  last  group,  and 
the  correspondents  were  told  on  the  instant.  As  the  word 
traveled  a  great  happiness  took  possession  of  every  one. 
When  I  entered  the  office  of  Secretary  Daniels  in  response 
to  a  summons,  tears  were  in  his  eyes,  and  his  first  words 
were,  "What  a  Fourth-of-July  present  for  the  people!" 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  press  clamored  for  the  details 
of  the  submarine  attack  and  I  urged  the  verbatim  release 
of  the  cable  received  from  Admiral  Gleaves.  The  high 
admirals  flatly  refused  permission,  informing  me  that  it 

29 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

was  the  immemorial  policy  of  the  navy,  in  time  of  war, 
not  to  employ  the  language  of  a  message  coming  in  code, 
as  it  would  acquaint  the  enemy  with  the  cipher.  Moreover, 
the  Gleaves  cable  gave  the  names  of  the  ships,  set  down 
latitude  and  longitude,  and  furnished  other  information  of 
equal  value  to  the  enemy. 

Because  of  these  considerations,  it  was  then  determined 
to  issue  the  information  in  the  form  of  a  statement  to  the 
people  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  Out  of  his  relief, 
his  pride  and  joy,  Mr.  Daniels  gave  me  his  ideas  as  to  the 
subject-matter,  naval  experts  checking  from  the  Gleaves 
cable,  and  the  statement  was  written  then  and  there. 
With  every  correspondent  in  Washington  panting  for  the 
release,  and  with  wires  cleared  for  the  sending,  there  was 
not  time  for  word-picking  and  word-shading,  even  had  the 
emotions  of  the  moment  not  precluded  all  thought  of 
"style"  and  meticulous  phrasing.  Every  care  was  taken 
to  set  down  the  facts,  but  the  spirit  of  thanksgiving  that 
flooded  every  heart  insensibly  took  charge  of  phraseology. 
This  was  the  statement  that  went  to  the  press  within  one 
hour  from  the  time  of  the  original  announcement: 

PRESS  STATEMENT 

[From  the  Committee  on  Public  Information.     For  immediate 
release.] 

July  3,  1917. 

The  Navy  Department  at  five  o'clock  this  afternoon  received 
word  of  the  safe  arrival  at  a  French  port  of  the  last  contingent 
of  General  Pershing's  expeditionary  force.  Announcement  was 
made  instantly,  and  at  the  same  time  the  information  was  re- 
leased that  the  transports  were  twice  attacked  by  submarines 
on  the  way  across. 

No  ship  was  hit,  not  an  American  life  was  lost,  and  while  the 
navy  gunners  report  the  sinking  of  one  submarine  only,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  others  were  destroyed  in  the  first  night 

attack. 

30 


THE  "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

OFFICIAL  STATEMENT  OF  SECRETARY  DANIELS 

It  is  with  the  joy  of  a  great  relief  that  I  announce  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  the  safe  arrival  in  France  of  every  fighting- 
man  and  every  fighting-ship. 

Now  that  the  last  vessel  has  reached  port  it  is  safe  to  disclose 
the  dangers  that  were  encountered  and  to  tell  the  complete  story 
of  peril  and  courage. 

The  transports  bearing  our  troops  were  twice  attacked  by 
German  submarines  on  the  way  across.  On  both  occasions  the 
U-boats  were  beaten  off  with  every  appearance  of  loss.  One 
certainly  was  sunk,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
accurate  fire  of  our  gunners  sent  others  to  the  bottom. 

For  purposes  of  convenience,  the  expedition  was  divided  into 
contingents,  each  contingent  including  troop-ships  and  a  naval 
escort  designed  to  keep  off  such  German  raiders  as  might  be  met. 

An  ocean  rendezvous  had  also  been  arranged  with  the  American 
destroyers  now  operating  in  European  waters,  in  order  that  the 
passage  of  the  danger  zone  might  be  attended  by  every  possible 
protection. 

The  first  attack  took  place  at  10.30  on  the  night  of  June  22d. 
What  gives  it  peculiar  and  disturbing  significance  is  that  our 
ships  were  set  upon  at  a  point  well  this  side  of  the  rendezvous, 
and  in  that  part  of  the  Atlantic  presumably  free  from  submarines. 

The  attack  was  made  in  force,  although  the  night  made  im- 
possible any  exact  count  of  the  U-boats  gathered  for  what  they 
deemed  a  slaughter. 

The  high-seas  convoy,  circling  with  their  search-lights, 
answered  with  heavy  gun-fire,  and  its  accuracy  stands  proved 
by  the  fact  that  the  torpedo  discharge  became  increasingly 
scattered  and  inaccurate.  It  is  not  known  how  many  torpedoes 
were  launched,  but  five  were  counted  as  they  sped  by  bow  and 
stern. 

A  second  attack  was  launched  a  few  days  later  against  another 
contingent.  The  point  of  assault  was  beyond  the  rendezvous 
and  our  destroyers  were  sailing  as  a  screen  between  the  transports 
and  all  harm.  The  results  of  the  battle  were  in  favor  of  American 
gunnery. 

Not  alone  did  the  destroyers  hold  the  U-boats  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance, but  their  speed  also  resulted  in  the  sinking  of  one  sub- 
marine at  least.  Grenades  were  used  in  firing,  a  depth-charge 

31 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

explosive  timed  to  go  off  at  a  certain  distance  under  water.  In 
one  instance  oil  and  wreckage  covered  the  surface  of  the  sea 
after  a  shot  from  a  destroyer  at  a  periscope,  and  the  reports 
make  claim  of  sinking. 

Protected  by  our  high-seas  convoy,  by  our  destroyers,  and  by 
French  war-vessels,  the  contingent  proceeded  and  joined  the 
others  in  a  French  port. 

The  whole  nation  will  rejoice  that  so  great  a  peril  is  past  for 
the  vanguard  of  the  men  who  will  fight  our  battles  in  France. 
No  more  thrilling  Fourth-of-July  celebration  could  have  been 
arranged  than  this  glad  news  that  lifts  the  shadow  of  dread  from 
the  heart  of  America. 

A  wave  of  joyful  enthusiasm  swept  the  nation.  Every 
newspaper  in  the  land  carried  the  statement  in  full,  and 
not  even  the  partizan  press,  always  so  eager  to  criticize, 
had  a  word  to  say  about  "bombast"  or  "flamboyancy." 
For  the  moment,  at  least,  the  meannesses  of  prejudice 
were  subordinated  to  the  exaltations  of  patriotism. 

Three  days  later  Mr.  Melville  Stone,  of  the  Associated 
Press,  received  a  despatch  from  his  London  correspondent 
stating  that  officers  at  the  American  flotilla  base  in  Eng- 
lish waters  had  declared  that  the  transports  were  not  at- 
tacked by  submarines  at  all,  and  that  it  was  more  than 
likely  that  the  supposed  U-boats  were  merely  floating 
spars  or  blackfish.  Mr.  Stone  telephoned  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  from  New  York  and  Mr.  Daniels  gained  the 
impression  that  a  representative  of  the  Associated  Press 
would  call  upon  him  with  the  despatch  before  its  release. 
When  the  Washington  correspondent  came,  however,  the 
Secretary  was  astounded  to  learn  that  the  London  cable 
had  already  been  put  on  the  wires  and  that  the  visit  had 
no  greater  purpose  than  to  find  out  "if  he  had  anything  to 
say."  Mr.  Daniels  pointed  out  that  the  despatch  was  ab- 
solutely anonymous  in  that  it  did  not  give  the  name  of  a 
single  American  officer  responsible  for  the  slander,  and  de- 
clared his  sense  of  outrage  that  the  comment  of  unknown 

32 


THE   "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

persons,  far  from  the  scene  of  the  incident,  should  be 
matched  against  the  report  of  an  admiral  of  the  navy. 
As  a  result  the  Associated  Press  sent  out  a  "kill,"  but  with 
such  a  start  the  story  could  not  be  caught. 

The  partizan  press  leaped  forward  instantly  in  eager 
acceptance  of  the  truth  of  the  anonymous  cable,  and  even 
friendly  papers,  unwilling  to  lose  a  "good  story,"  joined  in 
the  hue  and  cry.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  besieged 
by  correspondents  demanding  the  original  cable  from  Ad- 
miral Gleaves,  and  when  he  refused  for  the  very  same  rea- 
sons that  had  prevented  publication  in  the  beginning,  a 
great  shout  arose  that  the  whole  occurrence  had  been 
nothing  more  than  a  "Fourth  of  July  hoax."  Then,  and 
only  then,  did  every  solemn  editorial  ass  discover  that  the 
statement  was  "lurid"  and  "bombastic." 

A  reporter  of  The  Tribune  called  at  my  office  the  fol- 
lowing afternoon  on  some  personal  matter,  and  while  we 
were  discussing  it  several  other  correspondents  came  into 
the  room.  The  submarine  controversy  came  up,  and  I 
told  them,  naturally  enough,  that  I  had  no  comments  to 
make  whatsoever,  as  any  statement  must  properly  come 
from  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  In  the  course  of  what  I 
conceived  to  be  personal  conversation  I  tried  to  explain 
the  point  of  view  of  the  admirals,  citing  the  importance  of 
the  navy  code,  the  value  to  the  enemy  of  the  information 
as  to  longitude  and  latitude,  and  remarked  also  that  a 
navy  cable  would  have  small  news  value,  anyway,  inas- 
much as  its  technical  wording  made  it  cryptic  to  civilians. 

One  of  the  men  then  sneered  something  about  "elabo- 
ration," and  I  answered  that  the  veriest  fool  could  see  that 
the  release  did  not  purport  to  be  the  Gleaves  cable,  but  was 
openly  and  frankly  a  statement  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  based  upon  the  facts  contained  in  the  cable.  I 
should  have  been  conscious  of  the  possibility  of  distortion, 
but  aside  from  the  fact  that  I  did  not  consider  it  an  inter- 

33 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

view,  the  savage  contempt  that  filled  my  heart  left  little 
room  for  other  considerations.  The  men  standing  before 
me,  every  one  husky,  healthy,  and  within  the  military  age, 
were  holding  down  their  peace-time  jobs,  while  others 
sailed  across  the  sea  to  offer  their  lives  on  the  altar  of 
American  ideals.  Surely  the  least  that  they  could  do  was 
to  think  in  terms  of  helpfulness,  yet  there  they  were, 
fairly  quivering  with  eagerness  to  attack,  to  decry,  and  to 
defame. 

The  two  words,  "cryptic"  and  "elaboration,"  were 
fatal.  Although  only  the  three  or  four  reporters  saw  me, 
virtually  every  paper  carried  a  story  the  following  day  in 
which  I  was  actually  quoted  as  having  admitted  that  the 
Gleaves  cable  was  "cryptic"  and  that  I  "elaborated"  it 
in  the  sense  of  supplying  facts  and  details  out  of  my  own 
fancy.  Senator  Penrose,  an  ancient  enemy,  rose  joyfully 
to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  for  a  display  of 
scurvy  partizanship.  His  resolution  not  only  called  for 
an  investigation  of  the  "Fourth  of  July  fake,"  but  for  an 
inquiry  into  every  act  and  activity  of  the  Committee. 
Reed,  Watson,  Johnson,  and  other  Senators  with  old  angers 
to  satisfy,  joined  in  the  attack  and  the  press  came  in  as 
chorus. 

What  gave  a  touch  of  malignancy  to  the  whole  affair 
was  that  reports  fully  corroborating  Secretary  Daniels's 
statement  were  regularly  pouring  in  from  independent 
sources.  As  early  as  July  7th  The  New  York  Times  carried 
an  account  of  the  attack  on  the  transports,  written  by  its 
Paris  correspondent.  The  New  York  World  a  few  days 
later  printed  an  interview  with  "the  captain  of  an  Amer- 
ican ship  "  telling  of  the  encounters  and  quoting  him  to  the 
effect  that  "almost  every  vessel  in  the  convoy  was  fired 
at  by  the  U-boats,  but  American  gunners  proved  too 
quick  for  the  Germans."  The  correspondent  of  The  Phila- 
delphia Public  Ledger  cabled  a  graphic  story  of  submarine 

34 


THE  "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

attack,  claiming  the  destruction  of  one  U-boat,  and  in 
a  score  of  metropolitan  dailies  appeared  interviews  with 
sailors,  hospital  apprentices,  officers,  etc.,  all  thrilling  in 
their  description  of  the  sea  battle.  On  July  20th  The 
New  York  Tribune,  a  paper  most  horrified  by  our  "fake," 
published  a  letter  received  from  a  private  in  France  in 
which  these  statements  were  made: 

The  Dutch  must  have  known  we  were  coming,  because  they 
took  their  first  crack  at  night,  before  the  destroyers  joined  up 
with  the  fleet.  It  was  about  eleven  o'clock  and  dark,  but  there 
was  some  phosphorus  in  the  water  and  it  was  easy  to  see  the 
bubbles  from  the  torpedoes.  The  "subs"  took  two  shots  at  one 
transport.  They  didn't  miss  her  much.  The  "subs"  got  busy 
and  shot  at  five  other  boats.  They  missed  them  all,  but  it  was 
close  squeaking  all  right.  It  was  sort  of  bad  that  night  because 
the  destroyers  didn't  meet  up  with  the  fleet  until  the  morning. 
They  put  a  smoke  screen  around  the  transports  and  went  out 
after  the  "subs."  One  of  our  ships  got  one  spotted  close  and 
nailed  her  after  she  dodged.  That  was  pretty  neat.  She 
nailed  her  Vay  down  under  the  water.  We  got  the  "sub"  all 
right.  There  was  more  than  oil  came  up. 

Most  delightful  contribution  of  all  was  this  report  that 
the  Associated  Press  itself  sent  out: 

HALIFAX,  N.  S.,  July  25th. — British  sailors  arriving  here  to-day, 
who  claim  to  have  been  among  crews  of  vessels  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  transports  which  conveyed  the  first  American  troops  to 
France,  say  they  were  credibly  informed  that  German  sub- 
marines made  a  concentrated  attack  and  were  beaten  off,  with 
a  loss  of  six  U-boats,  only  one  submarine  escaping. 

The  sailors  said  they  were  within  three  miles  of  the  transports 
and  witnessed  heavy  and  continuous  fire.  The  men  were  on 
three  former  Dutch  vessels  which  had  been  taken  over  by  the 
British  government  and  were  on  their  way  to  Europe. 

The  very  papers,  however,  that  carried  sensational 
and  even  lurid  accounts  of  the  battle  in  their  news 

35 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

columns  at  the  very  same  time  thundered  editorially 
against  the  "Fourth  of  July  hoax"  and  gravely  con- 
demned me  for  what  they  were  pleased  to  term  my 
"  flamboyancies." 

All  the  while  we  were  awaiting  the  return  of  Admiral 
Gleaves  in  order  to  receive  the  full  report  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  file  with  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  fleet. 
In  the  mean  time,  just  as  the  newspaper  attack  was  abat- 
ing, Senator  Penrose  called  up  his  resolution  and  for  a 
day  the  Chamber  rang  to  a  bitter  debate.  In  his  most 
brazen  manner,  Penrose  declared  that  the  American  public 
had  been  "regaled  on  the  Fourth  of  July  with  the  bom- 
bastic account  of  a  battle  which  never  occurred,  and  re- 
lating to  a  squadron  which  crossed  the  ocean  in  placid 
seas  and  arrived  on  the  other  side  without  an  important 
event." 

Senator  Swanson  of  Virginia  openly  charged  dishonest 
purpose.  Senator  Penrose,  he  said,  had  been  informed  by 
the  Navy  Department  that  every  one  of  the  documents 
in  the  case  was  at  his  disposal,  including  the  original  cable 
from  Admiral  Gleaves,  and  his  flat  refusal  to  avail  himself 
of  the  offers  proved  that  he  had  no  interest  in  facts.  Sena- 
tor James  of  Kentucky  talked  plainly  of  "copperheadism" 
and  coined  a  new  word  when  he  substituted  "Penrosing" 
for  "sniping."  Nothing  came  of  the  resolution  because  it 
was  never  meant  that  anything  should  come  of  it.  Hav- 
ing hurled  his  insults  and  launched  his  charges,  nothing 
was  farther  from  the  Penrose  mind  than  that  there 
should  be  any  hearing  at  which  his  assertions  might  be 
answered. 

At  last,  however,  after  what  seemed  an  interminable 
delay,  the  report  of  Admiral  Gleaves  came  to  hand,  and 
not  only  did  it  bear  out  the  original  statement  in  every 
degree,  but  went  beyond  it.  I  submit  a  verbatim  copy  of 
the  document : 

36 


THE   "FOURTH   OF  JULY  FAKE" 

REPORT  OF  ADMIRAL  GLEAVES 

DESTROYER  FORCE, 
ATLANTIC  FLEET,  FLAGSHIP, 
,  France,  July  12, 1917. 

From:       Commander,  Destroyer  Force. 
To:  Commander-in-Chief,  Atlantic  Fleet. 

Subject:    Attacks  on  convoy  by  submarines  on  the  nights  of 
June  22d,  June  26th,  and  June  28th,  1917. 

1.  About  10.15  P.M.,  June  22d,  the  first  group  of  the  expedi- 
tionary force  of  which  the  flagship  was  the  leader,  encountered 
the  enemy's  submarine  in  latitude .,  longitude W. 

2.  At   the   time   it  was   extremely  dark,   the   sea   unusually 
phosphorescent;    a  fresh  breeze  was  blowing  from  the  north- 
west which  broke  the  sea  into  whitecaps.    The  condition  was  ideal 
for  a  submarine  attack. 

3.  (Paragraph  3  gives  the  formation  and  names  of  the  vessels, 
together  with  the  speed  they  were  making  and  method  of  pro- 
ceeding; nothing  else.  It  is  therefore  omitted  for  obvious  reasons.) 

4.  Shortly  before  the  attack  the  helm  of  the  flagship  had 
jammed,  and  the  ship  took  a  rank  sheer  to  starboard;  the  whistle 
was  blown  to  indicate  this  sheer.     In  a  few  minutes  the  ship 
was  brought  back  to  the  course.    At  this  time  the  officer  of  the 
deck  and  others  on  the  bridge  saw  a  white  streak  about  50  yards 
ahead  of  the  ship,  crossing  from  starboard  to  port,  at  right  angles 
to  our  course.    The  ship  was  immediately  run  off  90°  to  star- 
board at  full  speed.    I  was  asleep  in  the  chart-house  at  the  time. 
I  heard  the  officer  of  the  deck  say,  "Report  to  the  admiral  a 
torpedo  has  just  crossed  our  bow."    General  alarm  was  sounded, 
torpedo  crews  being  already  at  their  guns.    When  I  reached  the 
bridge  the  A  and  one  of  the  transports  astern  had  opened  fire, 
the  former's  shell  fitted  with  tracers.    Other  vessels  of  the  convoy 
turned  to  the  right  and  left,  in  accordance  with  instructions. 
B  crossed  our  bow  at  full  speed  and  turned  toward  the  left  column 
in  the  direction  of  the  firing. 

5.  At  first  it  was  thought  on  board  the  flagship  that  the  wake 
was  that  of  a  torpedo,  but  from  subsequent  reports  from  other 
ships  and  in  the  opinion  of  Lieut.  X,  who  was  on  the  bridge,  it 
was  probably  the  wake  of  the  submarine  boat  itself.    Two  tor- 
pedoes passed  close  to  the  A  from  port  to  starboard,  one  about 

4  37 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

30  yards  ahead  of  the  ship  and  the  other  under  her  stern,  as  the 
ship  was  turning  to  the  northward.  Capt.  Y  reports  the  incident 
thus: 

"  Steaming  in  formation  on  zigzag  courses,  with  base  course  75° 
p.  s.  c.,  standard  speed.  At  10.25  sighted  wake  of  a  torpedo 
directly  across  our  bow  about  30  yards  ahead  of  the  ship.  Changed 
course  90°  to  left  and  went  to  torpedo-defense  stations.  Fired 
two  1-pounder  shots  and  one  5-inch  shot  from  port  battery  in 
alarm  in  addition  to  six  blasts  from  siren.  Passed  through  two 
wakes,  one  being  that  from  the  U.  S.  S.  C.  in  turning  to  north- 
ward, the  other  believed  to  have  been  from  the  passing  sub- 
marine. A  second  torpedo  wake  was  reported  at  about  10.35 
from  after  lookouts.  After  steaming  in  various  courses  at  full 
speed,  resumed  course  89°  p.  s.  c.  at  11.10  for  rendezvous.  At 
12  set  course  56°  p.  s.  c. ." 

6.  The  torpedo  fired  at  the  D  passed  from  starboard  to  port, 
about  40  yards  ahead  of  the  ship,  leaving  a  distinct  wake  which 
was  visible  for  about  four  or  five  hundred  yards.    Col.  Z,  United 
States  Army,  was  on  the  starboard  wing  of  the  bridge  of  the  D 
at  the  time  and  states:    "I  first  saw  a  white  streak  in  the  water 
just  off  the  starboard  bow,  which  moved  rapidly  across  the  bow 
very  close  aboard.    When  I  first  saw  it,  it  looked  like  one  very 
wide  wake  and  similar  to  the  wake  of  a  ship,  but  after  crossing 
the  bow  and  when  in  line  with  it  there  appeared  two  distinct  and 
separate  wakes,  with  a  streak  of  blue  water  between.     In  my 
opinion  they  were  the  wakes  of  two  torpedoes." 

7.  The  submarine,  which  was  sighted  by  the  flagship,  was 
seen  by  the  B  and  passed  under  that  ship.    The  E  went  to  quar- 
ters.    When  the  alarm  was  sounded   in  the  E,  Lieut.  W  was 
roused  out  of  his  sleep,  and  went  to  his  station  and  found  un- 
mistakable evidence  of  the  presence  of  a  submarine.     He  had 
been  there  only  a  few  seconds  when  the  radio  operator  reported, 
"Submarine  very  close  to  us."    As  the  submarine  passed  the  E 
and  the  flagship's  bow  and  disappeared  close  aboard  on  our  port 
bow,  between  the  columns,  it  was  followed  by  the  E,  which  ran 
down  between  the  columns,  and  when  the  latter  resumed  her 
station  she  reported  that  there  were  strong  indications  of  the 
presence  of  two  submarines  astern,  which  were  growing  fainter. 
The  E  was  then  sent  to  guard  the  rear  of  the  convoy. 

8.  When  I  was  in  Paris  I  was  shown  by  the  United  States 
naval   attache*    a   confidential    official   bulletin   of   information 

38 


THE  "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

issued  by  the  General  Staff,  dated  July  6th,  which  contained  the 
following : 

"Punta  Delgada,  Azores,  was  bombarded  at  9  A.M.,  July  4th. 
This  is  undoubtedly  the  submarine  which  attacked  the  E  on 
June  25th,  400  miles  north  of  the  Azores,  and  sank  the  F  and  G 
on  the  29th  of  June,  100  miles  from  Terceira  (Azores).  This 
submarine  was  ordered  to  watch  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Azores 
at  such  a  distance  as  it  was  supposed  the  enemy  American  convoy 
would  pass  from  the  Azores." 

9.  It  appears  from  the  French  report  just  quoted  above,  and 
from  the  location  of  the  attack,  that  enemy  submarines  had  been 
notified  of  our  approach  and  were  probably  scouting  across  our 
route.    It  is  possible  that  they  may  have  trailed  us  all  day  on 
June  22d,  as  our  speed  was  well  within  their  limits  of  surface 
speed,  and  they  could  have  easily  trailed  our  smoke  under  the 
weather  conditions  without  being  seen;    their  failure  to'  score 
hits  was  probably  due  to  the  attack  being  precipitated  by  the 
fortuitous  circumstances  of  the  flagship's  helm  jamming  and  the 
sounding  of  her  whistle,  leading  enemy  to  suppose  he  had  been 
discovered. 

10.  The  H,  leading  the  second  group,  encountered  two  sub- 
marines, the  first  about  11.50  A.M.,  June  26,  1917,  in  latitude 

N.,  longitude  W.,  about  a  hundred  miles  off  the  coast  of 

France,  and  the  second  two  hours  later.    The  I  investigated  the 
wake  of  the  first  without  further  discovery.    The  J  sighted  the 
bow  wave  of  the  second  at  a  distance  of  1,500  yards  and  headed 
for  it  at  a  speed  of  25  knots.    The  gun-pointers  at  the  forward 
gun  saw  the  periscope  several  times  for  several  seconds,  but  it 
disappeared  each  time  before  they  could  get  on,  due  to  the  zig- 
zagging of  the  ship.    The  J  passed  about  25  yards  ahead  of  a 
mass  of  bubbles  which  were  coming  up  from  the  wake  and  let 
go  a  depth  charge  just  ahead.     Several  pieces  of  timber,  quan- 
tities of  oil,  bubbles,  and  debris  came  to  the  surface.    Nothing 
more  was  seen  of  the  submarine.     The  attacks  on  the  second 
group  occurred  about  800  miles  to  the  eastward  of  where  the 
attacks  had  been  made  on  the  first  group. 

11.  The  voyage  of  the  third  group  was  uneventful. 

12.  In  the  forenoon  of  June  28th,  when  in  latitude  N., 

longitude  -      -  W.,  the  K  opened  fire  on  an  object  about  300 
yards  distant  which  he  thought  was  a  submarine.     The  com- 
mander of  the  group,  however,  did  not  concur  in  this  opinion, 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

but  the  reports  subsequently  received  from  the  commanding 
officer  of  the  K  and  Lieut.  V  are  too  circumstantial  to  permit 
the  incident  from  being  ignored.  The  commanding  officer 
states : 

"  (b)  The  only  unusual  incident  of  the  trip  worth  mentioning 
was  on  the  28th  day  of  June,  about  10.05  A.M.,  the  lookouts 
reported  something  right  ahead  of  the  K.  (I  had  the  bridge  at 
the  time.)  When  I  looked  I  saw  what  appeared  to  be  a  very 
small  object  on  the  water's  surface,  about  a  foot  or  two  high, 
which  left  a  small  wake;  on  looking  closer  and  with  the  aid  of 
binoculars  I  could  make  out  a  shape  under  the  water  about  250 
to  300  yards  ahead  and  which  was  too  large  to  be  a  blackfish, 
lying  in  a  position  about  15  degrees  diagonally  across  the  K's 
course. 

"  (b-1)  I  ordered  the  port-bow  gun  to  open  fire  on  the  spot  in 
the  water  and  sounded  warning  siren  for  convoy.  When  judging 
that  ship  had  arrived  above  the  spot  first  seen  I  ordered  right 
rudder  in  order  to  leave  the  submarine  astern. 

"(&-#)  A  minute  or  two  later  the  port  after  gun's  crew  re- 
ported sighting  a  submarine  on  port  quarter  and  opened  fire  at 
the  same  time.  The  lookouts  from  the  top  also  reported  seeing 
the  submarine  under  the  water's  surface  and  about  where  the 
shots  were  landing. 

"(b-3)  The  ship  kept  zigzagging  and  firing  from  after  guns 
every  time  something  was  sighted. 

"(b-4)  Lieut.  V,  United  States  Navy,  was  in  personal  charge 
of  the  firing  and  reports  that  he  saw,  with  all  the  gun  crews  and 
lookouts  aft,  the  submarine  fire  two  torpedoes  toward  the  direc- 
tion of  the  convoy,  which  sheered  off  from  base  course  to  right  90° 
when  alarm  was  sounded. 

"  (b-5)  All  the  officers  and  men  aft  had  observed  the  torpedoes 
traveling  through  the  water  and  cheered  loudly  when  they  saw 
a  torpedo  miss  a  transport.  They  are  not  certain,  though,  which 
one  it  was,  as  the  ships  were  not  in  line  then  and  more  or  less 
scattered. 

"(6-0)  The  gunnery  officer  and  all  the  men,  who  were  aft  at 
the  firing,  are  certain  that  they  saw  the  submarine  and  the  tor- 
pedoes fired  by  same. 

"  (6-7)  A  separate  report  of  Lieut.  V,  United  States  Navy,  the 
gunnery  officer,  is  herewith  appended. 

"(6-5)    The  K  kept  zigzagging  until  it  was  considered  that 

40 


THE   "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

danger  was  past,  and  in  due  time  joined  the  escorts  and  convoy, 
formed  column  astern. 

"(6-9)  Report  by  signal  was  made  to  group  commander  of 
sighting  submarines  and  torpedoes." 

13.  (Paragraph  13  deals  exclusively  with  a  recommendation 
as  to  the  best  methods  to  be  employed  in  the  future  for  the 
purpose  of  saving  life.     It  is  plain  this  ought  not  to  be  made 
public.) 

14.  Copies  of  reports  of  commanding  officer's  flagship,  A,  D, 
and  H,  are  inclosed;   also  copy  of  report  of  Lieut.  V,  of  the  K. 

ALBERT  GLEAVES. 

Here  at  last  was  the  ultimate  word,  the  complete  story, 
the  conclusive  proof.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  had  not 
lied,  the  first  joy  and  enthusiasms  of  the  people  were  not 
unjustified.  Even  though  a  month  of  lying  had  worked 
grave  injury  to  American  morale,  it  seemed  a  certainty 
that  the  publication  of  the  report  would  remedy  the  evil 
in  great  degree.  What  happened?  The  Senate  ignored  the 
report,  and  the  press,  almost  without  exception,  chopped 
it  to  pieces  and  printed  it,  obscurely,  as  the  "last  chapter 
in  an  unfortunate  incident." 

I  had  no  intention  of  letting  the  matter  rest,  however, 
and  under  my  insistence  a  request  was  made  upon  Admiral 
Sims  to  investigate  the  sending  of  the  Associated  Press 
despatch  that  started  the  whole  train  of  calumny.  In  due 
time  the  following  report  was  received: 

3  August,  1917. 

From:   Commander  J.  R.  P.  Pringle,  U.  S.  Navy. 

To:        Commander,  U.  S.  Naval  Forces  Operating  in  European 

Waters. 
Subject:    Cablegram — OpNav.  49. 

1 .  Upon  receipt  and  after  consideration  of  the  above-mentioned 
cable  forwarded  from  your  office  in  London,  I  decided  that  the 
matter  was  one  which  would  have  to  be  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  Queenstown,  since  the  sending  of 
the  despatch  referred  to  in  OpNav.  49  had  not  been  authorized 

41 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

by  me  and,  as  a  consequence,  if  authorized  at  all,  could  only 
have  been  authorized  by  competent  British  authority. 

2.  I  accordingly  requested  an  interview  with  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  and  also  permission  to  bring  with  me  Mr.  Frank  America, 
the  Associated  Press  Correspondent  at  Queenstown.     At  10.30 
A.M.  to-day  I  went,  in  company  with  Mr.  America,  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  s    office    and    found    Lieutenant-Commander 
Olebar,  R.  N.,  the  British  Naval  Censor  for  Queenstown  also 
there. 

3.  The   Commander-in-Chief   read   the   cablegram    (OpNav. 
49)  and  then  interrogated  Mr.  America,  who  stated  in  substance 
as  follows:    That  he  had  received  a  wire  from  the  London  office 
of  the  Associated  Press  stating  that  certain  information  had  been 
given  out  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  asking  if  there  was 
a  Queenstown  end  to  the  story.    That  he  had  received  shortly 
afterward  a  second  wire  from  the  same  source  telling  him  that  a 
"follow  up"  story  was  desired.     That  he  got  into  communication 
with    Commander   Pringle    and   asked   permission   to   write   a 
"follow  up"  story.    That  Commander  Pringle  refused  to  allow 
him  to  do  so  as  the  Censorship  Regulations  would  not  permit 
of  its  being  done,  and  that  Commander  Pringle  refused  to  enter 
into  any  further  discussion  of  the  subject.     That  he  sent  to 
the  London  office  of  the  Associated  Press  a  wire  intended  for 
the  private  information  of  his  superiors  in  that  office  and  not 
intended  for  publication,  and  that  since  the  wire  was  "private" 
he  did  not  consider  it  necessary  to  submit  it  to  censorship  by 
either  the  British  authorities  or  myself,  and  accordingly  did  not 
submit  it.     That  the  information  contained  in  this  wire  was 
substantially  as  given  in  OpNav.  49,  and  represented  his  general 
impression  formed  as  the  result  of  casual  conversations  held  with 
a  couple  of  officers  and  some  men.    That  he  did  not  know  any 
one  of  the  officers  or  men,  but  had  met  them  on  the  pier,  in  the 
streets,  or  at  the  hotel. 

4.  About  July  5th  or  6th,  Mr.  America  came  on  board  the 
Melville  to  see  me  and  showed  me  a  wire  which  he  had  received 
from  his  London  office  which  stated  in  substance  that  the  Navy 
Department    denied    the    statements    contained    in    his     (Mr. 
America's)  wire,  and,  further,  that  the  statement  given  out  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  based  upon  official  reports  made 
by  Rear- Admiral  Gleaves.    This  was  the  first  intimation  that  I 
had  of  Mr.  America's  having  sent  his  wire,  and,  as  Mr.  America 

42 


THE   "FOURTH  OF  JULY  FAKE" 

seemed  to  wish  to  renew  his  efforts  to  get  me  to  discuss  the 
subject,  I  sent  for  the  Executive  Officer  of  the  Melville,  Lieut.- 
Commander  Arwine,  and,  in  his  presence,  informed  Mr.  America 
that  I  had  declined  to  permit  him  to  send  any  communication 
on  the  subject  in  question;  that  it  would  be  entirely  improper 
for  me  to  discuss  statements  which  had  been  issued  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy,  and  that,  once  again,  I  declined  to  do  so. 

5.  In  accordance  with  your  verbal   instructions,   I  had  an 
interview  with  Mr.  America  shortly  after  your  departure  from 
Queenstown  and  informed  him  that  he  should  come  to  me  for 
information;  that  I  would  always  give  him  such  items  as  it  was 
possible  to  give  without  violating  the  Censorship  Rules,  and 
that  what  news  he  got  from  me  would  be  accurate.     It  was, 
therefore,  entirely  proper  for  him  to  have  come  to  me  for  per- 
mission to  write  the  "follow  up"  story  requested. 

6.  The  above  is  a  recital  of  the  facts  in  the  case  so  far  as  I 
am  able  to  ascertain  them. 

7.  As  a  matter  of  opinion,  it  appears  to  me  that,  so  far  as 
the  publication  of  his  despatch  is  concerned,  Mr.  America  is 
more  sinned  against  than  sinning,   if  the  ordinary  procedure 
regarding  the  publication  of  despatches  received  by  the  Central 
Office  from  correspondents  is  as  stated  by  him.     He  felt  that 
his  despatch  would  not  be  published,  and  it  seems  to  me  that, 
if  he  was  justified  in  his  belief,  his  superiors  in  London  have  put 
him  in  a  very  embarrassing  position. 

8.  With  regard  to  any  criticism  either  express  or  implied  of 
statements  given  to  the  press  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  I 
doubt  very  much  whether  any  of  the  persons  from  whom  Mr. 
America  got  his  information  were  aware  of  the  fact  that  the 
Secretary  had  given  out  a  statement.    There  is  a  general  tendency 
among  officers  and  men  of  the  Force  to  attribute  many  cases 
of  supposed  torpedo  attack  to  the  sighting  of  blackfish  or  por- 
poise, while  spars  are  sometimes  mistaken  for  periscopes,  and 
any  statements  made  are  much  more  likely  to  have  been  intended 
to  express  a  belief  that  the  reports  were  exaggerated  at  the 
source  than  to  express  anything  else. 

J.  B.   P.   PRINGLE. 

Forwarded,  approved. 

WM.  S.  SIMS. 

What  a  record! 

43 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  word  of  an  admiral  of  the  navy,  the  authorized 
statement  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  set  aside  and  pub- 
licly shamed  on  the  authority  of  men  "met  on  the  docks, 
at  the  hotels,  and  in  the  street,"  and  whose  names  were 
not  even  known  to  the  correspondent! 

The  message  sent  as  private — meaning  that  it  was  not 
intended  for  publication — thereby  evading  the  censorship! 


IV 


THE  COMMITTEE'S  "AIRCRAFT  LIES" 


THE  only  other  charges  of  inaccuracy  against  the  Com- 
mittee were  based  upon  announcements  with  respect 
to  the  progress  of  the  aircraft  program.  On  February  21, 
1918,  we  released  a  statement  from  the  Secretary  o£  War 
in  which  this  assertion  was  made:  "The  first  American- 
built  battle-'planes  are  to-day  en  route  to  the  front  in 
France.  This  first  shipment,  though  in  itself  not  large, 
marks  the  final  overcoming  of  many  difficulties  met  in 
building  up  this  new  and  intricate  industry." 

Almost  immediately  it  developed  that  one  'plane  only 
had  been  delivered  for  shipment  to  the  American  Expedi- 
tionary Forces,  and  that  even  this  single  machine  was  not 
yet  on  the  water.  Straightway  the  storm  broke  and  the 
press  vied  with  the  Senate  in  denunciation  of  the  Com- 
mittee for  its  "brazen  attempt  to  deceive  the  public." 
Utterly  ignoring  the  report  of  Admiral  Gleaves,  the  attack 
upon  the  Fourth-of-July  statement  was  revived  in  order 
to  give  keener  point  to  my  own  personal  disregard  for 
truth. 

A  sure  defense  was  at  hand  had  we  cared  to  use  it. 
The  information  as  to  the  shipment  of  battle-'planes  did 
not  originate  in  the  Committee,  but  came  directly  from 
Col.  Edward  A.  Deeds,  the  officer  in  virtual  charge  of  air- 
craft production  at  the  time.  More  than  that,  Secretary 
Baker  himself  had  formally  authorized  its  issuance,  ac- 
cepting responsibility  for  its  accuracy.  The  original  copy 

45 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

was  in  our  possession,  carrying  the  initialed  approval  of 
these  officials  and  containing  certain  corrections  in  Colonel 
Deeds's  handwriting.  All  that  was  necessary  to  establish 
the  Committee's  complete  innocence  was  to  produce  this 
sheet. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  we  did  not  take  advantage  of  our 
position.  The  Secretary  of  War  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
armed  forces  of  America,  while  upon  the  shoulders  of 
Colonel  Deeds,  in  large  measure,  rested  the  burden  of  the 
great  aircraft  program.  Public  confidence  in  them  was 
more  important  than  public  confidence  in  the  Committee, 
and  if,  by  accepting  the  role  of  scapegoat,  we  were  able  to 
guard  executives  from  the  delays  of  harassment,  it  seemed 
a  service.  We  made  no  defense,  therefore,  permitting 
press  and  partizans  to  continue  in  the  assumption  that  the 
Committee  was  primarily  responsible. 

The  facts  in  the  case  did  not  come  out  until  October 
25th,  when  Judge  Charles  E.  Hughes  reported  the  results 
of  his  investigation  into  the  whole  conduct  of  aircraft  pro- 
duction. We  were  absolved  from  all  responsibility,  and 
one  of  the  two  counts  returned  against  Colonel  Deeds 
was  that  he  had  given  "to  the  representatives  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information  a  false  and  misleading 
statement  with  respect  to  the  progress  of  aircraft  produc- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  publication  with  the  authority  of 
the  Secretary  of  War."  Not  a  paper,  nor  yet  a  Senator, 
took  sufficient  cognizance  of  this  vindication  to  withdraw 
their  charges  against  the  Committee,  and,  after  a  cautious 
interval,  even  commenced  to  repeat  them. 

I  would  not  have  it  believed,  however,  that  we  sought, 
by  our  course,  to  conceal  dishonesty  or  to  protect  bad 
faith.  I  had  then,  as  I  have  to-day,  the  fullest  confidence 
in  Colonel  Deeds's  honor  and  high  purpose,  and  his  fault, 
if  it  can  be  called  that,  was  an  amazing  enthusiasm  that 
persisted  in  discounting  the  possibilities  of  delay.  At  the 

46 


THE  COMMITTEE'S  "AIRCRAFT  LIES" 

time  he  gave  the  statement,  machines  had  been  shipped 
from  the  factory  bound  for  France:  what  happened 
was  that  they  were  suddenly  diverted  to  Gerstner  Field 
to  undergo  further  radiator  tests.  Out  of  his  certainty 
that  quantity  production  was  achieved  at  last,  and  in  his 
eagerness  to  relieve  the  impatiences  and  anxieties  of  the 
public,  Colonel  Deeds  simply  failed  to  make  sure  that  the 
machines  were  safely  in  the  hold  of  a  ship  before  making 
his  announcement. 

At  about  the  same  time,  Colonel  Deeds  also  gave  four 
photographs  to  the  Division  of  Still  Pictures,  a  branch  of 
the  Committee  that  tried  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  press 
for  photographs  taken  by  the  Signal  Corps  in  France  and 
in  those  factories  in  the  United  States  where  private 
camera-men  were  not  allowed.  The  pictures  showed  air- 
plane bodies  and  engines,  and  under  the  thrall  of  Colonel 
Deeds 's  enthusiasm  one  of  the  young  assistants  in  the 
division  put  captions  on  them  that  were  admittedly  flam- 
boyant and  overcolored. 

This  fault  was  freely  admitted  by  us,  and  the  four 
pictures  were  withdrawn.  The  services  of  the  caption- 
writer  were  dispensed  with,  and  orders  given  that  all 
future  pictures  should  be  released  with  no  more  descriptive 
matter  than  the  bare  titles  supplied  by  the  Signal  Corps. 
A  Senate  committee,  however,  continued  to  attack  us 
because  we  had  not  attached  to  the  pictures  some  such 
legend  as  this:  "Do  not  be  deceived,  good  people.  These 
engines  and  bodies  that  you  see  before  you  are  not  battle- 
'planes." 

The  next  explosion  in  connection  with  airplane  photo- 
graphs occurred  in  the  following  July.  It  is  interesting 
as  showing  how  painstaking  hands  can  fashion  a  lie  out 
of  whole  cloth.  On  the  floor  of  the  Senate  one  day,  Reed 
of  Missouri  made  the  charge  that  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  had  issued  a  statement  to  the  effect  that 

47 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Secretary  Baker,  while  in  France,  had  seen  "one  thousand 
American  airplanes  in  the  air."  Also  that  the  Committee, 
in  order  to  support  this  false  claim,  had  issued  photographs 
of  "penguins,"  a  training-'plane  that  rises  only  a  few  feet 
from  the  ground.  Further,  on  the  word  of  one  Woodhouse, 
editor  of  a  flying-paper,  Reed  charged  that  the  Committee 
had  deliberately  attempted  to  make  it  appear  that  these 
"penguins"  were  battle-'planes. 

Our  investigation  instantly  proved  the  utter  falsity  of 
the  whole  rigmarole.  The  statement  about  Secretary  Baker 
and  the  one  thousand  American  airplanes  was  not  a  prod- 
uct of  the  Committee  at  all,  but  merely  a  story  in 
the  Paris  Herald.  As  for  Woodhouse,  his  explanation  as 
to  the  manner  in  which  we  practised  deception  was  followed 
by  this  naive  remark,  "I  am  taking  this  for  granted  and 
have  nothing  to  base  it  on." 

Utterly  without  faith  in  Reed,  but  in  order  that  the  record 
should  be  kept  clear,  I  sent  him  this  letter,  together  with 
a  bundle  of  photographs : 

July  17,  1018. 
HON.  JAMES  A.  REID, 

United  States  Senate, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

DEAR  SIR: 

In  The  New  York  Times  of  July  13th,  under  the  heading, 
"Says  Creel  Misled  Public;  Reed  on  Assertion  that  Baker  Saw 
1,000  American  'Planes  in  France,"  there  appeared  an  article 
that  commenced  as  follows: 

"Senator  Reed  read  to  the  Senate  to-day  parts  of  the 
testimony  of  Henry  Woodhouse  of  the  Aero  Club  of  America 
before  the  Senate  Aircraft  sub-committee  to  prove  that 
pictures  and  statements  sent  out  by  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information  to  prove  that  Secretary  of  War  Baker, 
on  his  trip  to  France,  saw  1,000  American  airplanes  in  the 
air,  were  false  and  misleading." 

I  am  sure  that  you  will  be  glad  to  know  that  the  Woodhouse 
charges  and  inferences  are  without  the  slightest  foundation  in 

48 


THE  COMMITTEE'S  "AIRCRAFT  LIES" 

truth.  Never  at  any  time  did  this  Committee,  or  any  other  de- 
partment of  government,  issue  any  statement  to  the  effect  that 
Mr.  Baker  "saw  1,000  American  airplanes  in  France."  It  may 
be,  as  alleged,  that  the  Paris  Herald  printed  the  statement,  but, 
if  so,  it  came  through  no  official  source  and  had  no  official 
sanction. 

I  send  you  herewith  copies  of  all  aircraft  photographs  sent 
to  us  from  France,  together  with  the  captions,  submitting  them 
as  a  complete  answer  to  the  charge  that  we  issued  pictures  of 
non-flying  machines  in  an  attempt  to  make  the  people  believe 
that  they  were  fighting-'planes.  As  you  can  see  for  yourself, 
the  majority  of  the  pictures  show  machines  high  in  the  air,  and 
in  all  cases  of  ground-machines  the  caption  is  explicit. 

These  photographs  were  made  by  the  Signal  Corps  operators 
in  France,  the  captions  were  written  by  Signal  Corps  officials 
in  France,  and  our  release  of  them  in  this  country  is  a  purely 
mechanical  function. 

These  photographs  come  to  us  as  part  of  regular  deliveries 
from  the  Signal  Corps  in  which  the  entire  activities  of  the 
American  Expeditionary  Force  are  covered  by  the  camera.  No 
one  branch  of  the  service  is  put  before  another,  and  the  inference 
that  the  Signal  Corps  in  France  is  lending  itself  to  a  campaign 
of  deceit  is  as  untrue  as  it  is  unjust. 

Very  truly, 

[Signed]        GEORGE  CREEL, 

Chairman. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  Reed  paid  no  attention  to  the 
letter.  Having  gained  circulation  for  his  falsehoods,  there- 
by gratifying  his  hatred  of  me  and  his  antagonism  to  the 
Administration,  his  interest  ended.  Nothing  is  so  keen  a 
commentary  upon  the  honesty  of  this  whole  inimical 
Senate  group  as  the  fact  that  not  once  was  I  called  before 
a  committee,  either  for  explanation  or  defense. 

To  sum  up  then,  the  entire  attack  upon  the  credibility 
of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  centered  in  these 
four  charges: 

(1)  Falsely  informing  the  people  that  the  first  trans- 
ports were  attacked  by  submarines. 

49 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

(2)  Issuing  a  false  statement  as  to  the  shipment  of 
airplanes  to  France. 

(3)  Issuing   four   photographs   of    airplane    production 
designed  to  make  the  people  believe  that  battle- 'planes 
were  being  produced. 

(4)  Releasing  a  false  statement  that  Secretary  Baker 
saw  one  thousand  airplanes  in  France,  and  supporting  the 
lie  by  releasing  pictures  of  ground-machines. 

The  answer  to  the  first  is  found  in  the  report  of  Admiral 
Gleaves;  the  answer  to  the  second  in  the  report  of  Judge 
Hughes;  the  answer  to  the  third  is  the  misguided  enthusiasm 
of  a  young  subordinate,  and  the  answer  to  the  fourth  is 
contained  in  the  letter  to  Senator  Reed. 

Consider  for  a  moment!  More  than  six  thousand  sep- 
arate and  distinct  news  releases,  each  one  dealing  with  an 
importance;  some  half -hundred  separate  and  distinct 
pamphlets,  brimmed  with  detail;  seventy-five  thousand 
Four  Minute  Men  speaking  nightly;  other  hundreds  de- 
livering more  extended  addresses  regularly;  thousands  of 
advertisements;  countless  motion  and  still  pictures,  post- 
ers and  painted  signs;  war  expositions;  intimate  contacts 
with  twenty-three  foreign-language  groups;  the  Official 
Bulletin,  appearing  daily  for  two  years;  and  in  every 
capital  of  the  world,  outside  the  Central  Powers,  offices 
and  representatives,  served  by  daily  cable  and  mail  ser- 
vices rich  in  possibilities  for  mistake. 

All  done  by  an  organization  forced  to  function  from  the 
moment  of  its  creation,  working  at  all  times  under  ex- 
tremest  pressure,  handicapped  by  insufficient  funds  and 
harassed  by  partizanship. 

And  only  the  four  charges! 

The  record  stands  unparalleled  for  honesty,  accuracy, 
and  high  purpose,  and  in  itself  is  an  enduring  testimonial 
to  the  sincerities  of  the  thousands  of  men  and  women  who 
made  possible  the  accomplishments  of  the  Committee. 

50 


RELATIONS   WITH    CONGRESS 

SINCE  the  discussion  of  falsehood  and  slander  has  been 
commenced,  it  may  be  well  to  exhaust  the  subject  be- 
fore proceeding  with  the  detailed  story  of  the  Committee 
and  its  activities.  Let  me  make  the  statement,  therefore, 
calmly  and  carefully,  that  domestic  disloyalty,  the  hos- 
tility of  neutrals,  and  the  lies  of  the  German  propagandists, 
all  combined,  were  not  half  so  hard  to  combat  as  the 
persistent  malignance  of  a  partizan  group  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States.  From  the  very  day  of  its  creation 
to  the  day  of  its  assassination,  the  Committee  was  com- 
pelled to  endure  an  incessant  fire  from  behind,  working 
at  all  times  under  this  handicap  of  a  blind  malice  that  had 
all  the  effect  of  treachery. 

Our  case,  however,  was  neither  isolated  nor  peculiar. 
Of  all  the  war- work  executives  in  Washington,  Republicans 
and  Democrats  alike,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  was  not 
one  who  did  not  go  to  bed  at  night  with  the  prayer  that 
he  might  wake  in  the  morning  to  find  Congress  only  the 
horrible  imagining  of  uneasy  slumber.  It  was  not  that 
any  one  resented  criticism  or  inquiry  or  feared  investiga- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  every  man  of  them  begged 
criticism,  invited  inquiry,  and  hoped  with  all  his  heart  for 
a  real  investigation  that  would  put  an  end  to  slanderous 
rumors.  But  Congress  refused  to  do  any  of  these  things, 
confining  itself  entirely  and  enthusiastically  to  the  busi- 
ness of  attack. 

51 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Washington  heard  many  absurdities,  but  most  absurd 
of  all  was  the  frequent  bleat  that  the  trouble  was  due  to 
"misunderstanding,"  and  that  the  quick  and  easy  remedy 
was  to  "establish  closer  relations  with  Congress — win  their 
friendship  and  support  by  explanation."  One  might  as 
well  have  babbled  about  establishing  "closer  relations" 
with  a  water-moccasin.  Men  like  Penrose,  Sherman, 
Watson,  New,  Johnson,  and  Longworth  had  no  interest 
in  "better  understanding."  Bushwhacking  was  their  busi- 
ness. And  while  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
was  a  favorite  target,  no  war  organization  escaped  their 
fire.  Bernard  Baruch  and  his  associates  on  the  WTar  In- 
dustries Board  were  accused  of  using  their  positions  to 
get  inside  information  for  Stock  Exchange  deals.  John 
D.  Ryan  was  held  up  to  shame  as  a  man  who  spent  air- 
craft funds  to  enlarge  his  personal  profits;  Clarence  Woolley 
was  charged  with  manipulating  the  War  Trade  Board  for 
the  benefit  of  the  American  Radiator  Company;  Julius 
Rosen wald  was  regularly  dragged  in  mud;  Vance  McCor- 
mick  was  branded  as  a  rascal  who  made  thousands  out  of 
our  dealings  with  Russia;  Col.  E.  A.  Deeds  was  continually 
accused  of  secret  corruptions,  etc.  To  be  sure,  many 
of  these  men  were  Republicans,  but  that  did  not  matter. 
They  were  part  of  the  war-machine,  and,  since  this  machine 
was  operating  under  the  direction  of  a  Democratic  Presi- 
dent, it  had  to  be  discredited. 

There  was  no  way  in  which  effective  reply  could  be  made. 
Under  the  provisions  of  our  Constitution  a  member  of 
Congress  cannot  be  held  to  account  for  any  utterance  on 
the  floor  of  the  Senate  or  House.  It  is  the  one  place  in 
the  whole  United  States  in  which  a  mouth  is  above  the 
law,  and  in  which  there  is  not  only  free  speech,  but  im- 
munity for  speech.  The  heavens  may  fall,  the  earth  be 
consumed,  but  the  right  of  a  Congressman  to  lie  and  defame 
remains  inviolate.  Even  were  this  constitutional  pro- 

52 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

tection  lacking,  conditions  would  be  about  the  same.  It 
is  Congress  that  makes  the  appropriations  with  which  to 
carry  on  the  business  of  government — the  iron  hand  that 
holds  the  purse-strings.  If  denial  of  a  Congressman's 
charge  does  manage  to  escape  contempt  proceedings,  there 
is  still  his  power  to  curtail  or  to  deny  requested  funds. 

Strangely  enough,  however,  Congress  is  not  a  body 
without  its  strong,  honest  men.  Fully  50  per  cent,  of 
the  membership  of  the  House  and  Senate  are  above  the 
average  in  ability  and  conscientious  purpose.  The  trouble 
is  that  these  men  seldom  figure  in  public  print.  And  they 
do  not  figure  because  the  press  has  no  interest  in  them. 
There  are  to-day,  and  have  always  been,  two  kinds  of 
news :  one  is  concerned  with  the  fundamental  significances 
of  life  and  is  educational,  vital,  and  interpretative,  the  other 
deals  entirely  with  the  satisfaction  of  curiosity  and  dies 
with  the  day  that  witnesses  the  events  which  it  chronicles. 
One  is  truth;  the  other  is  tattle.  It  is  this  second  definition 
that  is  accepted  by  the  press,  and  as  a  consequence  the 
Congressman  who  gets  into  print  is  not  the  worker,  but 
the  blatherskite;  not  the  man  concerned  with  service, 
but  the  man  concerned  with  sensationalism.  It  is  this 
condition  that  puts  a  premium  on  blackguardism  and 
places  public  servants  at  the  mercy  of  reckless  attack. 

Of  all  the  assaults  made  upon  the  Committee  by  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives,  not  one  was  ever  prefaced  by 
any  attempt  at  investigation,  not  one  was  ever  followed 
through,  and  not  once  was  I  ever  allowed  to  appear  before 
a  committee  to  make  answer  to  specific  accusations. 
Throughout  the  Fourth-of-July  furor  and  the  aircraft 
mess  I  was  not  seen  by  a  single  Congressman  or  allowed 
to  state  the  facts  in  the  case  at  any  hearing.  Charges  of 
partizanship,  dishonesty,  and  disloyalty  were  hurled  regu- 
larly at  the  Committee,  and  when  I  asked  to  be  heard  I 

was  told,  invariably,  that  "the  incident  was  closed." 
5  53 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

As  an  instance  of  procedure,  a  Representative  from 
Massachusetts  named  Treadway  emerged  from  obscurity 
one  day  by  charging  that  the  soldiers  of  the  American 
Expeditionary  Force  were  not  able  to  get  letters  because 
the  "Creel  Committee  filled  the  mails  to  France  with  tons 
of  pamphlets."  Others  joined  in  the  attack  and  the  result 
was  a  resolution  calling  upon  the  Postmaster-General  to 
report  the  amount  of  matter  sent  to  the  American  soldiers 
abroad  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information.  Mr. 
Burleson,  naturally  enough,  was  not  able  to  find  any 
records  on  the  subject,  inasmuch  as  the  Committee  had  never 
sent  a  single  pamphlet  of  any  kind  to  any  member  of  the 
American  Expeditionary  Force.  In  order  to  make  assur- 
ance doubly  sure,  he  asked  me  for  specific  information, 
and  in  my  letter  of  reply  I  finished  by  saying  that  Mr. 
Treadway  had  made  "an  assertion  the  absolute  baseless- 
ness of  which  could  have  been  ascertained  by  telephone 
inquiry." 

Because  of  this  paragraph  the  House  declined  to  receive 
the  report.  At  a  time  when  the  war  hung  in  the  balance 
virtually  a  day  was  wasted  on  this  absurd  debate  and  then 
the  report  was  referred  to  a  special  committee  to  decide 
whether  or  not  I  should  be  brought  before  the  bar  of  the 
House  on  a  contempt  charge.  To  the  very  last,  Mr. 
Treadway  insisted  that  he  could  "produce  evidence  in 
this  House  that  there  have  been  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  soldiers  abroad  tons  of  the  Creel  reports."  There  the 
matter  dropped.  The  special  committee  never  reported, 
Mr.  Treadway  never  produced  any  such  evidence,  nor  was 
I  given  the  chance  to  face  him. 

Representative  Fordney,  a  perfect  type  of  a  partizan, 
rose  in  the  House  one  day  and  made  the  flat  charge  that  I 
was  issuing  pamphlets  in  support  of  Free  Trade  and  other 
Democratic  heresies.  The  one  specific  instance  he  cited 
was  a  pamphlet  by  a  writer  named  Burt  Etheridge  Barlow. 

54 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

The  attack  was  vicious,  and  after  it  had  continued  for 
quite  a  while  another  Congressman  managed  to  obtain 
a  copy  of  the  pamphlet  and  this  dialogue  ensued: 

MR.  GANDY.  I  just  wanted  to  know  if  the  gentleman  meant 
to  leave  the  inference  by  the  statement  he  made  that  the  publi- 
cation he  referred  to,  which  I  have  in  my  hand,  was  a  government 
document? 

MR.  FORDNEY.    I  think  so. 

MR.  GANDY.     Will  the  gentleman  look  at  it. 

MR.  FORDNEY.  I  think  it  was  sent  out  by  George  Creel. 
There  is  a  slip  pasted  on  the  first  page,  headed,  "Committee 
on  Public  Information,  George  Creel,  chairman";  and  I  think 
undoubtedly  George  Creel  induced  Burt  Etheridge  Barlow  to 
write  the  article. 

MR.  GANDY.  If  the  gentleman  will  look  at  that  statement  he 
will  find  that  it  is  simply  a  statement  by  Mr.  Creel  that  that 
publication  has  passed  the  military  censor.  It  is  not  a  govern- 
ment publication  and  does  not  purport  to  be  a  government 
document,  and  it  is  not  sent  out  by  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information. 

MR.  FORDNEY.  You  cannot  make  me  believe  that  George 
Creel  can  send  that  out  broadcast  without  it  costing  the  govern- 
ment some  money. 

I  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Fordney  at  once  stating  that 
not  only  had  the  Committee  never  sent  out  one  single  copy 
of  the  pamphlet,  but  was  without  other  knowledge  of  its 
existence  than  the  mechanical  act  of  returning  it  to  the 
author  after  his  submission  of  it  to  the  Division  of  Military 
Intelligence  out  of  an  over-scrupulous  desire  not  to  print 
anything  that  might  reveal  military  information.  Mr. 
Fordney  refused  to  retract  his  falsehoods  and  continued 
them  at  every  opportunity. 

Another  Congressman,  Knutson  of  Minnesota,  charged 
that  the  pamphlets  issued  by  the  Committee  were  Demo- 
cratic doctrines  from  cover  to  cover.  These  pamphlets, 
prepared  by  American  historians  of  the  highest  standing, 

55 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

were  not  only  going  into  every  home  in  the  United  States, 
but  were  being  circulated  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
in  neutral  countries.  A  work  of  fundamental  importance, 
yet  this  petty  malignant  did  not  scruple  to  attempt  its 
discredit  and  destruction.  And  they  shoot  a  soldier  for  a 
passive  act  like  sleeping  at  his  post! 

Our  motion-picture  activities  were  a  constant  source  of 
attack.  Any  "movie"  man  angered  by  our  refusal  to  give 
him  special  privileges  for  money-making  could  slip  up 
to  Congress  in  full  confidence  that  his  lies  would  be  shouted 
from  the  floor.  The  usual  procedure  was  the  making  of 
the  charge,  the  introduction  of  a  resolution,  and  then 
futile  efforts  on  my  part  to  get  a  hearing.  Once  when  I 
had  secured  permission  to  testify  before  the  House  Com- 
mittee on  Military  Affairs,  the  chairman  immediately  gave 
out  a  statement  that  I  had  "refused  to  appear,"  and  when 
I  duly  presented  myself  the  committee  declined  to  hear 
me  on  the  usual  "closed  incident"  grounds.  This  method 
permitted  free  circulation  of  lies  even  while  it  denied  me 
the  right  of  answer. 

A  chief  offense  of  the  Committee  was  its  attitude  in 
regard  to  "atrocity  stories."  From  the  very  first  we  held 
that  unprovable  accounts  of  "horrors"  were  bound  to 
result  in  undesirable  reactions,  for  if  the  Germans  could 
manage  to  refute  one  single  charge,  they  would  straightway 
use  it  to  discredit  our  entire  indictment.  This  view  was 
shared  by  the  War  Department,  and  once  on  the  authority 
of  General  Pershing,  and  a  second  time  by  direction  of 
General  March,  we  issued  denials  of  gross  exaggeration. 
Senator  Poindexter,  who  made  up  in  voice  what  he  other- 
wise lacked,  was  the  "atrocity  expert  of  Congress,"  and 
because  of  these  denials  he  charged  the  Committee  with 
the  circulation  of  German  propaganda  and  devoted  much 
of  his  time  to  a  direct  attempt  to  discredit  our  work. 
We  sent  him  two  of  our  pamphlets,  German  War  Practices 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

and  German  Treatment  of  Conquered  Territory,  perhaps  the 
most  terrible  indictment  ever  framed  against  a  nation, 
and  explained  to  him  that  these  established  facts  were 
preferable  to  baseless  rumors,  but  it  changed  his  malice 
in  no  degree. 

In  the  Senate,  however,  most  of  my  trouble  came  from 
enmities  of  long  standing.  The  persistent  attacks  of  John- 
son of  California  and  Reed  of  Missouri  were  in  no  sense 
due  to  what  the  Committee  did  or  did  not  do,  but  were 
absolutely  and  entirely  personal.  Back  in  1913  I  wrote 
an  article  for  Everybody's  Magazine  in  which  I  tried  to 
give  a  fair  and  dispassionate  study  of  Johnson  as  a  presi- 
dential candidate.  It  was  not  a  flattering  estimate  and  the 
abnormal  vanity  of  the  man  never  forgave  it.  The  Johnson 
wattles  swelled  and  reddened  to  a  state  of  chronic  inflam- 
mation as  far  as  I  was  concerned,  and  my  assumption  of 
public  office  gave  him  the  chance  for  which  he  had  been 
waiting.  As  for  Reed,  I  had  known  the  fellow  from  the 
start  of  his  career,  and  during  the  ten  years  in  which  I 
lived  and  wrote  in  Kansas  City  there  was  not  a  week  in 
which  I  did  not  try  to  hold  him  up  to  the  contempt  and 
ridicule  that  were  deserved  by  his  character  and  abilities. 

Another  ancient  foe  was  "Jim"  Watson  of  Indiana. 
At  various  times  in  my  writings  I  had  voiced  the  opinion 
that  the  "Mulhall  exposures"  should  have  retired  Wat- 
son from  public  life.  His  anger,  coupled  with  malig- 
nant partizanship,  made  him  at  all  times  an  unscru- 
pulous enemy.  Reed  and  Johnson  contented  themselves 
with  daily  abuse,  but  Watson  was  more  thorough.  One 
of  his  dignified  activities  was  to  send  to  Denver  for  a 
thorough  investigation  of  my  "past."  Unfortunately, 
however,  his  agents  in  Colorado  were  not  able  to  develop 
anything  that  shamed  my  character  or  general  reputation, 
and  were  forced  to  rely  entirely  upon  editorials  that  I 
had  written  in  The  Rocky  Mountain  News  between  1912 

57 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

and  1914.  At  that  time  I  was  supporting  certain  initiated 
measures  that  gave  us  the  right  to  recall  officials,  including 
judges,  and  the  phraseology  in  many  cases  reflected  the 
heat  of  a  bitter  campaign. 

In  the  midst  of  an  important  debate  Senator  Watson 
wasted  hours  of  time  by  reading  these  editorials,  written 
seven  years  before,  and,  what  was  worse,  he  did  not  scruple 
to  separate  passages  from  the  context  in  order  to  produce 
false  impressions.  For  instance,  he  recited  certain  charges 
in  which  I  was  made  to  appear  as  having  alleged  a  dia- 
bolical conspiracy  between  the  Supreme  Court,  President 
Taft,  and  the  Vatican  in  order  to  sway  and  deliver  the 
Catholic  vote.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  charges  were  not 
made  by  me,  but  by  others,  and  I  recited  them  merely 
in  order  to  disapprove  them.  What  he  did,  maliciously  and 
dishonestly,  was  to  put  the  charges  in  my  mouth,  carefully 
omitting  the  disproof. 

Senator  Sherman  of  Illinois  charged  on  the  floor  that 
I  had  given  a  monopoly  of  war  films  to  one  moving-picture 
concern,  and  others  accused  me  repeatedly  of  having 
turned  over  valuable  motion-picture  rights  to  Hearst.  I 
spent  two  days  trying  to  get  before  some  committee  to 
answer  these  plain,  downright  lies,  but  failed  absolutely 
in  the  attempt.  This,  however,  was  about  the  only  specific 
attack  that  ever  came  from  Senator  Sherman.  As  a  rule, 
he  confined  himself  to  billingsgate  directed  against  me 
personally,  devoting  whole  days  to  speeches  in  which  he 
characterized  me  as  a  "toad-eater,"  a  swollen  "rake  hell," 
and  other  gentlemanly  epithets.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
Sherman  always  aroused  pity  in  me  rather  than  anger. 
We  were  in  the  middle  of  a  great  war,  with  civilization 
hanging  in  the  balance,  and  here  was  the  Senator  from  a 
great  state  without  ability  to  make  any  other  contribution 
to  the  national  service  than  dreary  maunderings. 

In    open    debate,    Senator   Penrose    made    the   specific 

58 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

charge  that  the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  after 
establishing  certain  rules  of  censorship,  "shocked  and  sur- 
prised the  censorship  authorities"  by  its  own  violations 
of  the  rules.  He  cited  the  case  of  a  despatch  filed  by  the 
manager  of  the  Central  News  in  New  York  which  was 
stopped  by  the  censors  until  they  learned  that  the  in- 
formation came  from  the  Committee.  Of  his  own  volition, 
Mr.  Edward  Rascovar,  president  of  the  Central  News, 
wrote  a  letter  to  The  New  York  Times  in  which  he  said 
that  "no  such  story  was  ever  filed,"  and  Captain  Todd, 
head  of  the  Naval  Censorship,  also  branded  the  Penrose 
charge  as  absolute  fiction.  Penrose  kept  insisting  that  he 
"had  the  proof,"  but  we  were  never  able  to  make. him 
produce  it. 

Senator  Lodge,  in  the  course  of  a  tirade,  made  this  state- 
ment: "The  question  before  us  is  that  of  Mr.  Creel,  a 
man  to  whom  Congress  refused  to  give  power.  The  office 
he  holds  is  created  under  the  one-hundred-million-dollar 
fund  given  to  the  President  for  the  general  defense  of  the 
country.  Mr.  Creel,  apparently,  is  part  of  the  general 
defense  of  the  country,  and  the  little  government  publica- 
tion which  he  is  publishing,  and  the  scores  of  people  whom 
I  am  told  he  has  employed  to  do  what  might  be  done  by 
a  stenographer  and  a  couple  of  clerks,  are  being  paid  for 
out  of  that  fund." 

Either  he  was  premeditatedly  untruthful  or  else  incredibly 
ignorant,  for  at  the  time  the  Committee's  foreign  activities 
were  well  known,  its  pamphlets  were  in  circulation  by  the 
millions,  the  Four  Minute  Men  were  already  famous,  our 
motion  pictures  filled  the  theaters,  and  every  Washington 
correspondent  was  receiving  the  official  news  from  our 
office.  I  was  always  inclined  to  give  Senator  Lodge  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt,  crediting  him  with  ignorance  rather 
than  dishonesty.  As  some  one  once  said,  the  Lodge  mind 
was  like  the  soil  of  New  England — highly  cultivated,  but 

59 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

naturally  sterile.  An  exceedingly  dull  man  and  a  very 
vain  one — deadly  combination — his  vanity  fosters  his  igno- 
rance by  persistent  refusal  to  confess  it.  More  than  any 
other  Senator  he  has  the  conviction  of  omniscience,  and 
his  solemn  expression  and  conservative  whiskers  persuade 
many  people  to  accept  him  at  his  own  valuation. 

This  "sniping"  kept  up  steadily  throughout  the  first 
year  of  the  Committee's  existence,  each  day  bringing  new 
charges  and  fresh  abuse.  Congressmen  refused  to  see  me 
and  I  could  not  get  an  opportunity  to  see  Congress.  We 
made  attempt  after  attempt  to  establish  a  basis  of  under- 
standing, if  not  friendship,  for  it  was  not  only  that  the 
continual  sharpshooting  interfered  with  the  workers,  but 
it  hurt  the  work  itself.  In  virtually  every  foreign  country 
we  were  preaching  the  gospel  of  an  honest,  idealistic 
America,  and  the  task  was  difficult  enough  without  having 
German  propagandists  quoting  American  Senators  to  the 
effect  that  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  was  a 
"pack  of  liars."  And  then  in  May,  1918,  there  came  the 
explosion  that  brought  things  to  a  climax. 

After  a  speech  at  the  Church  of  the  Ascension  in  New 
York,  I  yielded  to  the  custom  of  Doctor  Grant's  forum  and 
submitted  to  questions.  The  majority  of  the  audience 
were  "radicals,"  out  of  sympathy  with  the  war,  and  their 
rapid-fire  interrogations  had  the  spat  of  bullets.  At  the 
end  of  an  hour,  when  the  questions  were  getting  fewer 
and  weaker,  and  when  fatigue  had  robbed  me  of  mental 
quickness,  some  fool  asked  what  I  thought  about  the  "heart 
of  Congress."  A  titter  swept  the  crowd,  and  because  the 
absurdity  was  so  plain,  I  made  the  quick  and  thoughtless 
answer  that  "I  had  not  been  slumming  for  years."  The 
moment  the  words  left  my  mouth  I  could  have  bitten  my 
tongue  out,  but  I  did  not  dare  to  give  the  incident  point 
by  attempting  any  withdrawal.  It  was  one  of  those  arrant, 
incredible  stupidities  for  which  there  is  no  excuse.  I  sup- 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

pose  that  the  mention  of  Congress  evoked  instant  thought 
of  Reed,  Penrose,  Watson,  Longworth,  and  others  of  their 
kind,  and  that  the  retort  slipped  out  before  my  tired  mind 
could  call  a  halt. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  morning  papers  ignored  the 
carefully  prepared  speech  of  an  hour,  and  made  no  com- 
ment upon  the  second  hour  of  serious  questioning,  but  put 
entire  emphasis  upon  the  "slumming"  remark.  My  en- 
emies in  the  House  and  Senate  rallied  with  a  cry  of  joy, 
and  the  dictionary  was  brought  into  play  to  prove  that 
I  had  accused  Congressmen  of  being  "poor,  dirty,  degraded, 
and  often  vicious."  The  hatreds  and  accusations  of  the 
whole  past  year  were  resurrected,  the  inevitable  Treadway 
introduced  a  resolution  to  institute  contempt  proceedings 
and  the  clamor  rose  high  above  the  noise  of  the  war  itself. 
My  one  decent,  honorable  course  was  an  open  apology, 
for  nothing  had  been  farther  from  my  thought  than  in- 
sult or  defiance.  My  soul  ached  to  make  the  flat  statement 
that  I  was  not  referring  to  Congress  as  a  whole,  but  had 
only  Reed,  Penrose,  Watson,  et  al.,  in  mind.  I  swallowed 
the  impulse,  however,  and  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr.  Edward 
W.  Pou,  chairman  of  the  House  Rules  Committee: 

May  11,  1918. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  Pou: 

While  the  Rules  Committee  has  not  yet  indicated  any  course 
of  action  with  respect  to  the  resolution  of  Mr.  Treadway,  I 
cannot  permit  myself  to  remain  under  the  imputation  of  having 
passed  public  and  insulting  criticism  upon  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States. 

My  estimate  of  your  honorable  body  is  expressed  in  the 
pamphlet  issued  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in 
October,  1917,  under  the  title,  First  Session  of  the  War  Con- 
gress. So  remarkable  did  the  record  of  achievement  appear 
to  me  that  I  had  it  summarized  for  general  distribution,  and 
in  the  signed  preface  I  tried  to  bear  testimony  to  the  courage 
and  patriotism  of  the  men  behind  the  record. 

61 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Even  were  it  not  the  case  that  I  am  so  committed  by  the 
frank  and  uncompelled  expression  of  an  honest  conviction,  I 
beg  you  to  believe  that  I  am  not  so  lost  to  the  proprieties  as  to 
indulge  in  attack  upon  the  legislative  branch  while  I  myself  am 
in  the  service  of  the  government. 

At  a  time  like  this  I  would  take  shame  to  myself  if  I  attempted 
to  weaken  in  any  degree  the  public  confidence  in  any  public 
body,  much  less  the  great  legislative  body  of  our  nation. 

At  the  Church  of  the  Ascension,  I  had  spoken  for  an  hour, 
and  for  more  than  an  hour  answered  questions  bearing  upon 
every  phase  of  public  misunderstanding.  The  question  under 
discussion  seemed  so  utterly  silly,  and  its  silliness  was  so  well 
understood  by  the  audience,  that  I  made  a  quick  and  thoughtless 
answer  that  lent  itself  to  exaggeration  and  distortion.  I  admit 
the  indiscretion  and  regret  it  deeply. 

I  have  given  my  thought  so  wholly  to  the  service  of  this  war 
that  I  have,  perhaps,  been  careless  in  the  matter  of  guarding 
every  word  of  my  utterances  against  the  possibility  of  miscon- 
struction. But  I  have  the  feeling  that  sincere  men  see  down  to 
the  heart  of  intent  and  will  appreciate  my  desire  at  all  times 
to  avoid  anything  that  might  create  the  dissension  and  con- 
fusion so  dangerous  to  our  necessary  unity. 

Please  let  me  take  this  opportunity  to  assure  you  of  my  willing- 
ness at  all  times  to  co-ordinate  the  work  of  the  Committee  with 
the  wish  and  thought  of  Congress.  What  we  have  done  and  are 
doing  is  always  open  to  the  inspection  of  the  individual  member 
or  committee,  and  I  cannot  but  feel  that  our  task  here  would  be 
wisely  strengthened  by  more  intimate  contact  and  co-operation. 

The  fair-minded  members  of  Congress  accepted  the 
apology  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  written,  but  those 
who  hated  me  refused  to  be  placated,  and  conceived  an 
attack  that  had  every  promise  of  success.  At  the  outset 
of  the  war  the  President  had  been  voted  the  sum  of  fifty 
million  dollars  to  be  used  for  the  National  Security  and 
Defense,  a  mobile  body  of  money  designed  to  meet  emer- 
gencies and  for  the  support  of  organizations  whose  neces- 
sities were  too  immediate  to  wait  on  red  tape.  The  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information  operated  from  this  fund, 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

and  here  was  the  spot  at  which  the  opposition  struck. 
Word  went  to  the  President  that  he  must  discharge  me 
if  he  expected  to  have  the  appropriation  renewed  on 
June  30th. 

It  was  a  blow  that  menaced  the  proper  prosecution  of 
the  war,  and  as  a  matter  of  course  there  was  but  one  thing 
for  me  to  do.  I  saw  the  President  at  once  and  offered  my 
resignation.  He  refused  to  accept  it,  generously  insisting 
that  one  indiscretion  was  not  heavy  enough  to  weigh 
against  a  year  of  effective  service.  It  was  also  the  case, 
he  pointed  out,  that  the  Committee  was  so  peculiarly  my 
own  creation  that  its  manifold  and  important  activities 
would  suffer  hurt  if  transferred  to  other  hands.  Moreover, 
he  was  of  the  opinion  that  my  "manly  letter"  met  the 
situation,  and  that  the  unfortunate  incident  would  soon 
be  closed. 

While  deeply  grateful,  the  position  in  which  I  found 
myself  was  unendurable.  It  was  a  certainty  that  the 
President  would  be  attacked  for  keeping  me,  and  while 
I  had  no  doubt  of  his  ability  to  win  out  on  the  issue,  the 
fight  constituted  another  burden  that  no  one  had  the 
right  to  impose.  What  I  suggested  was  this — that  he 
should  cut  me  loose  from  his  fund  as  far  as  the  domestic 
work  of  the  Committee  was  concerned,  letting  me  go  to 
Congress  with  my  own  request  for  an  appropriation  for 
the  Committee.  This,  I  urged,  would  give  me  the  long- 
sought  opportunity  to  make  full  and  official  report  on  the 
work,  meeting  accusers  and  accusations  squarely  and  in 
the  open.  If  I  failed  I  would  have  had  my  day  in  court, 
while  if  I  succeeded  there  would  be  an  end  to  the  cry  that 
the  President  was  "defying  Congress"  by  his  mainte- 
nance of  the  Committee. 

I  carried  my  point,  filed  my  request  for  an  appropriation, 
and  on  June  llth  presented  myself  before  the  House  Com- 
mittee on  Appropriations  to  justify  my  official  existence. 

63 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Among  those  who  faced  me  I  did  not  find  a  friend.  Mr. 
Sherley  and  Mr.  Byrnes,  the  two  Democrats,  were  of 
another  school  of  political  thought,  while  of  the  Republi- 
cans, Mr.  Gillett  and  Mr.  Mondell  had  only  horror  for 
my  economic  beliefs.  As  for  "Uncle  Joe"  Cannon,  he 
was  on  record  with  the  statement  that  I  "ought  to  be  taken 
by  the  nape  of  the  neck  and  the  slack  of  the  pants  and 
thrown  into  space." 

All  Washington  had  its  eyes  on  the  hearing,  and  gossip 
had  but  one  verdict.  The  Committee  "was  going  to  be 
exposed  as  a  worthless,  partizan  body,"  not  a  dollar  would 
be  granted,  nor  would  continued  existence  be  allowed. 
For  three  days,  eight  hours  a  day,  the  Committee's  ac- 
tivities and  personnel  were  subjected  to  the  most  search- 
ing examination,  and  while  the  general  attitude  was  critical 
to  the  point  of  hostility,  they  gave  me  a  "square  deal" 
every  step  of  the  way.  Division  by  division,  man  by 
man,  dollar  by  dollar,  we  offered  the  Committee  for 
scrutiny,  and  when  this  inspection  was  finished,  I  insisted 
that  every  charge  of  partizanship,  inaccuracy,  and  dis- 
honesty should  be  taken  up.  One  by  one  we  nailed  the 
lies  that  had  bedeviled  the  Committee,  laying  down  our 
proof,  submitting  to  cross-examination,  and  inviting  con- 
tradiction of  our  facts.  The  Fourth-of-July  story,  the 
aircraft  publicity,  the  political  affiliations  of  executives, 
my  speeches,  every  published  criticism  and  attack — all 
were  considered  in  turn,  and  at  the  end  there  was  a  verdict 
in  our  favor  with  not  even  "Uncle  Joe"  raising  his  voice 
in  dissent. 

The  one  question  remaining  was  as  to  my  "temper- 
amental qualifications."  The  editorials  that  I  wrote  in 
Colorado  in  1912  and  1913  in  support  of  the  Initiative  and 
Referendum,  the  right  of  the  people  to  recall  elected 
officials,  etc.,  were  read  at  length,  and  on  the  following 
morning  the  press  carried  the  statement  that  I  had  "re- 

64 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

canted."  While  it  is  true  that  I  regretted  certain  phrases, 
I  recanted  no  belief,  but  asserted  my  continuing  faith  in 
these  words: 

MR.  CREEL.  I  want  to  say  that  every  single  thing  in  which  I 
have  believed  and  every  single  thing  for  which  I  have  fought — 
and  this  is  without  exception — is  to-day  law,  either  in  federal 
statutes,  state  statutes,  or  in  municipal  charters.  There  is  not 
a  single  advocacy  of  mine  that  has  not  been  approved  by  Amer- 
ican majorities.  My  crime  is  that  I  fought  for  these  things  before 
they  became  fashionable.  I  think  it  is  significant  also  that  it 
has  never  once  been  charged  that  I  have  intruded  a  single  pre- 
war enthusiasm  into  the  discharge  of  my  duties  here;  that  no 
allegation  has  been  made  that  I  have  allowed  the  specific  reforms 
in  which  I  believed  before  the  war  to  influence  me  or  even  to 
appear  in  my  work  since  our  declaration  of  war.  They  go  back 
ten  years  to  things  I  wrote,  but  avoid  carefully  any  investigation 
of  my  activities  since  April  6,  1917. 

THE  CHAIRMAN.  Aside  from  the  character  of  the  editorials 
themselves,  the  charges  that  have  been  brought,  in  large  measure, 
are  that  they  show  the  viewpoint,  touching  the  Presidency, 
touching  the  Constitution,  touching  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
touching  the  Congress,  of  one  who  believed  that  these  various 
institutions  were  of  such  a  character  as  to  prevent  the  man 
holding  such  views  from  being  now  the  advocate  of  this  govern- 
ment and  of  democracy  in  its  warfare  against  autocratic  govern- 
ment. That  is  the  essence,  is  the  gravamen  of  the  charge,  as  I 
understand  it. 

MR.  CREEL.  Never  at  any  time  have  I  urged  any  instrument 
of  change  except  the  ballot;  it  is  true  that  I  have  urged  consti- 
tutional changes,  nor  do  I  feel  that  this  was  sacrilege.  I  think 
it  is  one  of  the  greatest  documents  ever  written,  but  times 
change,  new  needs  arise,  and  I  hold  it  well  within  the  rights  of 
citizens  to  alter  and  advance.  Never  at  any  time  have  I  preached 
any  doctrine  of  revolution,  only  the  propriety  of  change.  I 
have  always  held  steadfastly,  and  to-day  more  so  than  ever,  to 
the  belief  that  this  is  the  greatest  government  in  the  history  of 
the  world;  that  its  institutions  represent  all  that  is  best  in 
human  thought  and  all  that  is  best  in  human  endeavor.  My 
animating  impulse  has  been  the  belief  in  larger  civic  intelligence 
and  enthusiasm;  my  effort  to  get  citizenship,  the  electorate,  to 

65 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

take  a  more  active  interest  in  governmental  affairs — to  vote 
honestly  and  solemnly  almost.  As  a  consequence,  I  have  urged 
all  those  things  that  would  more  closely  identify  people  with 
government,  seeking  to  intensify  interest  in  public  business  and 
public  affairs.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  man  in  the  United 
States  who  has  a  firmer  belief  in  our  form  of  government  and  in 
our  institutions  than  myself,  and  if  I  made  attacks  upon  them 
it  was  because  I  felt  there  were  certain  things  which  were  the 
proper  subjects  of  change. 

MR.  MONDELL.  You  realize,  I  assume,  that  the  German 
propagandists  could  make  very  effective  use  now  of  these  utter- 
ances of  the  gentleman  who,  at  the  present  time,  is  at  the  head 
of  the  publicity  of  the  government  and  is  leading  the  propaganda 
to  express  and  prove  the  splendor  and  justice  of  our  institutions? 

MR.  CREEL.  I  feel  that  if  the  gentleman  who  introduced 
these  editorials  into  the  Record  had  troubled  to  make  some  in- 
vestigation of  my  present  work,  instead  of  going  clear  out  of 
Colorado  to  find  out  what  I  wrote  seven  years  ago,  probably 
the  German  propagandists  would  not  have  any  chance  for  ex- 
ploitation, Mr.  Mondell. 

At  the  close,  character  witnesses"  were  put  on  the 
stand,  as  it  were,  in  an  effort  to  develop  my  "temper- 
amental" fitness  or  unfitness.  Mr.  Blair  and  Mr.  Byoir, 
business  men  and  Republicans,  were  asked  as  to  my  ex- 
ecutive abilities,  and  Professor  Ford,  as  a  Republican  and 
as  one  holding  the  sane  and  conservative  post  of  dean  of 
the  University  of  Minnesota,  was  told  to  give  his  frank 
opinion  of  me.  The  statement  of  Professor  Ford  contains 
points  that  lift  it  above  the  personal: 

MR.  FORD.  I  never  saw  Mr.  Creel  until  I  came  down  to 
Washington  in  response  to  a  telegram  from  him.  It  was  through 
no  personal  connection  of  any  kind,  so  that  my  view  of  him  has 
been  to  that  extent  simply  that  of  a  man  dispassionately  watch- 
ing him.  He  was  directing  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  one  of  the 
most  important  functions  that  had  been  created  as  a  result  of 
war  activities.  I  feel  that  I  can  say  now  that  it  seems  to  me  that 
Mr.  Creel  has  really  succeeded  in  this  work.  Apparently  he 

66 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

lacked  all  of  the  qualifications  that  most  of  us  would  have  put 
together  as  making  up  the  ideal  man  to  do  this  job.  He  suc- 
ceeded because  he  lacked  most  of  the  qualities  and  all  of  the 
experience  that  an  average  wiseacre  would  have  said  were 
essential  to  success.  If  anybody  had  asked  me  to  sit  down  and 
say  what  kind  of  man  should  be  put  in  such  a  position,  I  should 
have  said,  "This  man  must  have  certain  ideas  about  adminis- 
tration and  organization;  he  must  have  worked  in  organizations; 
and  he  must  be  a  man  who  sits  down  and  thinks  out  plans  and 
then  has  the  plan  of  an  organization  all  charted  out  with  which 
to  execute  his  plans."  I  should  have  said  that  he  must  be  a  man 
who  would  be  able  to  drive  those  other  men  in  the  organization 
as  the  usual  so-called  executive  type  drive  other  men. 

This  war  has  put  most  such  standards  of  judging  men  entirely 
out  of  business.  What  Mr.  Creel  really  was — I  saw  it  at  once — 
was  an  educator  running  what  might  be  called  a  war  Chautauqua. 
Now,  for  the  purpose  of  doing  that,  the  man  who  has  fixed 
ideas,  and  who  has  had  an  experience  that  makes  him  discard 
everything  except  certain  "safe  and  sane"  things,  would  have 
followed  his  own  rule-of-thumb  methods,  and  would  never  have 
exhibited  the  ideals  and  encouraged  the  development  of  the 
things  that  have  gone  on  here.  The  "safe  and  sane"  type  could 
have  kept  himself  out  of  the  press  and  free  from  criticism,  but  the 
Committee  would  have  early  made  its  appearance  in  the  obituary 
column.  The  thing  wanted  in  this  work  was  not  any  definable 
administrative  experience  or  any  set  of  fixed  ideas  about  organi- 
zation. What  you  want  are  two  things:  You  want  a  man  with 
the  right  spirit,  and  that  spirit  can  be  covered  in  just  one  word, 
and  that  is  "service."  The  second  thing  is  that  you  want  a  man 
who  is  open-minded  and  responsive  and  quick  to  accept  sugges- 
tions and  see  possibilities  beyond  the  vision  of  the  man  who 
makes  them.  I  think  that  Mr.  Creel  possesses  pre-eminently 
these  two  essential  things. 

That  is  the  reason  why  this  Committee  has  grown  so  flexible, 
has  met  situations  that  none  of  us  foresaw,  and  has  done  a  work 
so  big  that  none  of  us  could  ever  conceive  for  a  moment  it  was 
within  the  range  of  possibilities  in  twelve  months.  The  Com- 
mittee has  done  big  things  and  worked  effectively.  Mr.  Creel 
took  things  that  the  normal  routine  mind  would  have  discarded. 
I  know  what  my  reaction  was  when  a  man  came  from  Chicago 
to  suggest  to  us  that  we  take  the  Four  Minute  Men.  I  hesitated, 

67 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

but  Mr.  Creel  said,  go  ahead.  Nothing  like  that  had  ever  been 
done.  It  was  a  perilous  experiment  in  many  ways  to  organize 
men  all  over  the  country  to  speak  for  the  government  with 
something  like  the  authority  of  the  government.  They  had 
never  had  such  responsibility  and  one  could  easily  imagine  indis- 
cretions that  would  keep  us  in  hot  water.  Mr.  Creel  took  it 
as  a  form  of  service  to  meet  something  that  had  never  occurred 
before,  and  he  was  right,  and  the  thing  has  worked  out  well. 

A  man  who  had  worked  in  the  government  in  the  ordinary 
way  would  have  said  at  once,  "The  government  cannot  go  into 
the  motion-picture  business."  But  here  was  a  man  who  saw 
what  others  had  not  seen  clearly  enough  in  the  past,  that  such 
a  thing  has  infinite  possibilities  for  good  if  it  is  organized  in  the 
right  way,  and  that  you  can  teach  through  the  eyes  and  through 
these  pictures  what  neither  the  printed  nor  spoken  word  can 
teach.  He  caught  the  idea  and  he  pushed  it;  and  its  possibilities 
as  an  instrument  in  patriotic  education  are  evident.  I  could  go 
from  point  to  point,  but  I  want  to  emphasize  this  fact,  that  he 
has  constantly  kept  before  his  mind  the  idea  of  service  and  just 
doing  the  job  and  thinking  of  everything  simply  in  relation  to 
the  great  task.  Notwithstanding  the  extraordinary  situation 
which  confronted  him  in  an  office  which  brought  endless  strain 
and  ceaseless  labor,  he  has  made  decisions  that  were  right  in  the 
long  run  and  which  have  been  extraordinarily  fruitful  in  results. 
He  has  made  them  quickly,  made  them  advisedly,  and  he  has 
done  the  work  of  a  real  executive.  We  have  had  a  sense  of 
responsibility,  but  everything  we  have  done  has  been  under  his 
supervision.  It  may  be  said  that  this  Committee,  in  its  spirit  of 
service,  in  its  willingness  to  get  behind  any  good  thing  and 
claim  no  vainglorious  credit,  has  really  shown  the  spirit  of  service 
that  has  animated  the  chairman.  All  of  us  had  this  spirit,  of 
course,  or  we  would  not  have  gone  into  the  work  and  stuck  to  it 
through  misrepresentation  and  misunderstanding;  but  that 
spirit  of  service  would  not  have  been  dominant  in  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  except  under  a  man  who  clearly  was  above 
self-seeking  and  pettiness. 


When  it  was  all  over  I  had  the  feeling  that  the  Commit- 
tee had  won  respect  and  approval.  Developments  bore 
me  out,  for,  while  cuts  were  made,  an  appropriation  of 

68 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS 

$1, 250,000  was  voted.  The  committee  members  were 
unanimous  in  allowing  it,  and,  as  I  have  stated  in  a  previ- 
ous chapter,  Republicans  and  Democrats  were  equally 
generous  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  reporting  that  the 
work  was  important  and  that  it  had  been  discharged 
competently  and  patriotically. 

All  of  us  had  the  hope  that  this  would  end  our  troubles, 
but  the  respite  was  brief.  The  press  generally  ignored 
the  hearing,  and  after  a  lapse  of  time  sufficient  to  dull 
memory  the  same  old  lies  were  brought  forth  again  and 
put  through  their  spavined  paces. 
6 


VI 

THE   DIVISION   OF   NEWS 

EOKING  back,  it  seems  a  miracle  that  the  original 
purpose  of  the  Committee's  existence  should  have 
survived  the  terrific  strain  of  creation.  Everything  with 
which  we  had  to  do  was  new  and  foreign  to  the  democratic 
process.  There  were  no  standards  to  measure  by,  no  trails 
to  follow,  and,  as  if  these  were  not  difficulties  enough,  the 
necessities  of  the  hour  commanded  instant  action.  Even 
before  any  allotment  of  funds,  before  an  organization 
could  be  gathered  or  quarters  secured,  the  Committee 
was  forced  into  urgent  duties  and  decisions. 

We  found  temporary  lodgment  in  the  navy  library,  a 
shadowy,  shelf -filled  room  peopled  by  quiet,  retiring  gentle- 
women, who  shuddered  in  corners  while  noisy  mobs  invaded 
their  sanctuary.  Every  day  saw  and  heard  its  hundreds 
of  callers — eager  patriots,  duty-dodgers,  job-hunters,  cranks, 
inventors,  Congressmen  with  constituents  to  place — buzz- 
ing like  a  locust  swarm  and  devouring  time  with  much  the 
same  rapacity. 

Arthur  Bullard  and  Ernest  Poole,  quitting  their  literary 
work  at  the  first  call  to  arms,  came  to  my  aid,  and  were 
followed  by  Edgar  G.  Sisson,  who  resigned  his  post  as 
editor  of  The  Cosmopolitan  that  he  might  serve.  When 
I  think  of  their  unselfish  drudgeries,  their  contributions 
from  loyal  hearts  and  driving  minds,  I  find  fault  with 
every  phrase  designed  to  convey  appreciation.  Bullard, 

7Q 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

with  his  first-hand  knowledge  of  countries  and  peoples 
and  his  even  more  intimate  study  of  the  Allied  effort  to 
capture  public  opinion;  Poole,  with  his  clear,  democratic 
vision;  and  Sisson,  with  his  tireless  energy  and  rare  exec- 
utive genius — shot  light  through  the  general  confusion, 
and,  in  spite  of  every  hopelessness,  purposes  commenced  to 
take  form. 

The  voluntary  censorship,  driven  through  in  the  best 
fashion  that  conditions  permitted,  was  companioned  by 
the  creation  of  machinery  for  the  collection  and  issuance 
of  the  official  news  of  government.  Out  of  that  early 
chaos  also  came  the  Official  Bulletin,  the  Four  Minute  Men, 
the  mobilization  of  the  artists  and  the  novelists,  and  vari- 
ous other  ideas  that  had  a  later  fruitage. 

For  shelter  we  managed  finally  to  rent  quarters  at  10 
Jackson  Place,  an  old  dwelling-house  once  the  home  of 
either  Daniel  Webster  or  John  C.  Calhoun,  tradition  divid- 
ing sharply  in  the  matter.  What  we  should  have  done 
was  to  have  commandeered  an  apartment-house  at  the 
very  start,  but  as  a  result  of  incessant  attack  economy 
obsessed  me,  an  obsession,  by  the  way,  that  remained  to 
hamper  and  delay.  The  house  next  door  was  not  leased 
until  we  had  men  and  women  working  in  basement  cubby- 
holes and  attic  cells,  and  a  third  dwelling  was  taken  over 
only  when  kitchens  and  hallways  were  filled  to  overflowing. 

The  Division  of  News,  fitting  the  voluntary  censorship 
as  skin  fits  the  hand,  was  equally  fundamental  as  far  as 
the  purpose  of  the  Committee  was  concerned.  With  the 
press  depended  upon  to  protect  military  information  of 
tangible  benefit  to  the  enemy,  it  became  an  obligation  to 
meet  the  legitimate  demand  for  all  war  news  that  contained 
no  military  secrets.  It  was  not  a  duty,  however,  that 
could  be  left  safely  to  the  peace-time  practice  of  the  press 
with  its  uninterrupted  daily  swing  of  reporters  through 
the  various  departments,  the  buttonholing  of  clerks,  and 

71 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  haphazard  business  of  permitting  minor  officials  to 
make  unchecked  and  unauthorized  statements.  Nor  was 
there  room  for  the  "scoop,"  since  war  news  could  not  be 
looked  upon  in  any  other  light  than  common  property  call- 
ing for  common  issuance. 

There  were  also  dangers  from  the  other  side.  Admirals 
and  generals  had  been  reared  in  a  school  of  iron  silence, 
and  as  a  result  of  their  training  looked  upon  the  war- 
machinery  as  something  that  had  to  be  hidden  under  lock 
and  key.  To  the  average  military  mind  everything  con- 
nected with  war  was  a  "secret,"  and  the  press  itself  had 
no  rights  that  needed  to  be  respected.  Even  in  the  few 
cases  where  officials  appreciated  the  value  of  publicity 
there  was  an  utter  lack  of  the  "news  sense,"  with  the  result 
that  trivialities  were  brought  forward  and  real  importances 
buried. 

What  was  needed,  and  what  we  installed,  was  official 
machinery  for  the  preparation  and  release  of  all  news 
bearing  upon  America's  war  effort — not  opinion  nor  con- 
jecture, but  facts — a  running  record  of  each  day's  progress 
in  order  that  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  United  States 
might  gain  a  certain  sense  of  partnership.  Newspaper 
men  of  standing  and  ability  were  sworn  into  the  govern- 
ment service  and  placed  at  the  very  heart  of  endeavor  in 
the  War  and  Navy  departments,  in  the  War  Trade  Board, 
the  War  Industries  Board,  the  Department  of  Justice,  and 
the  Department  of  Labor.  It  was  their  job  to  take  dead- 
wood  out  of  the  channels  of  information,  permitting  a 
free  and  continuous  flow. 

A  more  delicate  and  difficult  task  could  not  have  been 
conceived,  for  both  the  press  and  the  officials  viewed  the 
arrangement  with  distrust,  if  not  hostility.  On  the  side 
of  government  there  was  the  deep  conviction  that  neces- 
sary concealments  were  being  violated,  and  even  when 
this  antagonism  was  overcome  there  developed  the  assump- 

72 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

tion  that  only  "favorable  news"  should  be  given  out  for 
publication.  It  was  our  insistence  that  the  bad  should 
be  told  with  the  good,  failures  admitted  along  with  the 
announcements  of  success,  and  that  the  representatives 
of  the  Committee  should  have  the  unquestioned  right  to 
exercise  their  news  sense  and  to  check  up  every  statement 
in  the  interest  of  absolute  accuracy.  Owing  to  the  un- 
swerving support  of  Secretary  Baker  and  Secretary  Daniels, 
we  carried  our  contentions,  and  after  much  preliminary 
creaking  the  machine  commenced  to  function  with  smooth- 
ness and  certainty. 

On  the  part  of  the  press  there  was  the  fear,  and  a  very 
natural  one,  that  the  new  order  of  things  meant  "press- 
agenting"  on  a  huge  scale.  This  fear  could  not  be  argued 
away,  but  had  to  be  met  by  actual  demonstration  of  its 
groundlessness.  Our  job,  therefore,  was  to  present  the 
facts  without  the  slightest  trace  of  color  or  bias,  either  in 
the  selection  of  news  or  the  manner  in  which  it  was  pre- 
sented. Thus,  in  practice,  the  Division  of  News  set  forth 
in  exactly  the  same  colorless  style  the  remarkable  success 
of  the  Browning  guns,  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
the  existence  of  bad  health  conditions  in  three  or  four  of 
the  cantonments.  In  time  the  correspondents  realized 
that  we  were  running  a  government  news  bureau,  not  a 
press  agency,  and  their  support  became  cordial  and  sincere. 

The  Division  of  News  kept  open  the  whole  twenty-four 
hours.  Every  "story,"  on  the  moment  of  its  completion, 
was  mimeographed  and  "put  on  the  table"  in  the  press- 
room where  the  news  associations  kept  regular  men,  and 
to  which  the  correspondents  came  regularly.  .  These 
"stories"  were  "live  news,"  meant  for  the  telegraph- 
wire,  and  the  method  employed  assured  speedy,  authorita- 
tive, and  equitable  distribution  of  the  decisions,  activities 
and  intentions  of  the  government  in  its  war-making 
branches. 

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HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Not  only  this,  but  the  Division  of  News  was  the  one 
central  information  bureau.  Before  its  creation  Wash- 
ington correspondents,  running  down  a  "story"  or  track- 
ing a  rumor,  were  compelled  to  visit  innumerable  offices, 
working  delay  to  overburdened  officials,  or  else  telephoning 
endlessly,  even  dragging  department  heads  out  of  their 
beds  at  ungodly  hours.  Our  desk  men,  in  touch  with  every 
happening  at  every  hour  of  the  day  and  night,  were  able 
to  confirm  or  deny,  so  that  one  visit  or  one  telephone-call 
met  the  need  of  the  correspondent,  saving  his  time  and 
likewise  the  time  of  officials. 

No  attempt  was  made,  however,  to  prevent  independent 
news-gathering  or  to  interfere  with  individual  contacts. 
It  was  our  insistence  and  arrangement  that  correspondents 
should  have  daily  interviews  with  all  executive  heads, 
and  in  every  case  where  a  correspondent,  feature-writer, 
or  magazine- writer  had  an  idea  for  a  "story"  either  we 
supplied  him  with  the  facts,  information,  and  statistics 
desired  or  else  cleared  the  way  for  him  to  get  his  material 
first  hand. 

When  we  found  that  the  rural  press  was  experiencing  a 
sense  of  neglect,  in  that  it  had  neither  wire  service  nor 
Washington  correspondents,  we  secured  the  services  of  a 
capable  "country  editor"  from  the  state  of  Washington, 
and  had  him  prepare  a  weekly  digest  of  the  official  war 
news  that  went  to  the  country  weeklies  in  galley  form. 
Country  dailies  also  asked  to  be  put  on  this  list,  which 
grew  to  more  than  twelve  thousand.  At  any  intimation 
that  this  matter  was  not  desired  the  paper  was  removed 
from  the  mailing-list,  and  by  this  and  other  checking  we 
were  able  to  keep  a  more  or  less  careful  watch  on  the  ex- 
tent to  which  the  service  was  used.  It  ran  as  high  as  six 
thousand  columns  a  week. 

The  Division  of  News  also  operated  the  voluntary  censor- 
ship, advising  and  interpreting  the  government's  requests 

74 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

for  secrecy  in  the  matter  of  purely  military  information. 
Each  Washington  correspondent,  likewise  every  news- 
paper office  in  the  United  States,  had  the  card  that  bore 
these  requests;  nevertheless,  there  were  hundreds  of  in- 
quiries daily  as  to  "what  the  government  wanted"  or  did 
not  want.  The  men  on  the  reference-desk  either  insisted 
that  the  news  item  in  point  was  fully  covered  by  the  card 
or  advised  that  there  was  no  objection  to  publication. 
In  all  cases  of  doubt,  decision  was  referred  to  Gen.  Frank 
Mclntyre,  acting  for  the  War  Department,  or  to  the  navy 
representative,  who  rendered  the  official  ruling.  In  no 
instance,  however,  was  any  direct  order  laid  upon  the  press. 
It  was  up  to  each  correspondent  to  comply  with  the  wishes 
of  the  government  or  to  reject  them,  the  decision  being 
left  entirely  to  his  common  sense  and  patriotism.  The 
Committee  itself  was  at  all  times  careful  to  avoid  any  ap- 
pearance of  censorship,  refusing  to  assume  authorities  and 
holding  fast  to  the  safe  role  of  adviser  and  interpreter. 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  value  of  the  Division 
of  News  to  the  government  itself.  Through  its  news- 
gathering  machinery  it  gave  to  the  people  a  daily  chronicle 
of  the  war  effort  so  frank,  complete,  and  accurate  that  in 
time  it  developed  a  public  confidence  that  stood  like  iron 
against  the  assaults  of  rumor  and  the  hysteria  of  whispered 
alarm. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  question  as  to  the  value  of  the 
division  to  the  press.  It  saved  the  newspapers  thousands 
of  dollars  in  time  and  in  men  by  the  daily  delivery  and 
equitable  distribution  of  the  official  war  news,  and  was 
equally  quick  to  assist  in  the  handling  of  larger  problems. 
In  the  case  of  the  casualty  lists,  for  instance,  ordinary 
procedure  would  have  compelled  the  three  press  associa- 
tions, and  such  papers  as  maintained  independent  services, 
to  make  separate  copies  for  separate  distribution  over  the 
telegraph-wires.  This  duty  was  assumed  by  the  Division 

75 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

of  News,  and  a  plan  was  worked  out  by  which  the  Com- 
mittee printed  the  lists  and  mailed  them  to  newspapers 
with  a  five-day  release  date.  By  this  method  the  press 
was  saved  the  time  and  money  and  the  overburdened 
wires  out  of  Washington  were  relieved  of  a  crushing  bur- 
den. The  system  meant  no  delay  in  the  notification  of  rel- 
atives, who  received  word  by  telegram  from  the  Adjutant- 
General's  office  several  days  in  advance  of  publication  in 
the  newspapers. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Division  of  News  stood  at  all 
times  as  the  servant  and  champion  of  the  newspapers, 
making  daily  and  vigorous  fight  against  unnecessary 
secrecies.  By  way  of  illustration,  it  was  the  original  de- 
cision that  correspondents  should  not  be  permitted  to 
accompany  General  Pershing  and  the  first  troops  that  went 
to  France.  The  Committee  insisted  that  such  a  course 
would  arouse  just  and  wide-spread  indignation,  and  by 
dint  of  unanswerable  argument  we  won  a  ruling  from 
Secretary  Baker  that  recognized  the  right  of  the  press  to 
adequate  representation.  Commencing  with  the  men  se- 
lected by  the  news  associations,  the  number  was  increased 
carefully  and  intelligently  until  twenty-three  accredited 
correspondents  were  at  headquarters  in  France.  At  this 
point  General  Pershing  put  his  foot  down  hard,  cabling 
that  there  were  twice  as  many  correspondents  with  the 
small  American  force  as  with  the  great  armies  of  England 
and  France,  a  fact  that  was  commencing  to  cause  laughter 
and  ridicule. 

All  of  which  was  true,  but  it  was  equally  true  that  neither 
England  nor  France  was  sending  soldiers  three  thousand 
miles  from  home,  nor  was  it  taken  into  consideration  that 
the  United  States  had  ten  times  as  many  papers  as  the 
French  or  the  English.  The  order  held,  but  the  Committee 
refused  to  admit  defeat  and  devised  a  scheme  of  "war- 
zone  visits."  Our  Paris  office,  working  in  conjunction  with 

76 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

the  American,  French,  and  English  authorities,  gained  per- 
mission to  conduct  correspondents  to  the  various  fronts 
on  inspection  tours.  This  done,  the  Washington  office 
made  itself  reponsible  for  passports  and  letters  of  introduc- 
tion, with  the  result  that  no  responsible,  duly  accredited 
American  newspaper  man  was  denied  the  right  to  see  and 
study  the  American  effort  in  France. 

The  Grand  Fleet  was  another  case  in  point.  We  were 
willing  to  admit  that  there  should  be  secrecy  as  to  the 
number  and  whereabouts  of  our  war-ships,  but  we  saw 
only  absurdity  in  the  attempt  to  hide  the  fact  that  there 
really  was  a  fleet  and  that  it  was  ready  to  fight.  One  of  the 
most  popular  pre-war  lies  was  the  "demoralization  of  the 
navy."  What  finer  message  to  carry  to  the  people  than  the 
might  of  "the  gray,  mailed  fist"?  Secretary  Daniels  and 
Admiral  Mayo  saw  the  force  of  the  argument,  and  the 
Committee  was  permitted  to  send  party  after  party  of 
correspondents  and  writers  to  Yorktown,  where  the  war- 
ships of  the  United  States  lay  at  anchor  in  the  early  days 
of  the  war.  Not  one  word  was  ever  printed  as  to  location 
or  number,  but  the  daily  and  periodical  press  was  filled  with 
columns  that  told  America  of  our  naval  invincibility.  The 
two  articles  by  Mary  Roberts  Rinehart,  published  in  The 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  were  worth  a  host  of  recruiting 
officers,  for  they  told  the  people  that  the  first  line  of  defense 
was  worthy  of  full  confidence  and  complete  reliance. 

The  same  system  was  followed  with  respect  to  canton- 
ments, shipyards,  and  munition-factories,  and  as  a  result 
a  flood  of  positive  news  crowded  out  the  negative  and 
destructive.  Another  thing  that  aided  materially  in  the 
stabilization  of  public  opinion  was  the  open  pledge  of  the 
army  and  the  navy  that  all  accidents,  disasters,  and  cas- 
ualties would  be  given  instant  announcement.  It  was  a 
pledge  that  was  kept. 

The  Committee,  while  safeguarding  the  interests  of  the 

77 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

government  and  upholding  the  rights  of  the  press,  felt 
that  its  true  responsibility  was  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  As  a  consequence  of  this  belief,  which  put  us  be- 
tween the  press  and  the  government  as  an  independent, 
impartial  force,  the  Committee  met  with  almost  constant 
attack  from  either  one  side  or  the  other.  When  we  sup- 
ported the  contentions  of  the  correspondents,  the  admirals 
and  generals  declared  that  we  wanted  "to  run  the  war  in 
the  interest  of  the  newspapers,"  and  when  we  accepted 
censorship  rulings  as  sound  and  reasonable,  the  press 
talked  wildly  of  gags  and  muzzles.  Sometimes  it  was  the 
case  that  both  sides  joined  in  attack,  forgetting  differences 
in  the  joy  of  a  common  irritation. 

For  instance,  in  March,  1918,  in  the  absence  of  Secretary 
Baker,  and  without  previous  warning  or  consultation,  the 
War  Department  curtly  informed  us  that  thereafter  all 
casualty  lists  must  be  issued  to  the  press  without  the  home 
address  or  the  name  of  the  next  of  kin.  The  form  that 
we  had  been  following  was  as  follows: 

Wounded:     Private  John  Jones.     S.  J.  Jones  (father) 
2  Yale  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

The  new  War  Department  order  prescribed  this  form: 
Wounded:    Private  John  Jones. 

We  realized  at  once  that  the  thousands  of  identical 
names  in  the  United  States  made  it  certain  that  the  new 
form  would  work  anxiety  and  suffering  to  countless  homes. 
Merely  to  announce  that  John  Jones  or  Patrick  Kelly  was 
killed  or  wounded  meant  that  the  parents,  relatives,  and 
friends  of  the  innumerable  John  Joneses  and  Patrick  Kellys 
would  be  given  over  to  every  fear  and  grief,  since  there  was 
nothing  to  indicate  exact  identity. 

We  took  up  the  matter  with  Assistant-Secretary  Crowell 

78 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

at  once,  and  asked  the  reason  for  the  sudden  and  astonish- 
ing change  in  plans.  Boiled  down,  this  was  the  explana- 
tion given :  The  German  spies,  reading  the  printed  casualty 
lists,  would  proceed  at  once  to  the  home  and  there,  under 
some  pretense,  worm  out  of  the  family  the  unit  to  which 
the  soldier  belonged.  Then  the  spy  would  transmit  the 
information  to  Berlin  and  Berlin  would  then  send  it  to  the 
front,  thus  acquainting  the  German  generals  with  the 
character  of  the  American  troops  that  faced  them. 

As  we  pointed  out,  why  should  the  Germans  adopt  this 
tedious,  roundabout  method  when  a  trench  raid  would  give 
them  the  same  information  in  a  night?  And  even  if  we 
granted  the  absurd  contention  that  there  were  .enough 
German  spies  in  America  to  visit  homes  in  every  city, 
how  would  they  convey  then*  information  to  Germany? 
Assistant-Secretary  Crowell  ended  the  discussion  by  the 
brusk  declaration  that  the  military  authorities  were  in 
possession  of  conclusive  proof  that  Berlin  received  American 
news  within  twenty-four  hours  of  its  publication.  Unable 
to  secure  any  modification  of  the  order,  and  deeply  con- 
vinced that  it  was  as  stupid  as  it  was  cruel,  the  Committee 
refused  to  issue  casualty  lists  in  the  new  form. 

For  a  full  year  the  press  had  thundered  at  the  Committee 
as  an  "agency  of  repression,"  yet  now,  when  we  were 
standing  for  a  sane  and  proper  publicity,  the  papers  de- 
scribed a  virtuous  roundabout,  and  attacked  the  Com- 
mittee for  its  "impudent  presumption"  in  daring  to  ques- 
tion the  War  Department's  efforts  to  safeguard  the  military 
secrets  of  America. 

The  Committee  stood  by  its  position,  and  I  deemed  the 
matter  of  sufficient  gravity  to  carry  it  to  the  President 
himself.  I  cited  hundreds  of  cases  of  families  needlessly 
torn  by  anguish  and  told  of  the  avalanche  of  telephone- 
calls  and  telegrams  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  In  ad- 
dition to  this  I  insisted  that  the  War  Department  should 

79 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

produce  its  proof  that  German  spies  in  tnis  country  were 
in  communication  regularly  with  Berlin.  Grudgingly 
enough,  the  alleged  proof  was  brought  forward  and  was 
seen  to  be  the  desired  publication  in  German  papers  of 
news  of  American  effort  designed  to  weaken  German 
morale  by  steady  hammering  on  the  inevitability  of  Ger- 
man defeat  from  the  growing  American  force — news  that 
the  Committee  itself  had  sent  to  Holland  and  which  our 
representative  in  The  Hague  had  managed  to  slip  into 
Germany  past  the  censorship. 

In  five  minutes  the  whole  Crowell  contention  was  shown 
to  be  the  last  word  in  absurdity,  and  the  President  ordered 
a  return  to  the  former  method  that  gave  the  home  address 
and  the  next  of  kin 

Such  conditions  inevitably  made  the  Division  of  News 
a  storm-center,  and  the  fact  that  it  rode  the  waves  to  suc- 
cess is  in  itself  the  best  commentary  upon  the  devotions 
and  abilities  of  the  men  who  were  called  upon  to  direct  this 
most  important  department  of  the  Committee's  endeavor. 

It  was  Mr.  Sisson  who  gave  form  and  purpose  to  the 
division,  organizing  the  machinery  to  operate  the  volun- 
tary censorship,  as  well  as  gathering  and  training  the  or- 
ganization for  news  collection  and  distribution.  Passing 
time  compelled  many  changes,  but  they  were  in  detail 
only,  for  Mr.  Sisson  built  on  the  solid  rock  of  common 
sense,  justice,  efficiency,  and  impartiality.  L.  Ames  Brown, 
the  Washington  writer  and  newspaper  man,  was  the  first 
director  of  the  division,  and,  when  transferred  to  inaugurate 
a  new  line  of  work,  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  J.  W.  McConaghy, 
who  left  his  position  in  the  New  York  newspaper  field  to 
serve  with  us.  He  brought  energy  and  ideas,  and  during 
his  regime  the  scope  of  the  work  was  broadened  materially. 
Mr.  McConaghy,  drafted  by  the  Foreign  Section  to  make 
a  survey  of  the  Central-American  countries,  was  succeeded 
by  Mr.  Leigh  Reilly,  formerly  managing  editor  of  The 

80 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

Chicago  Record-Herald,  a  man  of  rich  experience  and  highest 
standing  in  the  newspaper  profession.  He  bore  the  great 
burden  of  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1918,  and  the  credit 
for  efficiency  in  the  period  of  supreme  stress  is  his. 

As  far  as  the  work  itself  was  concerned,  the  two  most 
important  tasks  were  in  connection  with  the  army  and  the 
navy,  for  these  afforded  not  only  the  bulk  of  the  news,  but 
it  was  the  news  that  dealt  with  the  importances  of  life 
and  death.  With  respect  to  the  navy,  we  were  fortunate 
at  the  very  outset  in  securing  the  services  of  John  Wilbur 
Jenkins,  dean  of  the  Baltimore  newspaper  fraternity,  for 
in  his  indefatigable  little  body  he  coupled  an  invincible 
placidity  with  amazing  steadfastness.  Storms  might  break 
upon  him  and  every  wind  of  confusion  roar  about  him,  but 
when  the  sun  came  out  again  it  was  invariably  the  case 
that  John  Wilbur  was  to  be  seen  plugging  along  at  his 
original  task,  serene  and  unchanged.  He  won  the  respect 
of  every  naval  official,  and  this  relationship  was  no  small 
factor  in  promoting  the  success  of  a  working  arrangement 
bound  up  with  so  many  prejudices  and  decisions. 

It  was  Secretary  Daniels  himself,  however,  who  made 
the  Committee's  contacts  with  the  navy  as  effective  as 
they  were  pleasant,  for,  more  than  any  other  high  official 
in  Washington,  save  the  President,  he  had  common  sense 
and  abiding  faith  in  straightforward  truth-telling.  He 
wanted  the  people  to  know,  and  in  every  dispute  his  de- 
cision was  always  on  the  side  of  openness.  Admiral  Benson 
early  caught  the  spirit  of  the  Committee's  endeavor,  and 
gave  it  confidence  and  undeviating  support.  Admiral 
Earle,  Admiral  Taylor,  and  Admiral  Palmer  were  also 
our  honored  helpers. 

The  War  Department  was  no  such  easy  problem.  In- 
finitely more  huge  and  complex  than  the  navy,  it  bubbled 
new  activities  each  day,  all  far-reaching,  and  each  one  a 
mass  of  delicate  detail.  First  we  "tried  out"  Hey  wood 

81 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Brown,  of  The  New  York  Tribune,  but  he  returned  to  his 
paper  in  a  short  while,  and  we  then  reached  forth  and 
plucked  Wallace  Irwin  away  from  his  prose  and  poetry. 
While  his  bodily  strength  lasted  the  brilliance  of  his  work 
was  equaled  only  by  his  personal  popularity,  but  he  didn't 
last  long  enough.  There  was  no  question  as  to  the  drudgery 
of  the  position,  but  what  really  brought  about  his  col- 
lapse was  worry.  Strangely  enough  for  a  poet  and  novel- 
ist, Wallace  had  an  ingrowing  conscience,  and  after  work- 
ing eighteen  hours  a  day  he  spent  the  remaining  six  fretting 
over  sins  of  omission.  As  a  consequence,  he  took  to  his 
bed  one  fine  day,  and  an  indignant  wife  transported  him 
to  New  York  "beyond  our  clutches." 

At  that  time  Marlen  Pew  was  running  The  Editor  and 
Publisher,  and  before  that  was  one  of  the  "star  men"  of 
the  Newspaper  Enterprise  Association.  Of  all  the  field, 
he  looked  the  best,  and  there  was  never  occasion  to  regret 
the  choice.  Every  inch  a  progressive,  with  an  insistent 
belief  in  the  right  of  the  people  to  have  the  facts,  he  had 
the  courage  of  his  very  intense  convictions,  and  he  finished 
his  service  with  the  proud  record  of  never  having  lost  a 
battle  with  red  tape  or  mossbackism.  He  created  a  ma- 
chinery that  functioned  with  almost  automatic  precision, 
even  winning  the  reluctant  admiration  of  the  Washington 
correspondents  to  such  a  degree  that  they  asked  its  con- 
tinuance when  the  Committee  abandoned  the  work  after 
the  armistice.  Mr.  Arthur  Crawford,  formerly  of  The 
Chicago  Herald,  looked  after  the  Quartermaster's  Depart- 
ment; Mr.  Edwin  Newdick,  who  came  to  us  from  The 
Christian  Science  Monitor,  worked  with  the  Surgeon- 
General;  Mr.  Carl  H.  Butman  covered  the  Aircraft  Board; 
and  other  representatives  in  other  divisions  of  the  War 
Department  were  Mr.  Livy  Richards  of  Boston  and  Mr. 
John  Calvin  Mellet,  formerly  with  the  International  News 
Service. 

82 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NEWS 

Other  branches  of  the  government  were  no  less  well 
served  by  newspaper  men  of  the  same  high  character  and 
proved  ability.  Mr.  Archibald  Mattingly,  Mr.  Charles 
P.  Sweeney,  Mr.  Garrard  Harris,  and  Mr.  E.  H.  Hitch- 
cock measured  up  to  every  demand  of  their  difficult  posi- 
tions, contributing  materially  to  the  achievement  of  the 
division. 

Mr.  Kenneth  Durant  and  Mr.  Charles  Willoughby, 
dividing  the  duties  of  the  reference-desk,  had  difficult  posi- 
tions, for  it  was  was  to  them  that  inquiries  came.  Hour  in 
and  hour  out,  they  answered  them  with  ability,  patience, 
fairness,  and  never-failing  tact. 

Even  to-day,  when  I  review  the  work  of  the  Division 
of  News  in  critical  dispassion,  I  thrill  to  the  sheer  wonder 
of  the  achievement.  Here  was  a  brand-new  organization, 
called  to  do  a  brand-new  thing,  assembled  under  highest 
pressure  and  driven  at  top  speed  at  all  times,  and  yet  its 
record  for  accuracy  is  without  parallel  in  the  annals  of 
news-gathering.  During  the  eighteen  months  of  existence 
it  cleared  all  of  the  official  war  news  of  government,  issuing 
more  than  six  thousand  releases.  Every  one  of  these  re- 
leases ran  the  gantlet  of  incessant  and  hostile  scrutiny, 
yet  only  three  were  ever  subjected  to  direct  attack  on  the 
score  of  inaccuracy.1  In  two  of  these  cases  the  Committee 
was  justified  by  investigation,  while  the  fault  in  the  third 
instance  was  that  of  a  high  official  whose  word  could  not 
be  questioned. 

Chapters  3  and  4. 


VII 

THE  FOUR   MINUTE  MEN 

f  1 1  HERE  was  nothing  more  time- wasting  than  the  flood 
J.  of  people  that  poured  into  Washington  during  the  war, 
each  burdened  with  some  wonderful  suggestion  that  could 
be  imparted  only  to  an  executive  head.  Even  so,  all  of 
them  had  to  be  seen,  for  not  only  was  it  their  right  as 
citizens,  but  it  was  equally  the  case  that  the  idea  might  have 
real  value.  Many  of  our  best  suggestions  came  from  the 
most  unlikely  sources. 

In  the  very  first  hours  of  the  Committee,  when  we  were 
still  penned  in  the  navy  library,  fighting  for  breath,  a  hand- 
some, rosy-cheeked  youth  burst  through  the  crowd  and 
caught  my  lapel  in  a  death-grip.  His  name  was  Donald 
Ryerson.  He  confessed  to  Chicago  as  his  home,  and  the 
plan  that  he  presented  was  the  organization  of  volunteer 
speakers  for  the  purpose  of  making  patriotic  talks  in  motion- 
picture  theaters.  He  had  tried  out  the  scheme  in  Chicago, 
and  the  success  of  the  venture  had  catapulted  him  on  the 
train  to  Washington  and  to  me. 

Being  driven  to  the  breaking-point  has  certain  compen- 
sations, after  all.  It  forces  one  to  think  quickly  and  con- 
fines thought  largely  to  the  positive  values  of  a  suggestion 
rather  than  future  difficulties.  Had  I  had  the  time  to 
weigh  the  proposition  from  every  angle,  it  may  be  that  I 
would  have  decided  against  it,  for  it  was  delicate  and  dan- 
gerous business  to  turn  loose  on  the  country  an  army  of 

84 


WILLIAM  I     INGERSOLL 


WILLIAM  McCoRMicx  BLAIR  E.  T.  GUNDLACH 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 

speakers  impossible  of  exact  control  and  yet  vested  in 
large  degree  with  the  authority  of  the  government.  In 
ten  minutes  we  had  decided  upon  a  national  organization 
to  be  called  the  "Four  Minute  Men,"  and  Mr.  Ryerson 
rushed  out  with  my  appointment  as  its  director. 

When  the  armistice  brought  activities  to  a  conclusion 
the  Four  Minute  Men  numbered  75,000  speakers,  more 
than  7,555,190  speeches  had  been  made,  and  a  fair  estimate 
of  audiences  makes  it  certain  that  a  total  of  134,454,514 
people  had  been  addressed.  Notwithstanding  the  nature 
of  the  work,  the  infinite  chances  for  blunder  and  bungle, 
this  unique  and  effective  agency  functioned  from  first  to 
last  with  only  one  voice  ever  raised  to  attack  its  faith  and 
efficiency.  As  this  voice  was  that  of  Senator  Sherman  of 
Illinois,  this  attack  is  justly  to  be  set  down  as  part  of  the 
general  praise. 

The  form  of  presentation  decided  upon  was  a  glass  slide 
to  be  thrown  on  the  theater-curtain,  and  worded  as  follows: 

4    MINUTE  MEN    4 

(Copyright,  1917.    Trade-mark.) 


(Insert  name  of  speaker) 

will  speak  four  minutes  on  a  subject 

of  national  importance.     He  speaks 

under  the  authority  of 

THE    COMMITTEE    ON    PUBLIC    INFORMATION 

GEORGE    CREEL,  CHAIRMAN 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

A  more  difficult  decision  was  as  to  the  preparation  of  the 
matter  to  be  sent  out  to  speakers.  We  did  not  want 
stereotyped  oratory,  and  yet  it  was  imperative  to  guard 
against  the  dangers  of  unrestraint.  It  was  finally  agreed 

85 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

that  regular  bulletins  should  be  issued,  each  containing 
a  budget  of  material  covering  every  phase  of  the  question 
to  be  discussed,  and  also  including  two  or  three  illustrative 
four-minute  speeches.  Mr.  Waldo  P.  Warren  of  Chicago 
was  chosen  to  write  the  first  bulletin,  and  when  he  was 
called  away  his  duties  fell  upon  E.  T.  Gundlach,  also  of 
Chicago,  the  patriotic  head  of  an  advertising  agency. 
These  bulletins,  however,  prepared  in  close  and  continued 
consultation  with  the  proper  officials  of  each  government 
department  responsible  for  them,  were  also  gone  over 
carefully  by  Professor  Ford  and  his  scholars. 

The  idea,  from  the  very  first,  had  the  sweep  of  a  prairie 
fire.  Speakers  volunteered  by  the  thousand  in  every  state, 
the  owners  of  the  motion-picture  houses,  after  a  first 
natural  hesitancy,  gave  exclusive  privileges  to  the  or- 
ganization, and  the  various  government  departments  fairly 
clamored  for  the  services  of  the  Four  Minute  Men.  The 
following  list  of  bulletins  will  show  the  wide  range  of  topics : 

TOPIC  PERIOD 

Universal  Service  by  Selective  Draft. May  12-21,  1917 

First  Liberty  Loan May  22-June  15,  1917 

Red  Cross June  18-25,  1917 

Organization 

Food  Conservation July  1-14,  1917 

Why  We  Are  Fighting July  23-Aug.  5,  1917 

The  Nation  in  Arms Aug.  6-26,  1917 

The  Importance  of  Speed Aug.  19-26,  1917 

What  Our  Enemy  Really  Is Aug.  27-Sept.  23,  1917 

Unmasking  German  Propaganda ....  Aug.     27-Sept.     23,     1917 

(supplementary  topic) 

Onward  to  Victory Sept.  24-Oct.  27,  1917 

Second  Liberty  Loan Oct.  8-28,  1917 

Food  Pledge Oct.  29-Nov.  4,  1917 

Maintaining  Morals  and  Morale.  .  .  .Nov.  12-25,  1917 

Carrying  the  Message Nov.  26-Dec.  22,  1917 

War  Savings  Stamps Jan.  2-19,  1918 

The  Shipbuilder Jan  28-Feb.  9,  1918 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 

TOPIC  PERIOD 

Eyes  for  the  Navy Feb.  11-16,  1918 

The  Danger  to  Democracy Feb.  18-Mar.  10,  1918 

Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address Feb.  12,  1918 

The  Income  Tax Mar.  11-16,  1918 

Farm  and  Garden Mar.  25-30,  1918 

President  Wilson's  Letter  to  Theaters.  Mar.  31-Apr.  5,  1918 

Third  Liberty  Loan Apr.  6-May  4,  1918 

Organization (Republished  Apr.  23, 1918) 

Second  Red  Cross  Campaign May  13-25,  1918 

Danger  to  America May  27-June  12,  1918 

Second  War  Savings  Campaign June  24-28,  1918 

The  Meaning  of  America June  29- July  27,  1918 

Mobilizing  America's  Man  Power.  .  .July  29-Aug.  17,  1918 
Where  Did  You  Get  Your  Facts?..  .  .Aug.  26-Sept.  7,  1918 

Certificates  to  Theater  Members Sept.  9-14,  1918 

Register Sept.  5-12,  1918 

Four  Minute  Singing For  general  use 

Fourth  Liberty  Loan Sept.  28-Oct.  19,  1918 

Food  Program  for  1919 Changed  to  Dec.  1-7;  final- 
ly canceled 

Fire  Prevention Oct.  27-Nov.  2,  1918 

United  War  Work  Campaign Nov.  3-18,  1918 

Red  Cross  Home  Service Dec.  7,  1918 

What  Have  We  Won? Dec.  8-14,  1918 

Red  Cross  Christmas  Roll  Call Dec.  15-23,  1918 

A  Tribute  to  the  Allies Dec.  24,  1918 

Almost  from  the  first  the  organization  had  the  projectile 
force  of  a  French  "75,"  and  it  was  increasingly  the  case 
that  government  department  heads  turned  to  the  Four 
Minute  Men  when  they  wished  to  arouse  the  nation  swiftly 
and  effectively.  At  a  time  when  the  Third  Liberty  Loan 
was  lagging,  President  Wilson  bought  a  fifty-dollar  bond 
and  challenged  the  men  and  women  of  the  nation  to 
"match"  it.  The  Treasury  Department  asked  the  Com- 
mittee to  broadcast  the  message,  and  paid  for  the  telegrams 
that  went  out  to  the  state  and  county  chairmen.  Within 
a  few  days  fifty  thousand  Four  Minute  Men  were  de- 

87 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

livering  the  challenge  to  the  people  of  every  community 
in  the  United  States,  and  the  loan  took  a  leap  that  carried 
it  over  the  top.  General  Crowder  followed  the  same  plan 
in  his  registration  campaign,  putting  up  the  money  for 
the  telegrams  that  went  to  the  state  and  county  chair- 
men, and,  like  Secretary  McAdoo,  he  obtained  the  same 
swift  service  and  instant  results. 

In  June  Mr.  Ryerson  left  the  Committee  to  take  his 
commission  in  the  navy.  The  soul  of  honor  and  loyalty 
and  patriotism,  and  a  dynamo  of  intelligent  energy,  the 
only  thing  that  lessened  the  blow  of  his  departure  was  that 
William  McCormick  Blair  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  origi- 
nators of  the  idea,  volunteered  to  build  up  a  nation-wide 
organization.  There  was  nothing  easy  about  the  task,  for  it 
demanded  drudgery  as  well  as  vision,  patience  as  well  as 
drive,  and  high  ability  as  well  as  patriotism.  That  Mr. 
Blair  met  these  demands  stands  proved  by  the  success 
of  the  Four  Minute  Men.  No  one  ever  saw  him  weary 
or  discouraged,  and  his  indomitable  enthusiasm  was  at  all 
times  a  source  of  inspiration  to  the  Committee  as  a 
whole. 

The  first  plan  of  an  organization  was  the  appointment  of 
chairmen  according  to  Federal  Reserve  districts,  but  this 
soon  changed  to  organization  by  states,  by  counties,  by 
cities,  and  even  down  to  wards  and  townships.  In  every 
state  the  interest  of  the  governor  was  enlisted,  likewise  the 
close  co-operation  of  the  State  Council  of  Defense.  Mr. 
Blair  called  to  his  side  to  serve  on  a  National  Advisory 
Council  such  men  as  William  H.  Ingersoll  of  "Ingersoll 
watch"  fame,  Prof.  S.  H.  Clark  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  Samuel  Hopkins  Adams,  the  author,  and  "Mac" 
Martin  of  Minneapolis,  and  the  work  went  forward  until 
it  reached  from  coast  to  coast.  Philip  L.  Dodge  volunteered 
to  organize  the  New  England  States,  Curtiss  Nicholson 
went  through  the  South,  and  Bertram  G.  Nelson,  professor 

88 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 

of  public  speaking  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  journeyed 
from  city  to  city,  gathering  the  Four  Minute  Men  in 
each  locality  for  instruction  in  the  art  of  "putting  talks 
across."  These,  men,  together  with  Mr.  Gundlach  and  Mr. 
Thomas  J.  Meek,  also  served  as  associate  directors. 

The  speakers  in  every  case  received  their  authority  and 
appointment  from  the  chairmen  of  the  local  branches  of  the 
organization,  who,  in  turn,  were  appointed  through  the 
state  chairman  or  direct  from  headquarters  at  Washington. 
Each  local  chairman  was  registered  at  once  in  Washington. 

The  original  method  of  organizing  a  local  branch  was  as 
follows:  The  written  indorsement  of  three  prominent  citi- 
zens— bankers,  professional  or  business  men — written  on 
their  own  stationery  in  a  prescribed  official  form,  was  re- 
quired for  the  nomination  of  a  local  chairman.  These  in- 
dorsements were  forwarded  to  headquarters  in  Washing- 
ton, together  with  the  proper  form  of  application  for 
authority  to  form  a  local  branch,  with  the  privilege  of 
representing  the  government,  in  which  application  the 
number  of  speakers  available  was  stated,  in  order  that 
material  might  be  forwarded  promptly  in  case  the  appli- 
cation was  approved. 

There  was  pathos  as  well  as  humor  in  many  of  the  in- 
cidental happenings.  Men  of  the  most  unlikely  sort  had 
the  deep  conviction  that  they  were  William  J.  Bryans, 
and  when  rejected  by  local  organizations  many  of  them 
traveled  clear  to  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  delivering 
a  four-minute  speech  to  me  in  order  that  I  might  see  for 
myself  the  full  extent  of  the  injustice  to  which  they  had 
been  subjected.  Constant  changes  had  to  be  made  in 
the  interests  of  improvement,  and  every  elimination  held 
its  due  portion  of  hurt.  Through  an  effective  system  of 
inspection,  Mr.  Blair  managed  to  keep  in  touch  with  each 
community,  and  the  ax  fell  heavily  whenever  a  speaker 
failed  to  hold  his  audiences,  or  injected  the  note  of  par- 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

tizanship,  or  else  proved  himself  lacking  in  restraint  or  good 
manners. 

As  the  organization  grew,  there  came  increasing  pressure 
to  widen  the  scope  of  activities.  Compelled  to  pinch  pen- 
nies and  harassed  at  all  times  by  lack  of  adequate  funds, 
we  resisted  expansion  instead  of  encouraging  it,  but  it 
was  not  long  until  the  new  demands  "ran  over  us,"  as 
it  were,  giving  us  the  choice  between  growth  or  dis- 
integration. Even  so,  each  new  step  was  considered 
carefully,  and  subjected  to  every  possible  restraint  and 
supervision. 

National  arrangements  were  made  to  have  Four  Minute 
Men  appear  at  the  meetings  of  lodges,  fraternal  organiza- 
tions, and  labor  unions,  and  this  work  progressed  swiftly. 
In  most  cases  these  speakers  were  selected  from  the  mem- 
bership of  the  organizations  to  whom  they  spoke. 

Under  the  authority  of  state  lecturers  of  granges,  four- 
minute  messages,  based  upon  the  official  bulletins,  were 
given  also  at  all  meetings  of  the  granges  in  many  states. 
The  work  was  next  extended  to  reach  the  lumber-camps  of 
the  country,  some  five  hundred  organizations  being  formed 
in  such  communities.  Indian  reservations  were  also  taken 
in,  and  furnished  some  of  the  largest  and  most  enthusiastic 
audiences. 

The  New  York  branch  organized  a  church  department  to 
present  four-minute  speeches  in  churches,  synagogues,  and 
Sunday-schools.  The  idea  spread  from  city  to  city,  from 
state  to  state,  and  proved  of  particular  value  in  rural  com- 
munities. Some  of  the  states,  acting  under  authority  from 
headquarters,  organized  women's  divisions  to  bring  the 
messages  of  the  government  to  audiences  at  matinee  per- 
formances in  the  motion-picture  theaters,  and  to  the  mem- 
bers of  women's  clubs  and  other  similar  organizations. 

College  Four  Minute  Men  were  organized,  under  in- 
structors acting  as  chairmen,  to  study  the  regular  Four 

90 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 

Minute  Men  bulletins,  and  practise  speaking  upon  the 
subjects  thereof,  each  student  being  required  to  deliver 
at  least  one  four-minute  speech  to  the  student  body  during 
the  semester,  in  addition  to  securing  satisfactory  credits, 
in  order  to  qualify  as  a  Four  Minute  Man.  This  work  was 
organized  in  153  colleges. 

At  the  request  of  the  War  Department,  bulletins  similar 
to  those  published  for  the  use  of  the  Four  Minute  Men  were 
produced  by  national  headquarters,  to  be  used  by  company 
commanders  in  many  cantonments  throughout  the  country 
in  preparing  short  talks  to  their  men  on  the  causes  and 
issues  of  the  war.  The  following  campaigns  of  the  kind  were 
conducted  to  the  complete  satisfaction  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, as  expressed  in  its  official  report  on  the  subject: 

1.  Why  We  Are  Fighting.     January  2,  1918. 

2.  Insurance  for  Soldiers  and  Sailors.     February  1,  1918. 

3.  Back  of  the  Trenches.     April  6,  1918. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  went  far  beyond  the  request 
and  furnished  hundreds  of  officers  with  the  regular  Four 
Minute  Men  bulletins  as  well  as  with  the  Committee's 
pamphlets.  All  were  expected  to  make  "morale  talks" 
to  their  men,  yet  nothing  was  done  to  aid  them,  and  the 
publications  of  the  Committee  were  their  one  hope. 

The  Junior  Four  Minute  Men  was  an  expansion  that 
proved  to  be  almost  as  important  as  the  original  idea,  for 
the  youngsters  of  the  country  rallied  with  a  whoop,  and, 
what  was  more  to  the  point,  gave  results  as  well  as  en- 
thusiasm. Like  so  many  other  activities  of  the  Committee, 
the  Junior  movement  was  more  accidental  than  planned. 
At  the  request  of  the  state  of  Minnesota  the  Washington 
office  prepared  a  special  War  Savings  Stamps  bulletin.  Re- 
sults were  so  instant  and  remarkable  that  the  idea  had  to 

91 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

be  carried  to  other  states,  more  than  a  million  and  a  half 
copies  of  the  bulletin  being  distributed  to  school-children 
during  the  campaign.  Out  of  it  all  came  the  Junior  Four 
Minute  Men  as  a  vital  and  integral  part  of  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information. 

It  was  our  cautious  fear,  at  first,  that  regular  school- work 
might  be  interrupted,  but  it  soon  developed  that  the  idea 
had  real  educational  value,  helping  teachers  in  their  task 
instead  of  hindering.  The  general  plan  was  for  the  teacher 
to  explain  the  subject,  using  the  bulletin  as  a  text-book, 
and  the  children  then  wrote  their  speeches  and  submitted 
them  to  the  teacher  or  principal.  The  best  were  selected 
and  delivered  as  speeches  or  were  read.  In  a  few  cases 
extemporaneous  talks  were  given. 

Details  of  the  contests  were  left  largely  to  the  discretion 
of  the  teachers.  In  small  schools  there  was  generally  one 
contest  for  the  whole  school.  In  schools  of  more  than  five 
or  six  classes  it  was  usual  to  have  separate  contests  for 
the  higher  and  lower  classes,  and  sometimes  for  each  grade. 
There  were  many  different  ways  of  conducting  these  con- 
tests. Sometimes  they  were  considered  as  a  regular  part 
of  the  school-work  and  were  held  in  the  class-room  with  no 
outsiders  present,  but  more  often  they  were  made  special 
events,  the  entire  school,  together  with  parents  and  other 
visitors,  being  present.  Both  boys  and  girls  were  eligible 
and  the  winners  were  given  an  official  certificate  from  the 
government,  commissioning  them  as  four-minute  speakers 
upon  the  specified  topic  of  the  contest. 

Following  the  War  Savings  Stamps  contest  came  the 
Third  Liberty  Loan  contest  of  April  6  to  May  4,  1917. 
A  million  copies  of  this  bulletin  were  published  and  were 
sent  directly  to  the  schools  from  the  stencils  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  in  Washington.  About  two 
hundred  thousand  schools  in  all  parts  of  the  country  were 
reached  in  this  way.  The  same  plan  of  distribution  was 

92 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 

used  for  the  Junior  Fourth  Liberty  Loan  contest,  and  for 
the  Junior  Red  Cross  Christmas  roll-call,  and  these  two 
bulletins  were  published  in  connection  with  the  School 
Service  bulletin,  which  was  then  going  out  from  the  Com- 
mittee twice  monthly  to  all  schools  on  this  list. 

Another  innovation,  forced  by  a  general  demand,  was 
the  addition  of  four-minute  singing  to  the  work.  People 
seemed  to  want  to  exercise  their  voices  in  moments  of 
patriotism,  so  a  bulletin  of  specially  selected  songs  was 
prepared  and  issued.  The  various  chairmen  appointed 
song-leaders,  to  take  charge  of  motion-picture-theater 
audiences,  and  the  venture  was  a  success  from  the  first. 

In  the  summer  of  1918  Mr.  Blair  resigned  to  enter  an 
officers'  training-camp,  but  again  the  Committee  was  for- 
tunate in  having  a  successor  at  hand.  Mr.  William  H. 
Ingersoll,  a  member  of  the  Advisory  Council  since  1917, 
put  his  own  business  to  one  side  entirely,  and  poured  the 
full  flood  of  his  splendid  energy  into  the  task  laid  down  by 
Mr.  Blair.  To  the  three  leaders — Ryerson,  Blair,  and 
Ingersoll — must  go  all  credit  for  the  remarkable  record  of 
accomplishment. 

To  summarize:  Exact  reports,  covering  approximately 
one-half  of  the  full  activities  of  the  organization,  give  a 
total  of  505,190  four-minute  speeches  made  to  audiences 
totaling  202,454,514  people.  This  total  does  not  cover  the 
six  campaigns  from  October  27,  1918,  to  the  closing  date 
of  December  24th,  nor  does  it  include  the  first  campaigns 
from  May  22  to  October  27,  1917.  At  a  very  reasonable 
estimate,  these  first  campaigns  added  40,000,000  to  the 
total  audience  reached  and  not  less  than  70,000  to  the 
number  of  speeches  delivered,  while  the  final  six  campaigns 
added  certainly  not  less  than  72,000,000  to  the  total  audi- 
ence and  180,000  to  the  number  of  speeches.  Adding  these 
conservative  estimates  to  the  above  incomplete  reports, 
the  following  results  are  shown: 

93 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Number  of  speeches  given 755,190 

Total  audience 314,454,514 

A  very  reasonable  allowance  for  the  considerable  number 
of  communities  from  which  incomplete  or  no  reports  were 
received  justifies  an  estimate  of  final  totals  of  a  million 
speeches  heard  by  400,000,000  individuals  during  the 
eighteen  months'  life  of  the  organization — an  average  of 
about  28,000  speeches,  reaching  more  than  11,000,000 
people,  during  each  of  the  36  distinct  campaigns  covered 
by  the  46  bulletins. 

And  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  were  no  haphazard 
talks  by  nondescripts,  but  the  careful,  studied,  and  re- 
hearsed efforts  of  the  best  men  in  each  community,  each 
speech  aimed  as  a  rifle  is  aimed,  and  driving  to  its  mark 
with  the  precision  of  a  bullet.  History  should,  and  will, 
pay  high  tribute  to  the  Four  Minute  Men,  an  organization 
unique  in  world  annals,  and  as  effective  in  the  battle 
at  home  as  was  the  onward  rush  of  Pershing's  heroes  at 
St.  Mihiel. 

It  was,  and  is  to-day,  our  proud  claim  that  no  other  war 
organization,  with  the  exception  of  the  Food  Commission, 
paid  such  large  returns  on  a  small  investment  as  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information.  The  policy  of  almost  nig- 
gardly economy,  forced  upon  us  by  the  enmity  of  Congress, 
compelled  us  to  beg  running  expenses  from  individuals,  as 
well  as  the  gift  of  time  and  specialized  ability.  Men  and 
women,  coming  to  us  with  their  offers  of  volunteer  effort, 
were  not  only  drained  of  their  energy,  but  were  actually 
induced  to  go  into  their  pockets  for  cash  contributions  to 
carry  on  the  work.  This  was  true  of  many  divisions,  but 
it  was  peculiarly  true  in  the  case  of  the  Four  Minute  Men. 
Here,  for  instance,  are  the  amounts  expended  from  presi- 
dential and  Congressional  appropriations: 

94 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 


June,  1917- 
June,  1918 

July-Dec., 
1918 

Totals 

Salaries 

$24,033  04 

$18,711  96 

$42  745  00 

Printing   . 

29,107  06 

7,344  82 

36,451  88 

Slides   .    . 

7,300  08 

7,300  68 

Traveling  . 

4,942  09 

1,000  00 

5,942  09 

General  .... 

5,856  90 

3,258  55 

9,115  45 

Total  

$71,239  77 

$30,315  33 

$101,555  10 

What  a  showing!  A  national  organization  covering  the 
country  like  a  blanket  with  a  maximum  membership  of 
75,000,  working  day  in  and  day  out,  and  conducted  for  a 
year  and  a  half  at  an  expense  of  scarcely  more  than  $100,- 
000.  Each  state  director  and  each  local  chairman  had  to 
maintain  his  own  office,  as  the  Committee  allowed  nothing 
for  such  expenses.  Each  speaker  gave  not  only  his  time, 
but  had  to  foot  his  own  bills,  no  matter  what  the  amount. 
These  contributions,  figured  below,  have  been  recorded 
exactly  wherever  possible,  and  in  other  cases  have  been 
estimated  very  carefully  from  accurate  data. 

Actual  expenses  of  state  director's  offices $    177,090 

Expenses  of  local  chairmen's  offices;  estimated  at  $10 
monthly  for  the  known  average  number  of  chairmen 
(4,422  averaged  over  the  entire  eighteen  months' 

period) 795,960 

Expenses  of  individual  speakers,  averaging  ten  speak- 
ers to  the  chairman  and  allowing  for  each  speaker 
$2  monthly  for  all  traveling  and  incidental  expenses .  1,591,920 


Total  of  contributed  expenses $2,564,970 


Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  the  established  amounts  ex- 
pended   from    voluntary    contributions    were    more    than 

95 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

twenty-five  times  the  expenditures  from  the  official  ap- 
propriations. 

These  figures,  however,  are  only  part  of  the  story.  It 
is,  of  course,  impossible  to  set  an  adequate  monetary 
valuation  upon  services  contributed  so  generously  and  so 
patriotically  as  were  those  of  all  the  Four  Minute  Men, 
the  motion-picture  theaters,  newspapers,  churches,  granges, 
lodges,  labor  unions,  and  other  agencies  which  furthered 
the  work.  It  is  possible,  however,  and  eminently  proper 
to  put  into  some  concrete  and  tangible  form  the  material 
value  of  this  work  in  relation  to  the  actual  cost  thereof  to 
the  government. 

It  would  not  be  reasonable  to  set  a  lower  valuation  than 
four  dollars  on  the  delivery  of  a  four-minute  speech,  re- 
quiring the  most  painstaking  and  exact  preparation  and 
unusual  skill  in  condensation  and  forcefulness  of  delivery. 

Not  with  any  suggestion  of  undervaluing  the  inestimable 
co-operation  of  the  theaters  and  other  places  in  which 
speeches  were  delivered,  but  rather  with  a  view  to  the 
most  thorough  conservatism,  we  will  estimate  a  "rental 
value"  for  the  delivery  of  each  speech  at  one  half  the 
speakers'  rate. 

In  addition  to  the  messages  brought  to  the  people  by 
means  of  the  spoken  word,  the  Four  Minute  Men  secured 
for  the  government  publicity  worth  at  least  three-quarters 
of  a  million  dollars.  Articles  containing  the  pith  of  each 
bulletin  were  sent  out  from  headquarters  and  released 
through  local  chairmen  and  publicity  managers  in  thou- 
sands of  communities  for  use  in  the  local  papers. 

The  average  number  of  press  clippings  received  at  head- 
quarters from  a  single  clipping  bureau,  covering  only  the 
larger  newspapers  of  the  country,  was  873  a  month,  or 
more  than  15,000  during  the  eighteen  months'  life  of  the 
organization.  These  clippings  averaged  certainly  not  less 
than  60  lines  each,  totaling  900,000  lines,  which  at  a  low 

96 


THE  FOUR  MINUTE  MEN 

rate  for  this  type  of  publicity,  if  purchased,  would  have 
cost  $225,000. 

Hundreds  of  newspapers  mailed  to  headquarters  from 
the  smaller  towns  indicate  that  much  larger  space  was 
consistently  devoted  to  the  government  message  in  these 
places,  while  during  the  ban  on  public  meetings,  due  to  the 
influenza  epidemic,  newspapers  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
devoted  sufficient  space  to  carry  daily  four-minute  mes- 
sages prepared  for  them  by  members  of  the  organization. 
It  is  extremely  conservative  to  estimate  the  total  value 
of  all  this  publicity  at  $750,000. 

A  summary  of  all  these  items  gives  the  following  figures: 

Contributed  expenditures $2,564,970 

One  million  speeches  at  $4  each 4,000,000 

"Rent"  of  theaters,  etc.,  to  deliver  above 2,000,000 

Speeches  (331)  of  traveling  speakers 8,275 

Publicity  contributed  by  press 750,000 


Grand  total $9,313,245 

All  this  on  a  government  investment  of  $101,555.10. 

No  less  an  official  than  the  President  of  the  United  States 
returned  the  thanks  of  the  government  to  the  Four  Minute 
Men,  and  who  shall  say  that  the  following  tribute,  impelled 
by  sincere  conviction,  was  not  deserved: 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 
WASHINGTON,  November  29, 1918. 

To  all  the  Four  Minute  Men  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information: 

I  have  read  with  real  interest  the  report  of  your  activities,  and 
I  wish  to  express  my  sincere  appreciation  of  the  value  to  the 
government  of  your  effective  and  inspiring  efforts.  It  is  a  re- 
markable record  of  patriotic  accomplishment  that  an  organiza- 
tion of  75,000  speakers  should  have  carried  on  so  extensive 
a  work  at  a  cost  to  the  government  of  little  more  than  $100,000 

97 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

for  the  eighteen  months'  period — less  than  $1  yearly  on  an 
individual  basis.  Each  member  of  your  organization,  in  receiving 
honorable  discharge  from  the  service,  may  justly  feel  a  glow  of 
proper  pride  in  the  part  that  he  has  played  in  holding  fast  the 
inner  lines.  May  I  say  that  I,  personally,  have  always  taken  the 
deepest  and  most  sympathetic  interest  in  your  work,  and  have 
noted,  from  time  to  time,  the  excellent  results  you  have  procured 
for  the  various  departments  of  the  government.  Now  that  this 
work  has  come  to  its  conclusion  and  the  name  of  the  Four  Minute 
Men  (which  I  venture  to  hope  will  not  be  used  henceforth  by 
any  similar  organization)  has  become  a  part  of  the  history  of 
the  Great  War,  I  would  not  willingly  omit  my  heartfelt  testimony 
to  its  great  value  to  the  country,  and  indeed  to  civilization  as 
a  whole,  during  our  period  of  national  trial  and  triumph.  I  shall 
always  keep  in  memory  the  patriotic  co-operation  and  assistance 
accorded  me  throughout  this  period  and  shall  remain  deeply 
and  sincerely  grateful  to  all  who,  like  yourselves,  have  aided  so 
nobly  in  the  achievement  of  our  aims. 

Cordially  and  sincerely  yours, 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


VIII 

THE  FIGHT   FOR  THE  MIND   OF  MANKIND 

DURING  the  Congressional  hearing  on  our  budget, 
which  resolved  itself  into  a  searching  inquiry  into  the 
work  of  the  Committee,  one  of  the  Representatives  asked 
if  I  did  not  think  that  the  spectacle  of  American  boys 
sailing  for  France  was  sufficient  in  itself  to  rouse  the  people 
of  America.  I  answered  that  this  very  fact  of  departure 
for  military  service  in  a  foreign  land  made  it  more  impera- 
tive than  ever  that  there  should  be  a  fundamental  under- 
standing of  the  causes  of  the  war  and  of  the  absolute  justice 
of  America's  position.  A  wave  of  national  feeling  might 
carry  us  into  the  war  and  national  passions  and  hatred 
might  whip  us  on,  but  froth  and  dregs  would  be  the  only 
ultimate  result.  Such  methods  might  carry  a  mob  a  city 
block  to  tear  something  down,  but  they  would  not  bear  a 
self-determining  democracy  along  the  road  of  travail  and 
uttermost  sacrifice  for  great  ideals.  Could  we  count  on  a 
national  understanding  of  such  ideals?  Could  we  be  sure 
that  a  hundred  million — the  fathers,  the  mothers,  the 
children  of  America,  alien  born  and  native  alike — under- 
stood well  enough  so  that  they  would  support  one  loan  after 
another,  would  bear  new  burdens  of  taxation  and  send 
wave  after  wave  of  America's  young  manhood  to  die  in 
Flanders  fields? 

That  the  nation  felt  dimly  that  great  issues  were  at 
stake  was  clear,  but  was  it  gripped  by  a  conviction  that 

99 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

those  issues  and  their  proper  solutions  were  bound  up  with 
the  permanent  safety  of  America  here  and  now  and  for- 
ever? It  would  have  been  blindness  to  assume  such  an 
understanding.  Throughout  our  two  and  a  half  years  of 
neutrality  there  had  waged  a  daily  battle  of  controversy, 
with  press  and  public  men  alike  divided.  Some  labored 
to  range  us  at  once  on  the  side  of  the  Allies,  and  another 
vigorous  group,  skilfully  organized  and  cleverly  directed, 
strenuously  defended  the  Imperial  German  government. 
Public  opinion  was  without  shape  and  force.  The  country 
was  in  a  state  of  mind  in  which  it  accepted  the  war  and  said, 
"The  President  has  been  patient;  we  are  behind  him; 
we  are  patriotic;  and  we  fear  a  great  danger."  But  the 
life-and-death  character  of  the  struggle  was  not  under- 
stood. We  felt  that  it  had  to  be  brought  home  to  them  as 
a  matter  of  definite  intellectual  conviction.  We  wanted 
to  reach  the  people  through  their  minds,  rather  than 
through  their  emotions,  for  hate  has  its  undesirable  re- 
actions. We  wanted  to  do  it,  not  by  over-emphasis  of 
historical  appeal,  but  by  unanswerable  arguments  that 
would  make  every  man  and  woman  know  that  the  war  was 
a  war  of  self-defense  that  had  to  be  waged  if  free  institu- 
tions were  not  to  perish. 

How?  There  was  no  precedent  to  guide  us;  the  ground 
was  unbroken.  The  various  belligerents  had  issued  White 
Books,  Yellow  Books,  and  Blue  Books,  made  up  almost 
entirely  of  state  papers.  The  publication  of  diplomatic 
documents  covering  our  relations  with  Germany  seemed, 
therefore,  the  eminently  respectable,  safe,  and  accepted 
thing  to  do.  With  the  co-operation  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment, we  began  the  project,  Arthur  Bullard  being  assigned 
to  the  task  of  selecting  the  documents.  The  farther  we 
went  the  more  it  seemed  clear  that  we  would  be  firing 
very  heavy  ammunition,  with  the  chance  of  a  large  per- 
centage of  such  bulky  volumes  being  "duds." 

100 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

Big  books  were  not  what  we  wanted,  and  long,  tedious 
state  papers  were  not  what  we  needed.  Abruptly  abandon- 
ing the  original  idea  that  dealt  with  archives  and  formal 
documents,  we  decided  to  go  in  for  "popular  pamphleteer- 
ing." What  faced  us,  therefore,  was  the  problem  of  pro- 
ceeding systematically  with  the  work,  of  doing  it  with 
accuracy,  with  thorough  scholarship,  and  with  a  full  sense 
that  what  we  put  out  would  have  the  authority  and  re- 
sponsibility of  a  government  publication.  Billiard  was 
needed  in  the  Foreign  Section,  so  what  we  had  to  look 
for  was  a  university  man,  the  practised  historian,  the  writer 
skilled  in  investigation,  one  who  knew  America  and  Eu- 
rope equally  well.  It  was  at  this  moment  that  there -came 
into  my  hands  a  pamphlet  containing  a  patriotic  address 
given  out  in  Minnesota  by  one  Guy  Stanton  Ford.  I 
have  rarely  read  anything  that  made  a  more  instant  im- 
pression, for  it  had  beauty  without  sacrifice  of  force,  sim- 
plicity, remarkable  sequence,  and  obvious  knowledge  of 
every  detail  of  America's  spiritual  progress.  I  made  in- 
quiries at  once  and  found  that  Ford  was  head  of  the  His- 
tory Department  of  the  University  of  Minnesota  and 
Dean  of  the  Graduate  School,  and  before  that  a  professor 
of  Modern  European  History  at  the  University  of  Illinois 
after  five  years  as  an  instructor  at  Yale.  I  wired  him  that 
he  was  "drafted"  and  to  report  immediately.  Here  again 
the  value  of  quick  decision  was  proved,  for  I  would  have 
wasted  months  in  search  without  finding  any  one  so  ad- 
mirably fitted  by  temperament  and  training  for  the  im- 
portant position  to  which  Professor  Ford  was  called. 

We  were  now  prepared  to  initiate  our  first  publication. 
Here  we  had  a  great  advantage  over  similar  organizations 
in  England  or  other  countries  that  had  been  drawn  into 
the  war.  That  advantage  lay  in  the  clear  and  moving 
address  of  President  Wilson  on  April  2,  1917,  before  the 

Congress.    A  group  of  men  at  the  University  of  Minnesota, 
8  101 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

headed  by  Prof.  W.  S.  Davis  of  the  Department  of  History, 
set  to  work  under  Dean  Ford's  direction  on  the  annotation 
of  that  message,  with  the  essential  facts  swept  together  in 
the  broad  compass  of  the  President's  eloquent  presentation. 
The  work  was  quickly  and  skilfully  done  and  happily 
gaged  for  easy  comprehension  and  thorough  conviction. 
What  should  we  do  as  to  printing  and  distribution?  We 
studied  the  newspaper  directories  and  estimated  that  we 
could  reach  the  press  of  the  country  with  an  edition  of 
twenty  thousand.  Then  we  would  see — and  we  did  see. 
The  press  seized  it  and  the  consequent  publicity  over- 
whelmed us.  The  first  day's  mail  was  delivered  to  Professor 
Ford  and  his  one  clerk  in  a  peach-basket.  The  next  day 
there  were  two  bushels  of  letters  asking  for  copies.  They 
came  from  all  ranks  and  kinds  of  people;  from  boys  going 
to  the  Officers'  Reserve  Training  Camps,  from  fathers  and 
mothers  whose  sons  were  going  into  service  from  farms  and 
shops,  banks  and  schools.  One  city  superintendent  wired 
for  fifteen  thousand  so  that  it  might  go  into  every  home  in 
a  community  largely  of  foreign-born.  As  long  as  the  war 
lasted  the  demand  for  the  annotated  war  address  of  the 
President  kept  steadily  up  and  the  final  figures  at  the  end 
of  our  work  were  two  and  a  half  millions  of  this  pamphlet 
alone. 

When,  with  the  aid  of  the  Government  Printing  Office,  we 
had  dug  ourselves  out  of  this  rush,  we  turned  at  once  to 
the  masterly  introduction  that  Arthur  Bullard  had  written 
to  the  proposed  Wrhite  Book.  It  was  just  the  exposition  of 
America's  cause  that  was  needed.  It  dealt  with  the  two 
great  American  traditions,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  the 
Freedom  of  the  Seas.  It  explained  the  American  effort 
to  substitute  arbitration  for  bloodshed;  it  followed  the 
purposes  and  hopes  of  our  neutrality  from  beginning  to 
end,  analyzed  every  note  in  the  diplomatic  exchange  that 

marked  our  effort  to  keep  the  peace,  and  chronicled  faith- 

102 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

fully  the  bad  faith  of  the  Imperial  German  government,  its 
intrigue  in  the  United  States,  the  course  of  the  submarine 
warfare — in  fact,  it  was  a  simple,  straightforward  story 
based  upon  the  facts  and  ideals  of  America. 

In  authoritative  judgment  it  stands  to-day  as  the  most 
moderate,  reasoned,  and  permanent  pamphlet  put  out  by 
any  government  engaged  in  the  war.  And  the  way  it  was 
prepared  was  a  cheering  demonstration  of  citizens  of  a 
democracy  doing  its  own  defending  and  defining  of  its 
ideals.  Bullard  had  the  laboring  oar,  and  the  body  of  this 
anonymous  pamphlet  bears  the  imprint  of  his  facile  pen 
and  clear  brain.  Sisson  and  Ford  and  I  reviewed  it  after 
Ernest  Poole  had  cast  it  into  a  popular  form.  Professors 
Shot  well  of  Columbia  and  Becker  of  Cornell,  who  were  in 
Washington  on  the  National  Board  for  Historical  Service, 
shaped  up  certain  points  more  sharply  and  judiciously. 
Then  Secretary  Lansing  and,  ultimately,  President  Wilson 
himself  went  over  it  and  approved.  It  went  forth  under  the 
title,  How  the  War  Came  to  America,  the  first  of  a  proud 
series — the  Red,  WThite,  and  Blue  books.  We  printed 
fifty  thousand,  but  this  time  we  were  better  prepared  for 
the  public  demand  that  ultimately  carried  the  circulation 
to  six  and  a  quarter  millions  in  English  and  in  translations. 
Some  of  the  great  dailies  issued  it  as  a  Sunday  supplement, 
and  others  in  every  part  of  the  country  ran  it  serially. 
It  was  one  pamphlet  we  could  never  let  go  out  of  print. 

With  these  two  pamphlets  fairly  swamping  the  Govern- 
ment Printing  Office,  we  felt  more  clearly  than  ever  that 
we  were  right  in  judging  the  need  of  the  country  for 
information  clearly  put  with  a  sound  scholarship  behind 
every  statement.  Three  series  of  pamphlets  were  ultimately 
decided  on — the  Red,  White,  and  Blue  books,  the  War 
Information  series,  and  the  Loyalty  leaflets.  It  was  further 
decided  that  we  would  develop  our  own  machinery  for 
printing  and  distribution,  as  the  Government  Printing  Office 

103 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

was  overburdened  and  unable  to  keep  pace  with  our  de- 
mands. Our  own  frank  and  envelopes  were  more  certain 
of  securing  attention  than  the  too  familiar  Congressional 
frank,  which  many  members  willingly  put  at  our  disposal. 

I  can  only  indicate  the  method  pursued  in  issuing  the 
several  series.  When  the  pamphlet  was  decided  upon  in 
conferences,  the  next  question  was  the  proper  man,  or 
men,  to  handle  its  preparation,  and  these  men  were  then 
telegraphed  a  request  to  come  to  Washington.  In  no 
instance  was  there  a  refusal  to  serve,  and  not  only  is  it 
my  privilege  to  pay  a  high  tribute  to  the  devotion  of 
individuals,  but  also  to  the  patriotism  of  the  universities, 
who  loaned  members  of  their  faculties  generously  and  whole- 
heartedly. The  writers  were  given  only  one  simple  direc- 
tion, and  that  was  to  do  their  work  so  that  they  would  not 
be  ashamed  of  it  twenty  years  later.  When  the  pamphlet 
was  finished  it  was  submitted  to  a  general  examination 
and  then  referred  to  the  various  divisions  of  government 
for  checking,  and  it  is  my  pride  to  be  able  to  say  that  in 
all  the  mass  of  matter  issued  by  Professor  Ford's  division, 
dealing  with  thousands  of  facts,  only  one  public  charge 
of  misstatement  was  ever  voiced  and  this  was  followed 
by  an  apology. 

In  the  various  series  we  set  before  ourselves  three  main 
aims:  The  first  was  to  make  America's  own  purposes  and 
ideals  clear  both  to  ourselves  and  to  the  world,  whether 
ally  or  enemy.  The  sane  execution  of  this  purpose,  in- 
volving a  presentation  of  what  this  great  experiment  in 
democracy  meant  to  its  own  people  and  to  all  forward- 
looking  peoples,  had  greater  implications  than  the  war 
needs  of  the  moment.  Through  war  the  menace  of 
autocracy  made  us  conscious  that  here  in  the  Western 
World  we  were  following  ideals  that  made  us  one  with  other 
great  peoples  and  that  separated  us  from  the  four  in  Middle 
Europe  by  a  wide  gulf.  What  we  had  accepted  as  unchal- 

104 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

lenged  had  to  be  redefined  as  well  for  the  Brahmin  of  the 
Back  Bay  as  for  the  Bolshevist  of  the  Ghetto.  When  I 
think  of  the  many  voices  that  were  heard  before  the  war 
and  are  still  heard,  interpreting  America  from  a  class  or 
sectional  or  selfish  standpoint,  I  am  not  sure  that,  if  the 
war  had  to  come,  it  did  not  come  at  the  right  time  for  the 
preservation  and  reinterpretation  of  American  ideals.  A 
few  years  earlier  would  have  found  us  still  too  absorbed 
in  the  problems  of  a  frontier  nation,  too  provincial  to  have 
responded  unitedly  to  the  world's  cry  of  distress,  too  con- 
fident that  the  Atlantic  was  a  barrier  and  not  a  hand.  A 
decade  or  two  later  it  might  have  found  us  unconsciously 
stratified  in  our  own  social  organization  and  thinking, 
the  prison-walks  of  class  consciousness  shutting  out  the 
visions  of  our  nation's  youth,  with  something  too  much 
gone  of  that  abounding  faith  in  ourselves  and  our  institu- 
tions that  had  been  our  heritage  from  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, preserved  by  the  pioneers  and  nation-builders  of  the 
fading  Western  frontiers. 

Coming  when  it  did,  it  found  us  ready  to  respond  with 
the  self-abandon  of  youth  to  great  visions,  and  to  direct 
our  policies  and  weigh  our  actions  with  the  ripened  wisdom 
of  maturity.  President  Wilson  and  his  ultimate  place  in 
American  history  may  now  be  a  subject  of  debate,  but 
there  is  one  service  that  rises  above  the  issues  of  war  and 
partizanship,  and  that  is  that,  in  this  transition  period,  of 
which  the  war  made  us  conscious,  he  spoke  the  language 
of  the  New  American  instinct  with  the  spirit  of  all  our 
past  history  and  traditions. 

In  this  first  series  on  our  aims  and  purposes  may  be 
listed,  How  the  War  Came  to  America,  The  Battle  Line  of 
Democracy,  War  Labor  and  Peace,  Some  Recent  Addresses 
of  the  President,  all  in  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue  series.  In 
the  War  Information  series,  the  War  Message  and  Facts 
Behind  It,  The  Nation  in  Arms  (two  addresses  by  Secre- 

105 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

taries  Lane  and  Baker);  The  Great  War:  From  Spectator 
to  Participant,  by  Prof.  A.  C.  McLaughlin  of  Chicago; 
American  Loyalty  by  American  Citizens  of  German  Descent, 
Lieber  and  Schurz,  and  American  Interest  in  Popular  Gov- 
ernment Abroad,  both  by  Prof.  Evarts  B.  Greene  of  the 
University  of  Illinois;  American  and  Allied  Ideals,  by  Prof. 
Stuart  P.  Sherman  of  the  University  of  Illinois;  The  War 
for  Peace,  compiled  by  Arthur  D.  Coll,  secretary  of  the 
American  Peace  Society;  and  America's  War  Aims  and 
Peace  Terms,  by  Prof.  Carl  Becker  of  Cornell  University. 
In  the  Loyalty  leaflets  could  be  counted  Judge  Buffington's 
Friendly  Words  to  Foreign  Born;  Labor  and  the  War,  by 
Prof.  John  R.  Commons  of  Wisconsin;  and  Plain  Issues 
of  the  War,  by  Elihu  Root. 

Almost  equally  important  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
unremitting  prosecution  of  the  war  to  a  decisive  finish 
was  a  thorough  presentation  of  the  aims,  methods,  and 
ideals  of  the  dynastic  and  feudal  government  of  Germany. 
Upon  no  pamphlets  did  we  lavish  so  much  care  and 
scholarship  as  this  series,  and  the  pamphlets,  as  a  group, 
proceeded  logically  and  remorselessly  to  tear  the  mask  of 
civilization  and  modernity  from  the  medievally  minded, 
medievally  organized  Prussian  militaristic  state  that  was 
dominating  Germany  and  Central  Europe  and  threatening 
the  world.  Disregarding  the  order  of  publication,  which 
was  by_no  means  accidental,  this  group  was  divided  as 
follows:  In  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue  series,  The  Presi- 
dent's Flag  Day  Address  with  Evidence  of  German  Plans 
and  Conquest  and  Kultur,  both  prepared  by  Profs.  Wallace 
Notestein  and  E.  E.  Stoll  of  the  University  of  Minnesota; 
German  War  Practices  and  German  Treatment  of  Conquered 
Territory,  both  by  Profs.  D.  C.  Munroe  of  Princeton,  G. 
C.  Sellery  of  Wisconsin,  and  A.  C.  Krey  of  Minnesota; 
German  Plots  and  Intrigues,  by  Profs.  E.  C.  Sperry  of  Syra- 
cuse and  W.  M.  West,  the  historian.  In  the  War  In- 

106 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

formation  series,  The  German  Government  of  Germany,  by 
Prof.  C.  D.  Hazen  of  Columbia;  The  War  of  Self-defense, 
by  Secretaries  Lansing  and  Louis  F.  Post;  The  German  War 
Code,  by  G.  W.  Scott  (formerly  of  Columbia)  and  Prof. 
J.  W.  Garner  of  Illinois;  German  Militarism,  by  Charles 
Altschul;  Why  America  Fights  Germany,  by  Prof.  J.  P. 
Tatlock  of  Leland  Stanford  University;  and  The  German 
Bolshevik  Conspiracy,  by  Edgar  Sisson,  our  representative 
in  Russia.  In  the  Loyalty  leaflets,  The  Prussian  System, 
by  Frederic  C.  Walcott  of  the  Food  Administration,  was 
an  admirable  thumb-nail  sketch  in  this  series. 

Taken  together,  these  pamphlets  make  the  most  sober 
and  terrific  indictment  ever  drawn  by  one  government  of 
the  political  and  military  system  of  another  government. 
It  was  a  serious  business  to  draw  it;  it  was  a  highly  im- 
portant thing  not  only  that  it  should  sway  the  opinion  of 
the  moment,  but  that  it  should  stand  in  the  court  of  all 
time.  To  tamper  with  the  opinion  of  an  essentially  fair- 
minded  nation  in  any  crisis  is  the  ready  device  of  charla- 
tans and  demagogues,  and  neither  they  nor  their  works 
have  ever  survived  that  moment  when  Truth  dispels  the 
mists  of  momentary  and  misguided  passion.  Fortunately, 
the  Germans  had  made  their  own  record,  and  from  that 
there  was  and  can  be  no  appeal.  We  could  and  did  give 
them  their  own  day  in  court;  let  them  reveal  their  own 
purposes,  describe  their  own  methods,  glorify  their  own 
guilt,  and  it  is  their  rulers  and  leaders  that  have  been  swept 
into  oblivion. 

When  I  recall  the  mad  swirl  of  the  Washington  days,  the 
pressure  we  were  under  to  do  this  or  to  do  that,  to  publish 
or  republish  this  address  or  that  pamphlet,  to  indorse  some 
movement  or  idea,  I  am  cheerful  and  a  bit  amazed  at 
our  success  in  avoiding  pitfalls.  For  this  we  may  never 
receive  credit,  least  of  all  from  the  perfervid  patriots  who 
would  have  smeared  with  blood  every  page  we  published, 

107 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

or  disfigured  it  by  the  distorted  fancy  they  were  willing 
to  accept  for  fact.  Insistent  people  who  know  how  to 
save  the  country  always  throng  to  Washington  even  in 
peace-times,  and  in  war-times  we  sometimes  had  to  stand 
on  tiptoe  to  see  over  their  heads  the  great,  grim,  honest, 
unselfish  nation  behind  them.  And  it  was  to  the  heart  and 
mind  of  that  nation  that  we  directed  our  appeals — and 
their  response  was  our  reward. 

The  third  group  of  pamphlets  has  as  a  purpose  the  giving 
in  convenient  form  of  information  which  would  help  in  a 
constructive  way  in  the  daily  tasks  of  a  nation  at  war. 
The  National  Service  Handbook,  edited  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Coss 
and  James  Gutmann  of  Columbia  University,  published 
in  the  summer  of  1917,  was  just  such  a  compendium  about 
war-work  and  war  organizations  and  served  as  a  helpful 
guide  to  the  thousands  who  could  not  enter  the  ranks  and 
yet  wanted  to  serve  in  some  capacity,  no  matter  how 
humble.  The  War  Cyclopedia,  published  afterward,  not 
only  brought  such  information  up  to  date,  but  made  avail- 
able, in  compact  form,  all  the  information  on  war  topics  and 
policies  that  any  speaker  or  writer  might  want  at  hand. 
Professors  Paxson  of  Wisconsin,  Corwin  of  Princeton,  and 
Harding  of  Indiana,  with  the  aid  of  scores  of  scholars 
throughout  the  land,  did  a  permanently  worth-while  piece 
of  work  under  great  stress  for  time  and  space.  Together 
with  the  syllabus,  we  published  The  Study  of  the  Great  War, 
by  Professor  Harding,  which  became  a  text-book  in  schools, 
colleges,  and  cantonments.  Our  last  pamphlet,  in  distri- 
bution when  the  armistice  came,  had  moved  us  forward 
into  new  ground  by  summarizing  our  peace  terms  and  the 
chief  expressions  of  American  and  Allied  statesmen  on  the 
League  of  Nations.  Our  one  disappointment  was  that  the 
second  edition  of  The  War  Cyclopedia,  then  in  the  press, 
never  appeared.  Perhaps  an  explanation  of  delay  is  due 
to  individuals  and  organizations,  particularly  to  the  several 

108 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

hundred  colleges  that  planned  to  use  it  as  a  text-book  for 
the  Student  Army  Training  Corps.  From  July  1,  1918,  we 
carried  forward  our  domestic  work  on  a  limited  Congres- 
sional appropriation.  Foreseeing  difficulties,  we  had  asked 
that  receipts  from  those  publications  on  which  a  nominal 
cost  price  had  been  set  might  come  into  our  receipts 
for  further  use  and  later  accounting.  The  usual  precedents 
had  been  followed,  however,  and  all  receipts,  except  from 
the  film  division,  went  into  the  Treasury,  and  nothing  but 
another  Act  of  Congress  could  make  them  available  to 
our  use.  The  net  result  was  that  the  more  successful  we 
were,  and  the  greater  the  demand  for  our  publications,  even 
though  we  charged  for  some,  the  more  quickly  we  ex- 
hausted our  fixed  appropriation  and  brought  our  activities 
to  an  end. 

Each  pamphlet  has  its  own  story  from  the  first  sugges- 
tion through  its  execution  by  the  best  qualified  scholar. 
For  many  of  them  I  must  refer  to  the  plain  but  significant 
table  in  the  appendix,  and  simply  renew  an  expression  of 
my  own  personal  sense  of  obligation  to  Guy  Stanton  Ford 
and  the  distinguished  leaders  of  thought  who  served  with 
him.  The  figures  will  tell  something  of  their  usefulness, 
but  not  all.  These  pamphlets  became  an  arsenal  from 
which  speakers  and  newspapers  drew  whole  batteries  of 
speeches  and  editorials  and  special  articles.  They  helped 
fill  out  many  pages  of  privately  published  patriotic  col- 
lections and  have  even  found  their  place  in  widely  used 
text-books  in  history  and  civics.  Many  a  good  and  mis- 
informed citizen,  who  had  an  unformed  but  vivid  impression 
that  the  "Creel  Committee"  was  some  iniquity  of  the 
devil,  took  with  his  breakfast  a  daily  diet  of  our  material 
from  the  same  journal  that  had  given  him  this  impression, 
met  us  again  at  lunch  when  his  children  came  home  with 
what  the  teacher  had  given  them  from  material  we  pre- 
pared, heard  us  again  through  our  Four  Minute  Men  or- 

109 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

ganization  when  he  went  to  the  "movies,"  where  our 
films  might  be  part  of  the  program,  and  rose  to  local 
prominence  by  the  speeches  he  drew  from  the  pamphlets 
of  that  other  useful  organization,  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information.  Like  the  truant  boy  who  ran  away  from  the 
schoolmaster,  Hugh  Toil,  he  found  us,  recognized  and 
unrecognized,  at  every  turn  of  the  road. 

This  material  went  out  almost  exclusively  by  request, 
either  from  individuals  or  responsible  organizations,  such 
as  defense  councils  or  the  Loyalty  Legion  in  Wisconsin. 
Even  Congressmen,  after  the  first  few  months,  were  fur- 
nished not  with  the  pamphlets,  but  with  return  postal- 
cards  on  which  was  printed  a  list  of  our  publications,  any 
two  of  which  could  be  checked  as  desired  by  his  constitu- 
ents. This  arrangement  was  a  means  of  conserving  our 
limited  resources  and  gave  us  a  distribution  to  real  readers. 

In  only  one  case  did  we  vary  from  this  program  of  dis- 
tribution, and  that  was  when  we  put  in  the  hands  of  the 
trusty  Boy  Scouts  several  million  copies  of  the  President's 
Flag  Day  address  with  annotations  on  the  German  plans. 
The  boys  delivered  it  directly  to  householders  and  were 
to  secure  their  promise  to  read  it  and  pass  it  on.  The  boys 
did  their  work  faithfully,  but  reported  that  they  partly 
failed  because  they  could  not  get  the  promise  to  pass  on 
the  pamphlet  to  some  other  reader! 

The  States  Section  of  the  National  Defense  Council  was 
especially  active  in  bringing  our  material  to  the  attention 
of  state  and  county  defense  organizations.  Newspapers  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  willingly  carried  descriptive  lists 
without  charge,  and  the  information  syndicate  headed  by 
Frederick  Haskins  in  Washington  gave  us  publicity  on 
the  front  page  of  many  great  dailies. 

Even  more  important,  in  the  early  days  when  Professor 
Ford  was  first  preparing  pamphlets,  was  the  support  and 

aid  given  by  the  National  Board  for  Historical  Service, 

no 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

through  which  the  historians  of  the  country  organized  per- 
haps more  effectively  than  any  similar  group  of  scholars. 
It  was  of  great  value  to  this  division  throughout  the  war 
to  have  available  the  judgment  and  ripe  scholarship  of 
men  like  Shotwell  of  Columbia,  Greene  of  Illinois,  Jameson 
of  The  American  Historical  Review,  Munro  of  Princeton, 
Leland,  secretary  of  the  American  Historical  Association, 
A.  C.  Coolidge  and  F.  J.  Turner  of  Harvard,  Schafer  of 
Oregon,  Johnson  of  Teachers  College,  Lingelbach  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Hull  of  Cornell,  Dodd  of  Chicago,  Fish  of  Wis- 
consin, Hunt  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  Hazen  of  Co- 
lumbia, Connor  of  North  Carolina,  Victor  Clark  of  the 
Carnegie  Institution,  Notestein  of  Minnesota,  and  S.  B. 
Harding  of  Indiana.  The  last  named  joined  our  staff  in  No- 
vember, 1917,  and  remained  throughout  the  war  as  an 
able  assistant  to  Professor  Ford  in  all  the  multitudinous 
work  of  checking  and  editing  the  pamphlets. 

Our  efforts  were  supported  and  supplemented  by  so 
many  organizations  that  it  is  difficult  to  single  out  many. 
Excellent  series  of  pamphlets  were  put  out  by  the  universi- 
ties of  Chicago,  Wisconsin,  North  Carolina,  Illinois,  and 
Columbia.  Publishing-houses  gave  precedence  to  patriotic 
books  without  thought  of  profit  and  offered  us  all  their 
material  at  the  cost  of  printing. 

Our  last  and  perhaps  our  most  unique  and  effective  pub- 
lication was  The  National  School  Service,  a  sixteen-page 
semi-monthly  periodical  going  free  of  charge  to  every 
public-school  teacher  in  the  United  States — about  600,- 
000  in  all.  We  foresaw  a  time  when,  perhaps,  if  the 
war  with  its  burdens  and  losses  continued,  the  national 
morale  would  need  the  support  of  a  message  that  went 
without  fail  into  every  home.  For  this  purpose  there  was 
no  other  agency  so  effective,  so  sure,  as  the  public  schools 
with  their  twenty  millions  of  pupils.  Furthermore,  so  many 

governmental  and  national  organizations  were  flooding  the 

111 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

schools,  as  they  had  flooded  the  press,  with  their  material 
that  there  was  danger  of  confusion,  conflict,  and  ineffec- 
tiveness. Could  not  the  story  of  the  war,  of  America's 
effort  and  ideals,  of  the  work  of  the  Red  Cross,  the  Food 
Administration,  the  Liberty  Loan,  the  War  Savings 
Stamps,  Public  Health,  School  Gardens,  and  a  score  of 
other  activities  be  brought  together  as  a  national  unified 
program  and  treated  in  a  way  that  would  make  it  pre- 
sentable in  the  schoolroom  and  effective  in  the  homes? 
It  was  worth  the  effort,  cost  what  it  might  in  time  and 
money.  With  the  support  of  the  National  Educational 
Association,  we  engaged  the  co-operation  of  all  the  de- 
partments in  Washington  and  launched  the  first  publica- 
tion in  which  the  national  government  of  the  United 
States  had  ever  attempted  to  reach  every  public  school 
and  home  in  the  land.  W.  C.  Bagley  of  Teachers  College 
was  enlisted  as  editor-in-chief,  and  J.  W.  Searson  of  Kansas 
Agricultural  College  as  managing  editor,  and  a  staff  of 
specialists  prepared  all  the  material  so  that  it  could  be 
presented  effectively  in  every  kind  of  school  from  the 
primary  to  the  high-school.  Special  editions  were  arranged 
for  the  Red  Cross,  War  Savings,  etc.  Junior  Four  Minute 
Men  contests  were  organized  and  supported  with  ma- 
terial through  special  supplements  prepared  by  the  staff 
and  the  Division  of  Four  Minute  Men.  I  shall  always 
treasure  the  memory  of  the  gratitude  with  which  the  under- 
paid and  overworked  school-teachers  received  National 
School  Service;  most  of  all,  the  letters  that  came  from  iso- 
lated rural  teachers  in  out-of-the-way  valleys  and  on  the 
far  reaches  of  the  prairies.  The  national  government  had 
reached  out  and  placed  a  hand  on  their  shoulder  to  en- 
courage them  and  to  ask  for  their  aid  and  support.  They 
saw  a  new  vision  and  a  new,  vitalizing  mission.  At  the 
end,  we  were  moved  by  the  protests  against  discontinuing 
National  School  Service  to  present  the  matter  to  the 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

President,  who  promptly  made  available  enough  funds  to 
continue  it  to  the  end  of  the  year  under  the  Department 
of  the  Interior  with  the  same  efficient  staff  of  editors. 

A  number  of  the  principal  pamphlets  were  put  into  other 
languages — German,  Italian,  the  Scandinavian  tongues, 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  Bohemian,  Polish,  Yiddish,  etc. — 
and  given  careful  distribution  through  the  clubs  and 
churches  of  the  foreign-language  groups  in  America,  while 
the  translations  themselves  were  sent  to  the  various  coun- 
tries to  be  printed  on  daily  presses  and  circulated  by  our 
representatives. 

It  is  perfectly  evident  that  we  had  to  exercise  care  in 
making  these  translations,  especially  the  German  versions. 
We  had  in  mind  here  not  only  our  German-reading  public, 
but  the  Germans  of  the  Empire.  We  hoped  to  make  them 
our  readers  if  not  in  war-times,  at  least  ultimately,  when 
they  might  really  seek  to  understand  the  voice  of  a  world 
that  had  united  against  them.  No  awkward  phrase  or 
American  colloquial  German  could  be  allowed  to  excite 
ridicule  and  rob  our  case  of  its  full  effect.  A  waif  of  the 
war,  a  distinguished  German  scholar,  who  had  lived  long 
in  England  before  coming  to  America,  did  the  work,  and 
did  it  so  well  that  his  translation  of  How  the  War  Came  to 
America,  and  of  the  President's  addresses,  was  adopted 
by  some  schools  as  substitutes  for  the  sycophantic  texts 
about  modern  Germany  and  its  Hohenzollern  readers. 
This  man  was  a  technical  "enemy  alien,"  but  if  any  one 
doubts  his  spiritual  kinship  with  the  ideals  of  America 
and  the  Allies,  they  should  read  his  own  tragic  story  under 
the  title,  "A  Man  Without  a  Country,"  in  The  Ladies' 
Home  Journal  for  September,  1917. 

Besides  these  translations,  special  material  was  pub- 
lished for  the  foreign-language  groups.  In  selecting  this 
material  we  had  the  benefit  of  advice  from  our  represent- 
atives abroad  and  our  connection  with  the  leaders  of  the 

113 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

patriotic  groups  of  the  foreign-born  in  the  United  States. 
While  sternly  revealing  the  methods  and  principles  of 
Germany,  we  emphasized  again  the  ideals  of  America,  of 
the  America  that  had  drawn  the  foreigners  to  its  shores, 
and  that  was  the  home  of  their  children,  for  we  knew  that, 
whatever  their  own  transplanted  prejudices,  the  great  mass 
of  the  foreign-born,  like  the  native  Americans,  were  loyal 
to  the  land  of  their  children.  An  unwise  use  of  the  dis- 
cretion granted  us  in  presenting  America's  cause  might 
easily  have  helped  hammer  these  foreign  groups  into  per- 
manently aggrieved  and  hostile  elements. 

All  in  all,  more  than  seventy-five  million  copies  of  these 
pamphlets  went  into  American  homes,  each  one  a  printed 
bullet  that  found  its  mark.  This  does  not  include  the  cir- 
culation given  by  the  metropolitan  dailies  that  printed 
many  of  the  pamphlets  in  full.  Nor  does  it  take  account 
of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  printed  by  state 
organizations  such  as  the  Department  of  Education  in 
Michigan,  or  by  private  individuals  at  their  own  cost. 

It  is  a  matter  of  pride  to  the  Committee  on  Public  In- 
formation, as  it  should  be  to  America,  that  the  directors 
of  English,  French,  and  Italian  propaganda  were  a  unit 
in  agreeing  that  our  literature  was  remarkable  above  all 
others  for  its  brilliant  and  concentrated  effectiveness. 

All  this  labor  of  preparation,  publication,  and  distribu- 
tion was  heavy  and  exacting,  but  there  is  a  gleam  or  two 
when  I  view  it  in  retrospect.  I  thought  at  one  time  that 
we  were  in  direct  touch  with  all  the  people  who  knew  how 
to  win  the  war.  The  White  House  and  the  War  Depart- 
ment may  dispute  this,  but  certainly  all  who  thought  the 
Germans  could  be  overwhelmed  with  printer's  ink  or  ora- 
tory landed  on  our  door-step  either  in  person  or  through 
the  intermediacy  of  the  postmen.  What  we  did  not  get 
directly  we  got  by  reference  from  every  other  war  agency 
in  Washington.  We  had  considerable  faith  in  the  power 

114 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND 

of  the  press,  but  it  was  all  quite  overtopped  by  the  old 
German-American  who  pleaded  with  us  to  send  him  up 
to  the  front-line  trenches  accompanied  by  one  man  who 
could  run  a  hand-press.  Then  there  was  the  considerable 
number  who  felt  sure  that  some  poem  or  song  or  sermon 
—not  infrequently  of  their  own  composition — would,  if 
printed  and  distributed  to  the  whole  nation,  set  the  people 
on  fire  with  patriotic  ardor. 

Such  material  came  in  almost  predictable  waves,  two 
weeks  of  poetry,  then  two  weeks  of  sermons.  If  a  vigorous 
article — especially  one  with  a  large  element  of  imagination 
about  a  German  invasion — appeared  in  some  journal  of 
wide  circulation,  we  knew  we  would  receive  it,  clipped  and 
sent  in  from  all  quarters  as  the  best  possible  thing  to  which 
we  could  give  government  sanction.  Some  of  the  more 
discriminating  suggestions  were  helpful.  Some  of  the 
material  submitted  was  too  valuable  to  lose  and  we  sought 
always  to  direct  the  writer  toward  an  effective  avenue  of 
publicity.  We  sought  invariably  to  return  the  manu- 
script with  a  courteous  acknowledgment,  for  we  knew  it 
came  from  people  who  really  wanted  to  help — "to  do  their 
bit,"  was  the  phrase  penned  so  often  by  hands  that  could 
never  hope  to  handle  a  musket.  I  remember  one  woman 
who  sent  in  a  poem  with  a  letter  in  which  she  told  how 
two  of  her  sons  were  in  the  army  and  she,  at  seventy,  was 
earning  her  living  by  washing.  Still,  she  wanted  "to  do 
her  bit"  and  had  written  this  poem.  You  may  be  sure 
that  she  had  a  special  letter  that  convinced  her  we  some- 
times appreciated  poetry  by  other  standards  than  those 
of  the  Browning  circle. 

All  these  letters  were  of  immense  value  to  us,  for  they 
kept  our  hand  on  the  pulse  of  the  land,  letting  us  know  the 
tides  of  hope  and  earnest  purpose  that  were  surging  through 
a  great  country.  Often  enough  there  was  evidence  of  the 
rapid  spread  of  idle  or  vicious  rumors  or  of  the  baneful 

115 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

influence  of  some  utterance  of  a  picayune  politician  with 
a  statesman's  responsibilities,  but  this  was  a  momentary 
phase  or  a  purely  surface  matter,  and  the  great  mass  of 
the  nation  responded  over  and  over  again  to  every  appeal 
to  their  sturdy  and  enlightened  patriotism. 

I  know  the  distressing  illiteracy  revealed  by  the  draft 
and  I  am  disturbed  by  all  the  inadequacies  of  the  public- 
school  system  with  its  low  salaries  and  immature  and  ever- 
changing  teaching  corps,  but  I  also  know  that  the  press 
or  politician  who  appeals  to  ignorance  and  prejudice  is 
not  reckoning  on  the  reading  and  thinking  and  dominant 
mass  of  the  American  people.  Great  issues  clearly  put 
will  always  arouse  them  and  there  is  no  need  to  talk  in 
words  of  one  syllable  to  the  man  in  the  street.  He  wants 
the  truth  and  will  read  to  get  it  far  more  closely  than  many 
a  man  whom  fortune  has  favored  by  putting  him  in  a 
swivel-chair  behind  a  glass-topped  desk.  I  know,  for  we 
tried  it  out  on  a  nation-wide  scale,  and  that  is  why  the 
publications  of  Professor  Ford's  division  will  remain  a 
worthy  evidence  of  the  Committee's  work  in  war  education. 


IX 

THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   FILMS 

>ERSHING'S  CRUSADERS,"  "America's  Answer," 
and  "Under  Four  Flags"  are  feature  films  that  will 
live  long  in  the  memory  of  the  world,  for  they  reached 
every  country,  and  were  not  only  the  last  word  in  photo- 
graphic art,  but  epitomized  in  thrilling,  dramatic  sequence 
the  war  effort  of  America.  Yet  these  pictures,  important 
as  they  were,  represented  only  a  small  portion  of  the  work 
of  the  Division  of  Films,  a  work  that  played  a  vital  part 
in  the  world-fight  for  public  opinion.  A  steady  output, 
ranging  from  one-reel  subjects  to  seven-reel  features,  and 
covering  every  detail  of  American  life,  endeavor,  and  pur- 
pose, carried  the  call  of  the  country  to  every  community 
in  the  land,  and  then,  captioned  in  all  the  various  languages, 
went  over  the  seas  to  inform  and  enthuse  the  peoples  of 
Allied  and  neutral  nations. 

At  the  very  outset,  it  was  obvious  that  the  motion  picture 
had  to  be  placed  on  the  same  plane  of  importance  as  the 
written  and  spoken  word.  There  were,  however,  many 
obstacles  in  the  way  that  prevented  straightforward, 
driving  action.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  our  original  hope 
that  we  could  put  our  reliance  upon  commercial  producers, 
thus  saving  the  time  and  expense  that  necessarily  attended 
the  creation  of  new  machinery.  This  theory  had  to  be 
abandoned,  for  the  War  Department  issued  a  flat  ruling 
that  only  the  photographers  in  actual  service  would  be 

permitted  to  take  pictures  of  any  kind  either  on  the  firing- 
9  117 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

line  in  France  or  in  the  cantonments  and  other  branches  of 
the  military  establishment  in  the  United  States.  Aside 
from  the  unwisdom  of  allowing  individuals  in  private  em- 
ploy to  have  free  run  of  aviation-fields  and  munition- 
factories,  there  was  also  the  physical  impossibility  of  hand- 
ling the  army  of  individual  photographers  that  equitable 
representation  would  have  demanded. 

Going  into  the  matter  fully,  we  discovered  that  there 
was  to  be  a  photographic  section  of  the  Signal  Corps,  with 
first  purpose  to  serve  the  fighting  force  and  a  second  pur- 
pose to  make  pictures  for  the  historical  record  desired  by 
the  War  College.  The  Committee  then  went  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  with  representations  as  to  the  publicity  value 
of  much  of  the  material  that  would  be  gathered.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  since  protection  of  military  secrets  barred 
private  photographers,  it  was  both  wise  and  proper  that 
we  should  have  the  right  to  go  through  the  Signal  Corps 
photographs,  selecting  such  as  were  suitable  for  public 
exhibition.  The  contention  was  granted  by  Secretary 
Baker,  and  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  was 
recognized  by  the  War  Department  as  the  one  authorized 
medium  for  the  distribution  of  Signal  Corps  photographs, 
still  pictures  as  well  as  "movies." 

All  of  which  seemed  encouraging  enough  until  investi- 
gation developed  the  sad  news  that  the  Photographic 
Section  of  the  Signal  Corps  was  a  hope  rather  than  a  fact. 
Looking  after  film  matters  for  the  Committee  at  the  time 
were  Kendall  Banning,  formerly  editor  of  System,  and 
Mr.  Lawrence  E.  Rubel,  a  young  Chicago  business  man, 
both  of  the  temperament  that  found  inaction  intolerable. 
The  two  made  a  survey  of  the  photographers  of  the  United 
States,  motion  and  still,  and  urged  selections  upon  the 
Signal  Corps  until  an  adequate  force  had  been  assembled 
for  duty  at  home  and  abroad.  Mr.  Banning  accepted  a 
commission  as  major  in  the  army,  and  as  the  distribution 

118 


CHARLES  DANA  GIBSON 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

of  still  pictures  occupied  Mr.  RubePs  full  time,  the  motion- 
picture  end  was  turned  over  to  Mr.  Louis  B.  Mack,  a 
Chicago  lawyer,  and  Mr.  Walter  Niebuhr,  both  volunteers. 
The  routine,  as  finally  worked  out,  was  as  follows:  The 
negatives  of  still  and  motion  pictures  taken  in  France  and 
in  the  United  States  by  the  uniformed  photographers  of 
the  Signal  Corps  were  delivered,  undeveloped,  to  the  Chief 
of  Staff  for  transmission  to  the  War  College  division. 
The  material  was  "combed"  and  such  part  as  was  decided 
to  be  proper  for  public  exhibition  was  then  turned  over  to 
the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in  the  form  of 
duplicate  negatives.  The  Committee,  out  of  its  own  funds, 
made  prints  from  these  negatives. 

Our  first  hope  was  to  avoid  all  appearance  of  competition 
with  the  commercial  producers,  and  as  a  consequence  the 
bulk  of  material  was  distributed  fairly  and  at  a  nominal 
price  among  the  film-news  weeklies.  Experts  were  then 
engaged  to  put  the  remainder  into  feature  form,  and  these 
pictures  were  handed  over  to  the  State  Councils  of  Defense 
and  to  the  various  patriotic  societies.  They  were  not 
shown  in  motion-picture  theaters,  nor  was  admission 
charged  except  in  the  case  of  benefits  for  a  particular  pur- 
pose. Among  the  early  features  thus  produced  were: 

The  1917  Recruit,  2  editions  (training  of  the  National  Army). 

The  Second  Liberty  Loan. 

Ready  for  the  Fight  (Artillery  and  Cavalry  maneuvers). 

Soldiers  of  the  Sea  (Marine  Corps  in  training). 

Torpedo-boat  Destroyers  (naval  maneuvers). 

Submarines. 

Army  and  Navy  Sports. 

The  Spirit  of  1917  (the  largest  maneuver  staged  in  America; 
an  attack  by  the  Jackies  at  Lake  Bluff  upon  Fort  Sheridan, 
Illinois). 

In  a  Southern  Camp  (general  army  maneuvers). 

The  Lumber  Jack  (showing  the  growth  of  the  Lumber  Jack 
Regiment  for  reconstruction  work  in  Europe). 

119 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  Medical  Officers'  Reserve  Corps  in  Action  (showing  the 
development  of  the  Medical  Corps  and  training). 

Fire  and  Gas  (showing  maneuvers  of  the  new  Thirtieth  En- 
gineer Regiment). 

American  Ambulances  (complete  display  of  ambulance  work). 

Labor's  Part  in  Democracy's  War  (labor-union  activities  in 
the  war). 

Annapolis  (naval  officers  hi  the  making). 

Shipbuilding  (construction  of  all  types  of  ships). 

Making  of  Big  Guns. 

Making  of  Small  Arms. 

Making  of  Uniforms  for  the  Soldiers. 

Activities  of  the  Engineers. 

Woman's  Part  in  the  War. 

The  Conquest  of  the  Air  (airplane  and  balloon  maneuvers) 


As  time  went  on,  however,  it  was  seen  that  this  method 
of  distribution  not  only  put  an  unnecessary  burden  of 
expense  upon  the  government,  but  that  it  was  failing  ab- 
solutely to  place  the  pictorial  record  of  America's  war 
progress  before  more  than  a  small  percentage  of  the  motion- 
picture  audiences  of  the  world.  The  growth  of  the  Signal 
Corps's  great  Photographic  Section  was  producing  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  material,  both  in  the  United  States  and 
France,  possessed  of  the  very  highest  propaganda  value, 
and  the  existing  arrangement  wasted  what  it  did  not 
fritter  away.  Mr.  Charles  S.  Hart,  about  to  take  a  com- 
mission in  the  army,  was  persuaded  to  assume  full  charge 
of  the  work  of  reorganization,  and  too  much  credit  cannot 
be  given  him  for  his  accomplishment.  He  took  an  idea 
and  a  policy,  and  with  courage,  imagination,  and  driving 
genius  he  evolved  a  world  machinery  and  built  a  business 
that  handled  millions,  all  without  a  single  breakdown  at 
any  point. 

One  of  Mr.  Hart's  first  determinations  was  to  take  the 
cream  of  the  material  received  from  the  Signal  Corps,  put 

it  into  great  seven-reel  features  designed  to  set  before  the 

120 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

people  a  comprehensive  record  of  war  progress  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  France,  and  to  have  the  government 
itself  present  the  pictures.  In  plain,  the  Committee  on  Pub- 
lic Information  went  into  the  motion-picture  business  as  a 
producer  and  exhibitor.  The  funds  received  from  these 
sources  were  not  to  represent  profit  in  any  sense  of  the 
word.  Every  cent  was  to  go  to  the  manufacture  and  dis- 
tribution of  the  huge  amount  of  film  that  we  were  compelled 
to  distribute  without  return  in  other  countries  as  part  of 
the  educational  campaign  of  the  United  States.  Wherever 
possible  this  foreign  distribution  was  made  through  the 
regular  commercial  channels,  but  there  were  various  na- 
tions where  these  channels  did  not  exist  and  where  free 
showings  were  a  necessity.  It  was  also  the  case  that  we 
were  put  to  heavy  expense  by  the  policy  that  sent  all  of 
the  Committee's  films,  free  of  charge,  to  the  encampments 
in  the  United  States  as  well  as  to  the  picture-shows  on 
the  firing-line  in  France.  The  other  belligerent  countries 
all  marketed  their  film.  Why,  then,  was  it  not  proper  for 
the  United  States  to  use  its  own  product  in  an  effort  to 
lighten  the  taxpayers'  load,  especially  when  commercial 
distribution  meant  100  per  cent,  exhibition? 

Our  first  feature-film  was  "Pershing's  Crusaders,"  and 
at  intervals  of  six  weeks  we  produced  "America's  Answer" 
and  "Under  Four  Flags."  The  policy  decided  upon  was 
this :  first,  direct  exhibition  of  the  feature  by  the  Committee 
itself  in  the  larger  cities  in  order  to  establish  value  and 
create  demand;  second,  sale,  lease,  or  rental  of  the  feature 
to  the  local  exhibitors.  This  activity  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  Mr.  George  Bowles,  an  experienced  theatrical 
and  motion-picture  manager,  who  had  made  a  name  for 
himself  in  exploiting  "The  Birth  of  a  Nation."  Mr. 
Bowles  operated  as  many  as  eight  road  companies  in  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  country  at  one  time,  each  with  its 

own  advertising,  advance  sales,  and  business  management. 

121 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  utmost  care  was  taken  with  these  "official  showings," 
for  what  we  sought  was  an  impressiveness  that  would  lift 
them  out  of  the  class  of  ordinary  motion-picture  produc- 
tions in  the  minds  of  the  public.  L.  S.  Rothapfel,  of  the 
Rialto  and  Rivoli  theaters  in  New  York  City,  gave  us  his 
own  aid  and  that  of  his  experts  in  the  matter  of  scenic  ac- 
cessories, orchestra,  and  incidental  music,  while  for  "Amer- 
ica's Answer"  Frank  C.  Yohn  painted  a  great  canvas, 
so  much  a  thing  of  beauty  and  inspiration  that  it  thrilled 
audiences  into  enthusiasm  for  the  motion  pictures  that 
followed. 

"Pershing's  Crusaders"  was  officially  presented  in 
twenty-four  cities,  "America's  Answer"  in  thirty -four, 
and  "Under  Four  Flags"  in  nine.  Each  of  these  so-called 
official  showings  extended  over  the  period  of  a  week  or 
more  and  was  presented  at  municipal  halls,  well-known 
legitimate  or  motion-picture  theaters  centrally  located  in 
the  respective  cities.  Wide  and  intensive  publicity  and 
advertising  campaigns  were  conducted  by  representatives 
on  the  spot  by  means  of  department-store  window  and 
hotel-lobby  displays,  street-car  cards,  and  banners  and 
newspaper  space  donated  by  local  advertisers,  etc.  This 
campaign,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Marcus  A.  Beeman, 
also  included  circularization  and  personal  interviews  with 
representatives,  officials,  and  leading  citizens,  clubs,  so- 
cieties, and  organizations,  including  large  industrial  plants 
and  firms.  Churches,  schools,  chambers  of  commerce, 
political  and  social  clubs,  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, Red  Cross,  Liberty  Loan,  and  fraternal  organizations 
were  among  those  included  in  the  lists. 

Taking,  for  example,  the  official  presentations  in  New 
York  City — "Pershing's  Crusaders"  was  shown  at  the 
Lyric  Theater;  "America's  Answer"  was  shown  at  the 
George  M.  Cohan  Theater;  "Under  Four  Flags"  was 

shown  simultaneously  at  the  Rivoli  and  Rialto  theaters  on 

122 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

Broadway.  Each  of  these  showings  was  preceded  by  a  press 
campaign  of  about  two  weeks,  several  hundred  twenty- 
four-sheet,  three-sheet,  and  one-sheet  posters  were  posted, 
and  thousands  of  window-cards  were  displayed,  invitations 
were  sent  to  all  local  dignitaries,  and  the  showings  were 
attended  by  representatives  of  the  French,  British,  and 
Italian  High  Commissions.  In  Washington,  members  of 
Congress,  the  President,  his  Cabinet,  and  many  other 
officials  attended,  all  of  which  facts  were  used  extensively 
in  advertising  the  features  for  general  distribution. 

As  features  did  not  consume  the  whole  of  the  Signal  Corps 
material  by  any  means,  we  decided  upon  weekly  releases, 
and  in  order  to  give  this  the  highest  interest  as  well  as  to 
emphasize  the  fact  of  partnership,  we  entered  into  co- 
operative arrangements  with  the  representatives  of  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Italy.  Each  of  the  four  nations  con- 
tributed a  fourth  of  the  material  and  shared  in  the  profits, 
and  the  joint  product  went  forth  as  the  Allied  War  Review. 

Not  one  of  the  other  governments,  it  may  be  explained, 
made  free  gifts  of  its  pictures  to  private  enterprise,  but 
handled  them  upon  commercial  lines  entirely,  for  in  the 
motion-picture  world  revenue  and  circulation  are  synony- 
mous. It  was  the  first  contention  of  the  representatives  of 
the  English,  French,  and  Italians  that  the  War  Review 
should  be  offered  to  the  highest  bidder,  but  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  insisted  that  the  four  film-news 
weeklies  of  the  United  States  should  be  given  prior  con- 
sideration. As  a  consequence,  these  four  companies — the 
Hearst-Pathe,  the  Universal,  the  Mutual,  and  the  Gau- 
mont — were  offered  a  weekly  release  of  2,000  feet  of  firing- 
line  film  at  a  flat  rate  of  $5,000.  The  representatives  of 
the  Allied  governments  felt  that  this  price  robbed  them  of 
fair  and  demonstrated  profits,  but  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  gained  its  point  through  insistence. 

At  that  period  in  the  negotiations  when  the  largest  of 

123 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  weeklies  had  accepted  the  contract,  one  company  ad- 
dressed a  series  of  letters  to  various  officials  of  the  govern- 
ment, complaining  bitterly  of  the  arrangement,  not  only 
insisting  that  the  films  should  be  given  free  of  charge,  but 
even  hinting  at  a  subsidy.  As  a  consequence  of  this  atti- 
tude, the  Official  War  Review  was  offered  to  the  motion- 
picture  industry  as  a  whole,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
feature-film.  Every  exchange  was  given  an  opportunity 
to  bid,  and  the  Pathe  Exchange,  Inc.,  was  awarded  the 
contract  on  these  terms:  Eighty  per  cent,  of  proceeds  and 
a  guaranty  of  showing  in  25,000  theaters  as  a  minimum. 

Even  after  the  making  of  the  feature-films  and  the 
Official  War  Review  there  remained  a  certain  amount  of 
material  that  had  as  high  publicity  value  as  any  of  the 
other  footage,  and  we  placed  this  at  the  disposal  of  the  news 
weeklies  at  the  nominal  cost  of  one  dollar  a  foot,  an  equi- 
table arrangement  that  worked. 

With  the  tremendous  advertising  gained  from  these 
governmental  showings  in  the  principal  cities  we  were 
then  able  to  go  direct  to  the  exhibitor  in  the  certainty  of 
his  keen  interest.  Our  aim  was  to  secure  the  widest  pos- 
sible distribution  of  the  government  films  in  the  shortest 
possible  time.  To  this  end  every  effort  was  made  to  elim- 
inate the  competitive  idea  from  the  minds  of  exhibitors, 
and  wherever  possible  to  secure  simultaneous  showings  in 
houses  which  ordinarily  competed  for  pictures. 

Mr.  Denis  Sullivan  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  George  Meeker, 
who  were  in  charge  of  domestic  distribution  through  motion- 
picture  houses,  inaugurated  a  proportionate  selling  plan 
whereby  the  rental  charged  every  house  was  based  on  the 
average  income  derived  from  that  particular  house.  By 
this  method  the  small  house  as  well  as  the  large  one  could 
afford  to  run  the  government  films.  The  result  of  these 
efforts  to  obtain  the  widest  possible  showing  for  govern- 
ment films  was  amazingly  successful,  and  the  showing  of 

124, 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

"America's  Answer"  broke  all  records  for  range  of  dis- 
tribution of  any  feature  of  any  description  ever  marketed. 

On  the  basis  of  twelve  thousand  motion-picture  theaters 
in  the  United  States,  over  one-half  the  total  number  of 
theaters  in  the  country  exhibited  the  Official  War  Review 
and  nearly  that  portion  of  "America's  Answer."  In  the 
film  industry  a  booking  of  40  per  cent,  of  the  theaters  is 
considered  as  100  per  cent,  distribution  because  of  the  close 
proximity  of  a  great  number  of  theaters,  rendering  them 
dependent  on  the  same  patronage — that  is,  theaters  are 
plotted  as  available  in  zones  rather  than  as  individual 
theaters;  thus  three  theaters  in  one  zone  present  but  one 
possible  booking  because  of  the  identity  of  clientele. 
Taking  this  into  consideration,  the  distribution  of  govern- 
ment features  approximated  80  per  cent,  and  90  per  cent, 
rather  than  50  per  cent,  distribution,  although  on  "Amer- 
ica's Answer,"  in  certain  territories  such  as  New  York  and 
Seattle,  the  percentage  of  total  theaters  booked  reached 
over  60  per  cent,  and  54  per  cent.,  respectively,  which  on 
the  above  basis  would  equal  100  per  cent,  distribution. 

The  success  of  the  feature-films  and  the  Official  War 
Review  are  best  indicated  by  the  following  figures: 

"Pershing's  Crusaders" $181,741  69 

"America's  Answer" 185,144  30 

"Under  Four  Flags" 63,946  48 

Official  War  Review 334,622  35 

Our  Bridge  of  Ships 992  41 

U.  S.  A.  Series 13,864  98 

Our  Colored  Fighters 640  60 

News  Weekly 15,150  00 

Miscellaneous  sales.  .  56,641  58 


Total  sales  from  films $852,744  30 

It  was  not  only  the  case  that  the  entire  output  of  the 
Division  of  Films  was  handed  over  to  the  Foreign  Section 

125 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

for  circulation  in  the  various  countries  of  the  world,  but 
the  Educational  Department  saw  to  it  that  all  of  the  Com- 
mittee pictures  were  furnished  free  of  charge  to  every 
proper  organization  in  the  United  States. 

The  films  were  loaned  to  army  and  navy  stations,  edu- 
cational and  patriotic  institutions,  without  charge  except 
transportation.  Other  organizations  and  individuals  were 
usually  charged  one  dollar  per  reel  for  each  day  used. 
When  it  is  considered  that  the  average  reel  costs  forty 
dollars  for  raw  stock  and  printing,  and  that  the  average 
life  of  a  reel  is  about  two  hundred  runs,  it  can  be  readily 
seen  that  this  charge  of  one  dollar  per  reel  barely  covered 
cost.  For  the  purpose  of  comparison  the  leading  motion- 
picture  houses  in  New  York  pay  as  high  as  three  thousand 
dollars  for  the  use  of  one  picture  for  one  week's  run. 

On  June  1,  1918,  the  Division  of  Films  formed  a  scenario 
department  to  experiment  with  an  interesting  theory. 
The  departments  at  Washington  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
contracting  for  the  production  of  films  on  propaganda 
subjects  and  then  making  additional  contracts  to  secure 
a  more  or  less  limited  circulation  of  the  pictures  when  pro- 
duced. The  general  attitude  of  motion-picture  exhibitors 
was  that  propaganda  pictures  were  uninteresting  to  audi- 
ences and  could  have  no  regular  place  in  their  theaters. 
The  theory  of  the  Division  of  Films  was  that  the  fault  lay 
in  the  fact  that  propaganda  pictures  had  never  been  prop- 
erly made,  and  that  if  skill  and  care  were  employed  in  the 
preparation  of  the  scenarios  the  resultant  pictures  could 
secure  place  in  regular  motion-picture  programs.  Pro- 
ducers were  at  first  skeptical,  but  in  the  end  they  agreed 
to  undertake  the  production  of  one-reel  pictures  for  which 
the  division  was  to  supply  the  scenario,  the  list  of  locations, 
and  permits  for  filming  the  same,  and  to  give  every  possible 
co-operation,  all  without  charge.  The  finished  picture 
became  the  sole  property  of  the  producer,  who  obligated 

126 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

himself  merely  to  give  it  the  widest  possible  circulation 
after  it  had  been  approved  by  the  Division  of  Films. 
Mr.  Rufus  Steele  was  given  charge  of  the  new  venture, 
and  while  many  difficulties  had  to  be  overcome,  the  theory 
proved  sound. 

The  following  one-reel  pictures  were  produced: 

By  the  Paramount-Bray  Pictograph: 

Says  Uncle  Sam:   Keep  'Em  Singing  and  Nothing  Can  Lick 

'Em — the  purpose  and  method  of  the  vocal  training  of 

the  army  and  the  navy. 
Says  Uncle  Sam:  I  Run  the  Biggest  Life-Insurance  Company 

on  Earth — story  of  the  War  Risk  Insurance  Bureau. 
Says  Uncle  Sam:  A  Girl's  a  Man  for  A'  That — story  of 'women 

in  war-work. 
Says  Uncle  Sam:    I'll  Help  Every  Willing  Worker  Find  a 

Job — story  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service. 
By  thePatheCo.: 

Solving  the  Farm  Problem  of  the  Nation — story  of  the  United 

States  Boys'  Working  Reserve. 

Feeding  the  Fighter — how  the  army  was  supplied  with  food. 
By  the  Universal  Co.: 

Reclaiming  the  Soldiers'  Duds — the  salvage  work  of  the  War 

Department. 
The  American  Indian  Gets  Into  the  War  Game — how  the 

Indian  took  his  place,  both  in  the  military  forces  and  in 

food  production. 
By  C.  L.  Chester: 

Schooling  Our  Fighting  Mechanics — work  of  the  Committee 

on  Education  and  Special  Training  of  the  War  Department. 
There  Shall  Be  No  Cripples — rehabilitation  work  of  the  Sur- 
geon-General's Office. 
Colored  Americans — activities  of  the  negroes,  both  in  the 

military  forces  and  in  war  work  at  home. 
It's   an   Engineers'   War — work   of   the  Engineers'  training- 
camps  of  the  War  Department. 
Finding  and  Fixing  the  Enemy — certain  work  of  the  Engineer 

Corps  of  the  War  Department. 
Waging   War   in   Washington — the   method   of   government 

operation. 

127 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

All  the  Comforts  of  Home — methods  of  War  Department  in 
providing  necessities  and  conveniences  for  soldiers. 

Masters  for  the  Merchant  Marine — development  of  both 
officers  and  men  for  the  new  merchant  navy. 

The  College  for  Camp  Cooks — thorough  training  given  men 
who  were  to  prepare  the  food  for  the  soldiers. 

Rail-less  Railroads — work  of  the  Highway  Transport  Com- 
mittee. 

The  following  pictures,  of  more  than  one  reel  in  length, 
were  made  by  private  producers  from  our  scenarios  and 
under  our  supervision: 

By  C.  L.  Chester: 

"The  Miracle  of  the  Ships,"  a  six-reel  picture  covering  in  de- 
tail the  construction  of  the  carrier  ships  at  Hog  Island  and 
other  yards,  and  showing  every  detail  of  construction. 

By  The  W.  W.  Hodkinson  Corporation: 

"Made  in  America,"  an  eight-reel  picture  telling  the  full  story 
of  the  Liberty  Army.  It  follows  the  soldier  through  every 
stage  of  the  draft  and  through  every  step  of  his  military, 
physical,  and  social  development  and  into  the  actual  com- 
bat overseas.  Such  a  picture  was  greatly  desired  by  Gen- 
eral Munson,  head  of  the  Morale  Branch  of  the  War  De- 
partment, for  circulation  in  the  army  and  among  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  abroad.  As  this  picture 
was  to  show  the  relation  of  the  home  life  to  the  soldier, 
professional  actors  and  actresses  and  much  studio-work 
were  required.  The  Morale  Branch  had  no  funds  to  pay 
for  such  a  picture,  and  the  Division  of  Films  was  able  to 
work  out  a  scenario  of  such  promise  that  the  Hodkinson 
Corporation  agreed  to  produce  the  picture  at  their  own 
expense,  which  they  did  at  a  cost  exceeding  forty  thou- 
sand dollars. 

Late  in  the  summer  of  1918,  our  system  of  production 
through  outside  concerns  having  worked  out  satisfactorily, 
it  was  decided  to  undertake  production  on  our  own  account. 
Accordingly,  scenarios  were  written,  and  the  following  six 
two-reel  pictures  were  produced  by  the  division : 

128 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

"If  Your  Soldier's  Hit,"  showing  the  operation  of  the  regi- 
mental detachment  and  field  hospital  unit  in  getting  wounded 
men  off  the  front  line,  giving  them  first  aid,  and  conveying  them 
safely  to  recuperation  bases.  This  picture  was  made  in  con- 
junction with  the  Surgeon-General's  Office  at  the  training-camp 
at  Fort  Riley,  Kansas,  and  the  scenes  were  supplemented  by 
scenes  from  overseas. 

"Our  Wings  of  Victory/'  showing  the  complete  processes  of 
the  manufacture  and  operation  of  airplanes  for  war  purposes. 
The  construction  scenes  were  taken  in  the  chief  'plane-factories 
and  were  supplemented  by  extraordinary  scenes  of  flying. 

"Our  Horses  of  War,"  showing  how  the  remount  depots  of 
the  army  obtain  and  train  the  horses  and  mules  for  cavalry  and 
artillery  purposes,  and  the  feats  performed  by  the  animals  so 
trained  under  the  manipulation  of  the  soldiers. 

"Making  the  Nation  Fit,"  showing  how  new  recruits  -for  the 
great  army  and  the  great  navy  were  developed  to  a  stage  of 
physical  fitness. 

"The  Storm  of  Steel,"  showing  how  twelve  billions  of  the 
Liberty  Loan  money  was  being  expended  in  the  construction 
of  guns  and  munitions.  These  scenes  were  taken  in  half  a  dozen 
of  the  chief  gun-plants  of  the  country  and  on  the  proving-grounds 
and  are  the  most  complete  record  in  the  government's  posses- 
sion of  this  undertaking. 

"The  Bath  of  Bullets,"  showing  the  development  and  use 
of  machine-guns  in  this  war. 

A  second  series  of  six  two-reel  pictures  had  been  laid 
out  and  the  filming  was  about  to  proceed  when  the  armistice 
caused  the  division  to  suspend  all  new  undertakings. 

The  distribution  of  still  pictures  under  the  direction 
of  Mr.  Rubel  and  Mr.  Harold  E.  Hecht  also  underwent 
a  process  of  reorganization  as  time  presented  new  needs 
and  afforded  new  opportunities.  One  of  the  first  of  the 
new  plans  was  the  inauguration  of  the  "permit  system." 
While  the  military  authorities  were  correct  in  refusing 
general  admission  to  ordnance  and  airplane  factories,  to 
navy -yards  and  to  certain  cantonments  where  secret  tests 
were  being  made,  there  was  no  good  reason  for  barring 

129 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

private  photographers  from  the  majority  of  the  camps 
and  factories.  Mr.  Rubel,  therefore,  in  consultation  with 
the  army  and  the  navy,  worked  out  a  plan  of  permits  that 
safeguarded  military  secrets  even  while  it  opened  up  the 
military  effort  to  the  cameras  of  civilians.  Our  procedure 
investigated  each  applicant  and  certified  him  to  the  camp 
commanders,  and  a  "voluntary  censorship"  agreed  to  by 
the  commercial  photographers  protected  against  indis- 
cretion. Under  this  system,  and  as  illustrative  of  its 
liberal  provisions,  the  division  issued  more  than  six  thou- 
sand permits,  the  daily  applications  ranging  from  ten  to 
twenty-five. 

This  arrangement  took  care  of  domestic  photographers, 
permitting  Mr.  Rubel  to  devote  all  his  energy  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  still  pictures  taken  by  the  Signal  Corps  in 
France.  In  the  first  days,  when  the  shipments  were  few, 
it  was  a  simple  matter  to  spread  the  photographs  among 
the  newspapers,  but  as  great  bundles  commenced  to  be 
received,  our  simple  machinery  broke  down.  To  meet 
the  new  demand,  an  arrangement  was  made  with  the 
Photographic  Association,  including  such  firms  as  Under- 
wood &  Underwood,  International  Film  Service,  Brown 
Bros.,  Paul  Thompson,  Kadel  &  Herbert,  Harris  &  Ewing, 
Western  Newspaper  Union,  the  Newspaper  Enterprise 
Association,  and  other  firms  that  syndicated  photographs 
nationally  and  internationally.  Through  organized  effort 
these  syndicate  members  placed  our  photographs  in  daily 
newspapers,  weekly  and  monthly  magazines,  technical 
publications,  and  other  mediums.  To  expedite  production 
and  delivery,  a  laboratory  was  secured  in  New  York  City 
and  operated  by  the  Signal  Corps  Photographic  Division 
in  conjunction  with  Columbia  University.  The  prices 
fixed  were  nominal,  designed  only  to  cover  expenses. 

This  department  also  furnished  quantities  of  photo- 
graphs each  week  to  the  Foreign  Service  Section  of  the 

130 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  FILMS 

Committee  for  use  in  propaganda  media  in  the  Allied  and 
neutral  nations.  Photographs  were  also  furnished  for 
publicity  purposes  for  motion-picture  features  and  we 
reproduced  in  hundreds  of  newspapers  reaching  millions 
of  circulation.  Another  means  of  distribution  of  war 
photographs  was  to  private  collections,  to  universities, 
historical  societies,  state  and  municipal  libraries,  and  any 
organization  that  could  make  use  of  pictures  for  future 
reference.  Also,  individuals  who  were  interested  in  getting 
pictures  of  war  activities,  more  especially  those  who  had 
members  of  their  families  or  friends  directly  connected 
with  the  war. 

The  Department  of  Slides  was  next  added  to  the, activi- 
ties of  the  bureau  and  supplied  a  long-felt  need  for  official 
and  authentic  photographs  in  stereopticon  form  for  the 
use  of  ministers,  lecturers,  school-teachers,  and  others. 
Mr.  Rubel  and  Mr.  Hecht  succeeded  in  putting  out  stand- 
ard size  balck  and  white  slides  of  the  finest  workmanship 
at  fifteen  cents  each,  which  price  saved  the  user  from 
50  to  80  per  cent.  At  first  the  production  of  slides 
was  entirely  dependent  on  the  laboratory  of  the  Signal 
Corps  in  Washington,  which,  as  the  orders  increased  in 
volume,  proved  inadequate  to  turn  out  sufficient  quantity. 
The  Committee  on  Public  Information  then  built  its 
own  laboratory  with  ample  production  facilities.  Out 
of  this  idea  came  another — that  of  illustrated  war  lectures. 
Taking  the  "Ruined  Churches  of  France"  as  a  first  sub- 
ject, for  the  original  demand  came  from  ministers  for 
the  most  part,  we  prepared  50  slides,  and  accompanied 
them  with  a  wonderful  little  lecture  written  movingly  by 
Dr.  John  S.  P.  Tatlock  of  Leland  Stanford  University. 
Such  was  its  enthusiastic  reception  that  the  following 
lectures  were  issued  in  rapid  sequence:  "Our  Boys  in 
France,"  100  slides;  "Building  a  Bridge  of  Ships  to  Persh- 
ing,"  50  slides;  "To  Berlin  via  the  Air  Route,"  50  slides; 

131 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

•'Making  the  American  Army,"  50  slides.  About  700  of 
these  sets  were  ordered  by  patriotic  organizations  and 
individuals,  as  well  as  churches  and  schools. 

The  next  series  of  illustrated  lectures  to  be  distributed 
were  as  follows :  "  The  Call  to  Arms,"  58  slides ;  "  Trenches 
and  Trench  Warfare,"  73  slides;  "Airplanes  and  How 
Made,"  61  slides;  "Flying  for  America,"  54  slides;  "The 
American  Navy,"  51  slides;  "The  Navy  at  Work,"  36 
slides;  "Building  a  Bridge  of  Ships,"  63  slides;  "Trans- 
porting the  Army  to  France,"  63  slides; "  Carrying  the  Home 
to  the  Camp,"  61  slides.  These  sets  were  prepared  and 
the  lectures  written  by  George  F.  Zook,  professor  of  Modern 
European  History  in  Pennsylvania  State  College.  A 
total  of  900  were  ordered.  While  the  greater  number  of 
orders  came  from  various  parts  of  this  country,  many 
were  received  from  foreign  countries. 

In  the  year  of  existence  the  Department  of  Slides  dis- 
tributed a  total  of  200,000  slides. 


THE  "BATTLE  OF  THE  FENCES" 


IN  some  respects  the  Division  of  Pictorial  Publicity 
was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  many  forces 
called  into  being  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 
Artists,  from  time  immemorial,  have  been  looked  upon 
as  an  irresponsible  lot,  given  over  to  dreams  and  impracti- 
cality  and  with  little  or  no  concern  for  the  values  that  go 
to  make  up  the  every-day  world.  At  America's  call, 
however,  painters,  sculptors,  designers,  illustrators,  and 
cartoonists  rallied  to  the  colors  with  instancy  and  enthusi- 
asm, and  no  other  class  or  profession  excelled  them  in  the 
devotion  that  took  no  account  of  sacrifice  or  drudgery. 
As  a  consequence,  America  had  more  posters  than  any 
other  belligerent,  and,  what  is  more  to  the  point,  they 
were  the  best.  They  called  to  our  own  people  from  every 
hoarding  like  great  clarions,  and  they  went  through  the 
world,  captioned  in  every  language,  carrying  a  message 
that  thrilled  and  inspired. 

Even  in  the  rush  of  the  first  days,  when  we  were  calling 
writers  and  speakers  and  photographers  into  service, 
I  had  the  conviction  that  the  poster  must  play  a  great 
part  in  the  fight  for  public  opinion.  The  printed  word 
might  not  be  read,  people  might  not  choose  to  attend 
meetings  or  to  watch  motion  pictures,  but  the  billboard 
was  something  that  caught  even  the  most  indifferent  eye. 
The  old-style  poster,  turned  out  by  commercial  artists 

10  133 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

as  part  of  advertising  routine,  was  miles  away  from  our 
need,  however.  The  current  Washington  idea  that  imag- 
ined art  as  a  sort  of  slot-machine  was  a  mistake  that  had 
to  be  rectified.  What  we  wanted — what  we  had  to  have 
— was  posters  that  represented  the  best  work  of  the  best 
artists — posters  into  which  the  masters  of  the  pen  and 
brush  had  poured  heart  and  soul  as  well  as  genius.  Look- 
ing the  field  over,  we  decided  upon  Charles  Dana  Gibson 
as  the  man  best  fitted  to  lead  the  army  of  artists,  and  on 
April  17,  1917,  this  splendid  American  entered  the  service 
as  a  volunteer.  He  called  F.  De  Sales  Casey  to  his  right 
hand  as  vice-chairman  and  secretary,  and  the  two  formed 
these  committees: 

Associate  chairmen — Herbert  Adams,  E.  H.  Blashfield,  Ralph 
Clarkson,  Cass  Gilbert,  Oliver  D.  Grover,  Francis  Jones,  Arthur 
F.  Matthews,  Joseph  Pennell,  Edmond  Tarbell,  Douglas  Volk. 

Executive  Committee — F.  G.  Cooper,  N.  Pousette-Dart,  I.  Dos- 
kow,  F.  E.  Dayton,  C.  B.  Falls,  Albert  E.  Gallatin,  Ray  Green- 
leaf,  Miss  Malvina  Hoffman,  W.  A.  Rogers,  Lieut.  Henry  Reu- 
terdahl,  U.  S.  N.  R.  F.,  H.  Scott  Train,  H.  D.  Welsh,  J.  Thompson 
Willing,  H.  T.  Webster,  Walter  Whitehead,  Jack  Sheridan. 

Departmental  captains— C.  B.  Falls,  H.  T.  Webster,  Walter 
Whitehead,  Ray  Greenleaf,  I.  Doskow,  N.  Pousette-Dart,  H. 
Scott  Train. 

Headquarters  were  opened  in  New  York,  and  within  a 
month  the  organization  had  enlisted  the  great  artists 
of  America,  and  was  working  with  speed  and  precision. 
H.  Devitt  Welsh  of  Philadelphia  came  to  the  office  of  the 
Committee  in  Washington  to  serve  as  "contact  man."  He 
went  to  the  heads  of  all  the  war-making  branches  of  govern- 
ment, telling  them  of  the  mobilization  of  the  artists,  and  ob- 
taining from  each  department  its  list  of  poster  needs.  This 
list  was  then  sent  to  Mr.  Gibson  in  New  York,  who  made 

134 


THE  "BATTLE  OF  THE  FENCES" 

the  assignments  as  would  the  art  manager  of  a  magazine, 
picking  the  artists  best  fitted  for  the  particular  need.  The 
work,  when  finished,  was  hurried  to  Washington,  and 
after  approval  was  followed  through  the  printing  by  ex- 
perts. Not  only  this,  but  every  man  associated  with  Mr. 
Gibson  submitted  poster  ideas  of  his  own,  so  that  govern- 
mental routines  were  soon  broken  up  by  the  inrush  of  new 
and  more  vivid  thought. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Division  of  Pictorial  Pub- 
licity traveled  no  royal  road  to  the  favor  of  governmental 
heads.  Many  of  these  executives  knew  nothing  at  all 
about  art  or  artists,  and  others,  with  greater  knowledge, 
were  products  of  the  "chromo  school."  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  Mr.  Gibson  had  to  spend  days  in  Washington  actually 
begging  for  the  privilege  of  submitting  sketches  from  men 
and  women  whose  names  stood  for  all  that  was  finest  in 
American  art.  Through  it  all  he  held  to  his  patience  and 
enthusiasm,  and  at  last  the  importance  of  the  offering 
penetrated  the  official  consciousness,  and  that  which  had 
been  ignored  came  to  be  wildly  pursued. 

It  was  not  only  the  case  that  the  artists  were  subject 
to  call,  like  so  many  members  of  a  volunteer  fire  depart- 
ment, but  they  held  regular  weekly  meetings  at  which 
the  task  was  discussed  as  a  whole,  every  one  present 
contributing  criticism,  ideas,  and  inspiration.  These  meet- 
ings of  the  division  developed  into  the  most  interesting 
series  of  dinners  ever  held  in  New  York  City.  Under  the 
magnetic  leadership  of  Mr.  Gibson,  the  dominant  note 
was  patriotic  fervor.  Everybody  felt  it  a  duty  to  come. 
The  most  celebrated  men  in  every  branch  of  art  met  for 
the  first  time  at  the  same  board  with  the  younger  men  of 
their  profession.  This  set  the  highest  standard  for  the 
division  and  was  an  assurance  to  the  government  that  it 
could  expect  the  best  that  American  art  could  give.  It  was 
also  an  inspiration  to  the  younger  men  to  be  associated 

135 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

in  such  a  notable  league  of  artists,  and  made  it  a  dis- 
tinguished honor  to  succeed  in  the  friendly  competition 
for  government  acceptance  of  work. 

The  character  of  the  division  was  best  described  in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Gibson  himself  when  he  said:  "This  is  a 
schoolroom.  All  are  welcome.  We  come  here  to  learn 
from  one  another,  to  get  inspiration  and  get  religion  for  the 
great  task  the  government  has  set  for  us.  No  artist  is  too 
great  to  come  and  give  his  best.  We  are  fortunate  to  be 
alive  at  this  time  and  be  able  to  take  advantage  of  the 
greatest  opportunity  ever  presented  to  artists." 

Being  chosen  to  speak  through  their  work  to  the  millions 
of  their  countrymen,  the  artists  felt  a  great  sense  of  respon- 
sibility that  bound  them  into  a  harmonious  unit.  All 
worked  together  in  the  common  cause,  sank  personal 
considerations,  gave  and  received  advice.  A  fine  spirit 
of  helpfulness  prevailed,  the  one  aim — the  highest  excel- 
lence in  all  commissions  executed.  The  steady  appear- 
ance of  the  division's  work  became  a  feature  of  the  war, 
not  only  stirring  patriotism,  but  awakening  in  the  public 
mind  the  importance  of  artists.  It  was  a  wholesale  edu- 
cation to  the  country  in  that  the  division  made  the  bill- 
board "safe  for  art,"  the  work  standing  out  in  sharp  con- 
trast to  the  commercial  disfigurations  of  the  past. 

To  increase  the  scope  of  the  committee  and  to  stimu- 
late the  personal  interest  of  the  artists  outside  of  New  York, 
sectional  branches  were  formed,  and  Oliver  Dennett 
Grover  of  Chicago  became  the  chairman  of  the  Western 
Committee,  Mr.  E.  Tarbell  and  Mr.  Arthur  F.  Matthews 
taking  charge  in  Boston  and  San  Francisco. 

The  full  contribution  of  the  artists  of  America  to  the 
national  cause,  as  well  as  the  reliance  placed  upon  the 
Division  of  Pictorial  Publicity  by  every  department  of 
government,  is  shown  by  the  following  record  of  achieve- 
ment: 

136 


THE  "BATTLE  OF  THE  FENCES" 


Poster 
designs. 

Car,  bus, 
and 
window 
cards. 

News- 
paper and 
other  ad- 
vertising. 

'Cartoons. 

Seals, 
buttons, 
banners, 
etc. 

American  Red  Cross,  Washing- 

100 

25 

100 

50 

War  Savings  Stamps  

50 

50 

25 

50 

Liberty  Loan  (Third)  

3 

10 

15 

Liberty  Loan  (Fourth)  

100 

25 

Shipping  Board 

100 

g 

1 

American  Library  Association.  . 

7 

43 

War    Camp     Community    Ser- 

101 

2 

3 

1 

Ordnance  Department  

18 

1 

15 

1 

4 

10 

1 

3 

10 

50 

15 

10 

50 

Fuel  Administration 

25 

10 

23 

11 

1 

1 

War  Department  

11 

1 

Public  Health  Service 

14 

6 

3 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ation                  

6 

7 

Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 

6 

7 

Signal  Corps        

4 

3 

15 

1 

2 

...,...„.. 

Division  of  Films  

33 

4 

1 

Committee  of  Patriotic  Societies 

3 

2 

20 

United    States    Boys'  Working 

5 

1 

2 

7 

Committee  on  National  Defense 

1 

3 

Western  Newspaper  Union  

2 

2 

2 

1 

Committee     on    Publio     Infor- 

4 

6 

5 

Division  of  Advertising  

11 

10 

3 

1 

Squad  A,  Magazine  Gun  

2 

2 

2 

Food  for  France                 . 

3 

6 

Department  of  Interior  

2 

1 

1 

United  States  Tank  Corps 

1 

5 

Treasure  and  Trinket  Fund  . 

1 

3 

g 

1 

Jewish  Welfare  

5 

1 

Trades  for  Disabled  Soldiers    .  . 

6 

2 

8 

Motor  Corps  

1 

1 

Federation  of  Neighborhood  As- 

1 

Office  of  Chief  of  Staff 

1 

1 

Bastile  Day 

3 

14 

5 

Fifth  Avenue  Association  

2 

American  Poets'  Committee 

2 

Federal  Food  Board 

3 

Rehabilitating     Wounded     Sol- 

2 

2 

1 

1 

Italian  War  Work 

1 

1 

Official  Bulletin 

1 

3 

25 

1 

Pelham  Naval  Station 

1 

1 

United  War  Work  Campaign.  .  . 

5 

137 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

RECAPITULATION 

Departments  and  committees  requesting  work 58 

Poster  designs  submitted 700 

Cards  requested 122 

Newspaper  and  other  advertising. 310 

Cartoons  submitted 287 

Seals,  buttons,  etc.,  executed 19 


Total  material  (drawings,  designs,  etc.) 1,438 

In  addition  to  the  above,  Lieut.  Henry  Reuterdahl  and 
N.  C.  Wyeth  worked  on  a  painting  ninety  feet  long,  twenty- 
five  feet  high,  which  was  placed  at  the  Subtreasury  Building 
for  the  Third  Liberty  Loan.  Lieutenant  Reuterdahl 
made  also  three  paintings,  each  over  twenty  feet,  for  the 
publicity  of  the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

During  the  United  War  Work  Campaign  the  same  plan 
was  followed,  seven  artists  painting  on  days  assigned, 
in  front  of  the  Public  Library,  two  others  assigned  in 
front  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum.  This  work  was 
carried  on  by  a  committee  of  this  division.  These  artists 
were: 

F.  D.  Steele,  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 

Middleton  Chambers,  Knights  of  Columbus. 

C.  B.  Falls,  Salvation  Army. 

I.  Olinsky,  Jewish  Welfare. 

Denman  Fink,  Library  Association. 

Jean  McLane,  Young  Women's  Christian  Association. 

Howard  Giles,  War  Camp  Community  Service. 

Charles  Chapman  and  Luis  Mora,  Metropolitan  Museum. 

As  showing  the  manner  in  which  the  artists  rose  to 
high  esteem,  when  General  Pershing  asked  that  the  artists 
be  sent  to  the  firing-line  in  France,  the  task  of  selection 
was  turned  over  to  the  Division  of  Pictorial  Publicity 
and  these  men  received  commissions:  Capts.  J.  Andre 
Smith,  Ernest  Peixotto,  Harry  Townsend,  Wallace  Morgan, 
George  Harding,  William  J.  Aylward,  W.  J.  Duncan, 
and  Harvey  Dunn. 

138 


THE  "BATTLE  OF  THE  FENCES" 

Almost  three  hundred  drawings  were  received  from 
them,  which  were  framed  and  sent  throughout  the  country 
for  exhibition,  and  in  addition  to  this  the  majority  of  them 
were  given  exquisite  reproduction  in  the  great  magazines. 
The  following  characteristic  comment,  lifted  out  of  a 
recent  letter  from  Mr.  Gibson,  gives  a  hint  of  the  spirit 
that  made  the  Division  of  Pictorial  Publicity  a  force  and 
an  inspiration: 

It  always  struck  me  as  more  than  fortunate  that  your  telegram 
on  the  night  of  April  17,  1917,  should  have  reached  me  when 
and  where  it  did.  It  was  at  a  dinner  at  the  Hotel  Majestic, 
the  first  gathering  of  artists  after  the  declaration  of  war.  We 
were  there  to  offer  our  services  to  the  country,  but  were  in 
some  doubt  as  to  the  method  of  procedure.  We  were  sparring 
for  an  opening.  Some  of  the  speeches  were  about  half  over 
and  some  of  them  threatened  to  get  us  off  the  track,  when  just 
at  the  psychological  moment  your  telegram  was  handed  to  me 
and  we  had  a  focusing-point.  If  it  had  all  been  prearranged 
it  could  not  have  happened  better. 

If  I  remember  rightly,  it  was  the  following  Sunday  we  met  at 
your  house,  where  the  Division  of  Pictorial  Publicity  was  formed. 
As  you  say,  the  division  met  some  rough  going  in  the  early  days, 
but  for  that  matter  so  did  every  one  who  tried  to  elbow  his 
way  into  the  front  trenches.  I  dare  say  no  one  knows  this  better 
than  yourself.  At  any  rate,  it  is  easy  to  forget  all  those  bumps 
now.  In  fact,  the  suspicion  with  which  some  of  those  in  Wash- 
ington looked  upon  the  artists  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  and 
bothered  me  less  as  I  became  better  acquainted  with  the  men 
I  met  down  there.  After  all,  we  were  offering  something  for 
nothing  and  that  in  itself  was  suspicious.  We  always  felt  that 
your  experience  was  more  or  less  like  ours,  only  on  a  much  larger 
scale,  and  you  understood  and  were  with  us,  so  it  was  easy 
to  wait.  There  is  nothing  like  good  company  when  the  going 
is  rough,  and  now  that  I  look  back  upon  it  I  dare  say  it  really 
made  the  job  more  interesting. 

The  Associate  Chairmen  were  most  useful  in  allaying  the 
fears  of  the  heads  of  the  different  departments,  and  the  work 
done  by  Casey  was  invaluable.  He  had  great  knowledge  of  the 
work  and  in  addition  possessed  tact,  even  temper,  and  modesty. 

139 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

There  wasn't  an  artist  in  the  country,  man  or  woman,  who  didn't 
offer  the  best  that  was  in  him,  and  the  single  one  who  hesitated 
was  a  Quaker  and  he  was  only  able  to  hold  out  for  a  short  time. 


THOUGHTS  INSPIBED  BY  A  WAR-TIME  BILLBOARD 
By  Wallace  Irwin 

I  stand  by  a  fence  on  a  peaceable  street 

And  gaze  on  the  posters  in  colors  of  flame, 
Historical  documents,  sheet  upon  sheet, 

Of  our  share  in  the  war  ere  the  armistice  came. 

And  I  think  about  Art  as  a  Lady-at-Arms; 

She's  a  studio  character  most  people  say, 
With  a  feminine  trick  of  displaying  her  charms 

In  a  manner  to  puzzle  the  ignorant  lay. 

But  now  as  I  study  that  row  upon  row 

Of  wind-blown  engravings  I  feel  satisfaction 

Deep  down  in  my  star-spangled  heart,  for  I  know 
How  Art  put  on  khaki  and  went  into  action. 

There  are  posters  for  drives — now  triumphantly  o'er — 

I  look  with  a  smile  reminiscently  fond 
As  mobilized  Fishers  and  Christys  implore 

In  a  feminine  voice,  "Win  the  War — Buy  a  Bond!" 

There's  a  Jonas  Lie  shipbuilder,  fit  for  a  frame; 

Wallie  Morg's  "Feed  a  Fighter"  lurks  deep  in  his  trench; 
There's  Blashfield's  Columbia  setting  her  name 

In  classical  draperies,  trimmed  by  the  French. 

Charles  Livingston  Bull  in  marine  composition 
Exhorts  us  to  Hooverize  (portrait  of  bass). 

Jack  Sheridan  tells  us  that  Food's  Ammunition — 
We've  all  tackled  war  biscuits  under  that  class. 

140 


THE  "BATTLE  OF  THE  FENCES" 

See  the  winged  Polish  warrior  that  Benda  has  wrought! 

Is  he  private  or  captain?  I  cannot  tell  which, 
For  printed  below  is  the  patriot  thought 

Which  Poles  pronounce  "Sladami  Ojcow  Naszych." 

There's  the  Christy  Girl  wishing  that  she  was  a  boy, 
There's  Leyendecker  coaling  for  Garfield  in  jeans, 

There's  the  Montie  Flagg  guy  with  the  air  of  fierce  joy 
Inviting  the  public  to  Tell  the  Marines. 

And  the  noble  Six  Thousand — they  count  up  to  that — 
Are  marshaled  before  me  in  battered  review. 

They  have  uttered  a  thought  that  is  All  in  One  Hat 
In  infinite  shadings  of  red,  white,  and  blue. 

And  if  brave  Uncle  Sam — Dana  Gibson,  please  bow — 
Has  called  for  our  labors  as  never  before, 

Let  him  stand  in  salute  in  acknowledgment  now 
Of  the  fighters  that  trooped  from  the  studio  door. 


XI 

THE  WAR   EXPOSITIONS 

THE  accidental  quality  that  marked  so  many  of  our 
ideas  was  never  more  apparent  than  in  the  United 
States  Government  War  Expositions  that  came  to  be  one 
of  the  principal  activities  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information.  These  exhibitions,  that  had  all  the  attraction 
of  a  circus  and  all  the  seriousness  of  a  sermon,  were  given 
in  twenty-one  cities,  were  seen  by  more  than  10,000,000 
people,  and  earned  a  total  income  of  $1,438,004. 

In  the  spring  of  1917,  when  the  Committee  was  just 
getting  under  way,  the  representatives  of  the  state  fairs 
came  to  us  and  asked  for  a  war  exhibit.  We  took  the  matter 
up  with  the  army  and  the  navy  and  received  assurance 
that  the  proper  material  would  be  provided.  Unfortu- 
nately, however,  the  promise  was  lost  sight  of  in  the  rush 
of  more  important  things,  and  the  Committee,  as  usual, 
received  the  full  blame  for  the  failure.  In  the  early 
months  of  1918  we  entered  into  new  communication  with 
the  state  fairs  and  expositions,  this  time  assuming  full  re- 
sponsibility for  the  preparation  of  an  exhibit.  Capt.  Joseph 
H.  Hittinger  was  borrowed  from  the  War  Department, 
and  co-operative  arrangements  were  made  with  the  depart- 
ments of  War,  Navy,  Agriculture,  Commerce,  Interior, 
and  the  Food  Administration.  From  the  army  and  the 
navy  we  secured  guns  of  all  kinds,  hand-grenades,  gas- 
masks, depth-bombs,  mines,  and  hundreds  of  other  things 

142 


THE  WAR  EXPOSITIONS 

calculated  to  show  the  people  how  their  money  was  being 
spent.  The  other  departments  joined  in  with  exhibits 
of  their  own,  all  going  to  make  up  three  carloads  of  ma- 
terial. Thirty-five  state  fairs  and  expositions  were  reached 
throughout  the  summer,  soldiers  and  sailors  accompany- 
ing exhibits  and  acting  as  lecturers. 

In  June,  1918,  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
was  called  before  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the 
House  to  tell  why  it  wanted  money  and  to  explain  what 
it  meant  to  do  with  the  money.  When  I  came  to  the  item 
of  the  state  fair  exhibits,  and  explained  the  general  idea 
of  carrying  the  facts  of  war  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  there  was  not  only  a  very  notable  lack  of  enthusiasm, 
but  even  a  distinct  disposition  to  regard  the  idea  as  some- 
what stupid  and  quite  unnecessary.  Here,  for  instance, 
is  an  excerpt  from  the  printed  report  of  the  hearing: 

THE  CHAIRMAN.  The  question  I  am  going  to  ask  you  does 
not  express  any  opinion,  but  I  am  making  the  inquiry  in  order 
that  you  may  express  an  opinion:  What  have  you  to  say  as  to 
whether  the  fact  that  the  mobilizing  of  men  from  nearly  every 
family  in  the  land  of  itself  brings  the  war  so  directly  home  and 
in  such  a  vital  way  as  to  make  unnecessary  this  military  prop- 
aganda work  in  order  to  interest  the  people  in  the  war? 

MB.  CREEL.  There  are  two  sides  to  that.  In  the  first  place, 
the  son  in  the  service  gives  direct  interest  instantly,  but  that 
interest  may  be  of  a  nature  so  tinged  with  anxiety  that  it  lends 
itself  to  every  rumor  and  every  apprehension,  and  it  is  our  duty 
to  work  for  enthusiasm  and  against  depression.  That  is  impor- 
tant not  only  for  the  family,  but  for  the  boy  who  is  fighting  at 
the  front.  We  know  that  every  letter  that  is  written  to  a  soldier 
in  a  pessimistic  tone  tends  to  make  him  a  poor  soldier,  and  it  is 
just  as  much  the  business  of  war  to  keep  the  home  happy  and 
ardent  as  it  is  to  maintain  courage  on  the  firing-line. 

We  know  from  the  experience  of  cantonments  that  the  civilian 
morale  is  highest  near  those  cantonments  where  the  general 
in  command  has  displayed  his  men  most  prominently,  giving 
frequent  drills  at  exhibitions,  visiting  near-by  cities,  and  where 

143 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

he  has  made  the  most  effective  arrangements  to  bring  the  fathers 
and  mothers  to  the  cantonments  to  see  the  boys  in  action,  to 
see  how  they  are  treated,  to  see  how  they  look,  and  what  they 
are  doing.  That  is  the  way  we  feel,  and  I  think  that  practi- 
cally every  member  of  the  military  establishment  will  tell  you 
that  it  is  of  military  value.  The  General  Staff,  as  you  know, 
is  continually  placing  emphasis  upon  what  they  term  "morale." 

The  sum  eventually  allowed  us  for  War  Expositions  was 
five  thousand  dollars.  A  few  days  after  this  virtual  re- 
buff, I  was  visited  by  Mr.  W.  C.  D'Arcy,  Mr.  Llewellyn 
Pratt,  and  others,  who  explained  that  the  Associated  Adver- 
tising Clubs  of  the  World  would  hold  their  annual  conven- 
tion in  San  Francisco,  July  4th.  WThat  they  wanted  was 
a  collection  of  war  trophies  in  order  to  give  the  gathering 
a  patriotic  note.  Going  to  the  War  Department,  then  to 
the  English,  French,  and  Italian  Commissions,  and  finally 
to  the  Canadians,  we  collected  every  possible  trophy  and 
hurried  them  out  to  San  Francisco.  It  was  not  much  of 
an  exhibition,  even  when  viewed  by  the  most  enthusiastic 
eye,  but  the  advertising  clubs  put  themselves  whole- 
heartedly behind  the  project  and  drove  it  through  to 
success.  Los  Angeles  then  asked  for  the  collection  and  we 
sent  it  there,  doing  even  better  with  it  than  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. Although  the  admission  charge  was  small,  in  nei- 
ther place  did  we  lose  money,  a  fact  that  gave  us  courage 
to  disregard  the  smallness  of  the  capital  allowed  us  by 
Congress. 

Making  decision  to  go  into  the  work  on  a  huge  scale, 
we  turned  the  exposition  idea  over  to  Mr.  Charles  S.  Hart 
of  the  Division  of  Films,  who  straightway  gathered  a  staff 
of  exhibit  experts  about  him.  Under  the  new  plan  we 
collected  every  possible  trophy  brought  to  this  country 
either  by  the  War  Department  or  by  the  Allies,  and  to 
these  we  added  everything  that  the  army  and  navy  could 
give  that  would  let  the  people  see  the  machinery  of  war. 

144 


THE  WAR  EXPOSITIONS 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  the  Knights  of  Colum- 
bus, the  Jewish  Welfare  Board,  the  American  Library 
Association,  the  War  Camp  Community  Service,  the  Red 
Cross,  and  every  other  voluntary  agency  were  also  induced 
to  prepare  exhibits,  all  making  up  a  great  tram  of  cars  equal 
in  volume  to  a  transcontinental  circus. 

Going  into  Chicago,  we  boldly  took  the  Lake  front  and 
proceeded  to  erect  buildings  and  dig  the  trenches.  Mr. 
Samuel  Insull,  Chicago's  dynamic  public  figure,  was  in- 
duced to  lend  his  powerful  aid,  and  he  swung  every  one 
of  the  civic  associations  into  line.  W.  H.  Rankin,  the  ad- 
vertising expert,  joined  in  the  executive  direction  and 
attended  to  the  publicity.  Having  committed  ourselves 
to  the  hazard,  no  expense  was  spared,  and  on  the  day  that 
the  United  States  Government  War  Exposition  opened 
our  commitments  were  well  over  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  a  radical  advance  indeed  over  the  five  thousand 
dollars  allowed  by  Congress,  and  one  that  meant  disaster 
if  our  conclusions  were  wrong. 

The  gates  opened  in  a  downpour  of  rain  and  the  first 
day's  attendance  was  appallingly  small.  When  the  news 
reached  Washington  over  the  long-distance  telephone,  a 
more  heart-sick  group  of  people  could  not  have  been  im- 
agined. The  sun  came  out,  however,  and  in  the  two  weeks 
that  followed  more  than  two  million  people  visited  the 
exposition,  the  average  daily  attendance  being  in  excess 
of  that  of  the  World's  Fair.  When  the  books  were  bal- 
anced it  was  seen  that  we  had  paid  every  cent  of  expense 
and  cleared  for  the  government  the  sum  of  $318,000. 

There  was  interest  as  well  as  inspiration  in  the  exposi- 
tion. Along  the  great  stretches  of  promenade  were  dis- 
tributed the  trophies  captured  from  the  enemy  by  soldiers 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Allies — great  thirty-five- 
thousand-pound  guns  taken  in  hand-to-hand  struggle, 
battered  remnants  of  U-boats  that  sent  women  and  chil- 

145 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

dren  to  their  death,  reservoirs  for  poison-gas,  German 
'planes  brought  down  as  they  hovered  over  villages  and 
hospitals,  helmets,  gas-masks — all  the  paraphernalia  of 
war.  Our  army  and  navy  put  on  view  all  the  varied 
manufactures  that  would  permit  people  to  grasp  the 
extent  of  America's  preparation,  and  from  the  Allies  came 
types  of  their  war  material.  In  the  booths  that  stretched 
in  endless  line  all  the  various  war  organizations  pictured 
the  life  of  the  soldier  and  the  sailor,  and  showed  what  they 
were  doing  in  the  way  of  assistance  and  encouragement. 

Through  the  generous  co-operation  of  the  army  and  the 
navy,  a  remarkable  sham  battle  was  staged  every  after- 
noon, and  this  daily  spectacle  of  men  going  over  the  top 
to  the  rattle  of  rifles  and  machine-guns,  and  the  roar  of 
the  navy  ordnance,  aroused  the  assembled  thousands  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm.  Pleading  military  neces- 
sity, the  army  and  the  navy  refused  to  lend  us  men  after 
the  Chicago  Exposition,  with  the  result  that  the  sham 
battles  had  to  be  discontinued  as  one  of  our  features. 
Even  so,  the  tour  continued  with  remarkable  results. 
The  following  table,  showing  the  cities  visited  and  income 
received,  should  serve  as  an  ample  vindication  of  the 
Committee's  decision: 

San  Francisco $  54,274  80 

Los  Angeles 65,375  75 

Chicago 583,731  24 

Cleveland 167,355  51 

Waco 16,904  70 

Pittsburgh 147,804  16 

Kansas  City 28,646  20 

Cincinnati 66,541  20 

Buffalo 60,354  27 

St.  Louis 23,570  40 

New  Orleans 14,439  20 

Toledo 50,003  02 

Detroit 63,470  74 

146 


THE  WAR  EXPOSITIONS 

Houston $22,684  05 

Milwaukee 49,372  02 

St.  Paul  (small  exhibit) 9,065  34 

Jackson  (small  exhibit) 5,169  29 

Little  Rock  (small  exhibit) 2,458  72 

Oklahoma  (small  exhibit) 4,664  71 

Great  Falls  (small  exhibit) 996  07 

Waterloo  (small  exhibit) 1,122  85 


Total  income,  expositions $1,438,004  24 

Its  financial  success  did  not  result  from  a  high  admis- 
sion price,  but  was  due  to  the  appeal  of  the  exposition  itself. 
On  the  Pacific  coast  tickets  were  sold  for  50  cents  and  were 
redeemable  at  the  gate  for  a  25-cent  War  Saving  Stamp  in 
addition  to  an  admission  ticket.  This  plan  was  followed 
for  the  purpose  of  creating  the  War  Saving  Stamp  habit 
in  that  territory.  In  Chicago  and  the  other  cities  the 
tickets  were  sold  in  advance  for  25  cents,  children  £J^  cents. 


XII 

THE  SPEAKING   DIVISION 

THE  United  States,  in  the  first  months  of  the  war,  was 
an  oratorical  bedlam.  More  than  a  dozen  national 
speakers'  bureaus  were  being  conducted  by  government 
departments  and  by  associations  which  were  seeking  to 
promote  the  national  interest.  Scores  of  state  speaking 
campaigns  were  being  inaugurated  under  the  auspices 
of  Councils  of  Defense  and  other  organizations.  All  these 
were  competing  for  speakers,  duplicating  each  other's 
activities,  and  failing  to  co-ordinate  their  efforts  in  an 
effective  and  comprehensive  campaign.  Nothing  was 
more  apparent  than  the  need  of  some  central  clearing- 
house in  Washington  through  which  these  various  organi- 
zations, working  for  a  great  common  purpose,  but  each 
with  its  special  message,  could  be  brought  into  touch  with 
the  affairs  and  facilities  of  other  departments,  and  given 
the  inspiration  and  information  which  came  from  the  vital 
national  interests  involved. 

In  consideration  of  these  needs,  the  Speaking  Division 
of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  was  created 
September  25,  1917,  the  idea  receiving  the  approval  of  the 
President  in  the  following  letter: 

MY  DEAR  MR.  CREEL: 

I  heartily  approve  of  the  suggestion  you  have  made  that 
through  your  Committee  some  effort  be  made  to  co-ordinate 
the  work  of  the  various  bureaus,  departments,  and  agencies 

148 


THE  SPEAKING  DIVISION 

interested  in  presenting  from  the  platform  various  phases  of  the 
national  task.  With  the  co-operation  of  the  departments,  the 
Food  Administration,  the  Council  of  National  Defense,  and  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information,  it  would  seem  possible  to 
enlist  the  many  state  and  private  organizations  who  have  put 
the  nation's  cause  above  every  other  issue  and  stand  ready  to 
participate  in  a  speaking  campaign  that  shall  give  to  the  people 
that  fullness  of  information  which  will  enable  and  inspire  each 
citizen  to  play  intelligently  his  part  in  the  greatest  and  most 
vital  struggle  ever  undertaken  by  self-governing  nations. 

Your  suggestion  of  Mr.  Arthur  E.  Bestor,  president  of  Chau- 
tauqua  Institution,  to  direct  this  work  is  excellent.  You  are 
fortunate  to  be  able  to  enlist  one  who  has  been  so  intimately 
connected  with  a  great  American  educational  institution  devoted 
to  popular  instruction  without  prejudice  or  partizanship.^ 
Cordially  and  sincerely  yours, 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

Certain  general  policies  were  followed  from  the  very 
beginning  with  such  modifications  as  from  time  to  time 
became  necessary.  It  was  not  the  purpose  of  the  division 
to  attempt  to  combine  the  speakers'  bureaus  of  the  several 
departments  or  private  organizations,  nor  to  assume  any 
responsibility  for  supervision  over  them,  but  rather  to 
establish  a  bureau  to  co-ordinate  their  efforts  where  they 
related  to  common  aims  or  activities.  It  was  the  purpose 
to  seek  co-operation  among  these  speakers'  bureaus  by 
agreement  and  consultation;  to  offer  a  national  clearing- 
house for  speaking  campaigns;  to  avoid  duplication  of 
effort  and  overlapping  of  territory;  to  supply  speakers 
with  usable  information  from  government  departments; 
to  concentrate  the  attention  of  speakers  during  special 
periods  upon  different  national  needs;  and  to  foster  in 
all  speakers  a  sense  of  the  unity  of  the  national  purpose. 
There  was  never  an  attempt  to  control  and  supervise  the 
speaking  of  the  country — the  problem  was  simply  one  of 
co-operation  and  co-ordination. 

Through  the  medium  of  bulletins,  conferences,  and  cor- 

11  149 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

respondence,  a  direct  relationship  was  maintained  with 
every  government  department,  patriotic  society,  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  Rotary  Club,  and  similar  associations, 
and  by  this  means  a  machinery  was  created  by  which 
national  speakers  could  be  routed  at  short  notice,  with  a 
certainty  of  large  audiences. 

It  was  in  direct  line  with  his  work,  though  seemingly 
outside  of  it,  that  Mr.  Bestor  went  from  state  to  state  in 
the  interests  of  better  organization.  His  first  trips  were 
concerned  almost  entirely  with  the  State  Councils  of 
Defense,  and,  it  was  in  consequence  of  these  meetings 
that  the  great  series  of  war  conferences  was  held.  Our 
idea  was  that  the  facts  and  necessities  of  war  must 
be  carried  not  only  to  every  home  in  the  cities  and 
towns,  but  to  hamlets  and  the  most  remote  farm-houses 
as  well. 

Forty-five  war  conferences  were  held  in  thirty-seven 
states,  and,  in  addition,  local  conferences  were  called  in 
various  sections.  These  official  gatherings  brought  to- 
gether all  the  effective  war-workers  in  the  state,  usually 
occupied  two  days,  and  in  addition  to  the  general  meetings 
addressed  by  the  speakers  sent  out  by  the  division  there 
were  sectional  conferences  held  by  federal  and  state 
officials  who  were  carrying  on  war-work.  These  war 
conferences  were  oftentimes  the  greatest  gatherings  held 
within  the  states  during  the  war.  They  had  a  profound 
effect  upon  public  opinion  and  upon  the  efficient  organi- 
zation of  state  war-work.  Usually  the  state-wide  con- 
ferences were  followed  by  county  and  town  conferences 
of  the  same  character. 

A  card  catalogue  of  over  ten  thousand  speakers  and 
makers  of  public  opinion  was  eventually  gathered,  and  a 
select  list  of  three  hundred  effective  speakers.  Whenever 
a  request  was  made  for  an  individual  address,  a  list  was 
prepared  of  those  available  for  such  service.  This  resulted 

150 


THE  SPEAKING  DIVISION 

in  many  appointments  being  made  by  organizations  direct 
with  speakers  recommended  by  the  division. 

It  became  more  and  more  the  practice,  however,  for 
the  division  to  assume  entire  charge  of  all  tours.  When 
some  distinguished  speaker  volunteered  his  services  for 
a  week  or  a  month,  or  even  longer,  it  was  the  obvious 
dictate  of  common  sense  that  his  time  and  value  should 
not  be  wasted.  A  steady  and  practical  sequence  of  en- 
gagements had  to  be  arranged,  and  this  called  for  the 
central  control  and  direction  that  only  the  Speaking  Di- 
vision was  in  a  position  to  give. 

In  co-operation  with  the  British  War  Mission,  engage- 
ments were  made  for  Sir  Frederick  E.  Smith,  the  British 
Attorney-General;  Sir  Walter  Lawrence,  Sir  George  Adam 
Smith,  Gen.  H.  D.  Swinton,  Col.  A.  C.  Murray,  Maj.  Ian 
Hay  Beith,  Lieut.  Hector  MacQuarrie,  Hon.  Harald  Smith, 
Maj.  Robert  Massie,  and  Maj.  Laughlin  McLean  Watt. 
All  were  successes  except  Sir  Frederick  Smith,  who  proved 
only  irritating  and  offensive. 

Lieutenant  MacQuarrie  was  a  peculiarly  effective  speak- 
er, giving  ninety-three  addresses  in  four  months  in  nine 
states,  everywhere  arousing  enthusiasm.  Hon.  Crawford 
Vaughan,  ex-Premier  of  South  Australia,  a  noted  labor 
leader,  was  brought  across  the  continent  by  the  division, 
spoke  at  several  of  the  war  conferences,  and  gave  in  all 
twenty-two  addresses  under  the  auspices  of  the  division 
until  he  became  connected  with  the  United  States  Ship- 
ping Board. 

The  French  High  Commission  permitted  us  to  make 
engagements  for  M.  Maurice  Casenave  and  M.  Edouard 
de  Billy,  and  placed  at  our  disposal  Countess  Madeleine 
de  Bryas,  Captain  Paul  Perigord,  and  Lieutenant  Wierz- 
bicki  for  national  tours.  Of  all  those  who  spoke  in  Amer- 
ica during  the  war,  native  or  foreign,  Captain  Perigord, 
the  warrior-priest,  must  be  given  first  rank.  This  is  not 

151 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

to  be  taken  as  disparagement  of  the  others,  for  Captain 
Perigord  was  virtually  in  a  class  by  himself.  French  by 
birth,  the  outbreak  of  the  war  found  him  a  priest  in  St. 
Paul,  serving  in  the  Catholic  University.  Returning  at 
once  to  his  native  land,  he  went  into  the  ranks  as  a  private, 
fought  in  battle  after  battle,  and  at  Verdun  won  his  com- 
mission, leading  the  charge  of  a  few  heroes  when  every 
officer  had  been  killed.  Blessed  with  a  voice  like  an  organ 
note,  he  was  more  than  a  great  speaker;  he  seemed  in- 
spired. For  seven  months  he  went  about  the  country, 
making  152  speeches  in  all,  many  of  them  to  audiences 
that  numbered  thousands,  only  quitting  when  sheer  ex- 
haustion brought  him  to  a  sick-bed  from  which  he  liked 
not  to  have  arisen. 

Countess  de  Bryas  was  second  only  to  Captain  Perigord, 
for  in  addition  to  brains  and  real  oratorical  ability  she 
had  youth  and  beauty.  Accompanied  by  her  sister,  the 
Countess  Jacqueline,  she  toured  America  from  Atlantic 
to  Pacific,  from  North  to  South,  speaking  in  cities  and  vil- 
lages, before  social  and  commercial  organizations,  in  fac- 
tories and  churches,  driving  home  the  message  of  France, 
and  making  Americans  realize  America.  She  was  pecul- 
iarly effective  in  factories,  for  her  simplicity  and  sincerity 
went  straight  to  the  hearts  of  workers,  and  her  proudest 
possession  was  a  collection  of  grimy  gloves  made  unwear- 
able  by  the  toil-stained  hands  of  the  hundreds  who  crowded 
around  her  at  the  close  of  every  meeting.  As  in  the  case 
of  Captain  Perigord,  Countess  de  Bryas  broke  under  the 
strain  imposed  upon  her,  but,  recovering  after  an  illness 
of  weeks,  resumed  her  tour  and  carried  it  through  to  the 
agreed  conclusion. 

The  Speaking  Division  also  handled  the  engagements 
of  the  following  officials  of  our  own  government: 

Dr.  Vernon  Kellogg,  Maj.  W.  L.  Brown,  Dr.  Henry 
J.  Waters,  and  Dr.  Henry  C.  Culbertson,  of  the  Food 

152 


THE  SPEAKING  DIVISION 

Administration;  and  Dr.  Anna  Shaw  and  Miss  Ida  Tar- 
bell,  of  the  Woman's  Committee  of  the  Council  of  National 
Defense. 

Hon.  Wesley  Frost,  former  consul  at  Queenstown,  and 
the  official  reporter  of  eighty-one  submarine  sinkings, 
created  profound  sensation  in  his  transcontinental  tours, 
and  from  September  to  February  gave  sixty-three  addresses 
in  twenty-nine  states  for  the  Speaking  Division. 

Charles  Edward  Russell,  a  member  of  the  President's 
Commission  to  Russia,  who  was  particularly  effective 
before  labor  audiences,  gave  fifty-eight  addresses  from 
October  to  February  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Con- 
gressman Albert  Johnson,  just  back  from  the  front,  deliv- 
ered nineteen  addresses  in  nine  states  from  December  to 
February. 

In  co-operation  with  the  Friends  of  German  Democ- 
racy, Mr.  Henry  Riesenburg  made  twenty-seven  addresses 
in  nineteen  states;  Dr.  Frank  Bohn,  nine  addresses  in 
three  states;  Dr.  William  H.  Bohn,  twenty-six  addresses 
in  three  states;  Dr.  Karl  Mathie,  eighteen  addresses  in 
two  states;  and  Prof.  A.  E.  Koenig,  nine  addresses. 

Some  of  the  best  features  of  the  work  were  not  the  product 
of  plan,  but  sprang  entirely  from  lucky  accident.  One 
evening,  at  a  dinner  given  by  the  French  High  Commission, 
Marquis  Crequi  Montfort  de  Courtivron  asked  me,  in 
his  precise  English,  if  I  knew  where  Richmond  was.  I 
gave  him  the  necessary  information  and  casually  asked 
him  why  he  wanted  to  know.  He  answered  that  his  wife 
was  a  daughter  of  Prince  Camille  de  Polignac,  who  had 
fought  through  the  Civil  War  under  the  flag  of  the  Con- 
federacy, rising  to  the  rank  of  general.  On  his  death-bed 
in  France  the  year  before,  General  Prince  de  Polignac  had 
asked  his  daughter  to  return  his  sword  to  the  state  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  it  was  this  sacred  commission  that  the  Marquis 
desired  to  discharge. 

153 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Here,  as  if  made  to  order,  was  a  splendid  opportunity 
to  reach  the  entire  South  with  the  message  of  France. 
Not  only  did  the  Marquise  de  Courtivron  bear  the  sword 
of  her  father,  but  her  husband  was  a  distinguished  French 
officer,  and  in  the  United  States  also  was  her  cousin,  the 
Marquis  de  Polignac,  who  had  married  an  American 
woman,  Mrs.  James  Eustace,  of  New  York,  only  a  short 
time  before. 

Getting  in  communication  with  the  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, Mr.  Bestor  gained  an  official  invitation  for  the  party, 
and  the  governors  of  other  Southern  states,  informed  of 
the  visit,  begged  that  the  itinerary  might  be  extended  to 
take  in  their  capitals.  By  way  of  offsetting  the  titles 
in  case  of  any  such  prejudice,  we  added  Mr.  Charles 
Edward  Russell  to  the  party,  that  distinguished  Socialist, 
who  was  also  one  of  the  greatest  speakers  that  ever  ad- 
dressed a  patriotic  audience.  The  trip,  commencing  in 
Richmond  and  ending  in  New  Orleans,  was  a  whirlwind 
of  enthusiasm,  and  did  as  much  as  any  one  thing  to  drive 
home  the  facts  of  war. 

Another  feature  was  the  American  tour  of  Capt. 
Roald  Amundsen,  in  many  respects  the  most  powerful 
individual  in  Scandinavia.  We  persuaded  Captain  Am- 
undsen to  go  to  the  American  lines  in  France  for  a  visit 
of  inspection,  and  then  we  managed  to  bring  him  to  the 
United  States,  sending  him  to  every  part  of  the  country 
where  Scandinavian  peoples  were  gathered  in  any  quantity. 

Inasmuch  as  the  division  had  relations  with  state 
Councils  of  Defense  in  practically  all  the  states  and  with 
various  organizations  like  the  Chambers  of  Commerce, 
Rotary  Clubs,  and  others  that  had  ready-made  audiences, 
the  division  came  more  and  more  to  be  the  organization  to 
handle  tours  for  patriotic  purposes  which  were  other  than 
merely  speaking  tours.  The  French  Blue  Devils,  for  in- 
stance, were  routed  under  the  auspices  of  the  division, 

154 


THE  SPEAKING  DIVISION 

and  the  344  Belgian  soldiers  returning  from  Russia  were 
brought  across  the  continent  by  the  division.  The  fifty 
American  soldiers  sent  by  General  Pershing  to  aid  in  the 
Third  Liberty  Loan  were,  at  the  conclusion  of  that  loan, 
routed  by  the  division  for  one  month  and  heard  in  prac- 
tically all  of  the  states. 

Mr.  Bestor's  experience  as  president  of  the  Chautauqua 
Institution,  as  well  as  his  force  and  ability,  was  the  principal 
factor  in  driving  the  work  of  the  Speaking  Division  to 
complete  success.  Poor  Bestor!  No  grand-opera  im- 
presario ever  had  greater  difficulties,  for  many  of  our 
orators  had  all  the  temperament  of  a  prima  donna  and 
had  to  be  humored  to  a  point  where  homicide  appealed 
as  necessary  and  justifiable.  And  the  booking  of  an 
organization  like  the  Blue  Devils  or  Pershing's  Veterans 
required  as  much  work  as  the  routing  of  a  score  of  theatri- 
cal companies.  Prof.  J.  J.  Pettijohn,  director  of  the  ex- 
tension division  of  Indiana  University  and  head  of  the 
Indiana  State  Speakers'  Bureau,  became  associate  di- 
rector of  the  division  on  May  6,  1918,  and  from  June  was 
in  active  charge  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Bestor,  until  the 
consolidation  of  the  division  with  the  Four  Minute  Men, 
when  he  became  the  associate  director  of  that  division. 
His  wide  experience  in  popular  education  and  his  ability 
as  an  organizer  were  of  great  value  to  the  division  in  the 
last  months  of  its  separate  organization. 

Prof.  Thomas  F.  Moran  of  Purdue  University  was 
loaned  to  the  division  by  that  institution  for  service  from 
January  to  April,  and  performed  brilliant  service  in  the 
editing  of  the  bulletins  and  in  addresses  before  the  Southern 
war  conferences  and  individual  addresses  before  many 
audiences.  Mr.  W.  Frank  McClure,  publicity  director 
of  the  Redpath  Bureau,  Chicago,  was  another  who  rendered 
useful  and  devoted  service. 


XIII 

THE  ADVERTISING   DIVISION 

THE  work  of  the  Committee  was  so  distinctly  in  the 
nature  of  an  advertising  campaign,  though  shot 
through  and  through  with  an  evangelical  quality,  that  we 
turned  almost  instinctively  to  the  advertising  profession 
for  advice  and  assistance.  As  it  happened,  however, 
there  was  a  sad  lack  of  accord  in  the  initial  contacts  be- 
tween the  government  and  the  advertising  experts.  When 
the  First  Liberty  Loan  was  announced  a  committee  headed 
by  Herbert  Houston,  William  H.  Rankin,  and  O.  C.  Harn 
came  to  Washington  to  urge  a  campaign  based  upon  the 
outright  purchase  of  advertising  space  in  newspapers 
and  other  mediums. 

There  was  no  question  as  to  the  patriotism  of  the  men, 
nor  do  I  think  that  there  was  much  doubt  as  to  the  value 
and  efficiency  of  their  plan.  When  one  considers  the  dis- 
ruption of  business  occasioned  by  each  Liberty  Loan  and 
the  appalling  waste  in  stupid  or  misapplied  energy,  the 
conviction  grows  that  paid  advertising — controlled,  authori- 
tative, driving  to  its  mark  with  the  precision  of  a  rifle-ball — 
would  have  been  quicker,  simpler,  and  in  the  end  far 
cheaper. 

It  was  in  the  first  days  of  war  enthusiasm,  however, 
and  there  was  a  definite  repugnance  to  any  suggestion 
that  savored  of  profit.  "Voluntary"  was  the  magic  word, 
and  even  though  it  took  five  dollars  to  secure  the  gift  of  a 

156 


THOMAS  CUSACK    JESSE  H.  NEALE         0.  C.  HARN 


THE  ADVERTISING  DIVISION 

dime,  there  was  a  glamour  about  the  donation  that  blinded 
every  one  to  the  economic  waste.  Aside  from  this,  adver- 
tising was  regarded  as  a  business,  not  a  profession,  and  the 
majority  looked  upon  the  advertising  agent  with  suspicion, 
even  when  he  was  not  viewed  frankly  as  a  plausible  pirate 
belonging  to  the  same  school  of  endeavor  as  the  edition- 
de-luxe  book  canvasser. 

In  any  event,  the  advertising  experts  withdrew  from 
Washington,  feeling  somewhat  as  though  casualties  had 
been  sustained,  but  instead  of  sulking  they  proceeded  to 
prove  themselves  and  their  theories  by  actual  demon- 
stration. Among  other  things,  Mr.  Rankin  evolved  what 
came  to  be  known  as  the  "Chicago  Plan,"  being  the  pur- 
chase of  space  in  the  press  by  individuals  or  groups,  and 
the  donation  of  this  space  to  the  uses  of  government. 
As  general  director  of  a  Red  Cross  drive  in  Chicago,  for 
instance,  he  had  induced  a  number  of  business  men  to 
stand  the  cost  of  thirty-five  full-page  advertisements  in 
the  daily  papers,  with  the  result  that  every  dollar  member- 
ship was  secured  at  an  expense  of  two  and  a  half  cents 
as  opposed  to  an  expense  of  twenty-three  cents  per  member 
in  New  York,  where  all  effort  was  "voluntary." 

The  "Chicago  Plan"  was  applied  to  the  First  Liberty 
Loan  by  almost  every  advertising  club  and  agent  in  the 
country,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  fully  one  million  dollars 
were  contributed  to  the  campaign,  the  donated  space 
being  filled  with  effective  appeals  prepared  by  selling 
experts.  In  Muncie,  Indiana,  where  full  dependence  was 
placed  upon  the  Rankin  idea,  not  a  single  solicitor  being 
used  to  sell  bonds,  the  city  more  than  doubled  its  quota 
in  record  time. 

The  Second  Liberty  Loan  saw  much  the  same  achieve- 
ments on  the  part  of  the  advertising  fraternity,  and  the 
showing  gave  me  opportunity,  even  as  it  afforded  justi- 
fication, for  recognition  of  advertising  as  a  real  profession, 

157 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

and  to  include  it  as  an  honorable  and  integral  part  of  the 
war-machinery  of  government.  As  a  result  of  our  recom- 
mendation the  following  executive  order  was  issued: 

I  hereby  create,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information,  heretofore  established  by  executive 
order  of  April  14,  1917,  a  Division  of  Advertising  for  the  pur- 
pose of  receiving  through  the  proper  channels  the  generous 
offers  of  the  advertising  forces  of  the  nation  to  support  the 
effort  of  the  government  to  inform  public  opinion  properly  and 
adequately. 

[Signed]        WOODROW  WILSON. 

This  authority  was  instantly  exercised  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  board  of  control  composed  of  the  following 
presidents  of  the  leading  advertising  organizations: 

Mr.  William  H.  Johns,  chairman,  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  of  Advertising  Agencies,  representing  115 
leading  firms  of  this  kind  in  the  country;  Mr.  Thomas 
Cusack,  one  of  the  acknowledged  leaders  of  the  poster 
and  painted  bulletin  industry;  Mr.  W.  C.  D'Arcy,  presi- 
dent of  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of  the  World, 
representing  180  advertising  clubs  with  a  combined  mem- 
bership of  17,000;  Mr.  O.  C.  Harn,  chairman  of  the 
National  Commission  of  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs 
of  the  World;  Mr.  Herbert  S.  Houston,  formerly  presi- 
dent of  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of  the  World; 
Mr.  Lewis  B.  Jones,  president  of  the  Association  of  National 
Advertisers;  and  Mr.  Jesse  H.  Neal,  executive  secretary 
of  the  Associated  Business  Papers,  consisting  of  500  lead- 
ing trade  and  technical  publications. 

By  this  one  stroke  of  President  Wilson's  pen  every 
advertising  man  in  the  United  States  was  enrolled  in 
America's  second  line,  and  from  the  very  moment  of  their 
enrolment  we  could  feel  the  quickening  of  effort,  the 
intensification  of  endeavor.  Offices  were  taken  in  the 

158 


THE  ADVERTISING  DIVISION 

Metropolitan  Tower  in  New  York,  a  skilled  force  assembled, 
and  from  these  headquarters  the  generals  directed  the 
energies  of  an  army  of  experts. 

A  first  effort,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  in  connection 
with  the  advertising  space,  and  donations  of  space,  made 
by  the  publishers  of  national  magazines,  trade  and  agri- 
cultural papers,  and  theater  programs  in  all  the  principal 
cities.  Over  800  publishers  of  monthly  and  weekly  periodi- 
cals gave  space  worth  $159,275  per  month  for  the  duration 
of  the  war,  and  this  was  increasing  monthly  when  the 
armistice  terminated  the  arrangement.  In  addition,  ad- 
vertisers themselves  purchased  $340,981  worth  of  space 
in  various  nationally  circulated  periodicals  and  turned  it 
over  to  the  Division  of  Advertising  to  use  for  government 
purposes.  These  were  definite  purchases  for  1918,  but 
indications  had  already  been  given  that  renewals  would 
follow  in  1919.  Figuring  on  a  yearly  basis,  these  donations 
totaled  approximately  $2,250,000,  but  only  about  $1,594,- 
000  was  used,  owing  to  the  sudden  cessation  of  activities. 
The  same  plan  was  used  in  connection  with  the  billboards 
and  painted  signs,  and  while  exact  figures  are  not  obtain- 
able, a  just  estimate  of  these  donations  cannot  be  put 
under  $250,000. 

Never  was  there  a  machinery  that  operated  with  such 
automatic  efficiency.  Through  its  Washington  repre- 
sentative, Mr.  Carl  Wai  berg,  the  division  maintained 
direct  contact  with  every  branch  of  the  American  war 
effort,  and  whether  it  was  the  Treasury  Department,  the 
War  Department,  or  the  navy,  the  Shipping  Board  or  the 
Food  Administration,  the  Red  Cross  or  the  Fuel  Adminis- 
tration, all  that  was  necessary  was  the  plain  statement  of 
the  specific  need.  Mr.  Johns  and  his  associates  did  the 
rest.  They  studied  the  problem,  planned  the  campaign, 
decided  upon  the  agency  best  fitted  to  prepare  the  copy, 
or,  as  was  more  often  the  case,  three  or  four  agencies  were 

159 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

instructed  to  turn  in  copy.  When  the  selection  had  been 
made,  the  copy  was  turned  over  to  the  Division  of  Pictorial 
Publicity  for  illustration  by  some  artist,  then  decision  as 
to  the  publications  best  suited  to  the  particular  message, 
after  which  the  plates  went  out. 

Aside  from  newspaper  and  trade-press  advertising,  the 
use  of  billboards  and  the  painted  sign,  another  element 
of  tremendous  publicity  value  was  contributed  by  the 
International  Association  of  Display  Men.  This  organi- 
zation appointed  a  National  War  Service  Committee  on 
window  displays,  the  chairman  of  which,  Mr.  C.  J.  Potter, 
took  a  desk  in  the  New  York  offices  of  the  Division  of  Ad- 
vertising and  not  only  turned  over  to  the  division  the  entire 
window-display  resources  of  the  association  in  six  hundred 
cities,  but  directed  the  entire  work  of  creating  patriotic 
window  displays  throughout  the  country  so  that,  timed  to 
the  minute,  they  supplemented  the  division's  campaigns 
in  the  periodicals.  The  window-display  committee  was 
instrumental  in  the  building  of  sixty  thousand  reported 
displays  on  various  government  subjects,  and  probably 
hundreds  more  unreported. 

Perhaps  a  detailed  description  of  one  particular  job  will 
give  a  clearer  conception  of  the  energy,  originality,  and  high 
value  of  the  Committee's  advertising  associates  and  their 
organized  method  of  work.  For  instance,  it  was  the  nation's 
task  to  register  thirteen  million  men  on  September  12th. 
The  enormous  amount  of  detail  compelled  unavoidable 
delay,  and  as  a  result  about  two  weeks  were  allowed  to 
the  office  of  the  Provost-Marshal-General  in  which  to  reach 
every  American  between  eighteen  and  forty-five  with 
specific  information  and  instructions. 

Every  resource  of  the  Committee  was  put  at  the  service 
of  General  Crowder,  but  the  great  burden  of  effort  fell 
entirely  upon  the  Division  of  Advertising.  Through  Mr. 
W7alberg  these  men  made  a  quick  and  authoritative  study 

160 


THE  ADVERTISING  DIVISION 

of  the  problem  and  outlined  a  nation-wide  campaign  that 
was  altered  in  no  detail,  and  that  carried  through  the  regis- 
tration without  a  single  hitch. 

Expert  copy-writers,  working  night  and  day,  put  the 
facts  of  registration  in  advertising  form,  the  Division  of 
Pictorial  Publicity  furnished  illustrations,  display  experts 
put  the  product  into  type,  and  the  whole  was  issued  as 
an  Advertising  Service  Bulletin  and  sent  to  every  adver- 
tiser and  advertising  agent  in  the  United  States.  Here, 
then,  in  form  ready  to  use,  was  advertising  copy  in  any 
space  from  one  column  to  a  page,  suitable  to  any  medium 
from  a  metropolitan  daily  to  a  country  weekly,  and  through 
the  generosity  of  local  advertisers  and  the  efforts  of  local 
advertising  clubs  these  direct  appeals  went  into  the  press 
of  the  United  States.  One  full-page  advertisement  went 
to  every  agricultural,  trade,  and  technical  journal,  while 
other  class  publications  were  dealt  with  in  the  same  special- 
ized manner. 

The  next  publication  was  a  Selective  Service  Register— 
a  regular  newspaper  with  one  side  of  the  sheet  given  over 
entirely  to  questions  and  answers,  specific  instructions, 
and  general  appeals;  the  other  side  a  striking  poster, 
blazoning  the  fundamental  facts  of  registration.  News- 
papers and  individuals,  after  reading  or  copying  the  stories, 
were  then  able  to  paste  or  hang  up  the  sheet  in  such  manner 
as  to  let  the  poster  carry  its  message  to  every  passer-by. 

The  Division  of  Distribution,  augmenting  its  force 
and  working  day  and  night  shifts,  distributed  some  20,- 
000,000  copies  of  the  two  publications  to  the  following 
addresses:  18,000  newspapers,  11,000  national  advertisers 
and  agencies,  10,000  chambers  of  commerce  and  their 
members,  30,000  manufacturers'  associations,  22,000  labor 
unions,  10,000  public  libraries,  32,000  banks,  58,000  gen- 
eral stores,  3,500  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
branches,  10,000  members  of  the  Council  of  National 

161 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Defense,  1,000  advertising  clubs,  56,000  post-offices, 
55,000  railroad  station  agents,  5,000  draft  boards,  100,000 
Red  Cross  organizations,  12,000  manufacturers'  agents. 

The  foreign-language  groups  were  reached  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  direct  contacts  with  600  papers  printed  in 
nineteen  different  languages.  Every  advertisement,  every 
instruction,  and  every  appeal  was  translated  into  all  of 
these  tongues  and  the  papers  turned  over  their  news  and 
advertising  columns  with  a  generosity  not  surpassed  by  the 
native  press.  Fully  5,000,000  citizens  were  instructed 
in  this  direct  fashion. 

Another  problem  was  the  rural  districts  far  from  rail- 
roads and  not  reached  by  the  press.  A  special  mailing- 
card  was  devised  and  sent  to  43,000  Rural  Free  Delivery 
routes,  18,000  of  which  were  out  on  railroads.  Other 
cards,  brilliant  and  effective,  were  planned,  printed,  and 
put  in  the  street-cars  of  the  country,  while  almost  over- 
night the  poster  and  sign-board  people  swung  into  action 
and  plastered  the  dead  walls  and  boards  of  the  nation 
with  stirring  appeals.  Added  to  this,  more  than  37,000 
registration  posters  were  displayed  in  the  store-windows 
of  some  600  cities. 

The  output  of  the  Division  of  Advertising,  with  its 
careful  analysis  of  the  details  of  registration,  served  also 
as  ammunition  for  the  Four  Minute  Men,  and  fifty  thou- 
sand speakers  backed  up  the  printed  word.  Even  the 
Division  of  Films  was  brought  into  the  team-play. 

The  following  excerpt  from  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
Division  of  Advertising  may  be  accepted  as  the  general 
attitude  of  the  entire  War  Department: 

Over  and  above  the  fine  organization  of  the  Committee's 
staff,  as  a  whole,  what  has  impressed  me  particularly  in  your 
division  is  the  thoroughness  with  which  you  have  organized  the 
patriotic  assistance  of  private  citizens  in  contributing  to  the 
public  service  rendered  by  the  Committee.  It  is  genuinely 

162 


THE  ADVERTISING  DIVISION 

American  in  its  method — this  voluntary  union  of  individual 
citizens  to  accomplish  these  results  which  in  some  continental 
countries  are  left  to  the  vast  army  of  government  officials. 

[Signed]        E.  H.  CHOWDER, 
Provost-Marshal-General. 

In  similar  fashion  the  division  planned  and  prepared 
the  Shipping  Board's  campaign  for  250,000  shipyard 
volunteers,  swung  into  line  on  the  Third  and  Fourth  Liberty 
Loans,  and  handled  special  drives  for  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  the  Council  of  National  Defense,  the  Fuel 
and  Food  Commissions,  the  United  War  Work  Drive, 
and  the  Red  Cross.  It  was  the  division,  by  the  way,  that 
conceived  the  idea  of  that  wonderful  drawing  "  The  Great- 
est Mother  in  the  World,"  since  used  as  the  official  Red 
Cross  symbol,  and  appealing  to  the  heart  of  humanity 
from  every  dead  wall  in  every  country. 

"Smileage"  was  another  victory  for  the  division.  The 
Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities,  it  may  be  re- 
membered, devised  a  system  of  camp  theaters  to  which  a 
small  admission  fee  was  charged.  Ticket-books,  known 
as  "Smileage,"  were  issued  with  the  idea  that  the  civilian 
population  should  buy  them  and  present  them  to  the 
soldiers  so  that  the  boys  might  not  be  put  even  to  a  mini- 
mum of  expense.  The  Division  of  Advertising,  almost  in 
the  very  first  week  of  its  existence,  took  hold  of  this  mori- 
bund plan  and  breathed  the  breath  of  a  new  life  into  it. 
The  Smileage  advertiser  was  prepared  and  printed  an 
eight-page  publication  containing  every  known  kind  and 
size  of  "display  ad."  attractively  illustrated — and  through 
donations  of  space  by  both  press  and  merchants  in  each 
community  these  advertisements  were  reproduced  until 
they  reached  the  eye  of  virtually  every  American.  Inside 
of  three  weeks  the  supply  of  printed  books  was  sold  out 
entirely  and  "Smileage,"  instead  of  sinking  deeper  into 
failure,  rose  to  conspicuous  success. 

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HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

When  the  Department  of  Labor  launched  its  plan  of 
government  employment  offices,  Mr.  Walberg  carried  the 
idea  to  the  Division  of  Advertising,  and  the  result  was 
another  demonstration  of  efficiency.  The  United  States 
Employment  Service  Bulletin  was  issued — sixteen  pages  of 
sample  "ads." — and  60,000  copies  were  circulated  to  the 
press,  manufacturers,  and  advertisers.  More  than  11,000 
printed  advertisements,  ranging  from  one  column  to  a 
page,  were  received  by  the  Labor  Department,  showing 
the  extent  to  which  the  contents  of  the  bulletin  had  been 
copied. 

With  equal  intelligence  and  enthusiasm,  the  division 
put  itself  back  of  the  Committee  in  each  and  all  of  its 
undertakings.  By  way  of  experiment,  the  Committee 
sent  some  war  trophies  and  war  material  to  San  Francisco, 
calling  it  the  Allied  War  Exposition.  The  Division  of 
Advertising  saw  its  possibilities  instantly,  and  it  was  due 
to  its  insistence,  and  a  promise  of  its  aid,  that  we  changed 
the  plan  into  the  United  States  Government  War  Ex- 
position, enlarging  and  broadening  the  exhibit,  and  sent 
it  across  the  country  from  coast  to  coast.  In  Chicago, 
for  instance,  we  took  the  entire  Lake  front,  erected  build- 
ings and  dug  trenches,  and  in  two  weeks  more  than  two 
million  people  entered  the  gates,  our  books  showing  a 
clean  profit  of  $318,000  at  the  close. 

As  in  every  other  activity  of  the  Committee,  there  is 
no  exact  method  by  which  the  value  of  the  division's 
services  can  be  measured  in  terms  of  money.  We  have 
record  of  advertising  space  in  national  mediums  to  the 
amount  of  $1,594,000.  We  know  that  the  contributions 
of  street-car  advertising,  billboards,  and  painted  signs 
totaled  about  $250,000.  No  approximation  can  be  made, 
however,  of  the  thousands  of  columns  used  in  the  daily 
press,  scores  of  miscellaneous  donations,  and  the  almost 
weekly  window  displays  in  600  cities.  Nor  is  it  possible 

164 


THE  ADVERTISING  DIVISION 

to  figure  the  value  of  the  volunteer  aid  rendered  by  agen- 
cies and  employees,  for  not  only  was  every  hour  of  time 
an  absolute  gift,  but  not  one  cent  of  charge  was  ever  made 
for  services,  or  even  for  materials.  When  all  is  said  and 
done,  it  may  be  stated  in  perfect  safety  that  the  contri- 
butions of  the  Division  of  Advertising,  had  they  been  paid 
for,  would  have  cost  the  government  $5,000,000. 

Money,  however,  is  a  poor  measure  of  value  in  connection 
with  the  importances  of  life.  Far  above  the  donations 
of  ability  and  space  were  the  generous  enthusiasms  that 
every  advertising  man  brought  to  bear  upon  the  war  effort 
of  America.  Had  the  Committee  done  nothing  else,  its 
existence  would  have  been  justified  by  the  decision  that 
gave  advertising  the  dignity  of  a  profession  and  incor- 
porated its  dynamic  abilities  in  American  team-play. 
12 


XIV 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 


THERE  is  a  certain  sect  in  America  that,  for  lack  of  a 
more  forceful  epithet,  may  be  termed  "American- 
izers."  It  was  particularly  active  in  the  months  that 
followed  April,  1917.  With  the  passion  for  minding  other 
people's  business  that  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  sect, 
some  of  its  disciples  descended  upon  the  humble  tenement 
home  of  a  Bohemian  family  in  Chicago  during  the  first 
summer  of  the  war. 

"We  are  here,"  the  spokesman  announced,  impressively, 
"in  the  interests  of  Americanization." 

"I'm  sorry,"  faltered  the  woman  of  the  house,  "but 
you'll  have  to  come  back  next  week." 

"What!"  The  cry  was  a  choice  compound  of  protest 
and  reproach.  "You  mean  that  you  have  no  time  for 
our  message!  That  you  want  to  put  off  your  entrance 
into  American  life?" 

"No,  no!"  The  poor  Bohemian  woman  fell  straightway 
into  a  panic,  for  not  even  a  policeman  has  the  austere 
authoritativeness  of  those  who  elect  themselves  to  be 
light-bringers.  "We're  perfectly  willing  to  be  American- 
ized. Why,  we  never  turn  any  of  them  away.  But 
there's  nobody  home  but  me.  All  the  boys  volunteered, 
my  man's  working  on  munitions,  and  all  the  rest  are  out 
selling  Liberty  Bonds.  I  don't  want  you  to  get  mad, 
but  can't  you  come  back  next  week?" 

This  incident,  true  as  gospel  even  if  anecdotal,  serves 


166 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

the  purpose  of  volumes  in  setting  forth  accurately  the  war 
attitudes  of  both  native-born  and  immigrant  aliens.  On 
the  part  of  the  native  American  there  was  often  a  firm 
conviction  that  our  declaration  of  war  carried  an  instant 
knowledge  of  English  with  it,  and  that  all  who  persisted 
in  speaking  any  other  tongue  after  April  6,  1917,  were 
either  actual  or  potential  "disloyalists,"  objects  of  merited 
suspicion  and  distrust;  on  the  part  of  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  aliens  there  was  an  almost  passionate  desire 
to  serve  America  that  was  impeded  at  every  turn  by  the 
meannesses  of  chauvinism  and  the  brutalities  of  prejudice, 
as  well  as  the  short-sightedness  of  ignorance. 

Yet  as  long  as  history  is  read  it  will  stand  as  a  monument 
to  the  democratic  experiment  that  in  an  hour  of  confusion 
and  hysteria  the  American  theory  of  unity  stood  the  iron 
test  of  practice.  For  the  most  part,  those  of  foreign  birth 
or  descent  kept  the  faith  in  spite  of  every  bitterness— 
the  great  mass  of  the  native  population  held  to  justice 
in  spite  of  every  incitement  to  hatred  and  persecution. 
And  out  of  the  test  emerged  an  America  triumphant, 
strengthened,  and  unstained! 

Speaking  in  terms  of  percentage,  the  amount  of  actual 
disloyalty  was  not  large  enough  even  to  speck  the  shining 
patriotism  of  the  millions  of  Americans  that  we  refer  to 
as  "adopted."  Nothing  in  the  world  was  ever  so  smashed 
by  developments  as  all  those  pre-war  apprehensions  that 
filled  us  with  gloom.  Who  does  not  remember  the  fears 
of  "wholesale  disloyalty"  that  shook  us  daily?  There 
were  to  be  "revolutions"  in  Milwaukee,  St.  Louis,  Cin- 
cinnati; armed  uprisings  here,  there,  and  everywhere; 
small  armies  herding  thousands  of  rebellious  enemy  aliens 
into  huge  internment  camps;  incendiarism,  sabotage, 
explosions,  murder,  domestic  riot.  No  imagination  was 
too  meager  to  paint  a  picture  of  America's  adopted  chil- 
dren turning  faces  of  hatred  to  the  motherland. 

167 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  President  went  before  Congress,  a  state  of  war 
was  accepted  formally,  and  even  as  one  army  gathered 
in  the  cantonments,  another  went  out  over  the  land  to 
watch,  to  search,  to  listen.  The  Department  of  Justice 
had  already  in  the  field  a  large,  intelligent,  and  well-trained 
organization;  there  was  also  the  Secret  Service  of  the 
Treasury  Department,  and  into  being  swiftly  sprang 
Military  Intelligence,  Naval  Intelligence,  Shipping  Board 
Intelligence,  etc.;  and,  by  way  of  climax,  the  American 
Protective  League,  an  organization  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  "citizen  volunteers"  formed  with  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Attorney-General  and  operated  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation. 

Never  was  a  country  so  thoroughly  contra-espionaged ! 
Not  a  pin  dropped  in  the  home  of  any  one  with  a  foreign 
name  but  that  it  rang  like  thunder  on  the  inner  ear  of  some 
listening  sleuth!  And  with  what  result? 

A  scientific  system  of  registration,  prescribed  by  law, 
revealed  that  there  were  about  five  hundred  thousand 
German  "enemy  aliens"  living  in  the  United  States,  and 
between  three  and  four  million  "Austro-Hungarian  enemy 
aliens."  These  figures,  as  a  matter  of  course,  did  not 
include  the  millions  of  naturalized  citizens,  or  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  such  millions.  Out  of  this  large  number 
just  six  thousand  were  adjudged  sufficiently  disaffected  to 
be  detained  under  presidential  warrants!  Even  a  per- 
centage of  these,  as  a  matter  of  common  sense  and  justice, 
were  eventually  released  from  the  army  internment  camps 
under  a  strict  parole  system. 

As  for  criminal  prosecutions,  1,532  persons  were  arrested 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Espionage  Act  prohibiting  dis- 
loyal utterance,  propaganda,  etc.;  65  persons  for  threats 
against  the  President;  10  persons  for  sabotage;  and  under 
the  penal  code,  with  relation  to  conspiracy,  908  indict- 
ments were  returned,  the  last  group  including  the  I.  W 

168 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

W.  cases.  Even  this  does  not  spell  guilt  in  every  instance, 
for  there  have  been  acquittals  as  well  as  convictions,  and 
many  trials  are  yet  to  be  held. 

With  full  allowance  for  flagrant  cases  of  intrigue  and 
treachery,  for  the  disloyalists  that  may  have  escaped  the 
meshes  of  even  so  fine  a  net,  for  the  disloyalty  that  can- 
not be  measured  in  terms  of  jail  and  indictment — taken 
all  in  all,  no  belligerent  country,  not  even  those  invaded, 
made  as  good  a  record  of  unity  and  loyalty. 

After  all  the  hubbub  about  "rebellion,"  "armed  up- 
risings," "monster  internment  camps,"  etc.,  the  showing 
was,  to  put  it  plainly,  rather  disappointing.  In  all  of  us 
there  is  a  certain  savage  something  that  thrills  ,to  the 
man-hunt.  People  generally,  and  the  press  particularly, 
were  keyed  up  to  a  high  pitch,  an  excited  distrust  of  our 
foreign  population,  and  a  percentage  of  editors  and  poli- 
ticians were  eager  for  a  campaign  of  "hate"  at  home. 

There  is  a  simplicity  about  hate  that  makes  it  peculiarly 
attractive  to  a  certain  type  of  mind.  It  makes  no  demand 
on  the  mental  processes,  it  does  not  require  reading  or 
thinking,  estimate  or  analysis,  and  by  reason  of  its  instant 
removal  of  every  doubt  it  gives  an  effect  of  decision,  a 
sense  of  well-being.  When  the  facts  developed  by  the 
investigatory  branches  of  government  failed  to  provide 
sound  foundation  for  a  "hate  campaign,"  these  editors, 
politicians,  and  what  not,  commenced  to  build  a  little  foun- 
dation of  their  own.  Officials  were  arraigned  for  inefficiency 
and  spinelessness,  "firing-squads"  were  demanded  with 
frequency  and  passion,  and  fake  after  fake  was  sprung, 
many  of  them  laughable  but  for  their  appeals  to  preju- 
dice and  hysteria. 

Take  just  one  typical  instance  out  of  many:  A  man 
whose  name  need  not  be  mentioned  was  arrested  in  De- 
cember, 1917,  and  on  the  heels  of  his  arrest  these  exagger- 
ations were  printed  in  rapid  succession:  that  he  was  a 

169 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

former  German  officer  of  high  rank;  that  he  was  a  master 
spy  known  to  have  been  in  communication  with  Bernstorff, 
Boy-Ed,  and  other  high  German  officers  prior  to  our  decla- 
ration of  war;  that  he  arrived  in  this  country  on  the  sub- 
marine U-53;  that  after  the  commencement  of  the  Euro- 
pean War  he  went  back  to  Germany  and  later  returned 
to  the  United  States;  that  at  times  he  disguised  himself 
in  the  uniform  of  an  American  army  officer;  that  he  was 
arrested  while  in  the  act  of  lighting  a  fuse  or  match  for  an 
American  army  magazine;  that  a  number  of  men  were 
known  to  have  been  employed  in  his  spy  machinations; 
that  money  was  advanced  to  him  by  the  German  spy 
system,  etc.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  investigators 
and  investigations  failed  to  prove  anything  more  than 
that  he  was  a  German  reservist,  in  this  country  since  1910, 
and  a  poor  sort,  unable  to  hold  any  job  long. 

Every  fire,  every  explosion  in  a  munition-plant,  every 
accident  on  land  or  sea,  was  straightway  credited  to  the 
"spy  system";  if  the  cut  in  a  child's  hand  didn't  heal 
quickly,  then  the  "Germans"  had  put  germs  in  all  the 
court-plaster;  if  any  experiment  in  submarine  or  aircraft 
factory  failed,  it  was  undoubtedly  because  the  "spies" 
had  tampered  with  delicate  mechanism  or  dropped  acid 
on  the  wires;  if  a  woman's  headache  didn't  yield  to  reme- 
dies, then  the  "Germans"  had  "doped"  the  particular 
pill  or  powder.  I  am  not  saying  that  none  of  these  things 
happened;  but  what  happened  was  out  of  all  proportion 
to  the  dimensions  of  the  mad  rumors  that  swept  the  country ; 
yet  through  it  all  the  great,  splendid  majority  of  America's 
"aliens"  stood  fast,  discharging  their  full  duty  to  the 
United  States  in  a  manner  that  shamed  the  patriotism 
of  many  an  heir  to  the  traditions  of  Plymouth  Rock. 

In  the  year  and  a  half  of  my  chairmanship  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information,  a  stream  of  people  poured 
through  the  office  daily,  of  all  colors,  creeds,  and  races; 

170 


THE   "AMERICANIZERS" 

and  out  of  that  nightmare  of  solicitation,  selfish  purposes, 
and  personal  aggrandizements  I  can  recall  with  gratitude 
that  never  once  did  any  foreign-born  American  come  to 
me  for  any  other  purpose  than  an  offer  of  service  to  the 
United  States  or  some  plan  of  sacrifice.  When  it  comes 
to  motives,  of  course,  I  am  unable  to  estimate  the  possible 
weight  of  caution  or  fear;  but  the  mere  fact  is  too  signifi- 
cant to  be  negligible. 

Among  the  six  thousand  people  interned  were  many 
Germans  as  full  of  disloyalty  as  an  adder  is  full  of  venom. 
There  were  Germans,  Austrians,  and  Hungarians  in  the 
United  States  not  interned,  who  hid  disloyalty  in  their 
hearts;  nor  may  it  be  denied  that  there  is  still  a  great 
work  to  do  among  the  German  population  to  burn 'away 
entirely  the  last  trace  of  Deutschtum.  But  against  this 
minority  must  be  balanced  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  Germans  who  offered  their  lives  to  cleanse  the  honor 
stained  by  the  treachery  and  ingratitude  of  others. 

It  is  estimated  by  military  authorities  that  from  10 
to  15  per  cent,  of  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces 
were  men  of  German  birth  or  origin.  How  they  conducted 
themselves  on  the  firing-line  is  a  matter  of  history,  for  in 
the  imperishable  records  of  the  War  Department  Ameri- 
cans of  foreign  birth  and  descent  have  written  the  story 
of  their  valor  on  every  page.  In  the  list  of  those  cited 
for  distinguished  service  by  General  Pershing,  nothing 
is  more  significant  than  the  fact  that  name  after  name 
betokens  other  than  native  origin.  Here  are  a  few  illus- 
trative samples: 

Lieutenant  Kuehlman,  Field  Engineers:  "Sent  on  night 
of  August  fifth-sixth  to  make  a  reconnaissance  of  all  pos- 
sible means  of  crossing  the  river  Vesle,  near  Fismes, 
France.  It  had  been  reported  that  the  Germans  had  all 
retreated  from  the  south  bank  of  the  river,  but  he  found 
that  such  was  not  the  case;  they  were  there  in  force; 

171 


HOW   WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

nevertheless,  such  was  his  bravery  and  determination  that 
he  crossed  into  and  through  the  German  lines,  made  a 
full  reconnaissance,  and  returned  with  his  report." 

First  Lieutenant  Frank  Baer,  S.  R.  C.  pilot,  103d  Aero 
Pursuit  Squadron:  "For  the  following  repeated  acts  of 
extraordinary  heroism  in  action,  April  5,  12,  and  13,  May 
8  and  21,  1918,  Lieutenant  Baer  is  awarded  a  bronze  oak 
leaf  to  be  worn  on  the  Distinguished  Service  Cross  awarded 
him  April  12,  1918.  Lieutenant  Baer  brought  down 
enemy  'planes  on  April  5,  April  12,  and  on  April  21,  1918. 
On  May  4,  1918,  he  destroyed  two  German  machines  and 
on  May  21st  he  destroyed  his  eighth  enemy  'plane." 

Private  Bernard  Schuliheis:  "When  the  infantry  was 
advancing  in  a  position  exposed  to  cross-fire,  volunteered 
and  carried  a  message  to  advancing  troops,  informing  them 
that  the  machine-gun  barrage  laid  down  on  the  enemy 
emplacements  was  friendly  fire  from  a  unit  not  in  their 
support  and  acting  without  orders  to  cover  the  advance. 
He  delivered  the  message,  returned  across  an  open  field 
swept  by  enemy  machine-guns,  and  thereby  made  it  pos- 
sible for  the  infantry  unit  to  advance  four  hundred  meters 
and  gain  its  objective." 

Sergeant  John  Blohm:  "From  a  shell-hole  in  which  he 
had  taken  shelter  while  returning  from  a  successful  day- 
light patrol  across  the  Vesle  River,  Sergeant  Blohm  saw 
a  corporal  of  his  patrol  dragging  himself  through  the  grass 
and  bleeding  profusely  from  a  wound  in  his  neck.  He 
unhesitatingly  left  his  shelter,  carried  the  corporal  behind 
a  tree  near  the  river-bank,  dressed  his  wounds,  and,  using 
boughs  from  a  fallen  tree  as  an  improvised  raft,  towed 
the  injured  man  across  the  river  and  carried  him  two 
hundred  yards  over  an  open  field  to  the  American  outpost 
line,  all  under  continuous  rifle  and  machine-gun  fire." 

The  Distinguished  Service  Cross  went  posthumously 
to  the  following:  Sergeant  L.  W.  Pilcher,  Corporal  R. 

172 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

McC.  Fischer,  Corporal  Charles  Auer,  Corporal  V.  M. 
Schwab,  Sergeant  Bernard  Werner. 

As  it  was  with  our  German-born,  so  it  was  in  even 
larger  degree  with  all  the  other  foreign  elements  in  our 
population. 

Throughout  its  existence,  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  maintained  intimate  contact  with  over  twenty 
foreign-language  groups,  and  while  this  contact  had  its 
tremendous  depression,  there  were  also  splendid  inspi- 
rations. It  was  inspiring  to  see  the  passion  of  the  immi- 
grant peoples  for  freedom,  their  pathetic  devotion  to  the 
professed  ideals  of  America,  their  determination  to  be 
"real"  Americans,  and  to  watch  their  devotion  persist 
in  spite  of  persecution,  neglect,  and  misunderstanding; 
it  was  depressing  to  discover  how  little  America  had  done 
for  them,  how  small  a  part  the  alien  played  in  America's 
love  and  thought. 

Nothing  is  more  true  than  that  people  "do  not  live  by 
bread  alone."  The  great  majority  live  on  catch  phrases. 
For  years  the  United  States  had  discharged  its  duty  to 
the  immigrant  by  glib  reference  to  the  melting-pot,  and  yet 
it  has  been  years  since  the  melting-pot  has  done  any  melt- 
ing to  speak  of.  These  hopeful  thousands,  coming  to  the 
land  of  promise  with  their  hearts  in  their  hands,  have  been 
treated  with  every  indifference,  and  only  in  the  most 
haphazard  way  have  they  been  brought  into  touch  with  the 
bright  promise  of  American  life. 

Cheated  by  employers,  lawyers,  loan  sharks,  and  em- 
ployment agencies;  excluded  from  American  social  and 
religious  life  as  "wops,"  "Dagoes,"  and  "hunkies";  given 
opportunity  to  learn  English  only  at  casual  night-schools 
after  brain-deadening  days  of  toil;  herded  in  ghettoes  and 
foreign  quarters  by  their  poverties  and  ignorances ;  and  then, 
after  all  this,  when  war  brought  these  millions  to  our 
attention,  we  actually  wondered  why  they  had  not  been 

173 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

"Americanized,"  and  cried  out  against  foreign  languages, 
a  "foreign  press,"  and  a  "foreign  pulpit"  as  evidences 
of  disloyalty. 

In  spite  of  the  past,  with  all  of  its  cruelties  and  despairs, 
the  foreign-born  were  loyal,  and,  what  is  even  more  in- 
spiring, they  grew  in  loyalty  despite  new  persecutions 
initiated  by  mistaken  patriotism.  For  instance,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Iowa  proclaimed  the  following  rules: 

"First — English  should  and  must  be  the  only  medium 
of  instruction  in  public,  private,  denominational,  or  other 
similar  schools. 

"Second — Conversation  in  public  places,  on  trains,  or 
over  the  telephone  should  be  in  the  English  language. 

"  Third — All  public  addresses  should  be  in  the  English 
language. 

"Fourth — Let  those  who  cannot  speak  or  understand 
the  English  language  conduct  their  religious  worship  in 
their  homes." 

In  other  states,  similar  prohibitions  were  put  into  effect, 
and  sudden  and  fundamental  changes  were  worked  not 
only  in  the  schools,  churches,  and  the  press,  but  in  the 
whole  social  structure.  No  effort  at  distinction  was  made 
— the  language  of  Allied  and  neutral  countries  being  put 
under  the  ban  as  well  as  enemy  languages. 

There  can  be  no  denial  of  the  evil  that  was  attempted 
to  be  cured.  In  our  schools,  our  churches,  our  press,  and 
in  our  social  life,  English  should  be  the  one  accepted  language, 
and  this  must  of  necessity  be  our  goal.  But  it  was  crimi- 
nal to  let  the  ideal  of  to-morrow  alter  the  facts  of  to-day. 
We  faced  the  conditions  that  there  were  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  foreigners  in  the  United  States  who  could 
not  speak  any  language  but  their  own — and  through  no 
fault  of  their  own.  The  drive  against  the  use  of  foreign 
languages,  either  written  or  spoken,  merely  shut  off  these 
thousands  from  contact  with  American  life,  with  the 

174 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

danger  of  pushing  them  farther  into  ignorance  and  aloof- 
ness, and  robbing  us  of  the  opportunity  to  win  their  under- 
standing and  co-operation. 

The  Czechoslovaks  were  the  first  to  come  to  us  with 
reports  of  the  cruelties  and  injustices  worked  by  these 
regulations  in  the  various  states.  A  great  people  indom- 
itable, devoted!  Over  sixty  thousand  fought  in  the  Amer- 
ican army,  thousands  enlisting  voluntarily  at  the  outset 
of  war;  there  were  about  thirty  thousand  in  the  Czecho- 
slovak army  in  Italy,  and  about  ninety  thousand  fought 
in  Siberia.  It  will  be  news  to  many  to  learn  that  the  first 
real  blow  against  German  and  American  intrigue  in  the 
United  States  was  struck  by  the  Bohemian  National 
Alliance.  With  the  assistance  of  some  Czechoslovak 
officials  at  the  Austrian  consulates,  and  through  a  most 
remarkable  machinery  of  espionage,  the  Bohemians  de- 
feated plot  after  plot  against  America  and  brought  out  the 
evidence  that  resulted  in  the  recall  of  Dumba.  The 
Czechoslovak  societies  were  the  only  ones  that  adopted 
the  rule  that  every  member  must  own  a  Liberty  bond. 

Even  these  people,  however,  whose  courage  and  loyalty 
have  become  proverbs,  were  not  spared  persecution  by 
provincial  ignorance.  In  one  Texas  town,  virtually  all 
the  young  men  of  the  Czechoslovak  colony  volunteered, 
and  their  departure  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  great  demon- 
stration. Many  old  people  were  there,  and  the  speeches 
were  in  the  native  tongue.  Without  any  attempt  to 
inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  meeting,  "native  patriots" 
threw  rocks  in  the  window,  attacked  the  audience,  and 
drove  them  forth  from  the  building  as  though  they_had 
been  Huns  caught  in  some  atrocity. 

In  Iowa  and  Nebraska,  meetings  held  to  secure  recruits 
for  the  Czechoslovak  army  were  broken  up  because  English 
was  not  used,  and  from  scores  of  communities  we  received 
pathetic  letters  telling  how  Bohemian  parents,  who  had 

175 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

given  all  their  sons  to  the  American  army,  were  hounded 
as  traitors  because  they  could  not  speak  English. 

The  Council  of  Defense  for  Seward  County,  Nebraska, 
requested  all  the  churches  in  the  district  to  conduct  their 
services  in  English,  except  one  for  old  people  who  could 
not  understand  English.  The  minister  of  the  Danish 
Lutheran  church  of  Staplehurst,  one  Hansen,  asked  the 
Council's  permission  to  continue  preaching  in  Danish 
because  he  was  not  young  when  he  came  to  America,  also 
because  his  bad  ears  had  prevented  him  from  learning 
English  sufficiently  well  to  preach  in  it.  The  Council 
denied  his  request  and  also  refused  him  a  year's  grace 
while  he  found  other  work  to  support  himself  and  his 
family. 

The  Danish  Young  People's  Society  of  America  changed 
a  "loyalty  convention"  from  Iowa  because  forbidden 
the  use  of  Danish.  Queerly  enough,  many  of  the  members 
of  the  society  speak  and  understand  Danish  but  poorly, 
and,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  always  use  English 
among  themselves.  But  as  85  per  cent,  of  the  mem- 
bers were  serving  in  the  United  States  army  and  navy, 
the  members  deeply  resented  the  charge  that  the  use  of 
Danish  in  any  way  interfered  with  their  patriotism. 

Sheer  stubbornness,  of  course,  but  exceedingly  natural. 
The  Danes,  Norse,  and  Swedes  are  proud  people,  and  very 
"set,"  and  it  stung  them  unbearably  to  be  adjudged 
unpatriotic  in  any  degree  and  to  have  their  native  tongues 
put  under  the  ban  along  with  German.  But  while  they  re- 
sented and  protested,  even  working  hard  to  remember  a 
language  half  forgotten,  they  never  failed  to  make  them- 
selves understood  in  every  Liberty  Loan  drive,  Red  Cross 
rally,  or  at  every  recruiting  station. 

All  the  while  the  foreign-born,  patiently,  indomitably, 
were  writing  a  record  of  devotion  shot  through  with  ser- 
vice and  sacrifice.  In  Milwaukee  a  group  of  Polish  women 

176 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

evolved  an  idea  that  spread  all  over  the  United  States  into 
every  racial  group.  In  order  that  their  husbands  might 
fight,  these  Polish  women  clubbed  together  by  sixes  and 
eights,  rented  a  house,  selected  from  among  themselves 
a  housekeeper  who  took  care  of  the  house  and  the  children 
while  the  other  five  or  seven  went  to  work.  In  this  way, 
their  living  expenses  were  cut  down  so  that  they  could 
not  only  support  themselves  and  relieve  their  husbands 
from  any  anxiety  about  them,  but  were  even  able  to  buy 
Liberty  bonds  from  their  savings. 

The  Italians  in  the  United  States  are  about  4  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  population,  but  the  list  of  casualties 
shows  a  full  10  per  cent,  of  Italian  names.  More  than 
three  hundred  thousand  Italians  figured  on  the  army  list, 
and  in  defense  of  the  inner  lines  as  well  as  on  the  firing- 
lines  they  proved  their  devotion  to  their  adopted  country. 
There  was  no  shipyard,  ammunition  -  factory,  airplane- 
factory,  steel-mill,  mine,  lumber-camp,  or  docks  in  which 
the  Italians  did  not  play  a  large  part,  and  often  the  most 
prominent  part,  in  actual  and  efficient  work.  In  some 
places,  such  as  mines  and  docks,  the  Italians  reached 
fully  30  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  employees, 
working  at  all  times  with  full  and  affectionate  loyalty 
toward  the  government  of  the  United  States.  For  in- 
stance, when  a  strike  was  threatened  in  one  of  the  big 
industrial  centers,  it  was  an  Italian  who  jumped  on  a  box 
and  cried,  "If  you  leave  work  now,  it  will  be  as  though 
you  were  sneaking  back  out  of  a  trench,  abandoning  your 
comrades  at  the  time  of  a  fight  when  they  need  you  most." 
And  the  strike  was  averted. 

The  Lithuanians,  of  whom  there  are  about  one  million 
in  the  United  States,  gave  thirty  thousand  soldiers  to  the 
colors,  50  per  cent,  of  them  volunteers.  At  the  close  of 
the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan,  the  leaders  assured  us  that  there 
was  not  a  Lithuanian  home  in  the  United  States  in  which 

177 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  family  savings  had  not  been  invested  in  bonds  or  War 
Savings  Stamps. 

There  are  about  15,000  Russians  in  the  United  States 
army  and  the  total  contribution  of  Russians  to  the  Fourth 
Liberty  Loan  was  $40,000,000. 

The  National  Croatian  Society,  with  a  membership 
of  42,000,  did  these  three  things:  adopted  one  of  the  most 
ringing  declarations  of  loyalty  ever  penned;  decreed  ex- 
pulsion for  any  member  expressing  a  disloyal  sentiment 
or  attempting  to  evade  military  service;  bought  $300,000 
of  Liberty  bonds,  and  donated  over  $50,000  to  Red  Cross 
work. 

In  the  army  were  60,000  men  of  Greek  birth  or  descent, 
and  it  is  estimated  that  the  Greek  purchase  of  Liberty 
bonds  was  well  over  $30,000,000  for  the  four  drives,  all 
coming  in  small  amounts  that  represented  sacrifice. 

It  is  a  record  that  could  be  stretched  out  into  pages, 
for  there  is  not  a  foreign-language  group  in  the  United 
States  that  did  not  answer  America's  call  with  devotion 
and  understanding,  pathetically  proud  of  their  Liberty 
bonds  and  their  service  flags,  and  feeling  every  individual 
instance  of  indifference  or  disloyalty  as  a  stain  and  a  shame. 
But  never  at  any  time  were  we  able  to  fix  this  record  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  American  people  or  to  induce 
the  press  of  the  United  States  to  give  it  prominence  or  even 
recognition.  It  was  infinite  labor  to  get  noted  Americans 
to  address  the  foreign-language  groups,  and  great  loyalty 
meetings  of  the  foreign-born,  where  thousands  pledged 
lives  and  money  and  love,  either  went  unnoticed  by  the 
papers  or  were  given  an  indifferent  little  note  of  two  or 
three  lines. 

As  if  prejudice,  indifference,  and  misguided  patriotism 
were  not  handicaps  enough  in  the  fight  for  unity,  politics 
also  played  an  ugly  part  in  the  drama  of  confusion. 
Particularly  was  this  true  in  the  Northwest,  where  Scandi- 

178 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

navians  and  Germans  are  in  the  majority  among  the 
farmers.  There  is  no  doubt  that  many  of  these  people 
were  pro-German  at  the  outset,  and,  even  after  America's 
entrance,  pro-Germanism  persisted  by  reason  of  well- 
established  lies  and  certain  fundamental  ignorances. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Information,  formed  to  fight 
disaffection,  attacked  the  Northwest  at  once.  Our  pam- 
phlets and  motion  pictures,  received  somewhat  coldly  at 
first,  soon  began  to  gain  ground,  and  the  next  move  was 
to  send  speakers,  for  there  is  nothing  like  the  give  and  take 
of  a  public  meeting  to  burn  away  misunderstanding. 
The  one  organization  that  we  wanted  most  particularly 
to  reach  was  the  Nonpartisan  League,  for  it  had  a  mem- 
bership that  covered  the  Dakotas,  Minnesota,  Montana, 
and  Idaho,  and,  more  than  any  other,  was  impregnated 
with  the  lie  about  a  "rich  man's  war." 

The  leaders  of  the  Nonpartisan  League  came  personally 
to  Washington  to  ask  the  government  to  commence  a 
campaign  of  patriotic  education,  and  Minnesota  was  se- 
lected for  the  initiation  of  the  drive.  Our  speakers, 
however,  upon  arrival  in  Minnesota,  were  informed  by 
the  State  Public  Safety  Commission  that  they  would  not 
be  allowed  to  address  any  meetings  arranged  by  the 
Nonpartisan  League  or  under  its  auspices.  There  was 
no  quarrel  with  the  men  we  sent,  for  the  Commission 
asked  permission  to  use  them  in  its  own  speaking  campaign. 

As  we  tried  to  explain  to  them,  however,  the  main 
purpose  in  sending  speakers  over  the  United  States  was  not 
to  address  those  already  enthusiastic  in  the  national 
service,  but  to  reach  and  convert  people  out  of  touch  and 
sympathy  with  American  thought  and  aims.  Even  if 
the  Nonpartisan  League  were  disloyal,  then  the  more 
reason  why  our  speakers  should  smash  at  its  membership 
with  the  truth.  But  the  State  Public  Safety  Commission 
stood  like  iron,  barred  our  speakers  absolutely,  and  inaugu- 

179 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

rated  a  campaign  of  terrorism  that  had  its  ugly  reflex 
among  the  farmers  and  labor  unions  in  every  state. 

In  summer  the  proscribed  farmers  were  compelled  to 
hold  Liberty  Loan  rallies  or  Red  Cross  meetings  out  in 
the  fields  under  the  blazing  sun,  and  in  winter  they  huddled 
in  cowsheds  and  car-barns.  Parades  were  stopped  by 
Home  Guards  or  broken  up  by  townsmen.  Old  men  and 
women  were  dragged  from  automobiles,  and  on  one 
wretched  occasion  a  baby  of  six  months  was  torn  from  its 
mother's  arms  by  the  powerful  stream  from  a  fire-hose. 
Tar-and-feather  "parties"  were  common,  and  even  de- 
portations took  place,  men  being  driven  from  their  homes 
and  from  the  very  state  because  they  had  sons  belonging 
to  the  League. 

There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  political  nature  of  the  per- 
secution. The  Nonpartisan  League  had  carried  the  state 
of  North  Dakota,  and  was  showing  such  strength  in 
Minnesota,  South  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Montana,  and  Idaho 
as  to  arouse  the  alarm  of  Democratic  and  Republican 
politicians.  These  leaders  made  no  bones  about  confessing 
that  the  disloyalty  issue  was  the  means  by  which  they 
hoped  to  crush  and  destroy  the  Nonpartisan  League  as 
a  political  organization. 

Such  is  the  seeming  invincibility  of  the  democratic 
ideal,  however,  that  even  campaigns  of  terrorism  could 
not  drive  its  membership,  largely  German  and  Scandi- 
navian, into  disloyalty.  North  Dakota,  where  the  League 
elected  every  state  officer,  had  a  war  record  of  which  any 
state  might  be  proud. 

The  State  Councils  of  Defense  did  splendid  work,  as 
a  rule,  and  the  country  owes  much  to  them,  but  there  were 
exceptions  that  aroused  far  more  anger  than  loyalty, 
conducting  themselves  in  a  manner  that  would  have  been 
lawless  in  any  other  than  a  "patriotic"  body.  During 
Liberty  Loan  drives,  for  instance,  it  became  a  habit,  in 

180 


THE   "AMERICANIZERS" 

certain  sections,  to  compel  a  regular  income  return  from 
the  foreign-born  and  the  poorer  classes.  Men,  claiming 
authority,  would  visit  these  homes,  insist  upon  a  statement 
of  earnings,  expenditures,  savings,  etc.,  and  then  calmly 
announce  the  amount  of  the  contribution  that  the  dazed 
victims  were  expected  to  make.  Anything  in  the  nature 
of  resistance  was  set  down  as  "slacking"  and  "disloyalty," 
and  some  of  the  penalties  visited  were  expulsion  from  the 
community,  personal  ill  treatment,  or  a  pleasant  little 
attention  like  painting  the  house  yellow.  Of  all  the  bit- 
ternesses and  disaffections  reported  to  us,  the  majority 
proceeded  from  this  sort  of  terrorism,  and  it  had  results 
that  will  be  felt  for  years  to  come. 

Another  handicap  in  the  fight  for  national  unity  soon 
presented  itself  in  the  form  of  those  volunteer  patriotic 
societies  that  sprang  up  over  the  land  like  mushrooms, 
all  sincere  and  loyal  enough,  but  demoralizing  often  by 
virtue  of  this  very  eagerness.  These  organizations  col- 
lected their  funds  by  public  appeal,  and  as  the  most  obvious 
justification  of  existence  was  furnished  by  publicity, 
their  activities  inevitably  took  such  form  as  would  earn 
the  largest  amount  of  newspaper  space.  As  a  consequence, 
their  patriotism  was  a  thing  of  screams,  violence,  and 
extremes;  they  outjingoed  the  worst  of  the  jingoes,  and 
their  constant  practice  of  extreme  statement  left  a  trail 
of  anger,  irritation,  and  resentment. 

One  instance  may  be  cited  as  illustrative.  Prof.  Robert 
McNutt  McElroy  of  the  National  Security  League,  re- 
turning from  a  three  weeks'  tour  of  the  West,  gave  out 
a  statement  in  which  he  said  that  he  had  known  what 
it  was  "to  face  large  bodies  of  young  men  clad  in  the 
uniform  of  the  American  army  beneath  which  were  con- 
cealed the  souls  of  Prussians."  Later,  in  The  New  York 
Tribune,  he  gave  the  University  of  Wisconsin  as  the  place 
where  he  had  encountered  disloyalty.  The  basis  of  the 

13  181 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

charge  was  the  inattention  of  the  audience  throughout 
his  speech,  shuffling  feet,  snapping  of  rifle  triggers,  etc., 
and  he  told  how,  finally,  to  test  the  audience,  he  leaned 
forward  and  deliberately  insulted  them  as  "a  bunch  of 
damned  traitors";  how,  to  his  amazement,  there  was  no 
resentment  whatever  of  this  or  of  his  later  reference  to 
"a  Prussian  audience."  "I  hesitate  to  accuse  an  entire 
university  of  disloyalty,"  he  said,  "but  to  my  mind  that 
episode  stands  out  as  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  things 
I  have  encountered." 

Dr.  Charles  R.  Van  Hise,  president  of  the  university, 
John  Bradley  Winslow,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Wisconsin,  and  E.  A.  Birge  of  the  College  of 
Science  and  Letters  were  appointed  as  a  committee  of 
protest,  and  their  report  asserted  that  the  address  had 
been  long;  that  the  audience  included  the  cadet  regiment 
— students — who  had  marched  two  and  a  half  miles  in 
the  rain  and  were  wet  and  cold;  that,  being  present  under 
orders  and  unable  to  withdraw,  they  merely  indicated 
their  desire  for  an  end  to  the  long  speech;  that  Professor 
McElroy's  reflections  on  their  loyalty  were  made  in  a  tone 
so  low  that  persons  within  •  twenty  feet  of  him  did  not 
hear  the  words  at  all. 

Thus,  then,  by  reason  of  a  speaker  who  failed  to  hold 
an  audience  of  boys  throughout  an  address  of  two  hours, 
the  loyalty  of  a  state  was  impugned,  the  patriotism  of  a 
great  university  was  besmirched,  and  a  new  element  of 
anger  and  justifiable  resentment  introduced  into  the 
already  delicate  Wisconsin  situation. 

And  so  the  story  runs  on  drearily,  vommes  being  neces- 
sary for  any  complete  and  circumstantial  account  of  the 
obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  millions  of  foreign  birth 
or  descent  as  they  marched  forward  from  every  state  in 
answer  to  the  battle-call  of  their  adopted  country.  The  big 
fact  is  that  they  continued  to  march  and  that  they  arrived. 

182 


THE  "AMERICANIZERS" 

We  are  even  now  so  close  to  the  trees  that  we  cannot 
see  the  forest.  All  that  we  have  known  is  the  underbrush 
of  irritation,  the  tearing  vines  of  prejudice,  and  the  poison- 
ivy  of  politics.  But  when  the  day  is  come  that  we  are  on 
a 'hill,  blessed  with  vision  and  perspective,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  rallying  of  America  was  not  sectional  nor  yet 
racial,  but  that  it  was  the  tremendous  response  of  a  unified 
whole,  with  men  and  women  from  other  lands  standing 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  native-born,  serving  and 
sacrificing  with  the  same  devotion,  and  in  equal  measure 
pouring  their  blood  on  the  altar  of  freedom. 


XV 

WORK  AMONG   THE   FOREIGN-BORN 

THE  loyalty  of  "our  aliens,"  however,  splendid  as  it 
was,  had  in  it  nothing  of  the  spontaneous  or  the  ac- 
cidental. Results  were  obtained  only  by  hard,  driving 
work.  The  bitterness  bred  by  years  of  neglect  and  in- 
justice were  not  to  be  dissipated  by  any  mere  war-call, 
but  had  to  be  burned  away  by  a  continuous  educational 
campaign.  The  real  America  had  to  be  revealed  to  these 
foreign-language  groups — its  drama  of  hope  and  struggle, 
success  and  blunders — and  their  minds  had  to  be  filled 
with  the  tremendous  truth  that  the  fight  against  Germany 
was  a  fight  for  all  that  life  has  taught  decent  human 
beings  to  hold  dear. 

This  campaign  succeeded  because  the  Committee  avoided 
the  professional  "Americanizers,"  and  steered  clear  of 
the  accepted  forms  of  "Americanization."  We  worked 
from  the  inside,  not  from  the  outside,  aiding  each  group  to 
develop  its  own  loyalty  league,  and  utilizing  the  natural 
and  existing  leaders,  institutions,  and  machinery.  We 
offered  co-operation  and  supervision,  and  we  gave  counsel, 
not  commands.  As  a  consequence,  each  group  had  its 
own  task,  its  own  responsibility,  and  as  soon  as  these 
facts  were  clearly  understood  the  response  was  immediate. 

Mr.  Edwin  Bjorkman,  the  auther  and  publicist,  was 
selected  to  go  to  the  Scandinavian  group  with  the  plan, 
and  in  a  short  while  the  Americans  of  Swedish  birth  and 

184 


ALEXANDER  KONTA    vM JOSEPHINE  ROCHE  (J^  JULIUS  KOETTGEN 

Bfl.../iafc__  M 


ROBERT  E.  LEE  DR.  ANTONIO  STELLA 

EDWIN  BJORKMAN 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

descent  organized  the  John  Ericsson  League  of  Patriotic 
Service  with  the  following  Executive  Committee:  Harry 
Olsen,  president,  Chicago,  111.;  Harry  A.  Lund,  vice- 
president,  Minneapolis,  Minn.;  Edwin  Bjorkman,  secre- 
tary, New  York;  Henry  S.  Henschen,  treasurer,  Chicago; 
Chas.  S.  Peterson,  chairman  Finance  Committee,  Chicago; 
Gustaf  Andreen,  Rock  Island,  111.;  J.  C.  Bergquist,  New 
York;  J.  E.  Chilberg,  Seattle,  Wash.;  Andrew  Langquist, 
Chicago;  Othelia  Myhrman,  Chicago;  Eric  Norton,  St. 
Paul,  Minn.;  and  Victor  Olander,  Chicago. 

Then  came  the  Jacob  A.  Riis  League  of  Patriotic  Ser- 
vice, formed  by  the  Danes,  with  this  Executive  Board: 
Max  Henius,  president,  Chicago;  Sophus  F.  Neble,  first 
vice-president,  Omaha,  Neb.;  John  C.  Christensen,  sec- 
ond vice-president,  Chicago;  Carl  Antonsen,  secretary, 
Chicago;  Jens  C.  Hanse,  treasurer  and  chairman  Fi- 
nance Committee,  Chicago;  Axel  Hellrung,  New  York; 
Henry  L.  Hertz,  Chicago ;  William  Hovgaard,  Washington, 
D.  C.;  Halvor  Jacobsen,  New  York;  and  Truels  P.  Niel- 
sen, Seattle,  Wash. 

Because  of  the  large  number  of  Norwegian-American 
clubs,  societies,  and  fraternal  organizations  throughout 
the  country,  all  busy  with  patriotic  work  and  war  activi- 
ties, no  separate  Norwegian  organization  for  this  purpose 
was  deemed  advisable  or  necessary.  Moreover,  every 
prominent  Norwegian-American  stood  ready  at  all  times 
to  assist  with  his  counsel  and  influence,  and  among  those 
of  great  service  to  the  Committee  may  be  mentioned 
Magnus  Swensen,  Madison,  Wis.,  federal  food  administra- 
tor of  Wisconsin,  and  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover's  chief  assistant 
in  Northern  Europe;  Mr.  Lauritz  S.  Swensen,  Minneapolis, 
former  United  States  Minister  to  Norway;  Mr.  John  P. 
Howland,  Chicago ;  Attorney  Andrew  Hummelarid,  Chicago ; 
Birger  Osland,  Chicago,  major  in  the  United  States  army, 
attached  to  the  American  Legation,  Christiania,  Norway; 

185 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Joachim  G.  Giaver,  president  of  the  Chicago  Norwegian 
Club,  Chicago;  Mr.  Hauman  G.  Haugan,  director  of  the 
State  Bank  of  Chicago;  Oscar  M.  Torrisen,  Chicago;  Louis 
M.  Anderson,  publisher  of  Skandinaven,  Chicago;  Mr.  A.  N. 
Rygg,  vice-president  of  the  Norwegian  News  Co.,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.;  the  Rev.  J.  A.  O.  Stub,  Minneapolis;  and  many 
others. 

The  Finns  formed  the  Lincoln  Loyalty  League,  with 
O.  J.  Larson  as  president  and  J.  H.  Jasberg  as  secretary. 

The  Roman  Legion,  under  the  brilliant  leadership  of 
Dr.  Antonio  Stella  and  Dr.  Albert  Bonaschi,  proved  a 
power  among  the  Americans  of  Italian  birth  and  descent, 
and  I  have  always  felt  that  it  was  this  body,  as  much  as 
any  one  other  source  of  strength,  that  enabled  Italy  to 
make  such  an  amazing  recovery  from  the  Caporetto 
disaster.  In  that  hour  of  despair,  cablegrams  and  letters 
were  poured  into  Italy  from  the  United  States  by  the 
thousands,  going  from  individuals,  pastors,  societies,  and 
associations,  calling  upon  the  soldiers  of  Savoy  to  stand 
fast,  that  the  Americans  were  coming  and  every  dollar 
and  every  life  in  America  was  pledged  to  victory. 

Charles  Pergler,  now  representing  the  Republic  of 
Czechoslovakia  in  Japan,  was  our  reliance  always  in  dealing 
with  the  peoples  from  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Slovakia, 
and  when  Dr.  Thomas  Garrigues  Masaryk  came  to  the 
United  States  he  put  himself  wholly  and  generously  at 
our  disposal. 

For  work  among  the  Poles  we  had  Paderewski,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  wonderful  in  his  devotions,  enthusiasm, 
and  genius  for  leadership,  and  there  was  also  Sigismund 
Ivanowski,  that  great  painter  and  even  greater  man. 
John  Wedda,  John  Smulski,  and  many  others,  actuated 
by  the  same  pure  passions,  were  also  sources  of  strength. 

Then  there  were  our  close  contacts  with  the  Serbian 
Legation  and  the  Japanese  Embassy;  with  Captain  Stoica, 

186 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

representing  the  Rumanians;  with  Doctor  Hinkovic, 
representing  the  Jugoslavs,  and  with  Doctor  Szlupas  of 
the  Lithuanian  National  Council. 

Work  among  the  Hungarian  population  was  intrusted 
to  Mr.  Alexander  Konta  of  New  York,  who  gave  time, 
money,  and  finest  faith  to  a  difficult  and  thankless  task. 
It  was  not  only  that  certain  vicious  factional  elements 
threw  every  possible  obstacle  in  his  path,  but  he  was 
equally  attacked  by  The  New  York  Tribune  and  similar 
papers  that  made  a  business  of  chauvinism.  Undismayed 
and  undiscouraged,  Mr.  Konta  continued  the  work,  and 
the  American-Hungarian  Loyalty  League  played  no  small 
part  in  our  national  unity,  for  men  of  Magyaj  stock 
figured  importantly  in  the  coal  and  steel  industries. 

The  American  Friends  of  German  Democracy  was 
another  organization  that  had  to  run  the  gantlet  of  secret 
disloyalty  and  a  stupid  chauvinism.  The  pro-Kaiser 
brand  of  German-America  fought  it  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  murder  threats  were  common.  The  word  "democ- 
cracy"  was  an  offense  to  the  majority  of  the  "better  class," 
who  derided  the  idea  of  a  German  republic  as  "imbecile" 
and  "impudent."  The  chief  enemies,  however,  were 
pseudo-patriots  and  hue-and-cry  newspapers,  none  of  them 
losing  a  chance  to  harass.  Also,  at  regular  intervals, 
some  broken-arched  representative  of  the  Department  of 
Justice  would  stalk  into  the  office,  convinced  that  he  had 
unearthed  a  "nest  of  German  spies." 

I  did  not  put  the  full  force  of  the  Committee  behind  the 
American  Friends  of  German  Democracy  until  its  person- 
nel and  purposes  had  been  subjected  to  every  investigation, 
but  only  the  intimacies  of  contact  gave  me  full  apprecia- 
tion of  the  courage  and  patriotism  of  the  men  in  charge 
of  the  movement.  For  instance,  the  president  was  Franz 
Sigel  of  New  York,  the  son  of  that  general  of  the  same 
name  who,  after  having  fought  for  liberty  in  Germany, 

187 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

came  to  the  United  States  and  offered  an  exile's  sword 
to  Lincoln.  Its  honorary  president  was  the  late  Dr. 
Abraham  Jacobi,  the  famous  physician  who,  after  having 
been  imprisoned  for  his  liberal  opinions  by  the  Prussian 
government,  fled  to  this  country  to  become  a  beloved 
citizen  and  an  honor  to  the  medical  profession.  The  most 
powerful  spokesman  of  the  movement  was  Rudolph 
Blankenburg,  the  former  Mayor  of  Philadelphia,  whose 
death  in  the  spring  of  1918  deprived  America  of  one  of 
its  ablest  and  most  honored  public  servants.  J.  Koettgen, 
the  secretary,  and  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  movement, 
was  another  of  those  free  minds  who  had  long  been  fight- 
ing the  Prussian  system.  He  was  of  German  birth  and 
blood,  but  no  heir  to  the  traditions  of  Plymouth  Rock 
had  a  finer,  more  virile  conception  of  what  it  meant  to  be 
an  American. 

Among  the  men  who  helped  most  at  all  times  were 
Dr.  Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  celebrated  as  a  statistician; 
Dr.  S.  Adolphus  Knopf,  chosen  by  the  War  Department 
to  instruct  the  American  soldiers  in  France  how  to  keep 
free  from  tuberculosis.  In  Chicago  it  was  Mr.  Otto  C. 
Butz,  who  gathered  round  him  all  the  actively  patriotic 
Americans  of  German  descent.  In  Wisconsin  Mr.  Karl 
Mathie  did  yeoman  work  for  the  cause  of  America  and  de- 
mocracy. Some  of  the  strongest  supporters  of  the  move- 
ment were  business  men  like  the  late  William  Sleicher  of 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  Charles  J.  Schlegel  of  New  York.  From 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  a  steady  stream  of  personal  letters, 
appeals,  and  pamphlets  went  out  from  Dr.  Christian 
Sihler,  the  son  of  the  German  officer  and  clergyman  who 
many  decades  ago  came  to  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  to  establish 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  Lutheran  communities.  Miss 
K.  Elizabeth  Sihler  seconded  her  brother's  efforts  in 
Fort  Wayne.  Dr.  William  Bohn  addressed  hundreds  of 
meetings  attended  by  people  of  German  origin,  and  under- 

188 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

stood,  as  did  few  others,  liow  to  arouse  the  feeling  of  Amer- 
ican loyalty.  Mr.  William  Forster  of  New  York  and 
Mr.  Richard  Lieber  of  Indianapolis  proved  most  convin- 
cing and  effective  speakers.  Prof.  Otta  Manthey-Zorn, 
the  son  of  a  German  missionary,  who  would  not  bow  his 
knee  to  Bismarck  and  brought  his  band  of  missionaries 
into  the  free  atmosphere  of  the  United  States,  stirred  the 
interest  of  the  German-born  in  the  New  England  States. 
Mr.  Henry  Riesenberg,  a  business  man,  formerly  of  Indian- 
apolis, now  of  New  York,  employed  all  of  his  spare  time 
in  addressing  public  meetings. 

The  most  effective  work,  however,  was  probably  done 
by  the  host  of  plain  men  and  women  whose  names  are 
not  widely  known.  There  was,  for  instance,  Mr.  George 
Schauer  of  Indianapolis,  who  acted  as  organizer  for  Indiana. 
A  Bavarian  peasant  who  settled  in  the  United  States 
after  having  been  ill-treated  in  the  German  army,  Mr. 
Schauer  attacked  his  task  with  rare  enthusiasm  and  de- 
votion, and  soon  became  indispensable  to  all  patriotic 
organizations  in  Indiana.  Then  there  was  Mr.  William 
R.  Bricker,  the  organizer  for  Pennsylvania,  to  whom  the 
war  provided  the  opportunity  to  prove  his  great  organizing 
abilities. 

The  work  of  the  organization  was  carried  on  through 
many  activities.  During  the  war,  hundreds  of  meetings 
were  held  throughout  the  country.  Among  the  bodies 
that  gave  the  most  powerful  support  must  be  mentioned 
the  Turners,  whose  democratic  origin  and  tendencies  lined 
them  up  quite  naturally  on  the  side  of  the  United  States 
and  its  cobelligerents. 

About  a  million  pamphlets  were  distributed,  chiefly 
to  members  of  the  thousands  of  clubs  and  benefit  societies 
formed  by  the  people  of  German  blood.  One  of  the  most 
notable  publications  was  the  edition  of  Lichnowsky's  fa- 
mous memorandum,  with  an  introduction  by  Mr.  Koett- 

189 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

gen.  The  pamphlet  was  republished  in  full  by  many 
German-language  newspapers  in  this  country,  and  proved 
itself  an  effective  answer  to  the  lies  spread  by  German 
propaganda. 

Throughout  the  war  the  German  Bureau  kept  in  closest 
touch  with  the  German-language  press  of  the  United 
States.  A  weekly  bulletin  was  published  both  in  German 
and  English.  The  German  edition  was  sent  to  two  hun- 
dred German-language  newspapers  and  reached  about 
two  million  readers.  The  English  edition  went  to  four 
hundred  American  newspapers  published  mainly  in  those 
parts  of  the  country  where  the  German  population  is  nu- 
merous. The  American  newspapers  expressed  themselves 
in  the  most  laudatory  terms  about  this  press  service. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  work  was  done  abroad. 
Nearly  every  member  of  the  American  Friends  of  German 
Democracy  was  eager  to  send  some  word  of  good  counsel  to 
his  blood-relations  in  Germany.  The  justice  of  America's 
cause  was  always  emphasized,  but  the  chief  point  would 
be  that  it  was  high  time  for  the  Germans  to  get  rid  of  the 
Hohenzollerns  and  militarism.  These  documents  were 
smuggled  into  Germany  by  the  foreign  representatives 
of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  a  number  of 
methods  being  used.  Rather  amusingly  a  splendid  appeal 
written  by  Capt.  A.  L.  Helwig,  an  American  soldier 
born  in  Hamburg,  Germany,  and  a  member  of  the  Exec- 
utive Committee  of  the  American  Friends  of  German 
Democracy,  was  carried  across  the  line  quite  openly. 
One  day,  in  a  certain  Scandinavian  country,  the  courier 
of  the  German  Legation,  just  about  to  leave  for  Germany, 
was  stopped  by  a  very  military-looking  stranger  who 
performed  the  Prussian  kotow  in  the  most  approved 
fashion.  This  stranger,  handing  the  courier  a  great  bundle 
of  pamphlets,  stated  that  they  were  to  be  delivered  to 
the  newspapers  and  Socialist  groups  in  Hamburg  by  order 

190 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

of  the  German  Minister.  The  courier  carried  out  the  com- 
mission and  Helwig's  appeal  created  no  little  furor  in 
Hamburg. 

The  most  effective  contact,  however,  was  with  the 
German  refugees  in  Switzerland,  a  brilliant,  fearless  group 
of  radical  democrats  headed  by  such  men  as  Doctor 
Greeling,  author  of  Jy accuse,  Doctor  Muehlon,  and  Doctor 
Rosenmeyer.  These  publicists,  exiled  from  Germany  by 
reason  of  their  fight  against  Prussianism,  published  the 
Freie  Zeitung,  a  biweekly  paper  that  managed  to  slip 
across  the  line  in  considerable  numbers.  Dr.  Frank  Bohn, 
proceeding  to  Switzerland  as  the  representative  of  the 
American  Friends  of  German  Democracy,  established 
co-operation  arrangements  that  continued  until  the  armis- 
tice. A  steady  stream  of  articles  went  to  the  Freie 
Zeitung  from  the  United  States,  and  each  week  several 
thousand  copies  of  the  paper  came  to  the  United  States 
for  distribution  among  the  German-language  press,  clubs, 
and  societies. 

At  first  the  Germans  pretended  not  to  notice  the  Amer- 
ican organization,  but  finally  they  could  not  contain  their 
wrath.  Some  of  the  most  prominent  German  newspapers 
published  violent  articles  against  the  American  Friends, 
and  "dirty  pigs"  came  to  be  a  favorite  epithet. 

All  these  bodies  worked  well  and  successfully,  but  as  time 
went  on  it  was  seen  that  more  direct  methods  were  neces- 
sary, and  in  May,  1918,  the  Division  of  Work  Among  the 
Foreign-born  was  formed.  Miss  Josephine  Roche,  in  virtual 
charge  of  all  these  various  activities  from  the  first,  was  made 
director  of  the  new  division,  and  it  is  to  her  faith,  vision, 
and  rare  devotions  that  the  amazing  results  were  due. 
Under  Miss  Roche,  the  government  frankly  established 
direct  and  continuous  contact  with  fourteen  racial  groups 
through  the  following  bureaus:  the  Italian,  Hungarian, 
Lithuanian,  Russian,  Jugoslav,  Czechoslovak,  Polish, 

191 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

German  (American  Friends  of  German  Democracy), 
Ukrainian,  Danish,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Finnish,  Dutch, 
and  the  Foreign  Information  Service  Bureau. 

While  the  bureaus  all  had  the  same  aim  for  their  work, 
and  all  employed  similar  methods,  each  group  presented 
problems  entirely  its  own  and  demanded  specialized 
attention.  The  press  and  the  organizations,  national 
and  local,  were  the  nucleus  of  the  work,  and  in  the  cases 
of  the  Italian,  the  Czechoslovak,  and  the  Scandinavian 
groups  these  activities  met  every  need. 

For  other  foreign-language  groups,  such  as  the  Russian, 
Polish,  Jugoslav,  and  Ukrainian,  the  press  alone  was  not 
a  sufficient  means  of  contact:  either  it  was  not  as  widely 
distributed  and  influential  among  them  or  the  consider- 
able degree  of  illiteracy  among  the  people  made  results 
from  the  written  communication  incomplete.  The  pub- 
lication of  pamphlets  and  considerable  work  through  trips 
was  therefore  undertaken  by  these  bureau  managers. 
The  Polish,  Lithuanian,  Hungarian,  and  Ukrainian  bu- 
reaus did  about  an  equal  amount  of  their  work  through 
press  and  organization  contacts  and  through  field-work. 

For  the  fourteen  foreign-language  groups  there  are 
approximately  865  foreign-language  newspapers.  About 
745  of  this  number  were  issued  regularly,  and  it  was  to 
these  that  the  division  sent  its  press  services.  Only  32 
papers  did  not  use  the  material,  all  but  three  of  these  being 
small  papers  of  a  highly  specialized  character;  96  per  cent, 
of  the  papers  availed  themselves  extensively  of  the  ma- 
terial. Very  many  papers  used  all  but  a  few  releases,  and 
it  was  a  frequent  occurrence  to  have  foreign-language 
papers  come  in  carrying  on  their  front  page  two  or  three 
columns  of  the  bureaus'  material. 

National  and  local  organizations,  fraternal,  educational, 
religious,  beneficial,  and  social  in  type,  are  a  powerful 
factor  among  the  foreign-speaking  groups.  Their  con- 

192 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

ventions  bring  together  hundreds  of  delegates  from  all 
the  various  centers  of  the  foreign-language  groups, 
and  their  activities  are  far-reaching.  The  information 
on  government  activities,  prepared  in  the  form  of  bulle- 
tins or  circular  letters  by  the  bureaus,  and  sent  to  these 
organizations,  was  invariably  given  the  most  effective 
distribution  to  members.  Draft  and  registration  circu- 
lars, regulations  issued  by  the  Passport  Control  Division 
of  the  Department  of  Stale,  income-tax  provisions,  were 
carefully  and  thoroughly  distributed  by  them.  They  also 
gave  most  valuable  and  suggestive  advice  as  to  the  needs 
and  desires  of  their  groups  for  instruction  and  under- 
standing. 

While  there  was  no  need  to  issue  literature  in  any  large 
quantity  because  of  the  facilities  offered  us  for  reaching 
foreign-language  groups  by  their  press  organizations,  the 
following  pamphlets  (in  addition  to  the  German)  were 
printed  as  a  result  of  a  desire  and  need  found  to  exist  for 
them  and  had  a  distribution  of  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand:  "America  in  War  and  Peace,"  in 
Ukrainian;  "A  Message  to  American-Hungarians,"  in 
Hungarian;  "Abraham  Lincoln,"  in  Russian;  "League 
of  Nations,"  in  Russian. 

All  bureau  managers,  either  when  initiating  the  work 
or  at  frequent  intervals  during  its  continuance,  learned 
through  personal  conference  the  situation  among  their 
groups  and  gained  complete  confidence  from  their  people 
in  their  work.  Lectures  were  very  popular,  and  the 
following  letter  received  by  a  representative  of  the  Russian 
bureau  will  give  an  idea  of  how  eager  these  people  were 
for  the  truth: 

You  have  done  very  much  for  the  Russian  colony  of  the  city 
of  -  — .  You  even  made  our  Bolsheviki  think  and  speak  about 

education.     I  often  think  now  that  if  we  had  in  several 

people  like  you,  many  of  the  Russian  workmen  would  have  been 

193 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

saved  from  the  Utopian  Bolshevism,  would  not  believe  its  idle 
promises,  and  would  learn  to  govern  themselves  independently. 
Several  of  our  members  were  present  at  the  lecture  and  all  were 
very  much  pleased  and  grateful  to  you.  Our  group  has  authorized 

me  to  ask  you  to  come  to  live  in .    You  are  a  man  of  science, 

and  we  have  no  educated  people  among  us.  You  know  that  the 
mind  of  the  Russian  workmen  has  been  moved  from  its  former 
standpoint;  it  wants  to  go  somewhere,  but  it  does  not  know  the 
way.  If  you,  the  intelligent  people,  will  not  help  it  to  find  the 
way,  other  unscrupulous  people  will  take  advantage  of  the 
occasion. 

The  Foreign  Information  Service,  first  directed  by  Mr. 
Donald  Breed  and  after  that  by  Mr.  Barrett  Clark,  was 
designed  to  encourage  the  foreign-language  groups  of 
America  by  releasing  stories  telling  of  their  co-operation 
with  the  government  in  such  matters  as  the  Liberty  Loan, 
the  Red  Cross,  etc.,  and  to  assist  the  foreign-language 
press  not  only  in  securing  prompt  and  efficient  co-operation 
with  the  government  departments,  but  by  informing  the 
American  people  through  the  native-language  press  of 
the  work  that  had  been  done  and  was  now  being  done  by 
the  foreign-language  press  in  helping  the  foreigner  to 
become  a  better  American.  Over  fifty  such  stories  were 
released  to  thirty-three  hundred  American  papers,  these 
titles  conveying  the  general  idea:  "The  Jugoslav  Club," 
" Greek- American  Boys  Are  Genuine  Patriots,"  "Lithua- 
nians Support  Fourth  Liberty  Loan,"  "The  Czechoslovaks 
in  America,"  "Ukrainians  in  America  Eager  for  Education," 
and  "Russian-Americans  Aid  America  in  Bond  Sales." 
Fourteen  "News  Bulletins,"  giving  a  number  of  very 
brief  accounts  on  the  activities  of  the  foreign-born,  were 
also  sent  out.  In  addition  to  information  service  through 
press  organizations,  all  bureaus  did  considerable  trans- 
lating of  letters  and  articles  for  government  departments 
and  furnished  them  numerous  reports  concerning  their 
group. 

194 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

Highly  intensive,  as  well  as  extensive,  work  was  done 
in  co-operation  with  the  office  of  the  Provost-Marshal- 
General.  All  the  bureaus  released  for  days  before  regis- 
tration the  fullest  and  clearest  instructions  which  received 
columns  of  space  daily  in  the  press.  Provost-Marshal- 
General  Crowder  wrote  us  the  following  letter  in  regard 
to  the  bureau's  achievements: 

I  have  already  expressed  to  Mr.  Creel  my  appreciation  of  the 
invaluable  work  done  by  all  members  of  his  staff  in  contributing 
to  publicity  on  Registration  Day.  But  I  have  an  especial  senti- 
ment of  gratitude  to  yourself,  because  the  task  of  reaching  the 
foreign-born,  who  are  unfamiliar  with  our  language,  seemed  to 
me  to  be  one  of  the  most  difficult,  and  perhaps  beyond  power  of 
achievement. 

But  as  I  read  your  report  of  the  methods  employed,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  task  was  fully  accomplished.  The  daily  arrivals 
of  newspapers  in  foreign  languages  show  how  wide-spread  are 
the  ramifications  of  influence  of  your  office,  and  have  revealed 
to  me  what  a  powerful  and  effective  agency  the  government 
possesses.  Your  tact,  energy,  and  ingenuity  in  utilizing  this  agency 
to  its  fullest  command  my  admiration,  and  I  offer  my  personal 
thanks. 

Far  more  exhaustive  was  the  work  done  in  co-operation 
with  the  Internal  Revenue  Department  in  explaining  and 
helping  work  out  the  provisions  of  the  revenue  bill  affect- 
ing aliens.  A  most  critical  situation  was  created  among 
the  foreign-speaking  people  by  the  law's  failure  sufficiently 
to  define  the  terms  "resident"  and  "non-resident"  aliens, 
and  by  its  provision  that  employers  should  withhold  8  per 
cent,  from  the  wages  of  then*  non-resident  employees, 
their  total  tax  being  12  per  cent,  as  against  the  6  per  cent, 
paid  by  citizens  and  resident  aliens.  The  matter  came  to 
the  attention  of  our  bureau  managers  through  letters  and 
personal  appeals  from  their  people  all  over  the  country. 
Altogether  nearly  3,000  of  these  appeals  came  in,  showing 
a  state  of  complete  bewilderment  and  wretchedness,  and 

195 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  two   following,  from   different  language  groups,  will 
give  some  idea  of  the  situation: 

RUSSIAN  BUREAU:  I,  -  — ,  beg  the  Russian  Bureau  to  help 
me.  The  Russian  immigrants  are  not  able  to  pay  the  war  [prob- 
ably income]  taxes.  Some  time  ago  I  read  in  the  papers  that 
only  those  who  earned  more  than  $1,000  a  year  have  to  pay  the 
tax  and  only  on  what  they  earned  over  $1,000;  and  I  have  paid 
$12.07.  But  now  in  the  factory  they  withhold  more,  and  tell 
that  I  myself  must  pay  $145  for  last  year,  and  if  I  have  to  pay 
for  this  year  also,  I  will  have  to  pay  more  than  $300.  And  so  I 
have  to  work,  but  do  not  get  money  to  live  on.  And  I  beg  the 
Russian  Bureau  to  answer  my  prayer,  and  to  tell  me  what  is 
going  to  become  of  the  Russian  immigrants. 

GENTLEMEN:  I  wish  to  send  my  complaint  against  the  - 
in  St.  Joseph,  Mo.  I  am  a  poor  man,  and  working  very  hard  for 
my  living.  I  do  not  know  who  is  wronging  me,  either  United 
States  government  or  the  company.  In  the  office  they  asked 
me  whether  I  will  go  back  to  Europe;  I  answered  yes.  Then 
they  told  me  that  I  have  to  pay  the  tax.  I  asked  them  what 
kind  of  a  tax?  For  the  year  1918.  I  said,  all  right,  how  much 
I  have  to  pay?  $25,  they  told  me.  I  said,  never  mind!  Then 
they  withhold  my  one  week  and  half  wages.  I  thought  that  I 
would  get  the  third  week  pay,  so  I  could  pay  to  the  grocer  and 
the  storekeeper.  But  nevertheless  they  withheld  the  third  pay. 
I  was  supposed  to  get  $19.58,  and  they  gave  me  only  $3.80.  What 
will  I  do;  poor  unfortunate  man?  I  went  to  the  superintendent 
and  asked  him  for  receipt.  He  refused.  Now,  whom  shall  I 
ask  for  it?  I  asked  him  whether  I  will  get  full  pay  for  the  fourth 
week?  He  said,  no!  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  cried  after  I  left  the 
office.  I  really  do  not  know  how  I  can  make  a  living. 

Please  accept  my  request,  and  help  me  in  my  grievance.  Is 
it  the  same  proceeding  for  everybody,  or  only  for  me?  Does 
America  allow  the  companies  to  exploit  the  poor  people  in  such 
way? 

Instead  of  withholding  the  tax  on  each  pay-day,  many 
employers  took  it  in  a  lump  sum,  frequently  amounting 
to  an  entire  week's  wages,  or  more.  Many  aliens  in  the 
resident  class  were  considered  non-residents  because  of 

196 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

their  refusal  to  sign  a  "blue  slip"  stating  intention  of  resi- 
dence which  they  believed  meant  they  could  never  go  back 
to  Europe  for  a  visit,  and  was  some  sort  of  an  enforced 
citizenship  paper.  An  additional  grievance  was  that  re- 
ceipts for  wages  thus  withheld  were  rarely  given. 

In  attempting  to  alleviate  the  various  grave  injustices, 
the  Internal  Revenue  Department  in  Washington  showed 
most  unusual  sympathy  and  breadth  of  vision.  Treasury 
decisions  were  extensively  revised  and  any  number  of 
regulations  drawn  up  with  the  intent  of  bettering  matters. 
Our  bureaus  released  from  ten  to  twenty  explanatory 
articles  and  gave  their  attention  and  answers  to  all  the 
individual  inquiries. 

Of  equal  importance  with  this  work  of  reaching  the 
foreign-speaking  groups  with  information,  as  described, 
was  what  this  work  had  revealed  about  these  groups. 
The  war  gave  a  chance  for  a  dramatic  and  striking  mani- 
festation of  their  services  and  loyalty  to  the  country. 
After  the  armistice  their  interest  and  devotion  was  just  as 
great  in  helping  in  the  difficult  transition  and  reconstruction 
problems.  The  same  unreserved  spirit  with  which  they 
had  enlisted  in  the  army,  and  in  the  Liberty  Loan  and  War 
Savings  Stamp  campaigns,  marked  their  efforts  in  peace, 
in  encouraging  all  their  people  to  become  citizens,  to  learn 
English,  to  carry  out  any  suggestions  coming  from  govern- 
ment sources.  Numerous  printing  concerns  offered  to 
print  and  distribute  among  their  people  books  on  American 
history,  civics,  and  the  Constitution.  Editors  of  several 
groups  ran  serials  on  citizenship  and  wished  to  carry 
translations  of  the  best  American  stories  in  their  papers. 
They  asked  us  to  suggest  these  and  to  get  translation 
rights  for  them. 

For  years  national  unity  and  progress  have  demanded 
the  release  of  the  neglected  potentialities  of  our  millions 
of  new  Americans  into  a  fuller  participation  in  our  country's 

14  19? 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

life.  For  this  there  is  necessary  a  mutual  process  of  edu- 
cation of  native  and  foreign  born.  Full  information  on 
American  life,  opportunities,  customs,  and  laws  must 
reach  the  men  and  women  coming  here  from  foreign  lands 
immediately  upon  their  arrival.  Necessarily  it  must  be 
in  their  own  language.  The  more  they  learn  in  this  way 
of  our  fundamental  democracy  and  the  possibilities  for 
them  and  their  children  in  this  country,  the  keener  be- 
come their  desire  and  efforts  to  learn  "America's  lan- 
guage." To  withhold  this  information  or  delay  it  until, 
according  to  theoretic  calculation,  these  immigrants  have 
had  time  to  acquire  English,  is  deliberately  to  create  a 
period  of  cruel  bewilderment  and  false  impressions  for  them 
which  dampens  whatever  enthusiasm  they  had  originally 
to  study  English.  The  numerous  un-American  conditions 
and  injustices  to  which  so  many  immigrants  have  fallen 
victims  must  be  wiped  out.  Explanations  and  instruction 
about  America  given  to  the  fullest  extent  carry  little  weight 
when  individuals  have  been  unjustly  wronged. 

The  ignorance  of  many  native-born  Americans  about 
European  peoples  and  their  contemptuous  attitude  toward 
persons  with  different  customs  from  their  own  are  just 
as  serious  obstacles  to  assimilation  and  unity  as  the  ten- 
dency of  some  immigrants  to  cling  to  Old  World  ways; 
understanding  must  come,  on  our  part,  of  the  heritages 
of  these  new-comers,  their  suffering  and  struggles  in  Europe, 
and  the  contributions  they  bring  us  if  we  will  only  receive 
them. 

The  devotion  of  the  men  and  women  associated  with 
Miss  Roche  was  such  that  each  deserves  detailed  mention, 
but  space  permits  only  this  grateful  record  of  their  names: 

Swedish  Service First  directed  by  Mr.  Olaf  P.  Ze- 

thelius,    and    after   his    death    in 
charge  of  Mr.  H.  Gude  Grinndal 

Norwegian  Service Mr.  Sundby-Hansen 

198 


WORK  AMONG  THE  FOREIGN-BORN 

Danish  Service Mr.  Viggo  C.  Eberlin 

Finnish  Service Mr.  Charles  H.  Hirsimaki 

Dutch  Service Mr.  James  J.  Van   Pernis 

Polish  Bureau Miss  Wanda  Wojcieszak 

Ukrainian  Bureau Mr.  Nicholas  Ceglinsky 

Lithuanian  Bureau Mr.  Julius  Kaupas 

Czechoslovak  Bureau Mrs.  Anna  Tvrzicka 

German  Bureau Mr.  Julius  Koettgen 

Hungarian  Bureau Mr.  Alfred  Markus 

Italian  Bureau Dr.  Albert  C.  Bonaschi 

Russian  Bureau Mr.  Joseph  Polonsky 

Jugoslav  Bureau Mr.  Peter  Mladineo 


XVI 

A   WONDERFUL  FOURTH   OF  JULY 

TT  TILL  IRWIN  had  one  of  the  great  ideas  of  the  war 
V  V  when  he  suggested  that  the  Fourth  of  July,  1918, 
should  be  "turned  over"  to  Americans  of  foreign  birth 
and  descent  for  such  celebrations  as  might  most  fittingly 
manifest  their  loyalty  to  the  United  States  and  their 
devotion  to  free  institutions.  It  was  not  only  the  case 
that  the  celebration  of  the  day  in  this  manner,  if  carried 
to  success,  meant  a  new  unity  and  a  larger  enthusiasm, 
but  there  was  also  the  influence  that  it  would  exert  upon 
the  public  opinion  of  other  countries.  When  the  Central 
Powers  heard  that  Germans,  Austrians,  and  Turks  were 
marching  in  public  demonstration  of  their  repudiation  of 
the  autocratic  governments  from  which  they  came,  and 
when  the  neutral  nations  saw  men  and  women  of  their 
blood  declaring  a  great  faith  in  the  ideals  of  America,  our 
cause  was  bound  to  know  a  great  strengthening.  Through 
our  various  contacts  we  put  the  idea  up  to  the  thirty-three 
foreign-language  groups,  and  on  May  21st  this  petition 
went  to  the  President  of  the  United  States: 

To  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES: 

On  the  Fourth  of  July,  1776,  the  founders  of  this  Republic 
began  the  movement  for  human  liberty  and  the  rights  of  nations 
to  govern  themselves.  One  hundred  and  forty-two  years  later 
we  find  the  world  democracy,  of  which  this  nation  was  a  pioneer, 
formidably  assailed  by  the  powers  of  reaction  and  autocracy. 

200 


A  WONDERFUL  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

We  represent  these  peoples  whose  sons  and  daughters  came 
to  this  land  later  than  the  founders  of  the  Republic,  but  drawn 
by  the  same  ideals.  The  nations  and  races  and  peoples  which 
we  represent  are  taking  their  part,  in  one  way  or  another,  in 
the  struggle.  Some,  happily,  enjoying  a  political  entity,  are 
fighting  openly  and  with  arms  against  the  enemies  of  progress. 
Others,  unhappily,  submerged,  can  give  but  a  passive  opposition. 
Others  have  been  forced  against  their  will  into  the  armies  of 
the  common  enemy.  Finally,  a  few  still  remain  outside,  hard 
pressed,  threatened  by  the  mailed  fist,  dreading  alike  to  be  drawn 
in  and  to  be  found  apart  from  the  rest  when  the  hour  of  settle- 
ment comes.  But  all,  through  infinite  suffering,  struggle,  either 
blindly  or  open-eyed,  toward  the  same  end,  the  right  of  peoples 
to  govern  themselves  as  they  themselves  see  fit,  and  a  just  and 
lasting  peace. 

The  higher  interests  of  the  races  which  we  left  behind  have 
become  identical,  in  this  significant  year,  with  the  higher  in- 
terests of  the  United  States.  We  regard  ourselves  not  only  as 
members  of  an  American  commonwealth,  one  and  indivisible, 
but  of  the  world  commonwealth,  equally  indivisible.  United  for 
the  principles  of  that  democratic  world-state  which  is  fighting 
now  for  its  being  on  the  battle-fields  of  Europe,  we  intend,  on 
July  4,  1918,  to  manifest,  by  special  celebrations,  our  loyalty 
to  this  country  and  to  the  cause  for  which  we  fight;  and  we 
respectfully  request  that  you  call  the  attention  of  your  fellow- 
citizens  to  this  fact,  in  order  that  they  may  join  with  us  in  com- 
memorating this,  the  anniversary  not  only  of  national  freedom, 
but  of  universal  freedom. 

From  President  Wilson  came  the  sympathetic  and  favor- 
able reply: 

To  OUR  CITIZENS  OF  FOREIGN  EXTRACTION: 

I  have  read  with  great  sympathy  the  petition  addressed  to 
me  by  your  representative  bodies  regarding  your  proposed  cele- 
bration of  Independence  Day;  and  I  wish  to  convey  to  you,  in 
reply,  my  heartfelt  appreciation  for  its  expression  of  loyalty 
and  good  will.  Nothing  in  this  war  has  been  more  gratifying 
than  the  manner  in  which  our  foreign-born  fellow-citizens,  and 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  foreign-born,  have  risen  to  this 
greatest  of  all  national  emergencies.  You  have  shown  where 

201 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

you  stand  not  only  by  your  frequent  professions  of  loyalty  to 
the  cause  for  which  we  fight,  but  by  your  eager  response  to  calls 
to  patriotic  service,  including  the  supreme  sacrifice  of  offering 
life  itself  in  battle  for  justice,  freedom,  and  democracy.  Before 
such  devotion  as  you  have  shown  all  distinctions  of  race  vanish; 
and  we  feel  ourselves  citizens  in  a  Republic  of  free  spirits. 

I,  therefore,  take  pleasure  in  calling  your  petition,  with  my 
hearty  commendation,  to  the  attention  of  all  my  fellow-country- 
men, and  I  ask  that  they  unite  with  you  in  making  the  Inde- 
pendence Day  of  this,  the  year  when  all  the  principles  to  which 
we  stand  pledged  are  on  trial,  the  most  significant  in  our  national 
history. 

As  July  4,  1776,  was  the  dawn  of  democracy  for  this  nation, 
let  us  on  July  4,  1918,  celebrate  the  birth  of  a  new  and  greater 
spirit  of  democracy  by  whose  influence  we  hope  and  believe, 
what  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  dreamed 
of  for  themselves  and  their  fellow-countrymen,  shall  be  fulfilled 
for  all  mankind. 

I  have  asked  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  to  co- 
operate with  you  in  any  arrangements  you  may  wish  to  make 
for  this  celebration. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 


Mr.  Irwin  and  Miss  Josephine  Roche  threw  themselves 
into  the  arrangements  with  enthusiasm,  and  under  their 
stimulation  governors  and  mayors  issued  proclamations 
similar  to  that  of  the  President,  and  exactly  thirty-three 
nationalities  in  the  United  States  commenced  to  make 
plans  that  would  insure  their  people's  complete  partici- 
pation. No  pains  were  spared  to  make  the  day  all  they 
longed  to  have  it.  Probably  never  were  there  such  gi- 
gantic preparations  throughout  the  entire  country  for 
Independence  Day,  and  certainly  never  was  there  such 
an  outpouring  of  the  nation's  millions  of  new  citizens  and 
citizens-to-be  as  on  July  4,  1918. 

Demonstrations  of  the  thirty-three  nationalities  took 
place  not  only  in  all  the  cities  and  towns,  but  in  practically 
every  community  where  any  of  these  people  dwelt.  Re- 


A  WONDERFUL  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

ports  of  parades,  pageants,  and  mass-meetings,  resolutions, 
declarations,  and  inscriptions  on  banners,  could  be  enumer- 
ated for  every  foreign-born  group  and  for  each  separate 
community,  but  it  would  be  only  a  repetition  of  the  story 
of  their  devotion. 

The  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Vernon,  so  beautiful  a  feature 
of  that  inspiring  Fourth  of  July,  was  my  idea.  I  claim 
the  credit  and  cling  to  it  with  fondness  because  .the  occasion 
stands  out  in  the  life  of  the  Committee  as  one  of  the  few 
events  that  swept  from  start  to  finish  without  attack, 
obstruction,  or  untoward  happening.  Everything  in  con- 
nection with  the  pilgrimage  was  dear  and  delightful,  and 
lingers  in  memory  as  an  inspiration.  My  first  thought 
was  merely  to  have  the  thirty-three  foreign  groups  select 
representatives  and  send  them  to  Washington,  where  the 
Committee  would  convey  them  to  Mount  Vernon  by 
automobile  to  lay  wreaths  on  the  tomb  of  Washington  and 
to  make  such  speeches  as  befitted  the  occasion.  And  then 
it  came  to  me  that  it  was  a  time  and  place  for  the  President 
himself  not  only  to  receive  and  greet  the  representatives 
of  the  foreign-born  in  the  name  of  the  country  to  which 
they  were  pledging  their  devotion,  but  also  to  make  a 
new  and  explicit  statement  of  America's  ideals  to  the  world. 

At  first  the  President  refused  flatly,  for  he  felt  that  a 
speech  at  the  tomb  of  Washington  on  the  Fourth  of  July 
savored  of  presumption.  When  my  own  arguments 
proved  unavailing  I  brought  the  foreign-born  into  play, 
and  the  message  that  he  received  made  continued  refusal 
an  impossibility.  When  he  consented  finally  it  was  with 
the  completeness  and  generosity  that  never  failed  to 
mark  his  surrenders.  For  instance,  he  telephoned  me  a 
few  days  later,  I  remember,  and  remarked  that  if  I  had 
"no  objections"  to  urge,  he  and  Mrs.  Wilson  would  be 
very  glad  to  take  the  thirty- three  representatives  down 
to  Mount  Vernon  as  then*  guests  on  the  Mayflower.  I  had 

203 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

no  objections  to  urge.  Albanians,  Armenians,  Assyrians, 
Belgians,  Bulgarians,  Chinese,  Czechoslovaks,  Costa-Ricans, 
Danes,  Dutch,  Ecuadorians,  Finns,  French,  French-Cana- 
dians, Germans,  Greeks,  Hungarians,  Italians,  Japanese, 
Lithuanians,  Mexicans,  Norwegians,  Poles,  Filipinos,  Rus- 
sians, Venezuelans,  Rumanians,  Spaniards,  Jugoslavs, 
Swedes,  Swiss,  Syrians,  and  Ukrainians  were  in  the  throng 
that  flocked  aboard  the  Mayflower. 

With  their  Old  World  conceptions,  built  around  kings 
and  queens  and  courts,  the  majority  of  them  wore  silk 
hats,  frock-coats,  and  expressions  of  the  utmost  solemnity. 
Within  an  hour  the  whole  funereal  aspect  of  the  occasion 
changed  to  an  unaffected  joyousness.  I  have  never  known 
a  man  who  had  the  gift  of  simplicity  in  greater  degree 
than  Woodrow  Wilson  or  one  with  such  a  human  note  in 
the  personal  relation.  He  has  dignity  without  effort, 
graciousness  without  condescension,  interest  without 
affectation,  all  expressions  of  a  democracy  that  came  from 
the  heart,  not  merely  from  the  lips.  With  Mrs.  Wilson 
and  Miss  Margaret  Wilson  he  moved  from  group  to  group, 
laughingly  suggesting  that  they  put  then*  high  silk  hats  to 
one  side,  as  interested  in  them  as  they  were  in  him,  and  giv- 
ing every  man  and  woman  the  feeling  of  being  a  sovereign 
citizen  in  a  free  country. 

The  scene  at  Mount  Vernon  was  one  that  etched  itself 
in  memory.  The  shining  stretches  of  the  river,  the  walk 
up  the  winding  path  through  the  summer  woods,  the  hill- 
sides packed  with  people,  the  beat  of  their  hands  like  the 
soft  roar  of  a  forest  wind,  the  simple  brick  tomb  of  the 
Father  of  Our  Country  overhung  with  wistaria  in  all  the 
glory  of  its  purple  bloom.  A  piano  was  tucked  away 
behind  a  clump  of  cedars,  and  when  John  McCormack 
had  somewhat  recovered  from  his  climb  up  the  hill  he 
sang  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  while  each  of 
the  thirty-three  representatives  walked  into  the  tomb, 

£04 


A  WONDERFUL  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

one  by  one,  laid  a  wreath  upon  the  grave,  and  offered  a 
prayer  to  the  "august  shade  of  the  departed."  Easily, 
naturally,  the  group  formed  about  the  President,  who 
stood  on  a  grassy  mound  to  the  right  of  the  vault,  and  Felix 
J.  Stryckmans,  Belgian-born,  delivered  the  message  bear- 
ing the  signature  of  all  the  thirty-three  representatives 
and  expressing  the  feelings  of  the  great  masses  of  new 
Americans: 

One  hundred  and  forty-two  years  ago  to-day  a  group  of  men 
animated  with  the  same  spirit  as  that  of  a  man  who  lives  here, 
founded  the  United  States  of  America  on  the  theory  of  free 
government  with  the  consent  of  the  governed.  That  was  the 
beginning  of  America.  As  the  years  went  on,  and  one  century 
blended  with  another,  men  and  women  came  from  even  the  utter- 
most ends  of  the  earth  to  join  them.  We  have  called  them  alien; 
but  they  were  never  alien.  Though  they  spoke  not  a  word  of 
the  language  of  this  country,  though  they  groped  only  dimly 
toward  its  institutions,  they  were  already  Americans  in  soul  or 
they  would  never  have  come.  We  are  the  latest  manifestation 
of  that  American  soul. 

We,  who  make  this  pilgrimage,  are  the  offspring  of  thirty- 
three  different  nations — and  Americans  all.  We  come  not 
alone.  Behind  us  are  millions  of  our  people  united  to-day  in 
pledging  themselves  to  the  cause  of  this  country  and  of  the 
free  nations  with  which  she  is  joined.  From  coast  to  coast,  in 
city,  town,  and  hamlet  our  citizens  will  be  demonstrating  that 
the  oath  they  took  upon  their  naturalization  was  not  an  empty 
form  of  words.  Yes,  more  than  that.  When,  to-morrow,  the 
casualty  list  brings  heaviness  to  some  homes  and  a  firm  sense 
of  resolution  to  all,  we  shall  read  upon  the  roll  of  honor  Slavifc 
names,  Teutonic  names,  Latin  names,  Oriental  names,  to  show 
that  we  have  sealed  our  faith  with  the  blood  of  our  best  youth. 
To  this  beloved  shade  we  come  to-day  with  the  hopes  of  our 
races  garnered  in  our  hands. 

The  President,  in  answer,  delivered  the  address  that 
stands  in  my  mind  as  one  of  the  greatest  that  ever  came 
from  his  lips.  With  the  home  of  Washington  on  the  hill 

205 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

above  him,  with  the  tomb  of  the  warrior-statesman  at 
his  back,  and  with  the  purpose  of  America  expressed  by 
the  thirty-three  nationalities  before  him — made  one  by 
democracy — he  challenged  the  world  with  these  imperish- 
able sentences: 

There  can  be  but  one  issue.  The  settlement  must  be  final. 
There  can  be  no  compromise.  No  half-way  decision  would  be 
tolerable.  No  half-way  decision  is  conceivable.  These  are  the 
ends  for  which  the  associated  peoples  of  the  world  are  fighting 
and  which  must  be  conceded  them  before  there  can  be  peace: 

1.  The  destruction  of  every  arbitrary  power  anywhere  that 
can  separately,  secretly,  and  of  its  single  choice  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  world;  or,  if  it  cannot  be  presently  destroyed,  at  the  least 
its  reduction  to  virtual  impotence. 

2.  The  settlement  of  every  question,  whether  of  territory, 
of  sovereignty,  of  economic  arrangements,  or  of  political  relation- 
ship, upon  the  basis  of  the  free  acceptance  of  that  settlement 
by  the  people  immediately  concerned,  and  not  upon  the  basis 
of  the  material  interest  or  advantage  of  any  other  nation  01 
people  which  may  desire  a  different  settlement  for  the  sake  oi 
its  own  exterior  influence  or  mastery. 

3.  The  consent  of  all  nations  to  be  governed  in  their  conduct 
toward  each  other  by  the  same  principles  of  honor  and  of  respect 
for  the  common  law  of  civilized  society  that  govern  the  individual 
citizens  of  all  modern  states  in  their  relations  with  one  another; 
to  the  end  that  all  promises  and  covenants  may  be  sacredly 
observed,  no  private  plots  or  conspiracies  hatched,  no  selfish 
injuries  wrought  with  impunity,  and  a  mutual  trust  established 
upon  the  handsome  foundation  of  a  mutual  respect  for  right. 

4.  The  establishment  of  an  organization  of  peace  which  shall 
make  it  certain  that  the  combined  power  of  free  nations  will 
check  every  invasion  of  right  and  serve  to  make  peace  and  jus- 
tice the  more  secure  by  affording  a  definite  tribunal  of  opinion 
to  which  all  must  submit  and  by  which  every  international 
readjustment   that  cannot  be  amicably   agreed   upon   by  the 
peoples  directly  concerned  shall  be  sanctioned. 

These  great  objects  can  be  put  into  a  single  sentence.  What 
we  seek  is  the  reign  of  law,  based  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed 
and  sustained  by  the  organized  opinion  of  mankind. 

206 


A  WONDERFUL  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

John  McCormack  then  sang  "The  Star-spangled  Banner" 
as  it  was  never  sung  before,  and  down  we  went  to  the 
river  again,  onto  the  Mayflower  and  back  to  Washington. 

Great  as  were  the  meanings  and  hopes  which  the  spirit 
of  1918's  Fourth  of  July  brought  the  foreign-born,  of  equal 
importance  were  the  foundations  it  laid  for  an  understand- 
ing by  our  "Americans  for  generations  back"  that  these 
"Americans  by  choice"  came  here  with  the  same  hopes 
as  did  our  Pilgrim  ancestors,  and  willing,  as  they  were,  to 
make  the  supreme  sacrifice  for  their  nation's  safe  continu- 
ance, and  knowing,  as  they  did,  the  cost  of  freedom.  From 
that  day  a  new  unity  was  manifest  in  the  United  States. 


XVII 


THE  "OFFICIAL  BULLETIN" 


AX  credit  for  the  Official  Bulletin  is  due  to  the  Presi- 
dent. It  was  his  conviction  that  the  government 
should  issue  a  daily  gazette  for  the  purpose  of  assuring  full 
and  authoritative  publication  of  all  official  acts  and  pro- 
ceedings, as  well  as  serving  as  a  chain  of  intelligence  to 
link  together  the  various  branches  of  the  war-making 
machinery  of  America.  It  was  not  an  idea  that  appealed 
to  me  and  as  strongly  as  might  be  I  dissented  from  it.  The 
necessity  of  such  a  publication  could  not  be  denied,  but 
I  knew  in  my  heart  that  it  would  be  misrepresented,  pos- 
sibly to  a  degree  that  would  destroy  its  usefulness.  When 
the  President  insisted,  however,  I  secured  the  services  of 
Mr.  E.  S.  Rochester,  formerly  managing  editor  of  The 
Washington  Post,  and  the  Official  Bulletin  was  launched 
in  May,  1917,  as  economically  as  possible.  It  is  a 
pleasure  to  be  able  to  record  that  the  President  was 
absolutely  right  and  that  I  was  entirely  wrong. 

From  its  very  first  day,  the  Official  Bulletin  met  a  great 
need  and  discharged  an  important  service,  growing  in 
popularity  to  a  point  that  it  became  one  of  the  great 
divisions  of  the  Committee.  As  expected,  the  press 
attacked  it  viciously  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  "govern- 
ment organ"  designed  to  compete  with  private  enterprise. 
The  accusation  was  utterly  without  foundation  in  fact, 
for  not  one  single  item  or  article  of  any  kind  was  ever 

208 


THE   "OFFICIAL  BULLETIN" 

printed  in  the  Official  Bulletin  in  advance  of  publication 
in  the  daily  press.  Nor  did  its  columns  ever  contain  an 
opinion  or  a  conclusion,  the  contents  being  confined  ex- 
clusively to  official  documents,  statements,  and  orders. 

When  this  attack  fell  to  the  ground  of  its  own  weight, 
the  correspondents  blithely  changed  from  abuse  to  ridi- 
cule. Because  the  Official  Bulletin  did  not  express  opinions 
it  was  branded  as  "dull,"  and  because  it  did  not  print 
"exclusive  stuff"  it  was  derided  as  "useless."  Yet  neither 
slander  nor  jeers  had  power  to  stop  a  growth  that  proved 
almost  resistless.  In  order  to  keep  the  circulation  within 
official  bounds,  we  fixed  a  subscription  price  of  $5  a 
year,  supposing  that  to  be  prohibitive,  yet  in  November, 
1918,  we  took  in  more  than  $10,000  in  subscriptions, 
and  on  the  day  of  suspension  the  books  showed  receipts 
of  more  than  $80,000.  Starting  with  a  daily  average 
circulation  of  60,000  in  May,  1917,  a  high-water  mark 
of  118,000  was  reached  in  August,  1918.  If  we  had 
chosen  to  depart  from  our  policy  of  repression  at  any  time, 
the  paid  circulation  could  have  been  doubled  and  trebled. 

What  stood  proved  by  the  experiment  was  this:  that 
there  was  an  imperative  demand  from  a  large  number  of 
people  for  a  publication  that  printed  news  without  cutting 
or  coloring.  The  newspaper  practice  is  to  cut  down  the 
story  until  it  can  be  screamed  in  the  head,  and  even  these 
bald  presentations  of  naked  conclusions  are  changed  ac- 
cording to  the  policies  and  politics  of  the  paper.  From 
every  corner  of  the  country  the  Official  Bulletin  was  hailed 
with  joy  as  the  one  publication  that  gave  official  informa- 
tion in  full  and  without  change. 

There  is  humor  in  the  fact  that  when  we  took  the  press 
at  its  word  and  cut  newspapers  from  the  free  list,  virtually 
every  Washington  correspondent  sent  in  his  five  dollars 
to  become  a  paid  subscriber.  Also,  in  the  first  months 
of  attacks  and  ridicule,  the  metropolitan  editors  had  a 

209 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

way  of  throwing  the  Official  Bulletin  into  the  waste-basket. 
As  time  went  on,  however,  there  dawned  the  realization 
that  the  Official  Bulletin  constituted  the  one  full  and  ac- 
curate record  of  America's  war  progress,  and  we  were 
deluged  by  letters  begging  us  for  complete  sets  or  for  back 
numbers  to  fill  the  gaps  in  files. 

In  the  pages  of  the  Official  Bulletin,  day  after  day,  was 
printed  every  state  paper,  proclamation,  executive  order, 
and  all  statements,  pronouncements,  and  addresses 
by  the  President  since  the  entry  of  this  government  into 
the  war;  every  order,  pronouncement,  and  regulation 
issued  by  the  heads  of  the  great  permanent  government 
departments,  the  Food,  Fuel,  and  Railroad  Administra- 
tions, the  War  Industries  Board,  War  Trade  Board,  Alien 
Property  Custodian,  War  Labor  Board,  the  Postmaster- 
General  as  Director-General  of  the  Telephone,  Telegraph, 
and  Cable  Systems,  and  all  other  independent  agencies 
of  the  government.  Important  contracts  awarded,  texts 
of  important  laws,  proceedings  of  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court,  a  daily  resume  of  important  actions  of  Con- 
gress, Treasury  statements,  etc.,  were  also  printed  regularly. 

The  Bulletin  printed  all  issued  records  to  date  of  every 
casualty  among  our  army  and  navy  forces  abroad  and  in 
the  camps  and  cantonments  in  the  United  States;  the  name 
of  every  man  taken  prisoner,  cited  for  bravery,  or  wounded 
on  the  field  of  battle,  and  every  communique  issued  by 
General  Pershing. 

It  was  an  immediate  means  of  government  communi- 
cation with  the  business  interests  with  which  the  govern- 
ment has  been  in  contractual  relations;  with  the  offices 
of  foreign  governments  here  and  abroad,  with  the  consular 
service,  and  with  the  public  desirous  of  information  of  a 
specific  character.  Its  monetary  value  to  the  government 
in  the  clerical  labor  and  supplies  it  conserved  by  antici- 
pating nation-wide  inquiries  in  its  daily  record  of  the  facts 

210 


THE   "OFFICIAL  BULLETIN" 

represented  an  amount  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  issuing 
the  Bulletin. 

It  went  to  56,000  post-offices  throughout  the  country,  to 
be  posted,  and  was  the  voice  of  the  Postmaster-General  in 
communicating  directly  with  446,000  post-offices  of  the 
fourth  class,  to  which  the  regular  postal  bulletin  did  not  go. 

It  carried  the  official  messages  of  government  to  every 
military  post  and  station,  to  every  ship  and  shore  station 
of  the  navy,  to  every  camp  library  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  Admiral  Sims  and  General  Pershing  alike  relied  upon 
it  for  their  own  use  and  the  use  of  their  staffs. 

No  official  organs  were  maintained  by  either  the  Food 
Administration  or  the  Fuel  Administration,  by  the  War 
Trade  Board,  the  War  Industries  Board,  or  the  Council 
of  National  Defense,  and  these  bodies  reached  their  thou- 
sands of  administrators  and  co-operative  absentees  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Official  Bulletin. 

When  the  government  assumed  control  of  the  railroads 
of  the  country,  the  Director-General  of  Railroads  had  no 
other  official  medium  than  the  Official  Bulletin  through 
which  to  reach  the  2,000,000  employees  of  the  great 
railroad  systems.  Copies  of  all  orders,  of  course,  were 
sent  to  the  central  railroad  offices,  but,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Food  and  Fuel  Administrations,  there  was  no  perma- 
nent printed  record  of  such  orders,  except  as  they  appeared 
in  the  Official  Bulletin',  and  in  all  railroad  offices  of  the 
country  this  publication  was  preserved  religiously  so  that 
it  might  be  referred  to  whenever  matters  of  importance 
developed. 

Even  while  Congress  was  attacking  the  Official  Bulletin 
as  useless  expense,  Senators  and  Representatives  were 
hounding  the  Committee  to  have  constituents  placed  on 
the  free  list,  and  when  publication  was  suspended  on  April 
1,  1919,  there  was  not  a  voice  raised  except  to  beseech 

its  continuance. 

211 


XVIII 

DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 

EVEN  had  I  not  been  an  ardent  suffragist,  we  could 
not  have  ignored  the  importance  of  women  in  con- 
nection with  the  war  or  failed  to  see  the  necessity  of  reach- 
ing them  with  our  activities.  There  was  a  Woman's 
Committee  of  the  Council  of  National  Defense,  however, 
headed  by  such  brilliant  personalities  as  Dr.  Anna  Howard 
Shaw,  Mrs.  Carrie  Chapman  Catt,  and  Miss  Ida  Tarbell, 
and  it  seemed  a  certainty  that  it  would  meet  every  need. 
What  soon  developed,  unfortunately,  was  that  the  Woman's 
Committee  had  no  money  and  was  also  expected  to  confine 
itself  to  "advising,"  the  business  of  initiation  having  been 
placed  in  other  hands. 

By  way  of  assistance,  and  at  the  request  of  Miss  Tarbell, 
I  attached  Mrs.  Clara  Sears  Taylor  to  the  News  Division 
and  assigned  her  to  the  Woman's  Committee  as  its  general 
reporter.  Lack  of  money  and  lack  of  authority  joined 
to  slacken  effort  very  materially,  and  because  an  important 
work  that  had  to  be  done  was  not  being  done  I  fell  in  with 
Mrs.  Taylor's  suggestion  to  form  a  Division  of  Women's 
War-work  in  the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 
Not  only  was  Mrs.  Taylor  a  person  of  tremendous  energy 
and  rare  ability,  but  she  had  the  gift  of  attracting  women 
of  similar  type,  and  it  was  not  long  until  a  staff  of  twenty- 
two,  many  of  them  volunteers,  were  in  full  and  effective 

swing. 

212 


DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 

What  women  were  doing  to  help  win  the  war  was  the 
one  theme,  and  not  only  did  they  fill  the  women's  pages 
in  the  daily  press,  as  well  as  earning  large  space  in  maga- 
zine sections,  but  they  fought  their  way  to  a  place  in  the 
sun  in  the  news  columns.  They  went  into  the  colleges 
where  girls  studied,  into  clubs  of  every  kind,  into  ghettoes 
and  foreign  colonies,  among  the  colored  women  of  the  coun- 
try, giving  information  and  arousing  enthusiasm.  Added 
to  this,  the  division  was  a  "question  and  answer"  bureau 
that  handled  thousands  of  letters  daily  from  women  in 
every  corner  of  the  United  States. 

During  the  nine  months  of  its  existence,  2,305  stories 
were  sent  to  19,471  newspapers  and  women's  publications. 
These  releases  included  a  wire  and  mail  service,  and  were 
made  up  of  news  stories  and  feature  articles.  They  were 
sent  daily  to  2,861  papers  in  seven  columns  a  week, 
containing  from  twelve  to  twenty  stories  each.  More 
than  10,000  cards  were  indexed  on  women's  work,  includ- 
ing the  personnel  of  both  organizations  and  individuals, 
and  a  collation  of  material  of  immense  value  to  magazine 
and  newspaper  writers.  Two  hundred  and  ninety-two 
pictures  were  furnished  newspapers,  showing  women 
actively  engaged  in  war-work. 

Weekly  columns  sent  to  newspapers  and  magazines 
included,  first,  war-work  being  done  in  national  organiza- 
tions; second,  in  governmental  departments;  third,  in 
decentralized  organizations  throughout  the  United  States; 
fourth,  in  schools  and  colleges;  fifth,  in  churches;  sixth, 
foreign  co-operation;  seventh,  work  being  done  by  organi- 
zations of  colored  women. 

Close  co-operation  was  formed  with  the  colleges,  through 
representatives  sent  out  by  the  collegiate  alumni,  and  with 
fraternal  organizations  through  representatives  co-operat- 
ing with  the  governmental  departments  through  their 
international  associations.  The  news  for  the  foreign  col- 

15  213 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

umn  was  received  by  means  of  co-operation  with  the 
foreign  embassies,  legations,  high  commissions,  and  com- 
mittees, and  committees  in  foreign  countries  at  war 
with  Germany. 

Mrs.  Mary  Holland  Kinkaid,  well-known  magazine  and 
newspaper  editor  and  writer  of  New  York,  edited  the  col- 
umns of  news  which  created  an  interchange  in  thought 
between  the  women  war- workers  of  the  world,  culling  from 
letters  and  other  forms  of  communication  the  facts,  figures, 
hopes,  and  ambitions  that  were  woven  into  "stories." 
She  handled  also  the  copy  brought  in  by  trained  reporters 
who  had  the  governmental  departments  and  national 
organizations  in  Washington  for  their  "beats." 

These  reporters  included  women  from  many  states  and 
representing  as  many  points  of  view.  The  War  Depart- 
ment, with  its  thousands  of  women  war-workers,  was 
"covered"  by  Mrs.  William  A.  Mundell  (pen  name 
Caroline  Singer),  a  newspaper  writer  of  San  Francisco. 
News  of  the  Woman's  Committee  of  the  Council  of  National 
Defense,  which  operated  under  the  War  Department,  was 
collected  by  means  of  their  own  machinery,  and  prepared 
by  them,  and  then  distributed  by  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information. 

The  State  and  Navy  Departments'  picturesque  tales 
of  the  yeomanettes,  women  finger-print  experts,  etc.,  were 
gathered  and  written  into  magazine  and  newspaper 
stories  by  Miss  Margaret  Moses,  who  came  to  the  division 
with  recommendations  from  The  New  York  Times,  Colum- 
bia University,  and  Barnard  College. 

Miss  Mildred  Morris,  of  Denver  and  Chicago  newspaper 
experience,  invaded  the  Department  of  Labor,  and  from 
its  statistical  shelves  and  important  war  investigations 
and  reports  made  available  for  the  press  much  extremely 
valuable  information.  The  labor-supply,  depleted  by  the 
cutting  off  of  immigration  and  by  the  military  draft, 

214 


DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 

necessitated  calling  into  industrial  services  many  women 
who  had  never  before  been  wage-earners.  The  distribu- 
tion of  this  information  was  extremely  helpful  in  aiding 
to  solve  the  problems  which  automatically  arose  from  the 
advent  of  these  women  into  industrial  life.  A  clever 
feature- writer  of  Washington,  Miss  Helen  Randall,  assisted 
in  this  labor  field,  writing  stories  from  the  Agricultural 
Department. 

Miss  Dorothy  Lewis  Kitchen  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  a 
young  woman  who  had  been  active  in  settlement  and  civic 
work  and  in  the  Consumers'  League,  had  charge  of  the 
Interior  Department,  writing  articles  about  teachers, 
librarians,  and  the  many  phases  of  work  done  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior.  Miss  Kitchen  compiled  two  bro- 
chures on  "War-work  of  Women  in  Colleges."  The  issu- 
ance of  these  brochures  was  commenced  in  February, 
1917,  when  the  smaller  colleges  were  more  or  less  at  sea 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  war-work  best  suited  for  them,  and 
when  the  larger  colleges  were  just  establishing  definite 
programs  for  more  intensive  work.  The  brochures  were 
sent  to  colleges,  schools,  newspapers,  magazines,  women's 
organizations,  and  government  officials.  The  effect  was 
amazing.  Every  college  in  the  country  took  advantage 
of  the  suggestive  reports  of  every  other  college,  and  a 
vast  amount  of  patriotic  energy  was  utilized  in  a  most 
effective  manner.  The  news  of  this  activity  was  immensely 
stimulating  to  other  war-workers.  An  edition  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  copies  was  exhausted  in  a  very  short  time, 
and  thousands  more  were  sent  in  response  to  requests 
from  libraries,  college  officials,  and  individuals. 

There  was  an  appendix  to  this  pamphlet  called  "Oppor- 
tunities in  War- work  for  Women,"  which  was  used  so 
widely  that  it  was  later  revised,  and  was  just  ready  for 
the  printer  when  the  work  of  the  division  ceased.  It 
contained  a  list  of  the  chairmen  of  the  Woman's  Committee 

215 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

in  each  state,  a  list  of  civil  service  commissions,  of  farm- 
help  specialists  under  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  and 
of  the  fourteen  Red  Cross  divisions,  besides  definite 
ideas  for  war-work  for  trained  and  untrained  college  girls, 
for  educated  and  uneducated — in  fact,  for  every  class  of 
woman. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture,  with  all  the  war  bodies 
associated  with  it,  and  with  the  women's  organizations 
which  functioned  through  it,  was  combed  each  day  for 
news  of  women's  war-work  by  Miss  Constance  Marguerite 
McGowan,  now  Mrs.  C.  B.  Savage  of  New  York.  Mrs. 
Savage  came  from  the  Lindenwood  College,  where  she 
was  dean  of  journalism. 

The  Treasury,  with  its  great  Liberty-loan  work  by 
women,  the  Post  Office,  and  the  Department  of  Justice 
were  reported  by  Mrs.  Susan  Hunter  Walker,  an  able 
writer  of  wide  experience. 

Mrs.  Florence  Normile  of  the  New  York  Public  Library 
was  given  the  Department  of  Commerce,  the  Fosdick 
Commission,  and  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associ- 
ation. 

This  information,  having  been  collected  and  written, 
was  mimeographed,  and  "placed  on  the  table"  for  distri- 
bution among  the  nine  hundred  and  odd  correspondents 
then  in  Washington.  This  number,  of  course,  included 
the  correspondents  of  the  big  press  associations,  so  that 
every  paper  in  the  United  States  was  reached.  When 
the  matter  was  not  "spot"  news — that  is,  when  it  was  not 
of  sufficient  news  importance  to  be  carried  by  telegraph— 
the  material  was  worked  up  into  feature  and  special 
stories  for  news  syndicates,  or  else  was  sent  out  in  clip 
sheets.  Many  of  the  papers  carried  these  columns  in 
full,  showing  the  interest  felt  all  over  the  country  in  what 
was  being  done  by  women. 

With  respect  to  church  news,  Miss  Elizabeth  Gorton, 

216 


DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 

now  Mrs.  H.  A.  Adams,  Jr.,  assembled  this  material  into 
columns  that  gave  information  about  organizations  of 
every  creed. 

The  highly  dramatic  story  of  the  colored  women's  work 
was  sent  in  from  the  four  corners  of  the  United  States  by 
their  organizations,  committees,  and  branches  of  national 
clubs.  The  Federation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs  found 
this  information  useful  and  effective,  and  the  press  of  both 
races  used  the  articles. 

As  the  work  expanded,  inquiries  poured  in  from  public 
officials,  special  writers,  speakers,  magazine  editors,  school- 
teachers, college  professors,  grange  officials,  trade-unionists, 
and  every  class  of  woman  from  the  most  influential  execu- 
tive of  an  international  activity  to  the  humblest  farm- 
worker. 

The  various  departments  in  Washington  and  many 
Senators  and  Congressmen  also  got  in  the  habit  of  sending 
women's  letters  to  the  Division  of  Women's  War-work 
for  answer.  Thus  the  division,  besides  being  a  centralized 
medium  of  communication  between  writers,  publicity  bu- 
reaus, organization  heads,  and  the  government,  soon  be- 
came an  important  factor  in  the  strengthening  of  the 
morale  of  women  in  America. 

Miss  Ellen  Harvey,  and  later  Mrs.  Laura  Miller  of  St. 
Louis,  handled  the  bulk  of  this  work,  although  Mrs. 
Taylor  considered  it  of  such  great  importance  in  sustain- 
ing the  high  morale  of  the  work  of  the  home  that  she  gave 
it  her  personal  attention,  and  insisted  on  the  warm  co- 
operation of  every  member  of  the  staff  in  finding  definite, 
accurate  answers  to  the  many  questions  asked. 

These  letters  were  the  expressions  of  the  very  heart 
of  American  womanhood.  The  wording  of  an  answer 
had  power  to  determine  whether  or  not  a  discontented 
and  unhappy  writer  should  form  a  center  of  agitation 
against  the  war.  Some  of  these  letters  were  addressed 

217 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

to  the  President,  and  many  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 
The  method  employed  was  to  answer  the  queries,  and  then 
to  get  the  writer  in  touch  with  the  group  of  women  doing 
war-work  in  the  vicinity  of  her  home.  In  case  of  want, 
home-service  workers  were  interested  in  the  case.  Often 
glowing  expressions  of  patriotism  followed  a  fiery  protest 
against  "sending  my  husband  to  war,"  or  letters  showing 
a  new  interest  in  life  followed  a  suicide  threat — "because 
you  took  my  only  son."  Always,  the  idea  was  to  interest 
these  unhappy  women  in  something  real  and  vital. 

Miss  Helen  M.  Hogue  of  California,  who  was  one  of 
the  assistants  in  this  work,  wrote  from  France,  where  she 
was  doing  war- work  after  leaving  the  committee:  "The 
Division  of  Women's  War-work  has  aroused  patriotism, 
inspired  courage,  fostered  self-sacrifice,  and  directed  the 
surplus  energies  of  women  into  sane  channels.  With  a 
background  of  news  releases,  the  correspondence  was  of 
inestimable  importance.  I  sincerely  believe  that  every 
letter,  whether  it  goes  to  the  dean  of  the  college,  who 
wants  an  outline  for  a  thesis,  or  to  the  little  war  widow 
in  Texas,  struggling  with  her  big  plow  and  refractory 
mule,  is  a  distinctly  constructive  factor  in  keeping  up  the 
morale  of  women,  and  through  them  of  the  men  of 
America." 

A  report  shows  that  over  fifty  thousand  of  these  letters 
were  answered.  They  went  to  wealthy  women,  who  wanted 
to  know  how  they  or  their  organizations  could  be  of  ser- 
vice in  spreading  the  truth  about  the  war,  to  young  women 
who  wanted  to  offer  their  lives  for  their  country  as  their 
brothers  had,  to  mothers  of  soldiers  on  New  England 
farms,  or  in  mountain  valleys  cut  off  from  all  other  govern- 
ment contact,  and  from  wives  or  sweethearts  of  soldiers 
bewildered  by  the  new  conditions  thrust  upon  them  by 
the  war. 

To  answer  the  queries  successfully  necessitated  a  careful 

218 


DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 

filing  and  cross-indexing  of  the  material.  "Make  the 
files  live  and  breathe"  was  the  slogan  of  the  librarian, 
Miss  Helen  Forbes,  who  left  the  New  York  Public  Library 
to  take  charge  of  this  work.  So  well  did  she  carry  out 
her  program  that  she  could  give  the  names  and  addresses 
in  Washington  of  every  new-comer  in  national  war-work 
of  any  prominence.  She  had  at  the  ends  of  her  capable 
fingers  the  cards  that  gave  the  history  of  virtually  every 
woman  war-worker  of  importance  in  America,  every 
organization  and  its  war  plans,  every  new  campaign  among 
the  women.  A  granddaughter  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by 
the  way,  sent  news  of  women's  work  in  Cuba  to  these  files. 

Pictures  were  catalogued  also,  and  the  files  C9ntained 
a  wonderful  historical  collection  of  actual  scenes  among 
the  war-workers — the  flying  squadron  pitching  hay,  the 
motor-drivers  in  action,  Chinese  women  of  San  Francisco 
and  Indian  women  of  Oklahoma  working  around  their 
tables,  heaped  up  with  Red  Cross  bandages  and  baby 
clothes — women  working  at  strange  trades  and  in  strange 
occupations — logging-camps,  machine-shops,  etc.  These 
pictures  were  accessible  at  all  times  to  the  magazine 
writers  and  to  other  seekers  of  information. 

Miss  Forbes  also  classified  and  made  digests  with  in- 
dices of  government  documents  pertaining  to  the  war- work 
of  women,  reports  of  organizations,  which  were  coming 
in  from  every  part  of  the  United  States,  circulars  and  other 
important  mail  matter,  and  newspaper  clippings,  making 
it  possible  to  gather  together  everything  in  the  files  on 
a  given  subject.  Miss  Sue  Schoolfield;  Miss  Eleanor 
Clark,  who  had  been  affiliated  with  the  Public  Education 
and  Child  Labor  Association  of  Pittsburgh;  Miss  Antonio 
Thornton  Jenkins  Converse,  daughter  of  Admiral  Alex- 
ander Jenkins  of  the  United  States  navy,  and  a  writer 
of  ability;  Miss  Catherine  Connell;  Miss  Marguerite 
Jenison;  Miss  Cathrene  H.  Peebles,  and  Miss  Gertrude  R. 

219 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Wheeler  assisted  Miss  Forbes  in  the  heavy  task  of  collat- 
ing the  mass  of  material  and  making  it  available  for  instant 
use. 

No  small  part  of  the  work  of  the  division  was  the  mail- 
ing and  management  of  supplies.  Miss  Loretta  Dowling 
took  charge  before  the  dissolution  of  the  division,  when  the 
work  became  so  strenuous  that  Miss  Anna  Maria  Perrott 
Rose,  a  graduate  of  Vassar,  joined  the  staff.  Miss  Rose, 
a  student  of  printing  and  publishing,  had  taught  typog- 
raphy in  the  night-school  of  the  Pulitzer  School  of  Journal- 
ism, had  been  head  of  the  proof  department  in  a  large 
New  York  printing  and  publishing  company,  had  done 
writing  and  dummying,  and  had  worked  in  all  of  the 
mechanical  departments  of  the  plant  to  learn  the  machinery. 
Miss  Rose  was  planning  a  series  of  brochures  to  follow  the 
successful  college  booklet  when  the  machinery  stopped. 

The  work  of  the  last  month  was  concentrated  largely 
upon  the  writing  of  the  history  of  women  in  war- work. 
Mrs.  Helen  S.  Wright  of  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts,  daugh- 
ter of  Rear-Admiral  David  Smith,  of  the  United  States 
navy,  trained  for  twenty  years  in  the  science  of  compiling 
and  assembling  literary  material,  placed  herself  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  woman's  division.  This  author  of  The  Great 
White  North,  The  Valley  of  Lebanon,  and  The  Seventh  Con- 
tinent worked  early  and  late  in  the  assembling  of  the  events 
that  told  the  vivid  and  dramatic  history  of  American 
women  in  the  war. 

All  this  ended  suddenly  and  even  tragically.  In  June, 
1918, 1  went  before  Congress  for  my  appropriation.  When 
it  came  to  the  Division  of  Women's  War- work,  Congress 
refused  funds  on  the  ground  that  we  were  trespassing  upon 
a  field  "already  occupied  by  the  Woman's  Committee  of 
the  Council  of  National  Defense."  Plain  proof  that  this 
was  not  the  case  failed  to  secure  a  reversal  of  the  decision, 

and   Mrs.   Taylor   and  her  heartbroken   associates   were 

220 


DIVISION  OF  WOMEN'S  WAR-WORK 

compelled  to  quit  a  great  work  that  was  just  coming  to 
the  peak  of  its  importance. 

Strangely  enough,  the  very  dailies  that  were  most 
derisive  of  the  Committee  printed  columns  and  even 
pages  in  denunciation  of  the  "arbitrary  action"  that  ended 
an  "invaluable  agency,"  all  taking  care,  however,  to 
make  it  stand  out  as  my  personal  fault. 


XIX 


OTHER   DIVISIONS 

THE  Service  Bureau  was  another  of  the  many  activi- 
ties that  were  forced  upon  the  Committee  by  proved 
necessities  and  a  general  demand.  During  the  first  six 
months  of  war  the  one  great  cry  that  rang  through  Wash- 
ington was,  "For  Heaven's  sake,  don't  send  me  to  some- 
body else."  It  came  from  civilians  eager  to  offer  their 
services,  business  men  with  propositions  to  make,  and  even 
from  officials  themselves,  all  worn  out  with  tramping 
from  place  to  place,  in  every  office  receiving  the  answer, 
"I'm  not  the  man.  You'd  better  see- 
It  is  to  be  remembered  that  America's  war  machine 
came  into  being  almost  overnight,  and  not  only  was  there 
a  tremendous  expansion  in  every  department,  but  new 
boards  and  commissions  were  created  daily.  Housing 
was  a  bitter  problem,  and  lack  of  quarters  compelled  a 
scattering  that  made  it  difficult  for  even  executive  heads 
to  keep  track  of  their  bureaus.  As  a  matter  of  course, 
there  were  delay  and  confusion  in  the  transaction  of  the 
public  business  as  a  result  of  this  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
organization  of  the  executive  departments,  of  the  distri- 
bution of  the  duties  of  each  among  its  bureaus  and  divisions, 
of  the  personnel  in  charge,  of  the  location  of  the  many 
offices  in  which  they  were  established,  and  of  ready  means 
of  intercommunication. 

To  meet  the  situation,  information  bureaus  were  in- 

222 


OTHER  DIVISIONS 

stalled  by  the  permanent  departments  like  War  and  Navy, 
and  elaborate  organizations  were  also  being  planned  by 
Food,  Fuel,  War  Industry,  War  Trade,  and  other  similar 
bodies.  This  was  not  a  solution,  however,  and  at  a  joint 
meeting  it  was  decided  that  the  Committee  should  estab- 
lish one  central  service  bureau  to  act  for  the  entire  war- 
machine.  As  a  result  of  the  decision  the  President  issued 
the  following  executive  order  under  date  of  March  19,1918: 

I  hereby  create  under  the  direction  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information,  created  by  Executive  order  of  April  14,  1917, 
a  Service  Bureau,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  central  office 
in  the  city  of  Washington,  where  complete  information  records 
may  be  available  as  to  the  function,  location,  and  personnel 
of  all  government  agencies. 

I  hereby  ask  the  several  departments  of  government,  when 
so  requested  by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Infor- 
mation, to  detail  such  person  or  persons  as  may  be  necessary  in 
gathering  the  information  needed  and  carrying  on  the  work 
of  the  bureau  so  far  as  it  relates  to  such  departments;  to  give 
opportunity  to  the  director  of  the  bureau,  or  such  person  as  he 
may  designate,  to  secure  information  from  time  to  time  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  the  records  up  to  date;  to  supply  the  director 
of  the  bureau,  on  form  cards  furnished  by  him,  with  information 
as  to  personnel,  function,  and  location. 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

Prof.  Frederick  W.  McReynolds  was  borrowed  from 
Dartmouth  College  and  quarters  were  taken  in  the  very 
heart  of  Washington's  business  district.  Every  fact 
relating  to  the  business  of  government  in  each  of  its  several 
departments  was  gathered  and  indexed  so  that  the  Ser- 
vice Bureau  stood  ready  to  give  instant  and  accurate 
information  as  to  officials,  councils,  commissions,  functions. 
Every  detail  of  the  war-machinery  was  at  hand  for  inquiry 
and  answer.  When  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  each  day 
saw  new  bodies  brought  into  being,  and  that  the  daily 
changes  of  personnel  in  established  departments  sometimes 

223 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

ran  as  high  as  five  hundred,  the  magnitude  of  the  task 
can  be  appreciated. 

During  the  six  months  of  its  existence  the  Service 
Bureau  answered  over  eighty-six  thousand  inquiries,  made 
in  person,  by  telephone,  and  by  letter,  and  from  the  day 
of  its  creation  there  was  a  lessening  of  irritation  and  con- 
fusion. Hundreds  of  people  took  the  trouble  to  return 
to  compliment  the  bureau  upon  its  efficiency,  and  even 
members  of  Congress  were  compelled  to  admit  the  value  of 
the  bureau.  No  one  will  ever  be  able  to  estimate  the  money 
saved  by  lifting  the  Bureau  of  Inquiries  and  Answers 
from  the  hard-driven  departments  of  the  government. 

Professor  McReynolds,  after  carrying  the  work  to  success, 
resigned  to  become  a  special  agent  of  the  Bureau  of  Internal 
Revenue,  and  Martin  A.  Morrison,  who  succeeded  him, 
was  subsequently  appointed  a  Civil  Service  Commissioner 
by  the  President.  Miss  Marie  Shick,  office  manager 
from  the  beginning,  was  then  promoted  to  be  director  and 
at  the  time  of  the  work's  discontinuance  was  receiving 
offers  from  various  other  departments  of  government, 
which,  while  constituting  an  interference  with  the  work, 
nevertheless  stood  as  proof  of  the  competent  manner  in 
which  the  bureau  was  administered. 

A  special  word  of  commendation  is  due  to  Mr.  F.  E. 
Hackett  and  Mr.  Arthur  Klein,  who  made  the  initial  sur- 
vey of  all  the  departments,  and  to  Miss  Emily  A.  Spilman, 
assistant  librarian  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  who 
supervised  the  compiling  of  the  directory. 

Through  the  Division  of  Syndicate  Features  we  enlisted 
the  services  of  the  leading  novelists,  essayists,  and  short- 
story  writers  of  the  United  States,  a  picked  group  of  men 
and  women  constituting  a  virtual  staff  that  worked  faith- 
fully week  after  week  in  the  preparation  of  brilliant  articles 
that  were  sent  by  mail  to  the  press  of  the  country  for 
release  on  given  dates.  Among  those  who  gave  so  freely 

224 


OTHER  DIVISIONS 

of  their  time  and  abilities  were  Samuel  Hopkins  Adams, 
Ellis  Parker  Butler,  Booth  Tarkington,  Meredith  Nichol- 
son, Harvey  O'Higgins,  Herbert  Quick,  John  Spargo, 
William  English  Walling,  Mary  Roberts  Rinehart,  Wallace 
Irwin,  Richard  Washburn  Child,  Samuel  Merwin,  Roland 
G.  Usher,  Ralph  D.  Paine,  Martha  Bensey  Bruere,  Edward 
Mott  Wooley,  John  Reed  Scott,  Prof.  John  Erskine,  Prof. 
Eugene  Davenport,  Crittenden  Marriott,  James  H.  Collins, 
Rex  Beach,  Virginia  Frazer  Boyle,  and  many  others. 

At  first  a  good  many  personal  pronouncements  were 
used  to  make  clear  why  we  were  at  war,  to  explain  the  ideals 
for  which  we  were  fighting.  Opinions  of  prominent  people 
were  in  demand,  though  stories  of  our  war  activities  were 
also  used.  But  the  character  of  the  matter  sent  out 
changed  as  the  war  progressed.  Our  object  was,  in  the 
newspaper  phrase,  to  "sell  the  war,"  and  we  tried  to 
furnish,  dressed  in  acceptable  newspaper  style,  the  story 
of  the  war-machine  in  its  thousands  of  phases,  the  story 
of  our  boys  over  there  and  over  here,  and  the  spirit  that 
was  back  of  the  whole  great  adventure. 

Mary  Roberts  Rinehart  contributed  timely  articles 
based  upon  her  own  observations  while  visiting  the  vari- 
ous battle-fronts,  and  her  story  of  an  interview  with  the 
King  of  Belgium  was  a  free  feature  that  the  papers  adver- 
tised for  days  in  advance.  Samuel  Hopkins  Adams  came 
to  Washington  at  his  own  expense,  and  as  a  result  of  his 
skilful  analysis  of  the  papers  taken  from  Von  Igel  by  the 
Department  of  Justice,  a  page  story  went  out  that  showed 
German  intrigue  down  to  the  last  sordid  detail.  James 
H.  Collins  wrote  a  wonderful  series  that  made  clear  the 
work  of  new  and  little-understood  departments;  Herbert 
Quick  fought  regularly  for  the  conquest  of  the  agricultural 
mind;  Ellis  Parker  Butler  gave  us  a  brilliant  series  which 
we  syndicated  in  one  hundred  papers,  and  Harvey  J. 
O'Higgins  was  such  a  success  in  answering  the  "German 

225 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

whisper"  that  we  drafted  him  outright,  and  brought  him  to 
Washington  to  serve  as  associate  chairman.  The  division  did 
not  confine  itself  wholly  to  fact  stories  and  human  interest 
stuff  about  army  and  navy  workers.  It  dealt  also  with  the 
larger  aspects  that  were  behind  the  immediate  facts.  It 
covered  the  racial,  the  social,  the  moral,  and  the  financial 
aspects  of  the  war  written  by  specialists  in  these  lines. 

L.  Ames  Brown,  transferred  from  the  News  Division  for 
the  purpose  of  inaugurating  the  plan  of  syndicate  feat- 
ures, handled  it  brilliantly  and  well  until  he  entered  the 
army,  and  then,  under  the  direction  of  William  MacLeod 
Raine  and  Arthur  MacFarlane,  the  stories  were  used  from 
Florida  to  Alaska,  from  New  York  to  California,  reaching 
a  circulation  of  about  twelve  million  a  month. 

Then  there  was  the  Bureau  of  Cartoons  to  mobilize  and 
direct  the  scattered  cartoon  power  of  the  country  for  con- 
structive war-work.  I  was  never  very  enthusiastic  over 
the  idea  and  gave  it  a  very  grudging  assent  as  well  as  a 
meager  appropriation.  But  under  Mr.  George  J.  Hecht, 
capably  assisted  by  Mr.  Alfred  M.  Saperston  and  Miss 
Gretchen  Leicht,  a  remarkable  success  was  won.  The 
principal  activity  of  the  bureau  was  the  weekly  publica- 
tion of  the  Bulletin  for  Cartoonists.  Every  week  the 
bureau  obtained  from  all  the  chief  departments  of  the 
government  the  announcements  which  they  particularly 
wanted  to  transmit  to  the  public,  wrote  them  up  in  the 
bulletin,  and  sent  them  out  to  over  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
cartoonists.  As  general  suggestions  and  advance-news 
"tips"  were  published  rather  than  specific  subjects  for 
cartoons,  there  was  no  danger  of  cartoonists  losing  their 
individuality  or  originality.  Cartoonists  all  over  the  nation 
followed  out  these  suggestions.  This  made  for  timeliness 
and  unity  of  cartoon  power  which  developed  into  a  stimu- 
lating and  actively  constructive  force  for  shaping  public 
opinion  and  winning  the  war. 

226 


XX 

SHOWING  AMERICA   TO   THE  FOREIGN   PRESS 

IN  many  respects,  one  of  the  most  effective  ideas  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information  was  the  bringing 
to  the  United  States,  from  time  to  time,  of  delegations 
of  foreign  newspaper  men  in  order  that  they  might  "see 
with  their  own  eyes,  hear  with  their  own  ears,"  and  upon 
their  return  be  able  to  report  fully  on  America's  morale 
and  effort.  These  trips  were  of  incalculable  value  in  our 
foreign  educational  work,  for  not  only  did  the  visitors 
send  home  daily  reports  by  cable  and  by  mail,  but  upon 
their  return  wrote  series  of  articles  and  even  went  upon 
the  lecture  platform.  Most  important,  everything  was 
written  on  the  basis  of  what  had  been  seen  by  the  eyes  of 
the  foreigners,  with  the  individual  correspondent's  own 
interpretation  of  the  facts  in  the  manner  that  would  most 
appeal  to  his  own  reading  public. 

Mexico  was  selected  for  the  initial  experiment  in  national 
entertaining,  and  Mr.  Robert  H.  Murray,  our  resident 
commissioner,  assembled  the  following  representative 
group  of  Mexican  editors: 

From  the  City  of  Mexico,  Senor  Felix  Palavacini  of  El 
Universal,  Senor  Manuel  Carpio  of  La  Voz,  Senor  Zamora 
Plowes  of  A.  B.  C.,  Senor  Manero  of  El  Economista,  and 
Senor  Alducin  of  El  Excelsior,  and  from  other  principal 
cities  the  correspondents  of  these  papers:  El  Dictdmen, 
Vera  Cruz;  La  Prensa,  Pueblo;  El  Informador,  Saltillo;  El 

227 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Liberal,  Saltillo;  ElProgreso,  El  Liberal,  and  Nueva  Patria, 
all  of  Monterey,  La  Prensa,  and  Tampico. 

Lieut.  P.  S.  O'Reilly,  borrowed  from  the  Cable  Censor- 
ship by  reason  of  a  long  association  with  Spanish-speaking 
peoples,  took  the  party  in  charge  for  the  Committee,  and 
a  tour  was  arranged  that  covered  the  United  States. 

Their  itinerary  included  the  following  cities  and  points  of 
interest:  New  Orleans,  Louisiana;  Atlanta,  Georgia;  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  where  the  delegation  wras  received  and  ad- 
dressed by  President  Wilson  and  where  the  Pan-American 
Bureau  entertained  it  and  the  Mexicans  were  afforded  an  op- 
portunity of  seeing  many  governmental  works;  Annapolis, 
for  inspection  of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy;  Camp 
Meade,  for  inspection  of  a  typical  United  States  canton- 
ment; Philadelphia,  for  a  view  of  the  Hog  Island  Ship- 
building Yard;  South  Bethlehem,  for  inspection  of  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Works;  New  York  City,  for  inspection 
of  the  United  States  Military  Academy  at  West  Point 
and  numerous  war  factories  in  and  around  New  York; 
Boston,  for  inspection  of  shipbuilding  plants;  Schenectady, 
for  inspection  of  the  plant  of  the  General  Electric  Co.; 
Buffalo,  for  inspection  of  the  Curtiss  Aviation  Co. ;  Detroit, 
for  view  of  various  plants  making  Liberty  motors  and 
'planes;  Chicago,  for  view  of  various  steel-plants,  packing- 
houses, etc.;  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  for  study  of  the 
milling  centers;  Yakima,  Washington,  for  a  view  of  a  United 
States  reclamation  project;  Seattle,  for  study  of  west- 
coast  shipbuilding;  Portland,  for  study  of  west-coast  ship- 
building, and  San  Francisco  for  the  same  purpose;  Los 
Angeles,  and  back  to  Mexico  via  San  Antonio  and  Laredo. 

The  Mexicans  came  in  distrust  and  suspicion,  also  in 
a  vast  and  amazing  ignorance  of  the  extent  and  might  of 
the  United  States.  While  Mr.  Murray  was  working  very 
effectively  with  the  Committee's  daily  cable  and  mail 
service,  literature,  etc.,  it  was  still  the  case  that  the  pro- 

228 


SHOWING  AMERICA  TO  THE  FOREIGN  PRESS 

German  press  of  Mexico  had  Republican  attacks  in  the 
Senate  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  answer,  and  the  visiting  editors 
were  in  doubt  as  to  the  exact  facts.  It  was  amusing  to 
witness  their  surprise  when  they  saw  our  cantonments, 
our  ships,  our  aviation-fields,  and  great  munition-plants. 

"Why,"  exclaimed  one  of  them,  "we  had  been  led  to 
believe  by  your  Senators  that  you  did  not  have  a  ship  or 
an  airplane." 

At  every  point  we  treated  them  with  absolute  frankness, 
showing  everything,  concealing  nothing,  and  in  the  end 
they  were  enthusiastic  believers  not  only  in  our  power, 
but  in  our  idealism. 

Chambers  of  commerce,  boards  of  trade,  various  other 
civic  and  business  organizations  and  business  firms  and 
individuals  throughout  the  country  aided  splendidly  in 
making  the  Mexicans  feel  at  home  and  im  impressing  them 
with  the  good  will  and  friendship  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  felt  for  the  people  south  of  the  Rio  Grande. 
Many  business  firms  and  individuals  entertained  them 
and  contributed  not  a  little  to  making  them,  on  their  return 
to  their  native  country,  enthusiastic  "boosters"  for  the 
United  States.  What  won  them  absolutely,  however,  was 
the  speech  of  the  President,  made  to  them  simply  and 
straightforwardly  as  they  grouped  about  him  in  the  White 
House,  clear  and  ringing  in  its  exposition  of  our  ideals, 
aims,  and  purposes.  This  speech,  more  than  any  other 
one  thing,  killed  the  German  lie  in  Latin  America,  for  we 
gave  it  complete  circulation  in  South  and  Central  America 
as  well  as  in  Mexico. 

The  Swiss  came  next,  and  getting  them  to  come  was 
remarkable  proof  of  the  strength  that  Mrs.  Whitehouse 
had  acquired  in  Switzerland.  The  government  itself  had 
to  approve  the  visit,  also  the  personnel,  and  there  were 
delicate  questions  of  neutrality  involved,  as  well  as  personal 
prejudices  on  the  part  of  pro-German  editors.  The  six 
16  **9 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

men  in  the  party  were  statesmen  as  well  as  journalists, 
and  I  have  never  seen  a  group  that  had  fairer  or  more  open 
minds.  They  saw  and  listened  calmly  and  critically,  and 
because  of  this  judicial  silence  there  were  times  when  we 
felt  that  the  trip  was  not  a  success.  Mr.  Norman  de  R. 
Whitehouse,  however,  who  was  conducting  the  party, 
having  deserted  his  own  affairs  to  render  the  service, 
assured  us  that  all  was  going  well,  and  his  word  came  true. 
A  night  or  two  before  they  sailed  the  Swiss  colony  of  New 
York  gave  a  dinner  in  honor  of  the  distinguished  visitors, 
and  not  one  of  the  six  but  made  a  speech  that  was  ungrudg- 
ing in  its  praise  of  America  and  its  belief  in  our  ideals. 

The  Italian  journalist  came  next  and  Captain  Merriman, 
in  Rome,  selected  the  following  representative  members 
of  the  Italian  press:  Aldo  Cassuto  of  Secolo,  Antonio 
Agresti  of  Tribuna,  Paolo  Cappa  of  Awenire  d'ltalia, 
Orazio  Pedrazzi  of  Nuovo  Giornale,  Franco  Rainieri  of 
Giornale  d'ltalia,  Pietro  Solari  of  Tempo,  Leonardo  Bitetti 
of  Idea  Nazionale. 

The  fourth  group  to  arrive  came  from  the  Scandinavian 
countries  and  included  representatives  of  the  principal 
papers  in  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Norway.  Not  only  did 
we  show  them  America  at  war,  but  we  made  it  a  point  to 
see  that  they  came  into  contact  with  all  those  communities 
in  which  there  were  large  Scandinavian  populations.  Mr. 
Bjorkman  handled  the  tour  with  rare  judgment  and  carried 
it  through  to  complete  success.  The  armistice  termi- 
nated our  plans  in  this  direction,  and  necessitated  the  can- 
celation  of  the  invitations  that  had  already  been  extended 
to  the  newspaper  men  of  Holland  and  Spain.  The  itiner- 
aries arranged  by  the  Italians,  the  Swiss,  and  the  Scandi- 
navians followed  the  same  general  plan  as  the  one  pre- 
pared for  the  Mexican  editors. 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  signal  success  of 
these  visits,  for  the  effect  of  them  was  signal  and  lasting. 

230 


SHOWING  AMERICA  TO  THE  FOREIGN  PRESS 

The  very  fact  that  we  were  willing  to  let  our  war  progress 
be  seen  and  judged  was  impressive  at  the  outset,  and  the 
magnitude  of  "America's  Answer"  did  the  rest.  Count- 
less columns  in  foreign  newspapers  were  earned  for  us 
that  could  have  been  gained  in  no  other  way,  and  every 
column  carried  weight  because  it  came  from  the  pen  of  a 
writer  in  whom  the  readers  had  confidence. 

Equally  good  results  were  obtained  from  similar  visits 
to  the  American  firing-line  in  France.  The  newspaper 
men  of  Spain,  of  Holland,  of  England,  and  of  the  Scandi- 
navian countries  were  selected  by  the  resident  commission- 
ers and  on  arrival  in  France  were  received  by  the  Paris 
office  and  shown  every  detail  of  the  American  effort  from 
landing-port  to  front-line  trench.  Every  man  of  them 
carried  back  to  his  country  the  message,  "America  cannot 
lose/' 

The  tours  of  the  foreign  editors  having  proved  so  won- 
derfully successful,  it  was  decided  that  a  like  plan  should 
be  pursued  with  reference  to  the  foreign  correspondents 
on  duty  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Walter  S.  Rogers  of 
the  Foreign  Cable  Service  took  the  matter  up  with  them, 
and  an  association  was  formed  that  included  these  members : 
R.  Bonnifield,  Central  News,  London;  P.  P.  Brown  and  E. 
W.  Kelly,  Paris  Herald;  W.  F.  Bullock,  Henry  N.  Hall, 
and  J.  Andrew  White,  London  Times;  P.  S.  Bullen  and 
S.  J.  Clarke,  London  Daily  Telegraph;  H.  Delmas  and 
Henri  Collin  Delavaud,  Agence  Havas,  France;  W.  W. 
Davies,  La  Nacion  of  Buenos  Aires;  Frank  Dilnot  and  J. 
W.  Harding,  London  Daily  Chronicle;  Dr.  F.  Ferrera, 
Corner e  della  Sera,  Rome;  Sir  John  Foster  Fraser,  Scotch 
newspapers;  Andrea  Ferretti,  L'Idea  Nazionale,  Rome; 
Leopold  Grahame,  El  Heraldo,  Cuba;  Y.  Hatada,  Asahi, 
Japan;  Frank  Hillier,  London  Daily  Mail;  E.  W.  M.  Hall, 
Daily  Sketch,  London;  W.  J.  Herman,  Westminster  Gazette, 
London;  Marcel  Knecht,  Maison  de  la  Presse,  Paris; 

231 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

S.  Lauzanne,  A.  Plottier,  and  Leon  Levy,  Le  Matin,  Paris; 
S.  Levy  Lawson  and  Wilmer  Stuart,  Reuters,  Ltd.,  London; 
Capt.  S.  Loewy,  L9  Information,  Paris;  A.  Maurice  Low, 
Morning  Post,  London;  Warren  Mason,  London  Daily  Ex- 
press; Norman  MacCallum,  Canadian  Press  Association; 
Ernest  Montenegro,  El  Mercurio,  Chile;  E.  Rascovar, 
Central  News,  London;  Romeo  Ronconi,  La  Prensa, 
Buenos  Aires;  A.  Rothman,  Australian  Press  Association; 
Severo  Salcedo,  La  Nacion,  Santiago,  Chile;  Van  Buren 
Thome,  Mainichi,  Osaka,  Japan;  T.  Walter  Williams, 
Daily  Mirror,  London;  P.  W.  Wilson,  London  Daily  News. 

Our  first  effort  was  to  answer  the  German  lie  that 
America's  shipbuilding  was  a  "bluff."  Permission  for 
the  unprecedented  step  of  showing  the  secret  processes 
of  certain  American  shipbuilding  yards  was  finally  obtained 
from  the  government  departments  concerned,  and  the 
correspondents  were  taken  on  a  tour  which  embraced  the 
yards  of  the  New  York  Shipbuilding  Co.,  at  Camden,  N.  J.; 
the  American  International  plant  at  Hog  Island,  Pa.; 
the  Squantum  and  Quincy  plants  of  the  Fore  River  Ship- 
building Co.,  outside  of  Boston,  Mass.;  the  Brooklyn 
Navy  Yard;  and  the  Newark  plant  of  the  Submarine  Boat 
Corporation.  Each  correspondent  who  made  the  trip 
was  under  no  coercion  as  to  the  character  of  the  matter 
he  was  to  write,  and  the  only  pledges  asked  were  with 
respect  to  certain  secrets  of  construction. 

Judging  from  the  publicity  to  the  American  shipbuilding 
program  which  resulted,  the  trip  was  an  immense  success. 
All  of  the  foreign  correspondents  were  more  than  anxious  to 
present  America's  viewpoint  and  more  than  enthusiastic 
over  America's  accomplishments.  Matter  written  by  these 
correspondents  was  published  all  over  England,  France, 
Italy,  and  South  America,  and  reproduced  in  countries 
still  more  distant. 

Necessary  permission  having  been  secured,  the  foreign 

232 


SHOWING  AMERICA  TO  THE  FOREIGN  PRESS 

correspondents  were  next  sent  on  a  tour  of  the  Middle  West 
to  study  aviation  progress.  At  Detroit  the  plant  of  the 
Packard  Motor  Co. — engaged  in  making  Liberty  motors 
—was  thoroughly  inspected,  the  first  time  that  such  a 
permission  had  been  granted.  The  army  authorities, 
thoroughly  awake  to  the  propaganda  value  of  the  plan, 
relaxed  their  stern  rule  against  civilians  and  granted  the 
correspondents  fullest  freedom  at  the  special  testing-field 
outside  of  Detroit.  The  plant  of  Henry  Ford,  making 
cylinders  for  the  Liberty  motors,  was  inspected. 

The  correspondents  then  traveled  to  Chicago.  They 
were  greatly  interested  in  the  Great  Lakes  Naval  Training 
Station,  were  made  to  realize  something  of  the  gigantic 
responsibilities  which  the  United  States  had  shouldered 
in  its  self-assumed  task  of  feeding  the  world  by  a  detailed 
view  of  the  Union  Stock  Yards  and  the  great  packing-plants 
of  Chicago.  One  day  was  also  spent  in  investigating  the 
making  of  munitions  at  the  plant  of  the  International 
Harvester  Co.  Another  day  was  spent  visiting  the  great 
war  plant  of  the  Rock  Island  Arsenal. 

The  third  trip  undertaken  was  in  response  to  earnest 
pleas  from  the  correspondents  that  they  be  permitted  to 
visit  briefly  with  President  Wilson  himself.  The  President 
consented  to  receive  the  correspondents  at  the  White 
House,  and  in  a  remarkable  interview  laid  bare  his  own 
thought  as  well  as  his  conception  of  the  ideals  of  America. 
The  correspondents  were  then  taken  to  Old  Point  Comfort, 
where  they  saw  the  plant  of  the  Newport  News  Shipbuild- 
ing Co.,  inspected  the  heavy-artillery  school  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  saw  the  training  of  naval  aviators  at  Langley 
Field,  Hampton  Roads,  and  the  vast  embarkation  works 
in  and  around  that  harbor. 

The  fourth  trip  was  a  corollary  to  the  Detroit-Chicago- 
Rock  Island  inspection.  It  was  designed  to  show  the  corre- 
spondents certain  American  aviation-plants  in  operation. 

233 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  correspondents  were  taken  to  Dayton,  where  they  went 
over  the  plant  of  the  Dayton-Wright  Co.,  and  as  many  as 
desired  were  afforded  the  opportunity  of  going  aloft  in 
a  Liberty  'plane.  The  same  inspection  and  the  same 
opportunity  were  afforded  them  at  Buffalo,  where  they 
went  through  the  great  plant  of  the  Curtiss  Co. 

It  was  not  only  the  case  that  each  trip  resulted  in  long 
cable  stories  and  special  articles  sent  by  mail.  From  the 
very  first  tour  a  new  note  was  apparent  in  the  despatches 
—a  note  of  enthusiasm,  of  courage,  of  victory.  From  what 
they  had  seen  themselves  they  were  able  to  discount  the 
attacks  of  partizans,  and  "calamity  howls"  ceased  to  go 
out  on  the  cables  to  alarm  the  Allies  and  frighten  the 
neutrals. 

It  should  be  added  that  Mr.  Perry  Arnold,  who  conducted 
the  correspondents  on  each  trip,  also  prepared  numerous 
articles  covering  what  had  been  seen,  which  were  exten- 
sively circulated  in  Europe  and  South  America. 


Part    II 
THE   FOREIGN  SECTION 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

THE  domestic  task  was  simple  compared  with  the  under- 
taking that  faced  the  Committee  on  Public  Informa- 
tion when  it  turned  from  the  United  States  to  make  the 
fight  for  world  opinion.  It  was  not  only  that  the  people 
of  the  Allied  Powers  had  to  be  strengthened  with  a  mes- 
sage of  encouragement,  but  there  was  the  moral  verdict 
of  the  neutral  nations  to  be  won  and  the  stubborn  prob- 
lem of  reaching  the  deluded  soldiers  and  civilians  of  the 
Central  Powers  with  the  truths  of  the  war.  A  prime 
importance  was  to  preach  the  determination  and  military 
might  of  America  and  the  certainty  of  victory,  but  it  was 
equally  necessary  to  teach  the  motives,  purposes,  and  ideals 
of  America  so  that  friend,  foe,  and  neutral  alike  might 
come  to  see  us  as  a  people  without  selfishness  and  in  love 
with  justice. 

It  was  a  task  that  looked  almost  hopeless.  The  United 
States,  alone  of  the  great  nations  of  the  world,  had  never 
conducted  a  propaganda  movement.  For  years  preceding 
the  war  Germany  had  been  secretly  building  a  vast  pub- 
licity machine  in  every  corner  of  the  earth,  designed  to 
overwhelm  all  foreign  peoples  with  pictures  of  Germany's 
vast  power,  her  overwhelming  pre-eminence  in  industry, 
commerce,  and  the  arts.  German  agents,  carefully  selected 
from  among  her  journalists  and  authors,  neglected  no 
opportunities  for  presenting  Germany's  case  to  readers 

237 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

of  every  language,  and  her  commercial  firms  linked  a 
propaganda  of  liberal  credits  with  this  newspaper  campaign 
throughout  the  world. 

Great  Britain,  through  Reuters,  likewise  conducted  a 
governmental  propaganda.  France  had  official  connection 
with  the  Havas  Agency.  Both  England  and  France, 
through  ownership  or  liberal  subsidy  of  certain  great 
cable  arteries,  had  long  been  able  to  direct  currents  of 
public  opinion  in  channels  favorable  to  themselves.  Other 
nations  had  publicity  machines  of  varying  types. 

America  controlled  no  cables,  manipulated  no  press 
associations,  operated  no  propaganda  machinery  of  any 
kind.  We  were,  and  always  had  been,  dependent  upon 
foreign  press  agencies  for  intercourse  with  the  world. 
The  volume  of  information  that  went  from  our  shores  was 
comparatively  small,  and  after  it  had  been  filtered  in 
London,  or  Paris,  it  grew  smaller  and  smaller  until  it 
amounted  to  mere  "flashes"  when  it  reached  a  far  country. 
Strangely  enough,  we  were  at  once  the  best-known  and  the 
least-known  people  in  the  world.  There  was  no  corner 
of  the  globe  in  which  America  was  not  a  familiar  word, 
but  as  to  our  aims,  our  ideals,  our  social  and  industrial 
progress,  our  struggles  and  our  achievements,  there  were 
the  most  absolute  and  disheartening  misunderstandings 
and  misconceptions.  For  instance,  when  the  "gun-men" 
were  executed  in  New  York,  papers  in  South  America 
actually  printed  accounts  that  told  of  an  admission  fee 
being  charged,  with  Governor  Whitman  taking  tickets 
at  the  door.  Into  this  situation  the  Germans  projected 
themselves  with  vigor  and  decision.  From  the  first, 
Berlin  had  an  exact  appreciation  of  the  military  value  of 
public  opinion,  and  it  spent  millions  in  its  endeavor  to 
win  it  or  else  to  corrupt  it.  Just  as  the  German  propagand- 
ists worked  in  the  United  States  during  our  period  of  neu- 
trality, using  every  effort  to  prejudice  Americans  against 

238 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

the  Allies,  so  did  they  now  attempt  to  poison  the  Allied 
and  the  neutral  nations  of  the  world  against  America. 

It  is  impossible  even  to  estimate  the  amount  of  money 
spent  on  propaganda  by  the  Germans.  Russians  compe- 
tent to  judge  assured  us  that  the  agents  of  Berlin  spent 
$500,000,000  in  that  country  alone  in  their  work  of  cor- 
ruption and  destruction,  and  their  expenditures  in  Spain 
were  estimated  at  $60,000,000.  Close  to  $5,000,000  went 
to  Bolo  Pasha  for  the  corruption  of  the  Paris  press,  and  the 
sums  spent  in  Mexico  ran  high  into  the  millions.  I  know 
that  they  owned  or  subsidized  dailies  in  most  of  the  im- 
portant cities  of  Spain,  South  America,  the  Orient,  Scandi- 
navia, Switzerland,  and  Holland;  that  their  publications, 
issued  in  every  language,  ran  from  costly  brochures  to  the 
most  expensive  books  and  albums;  that  they  thought 
nothing  of  paying  $25,000  for  a  hole-in-the-wall  picture- 
house,  and  that  in  every  large  city  in  every  country  their 
blackmailers  and  bribe-givers  swarmed  like  carrion  crows. 

Their  propaganda,  while  playing  upon  different  points 
of  prejudice  in  various  countries,  was  much  the  same  in 
all  countries.  As  an  initial  proposition  America's  military 
strength  was  derided.  By  no  possibility  could  the  United 
States  raise  or  train  an  army,  and  if,  by  some  miracle, 
this  did  happen,  the  army  could  not  be  transported. 
America  was  a  fat,  loblolly  nation,  lacking  courage,  equip- 
ment, and  ships,  etc.,  etc.  Working  away  from  this  pleas- 
ing premise,  Americans  were  described  as  a  nation  of 
dollar-grabbers,  devoid  of  ideals,  and  inordinate  in  their 
ambitions.  Our  war  with  Mexico  was  played  up  as  a 
cold-blooded,  evil  conquest  and  our  struggle  with  Spain 
painted  as  an  effort  of  our  financial  masters  to  enter  upon 
dreams  of  world  imperialism;  Cuba,  the  Philippines,  and 
Porto  Rico  were  pitied  as  "America's  slave  nations"; 
Pershing's  expedition  to  Mexico  was  declared  to  be  the 
start  of  a  war  of  conquest  that  we  were  later  forced  to 

239 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

relinquish  because  our  "cowardice"  shrank  before  the 
"dauntless"  courage  of  Carranza;  the  Colorado  coal 
strike,  the  Lawrence  strike,  and  the  Paterson  strikes  were 
all  treated  in  the  utmost  detail  to  prove  America's  "system 
of  wage-slavery";  pictures  were  drawn  of  tremendous 
wealth  on  the  one  hand  and  peonage  on  the  other;  lynch- 
ings  were  exaggerated  until  it  was  made  to  appear  that 
almost  every  tree  in  America  was  used  for  purposes  of  ex- 
ecution, and  we  were  charged  in  every  conceivable  form 
and  fashion  with  being  the  secret  partner  of  one  or  the 
other  of  the  Allies  in  commercial  plans  to  control  the  trade 
of  the  world. 

Where  there  was  French  sentiment,  America  was  set 
down  as  the  secret  partner  of  England.  Where  English 
sentiment  prevailed,  we  were  the  secret  partner  of  France; 
and  where  Italian  sentiment  obtained,  America,  England, 
and  France  were  assumed  to  be  in  a  plot  to  destroy  Italy. 

In  Spain  every  effort  was  made  to  revive  the  prejudices 
and  passions  of  1898,  and  the  pro-German  press  ran  daily 
lies  in  proof  of  "Yankee  Contempt  for  the  Spaniard." 
One  falsehood  was  that  a  favorite  American  recruiting 
slogan  was:  "Enlist  for  the  War!  Remember  the  Maine 
and  Spain." 

In  Switzerland  we  were  accused  of  withholding  grain 
shipments  in  order  to  starve  the  Swiss  into  alliance  with 
us,  and  in  South  and  Central  America  the  Germans  put 
full  emphasis  on  the  "Panama  Canal  rape"  and  the  "con- 
quest and  annexation"  of  Haiti  and  Santo  Domingo. 

The  German  drive  against  us  was  particularly  strong 
in  Italy  and  France  among  the  peasants,  and  weekly  papers, 
printed  in  close  imitation  of  French  and  Italian  publica- 
tions, were  circulated  by  the  thousands.  The  French 
were  asked  to  believe  that  the  high  prices  were  entirely 
due  to  the  selfishness  and  extravagance  of  the  Americans 
in  France,  also  that  the  docks  and  railroads  and  warehouses 

240 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

built  by  the  Expeditionary  Forces  would  be  permanent 
American  properties  with  a  view  to  the  commercial  enslave- 
ment of  France  and  the  French. 

Playing  upon  the  fact  that  only  a  small  number  of 
American  troops  were  in  Italy,  the  German  "fakes"  kept 
up  the  continual  cry :  "Why  is  Italy  deserted?  A  new  and 
more  terrific  drive  is  on  the  way,  but  Foch  keeps  help 
from  us.  Pershing  and  the  Americans  are  the  dupes  of 
the  selfish  French." 

In  France  the  Gazette  des  Ardennes,  published  in  French 
printing-offices  in  the  occupied  district,  deceived  thousands, 
and  Italian  newspapers  were  also  printed  and  distributed 
from  captured  cities.  In  both  cases,  the  names  of  well- 
known  French  and  Italian  writers  and  artists  were  forged 
to  articles  and  cartoons.  A  principal  propaganda  weapon, 
however,  was  The  Continental  Times,  published  in  Berlin, 
with  branch  office^  in  Holland  and  Switzerland.  Printed 
in  English,  edited  by  American  and  British  renegades,  and 
called  "an  independent  cosmopolitan  newspaper  published 
in  the  interests  of  truth,"  the  wretched  sheet  gave  itself 
wholly  to  the  dissemination  of  falsehood.  It  was  pecul- 
iarly the  medium  used  in  attacking  America,  and  in  each 
issue  there  were  columns  devoted  to  the  "failure"  of  our 
Liberty  Loans,  "armed  resistance  to  the  draft,"  the  "utter 
breakdown"  of  our  war  preparations,  and  other  like  lies. 
In  Russia  particularly,  but  also  among  the  labor  and  So- 
cialist grorps  of  all  the  neutral  and  Allied  countries,  exag- 
gerated attention  was  paid  to  the  Mooney  trial,  the  im- 
prisonment of  Emma  Goldman,  the  deportations  in 
Arizona,  and  other  matters  intended  to  give  the  lying 
impression  that  there  was  an  industrial  autocracy  in  the 
United  States  more  to  be  feared  than  the  military  autoc- 
racy of  Germany. 

The  great  wireless  plant  at  Nauen  was  used  almost 
exclusively  for  propaganda,  from  two  to  three  thousand 

241 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

words  being  "broadcasted"  each  day  as  a  lure  to  neutrals. 
The  navy  picked  it  up  regularly  for  studying  by  various 
divisions  of  the  government,  in  order  that  we  might  know 
what  lies  to  fight. 

Strangely  enough,  the  Germans  gathered  much  of  their 
most  effective  material  from  our  own  press.  From  first 
to  last  American  newspapers  went  to  neutral  countries 
without  hindrance,  and  everything  that  they  contained 
about  "inefficiency,"  "graft,"  "delay,"  or  "Wilson  Bit- 
terly Arraigned  as  Dictator"  was  seized  upon  by  the 
German  propagandists  and  played  across  the  board.  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  articles,  however  conscientiously  intended  as 
constructive  criticism,  were  among  the  chief  weapons  used 
by  the  Germans  in  their  propaganda  attack  in  every 
country.  Senator  La  Follette's  speeches  were  printed 
between  red  covers  and  broadcasted.  No  wonder  that 
the  thing  that  fairly  stunned  the  visiting  Mexican  editors 
was  their  first  sight  of  an  aviation-field!  They  honestly 
believed,  as  a  result  of  reports  of  Congressional  debates, 
that  there  was  not  one  airplane  in  America  that  could  fly. 

We  were  called  upon  to  combat  the  prejudices  of  years, 
to  buck  a  vast  propaganda  machinery  with  millions  behind 
it,  yet  not  only  were  we  without  equipment  or  agencies, 
but  there  was  also  the  daily  harassment  of  a  press  that 
refused  to  understand  and  the  ignorances  and  partizan- 
ships  of  a  Congress  that  counted  the  day  lost  that  did 
not  see  some  new  obstacle  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information. 

Our  one  asset  was  the  justice  of  our  cause,  our  one  hope 
the  carrying  power  of  truth,  and  not  the  least  factor  of 
our  success  in  every  neutral  country  was  the  honesty  of 
our  initial  approach.  We  did  not  send  agents  secretly  to 
carry  on  their  work  by  stealth,  but  to  each  government 
we  addressed  an  honest  statement  of  purpose  somewhat 
after  this  fashion: 

242 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

It  is  desired  to  establish  in  your  country  offices  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  a  wireless  cable,  and  mail  news  service  to  the  press; 
for  the  exhibition  of  motion  pictures  expressive  of  America's 
purpose  and  energies,  for  the  assignment  of  speakers,  for  pam- 
phlet distribution,  and  for  other  similar  open  activities.  There 
will  be  no  item  nor  pamphlet  that  we  will  not  be  willing  to  sub- 
mit to  the  inspection  of  qualified  officials,  for  our  purpose  is  not 
the  coercion  of  public  opinion,  but  the  information  of  public 
opinion  to  the  end  that  there  may  be  a  better  understanding 
between  our  two  countries. 

We  desire  to  do  these  things  openly,  not  only  because  it  is 
the  national  policy  to  avoid  secrecy,  but  because  it  is  our  desire 
to  do  nothing  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  your  government  or  viola- 
tive  of  the  neutrality  that  we  respect.  It  is  not  the  idea  of  the 
United  States  to  conduct  propaganda  in  neutral  countries  in 
the  sense  of  attacking  the  motives  and  methods  of  the 'enemy, 
or  in  the  nature  of  argument  designed  to  compel  or  to  persuade 
certain  courses  of  conduct.  Our  activities  in  every  neutral 
country  are  open  and  aboveboard,  confined  always  to  a  very 
frank  exposition  of  America's  war  aims,  the  nation's  ideals,  and 
future  hopes. 

A  news  service  was  soon  carrying  several  thousand 
words  a  day  to  the  press  of  the  world,  a  clarion  as  to 
America's  war  preparation  and  progress,  America's  pur- 
pose, thought,  and  aims.  It  was  through  this  machinery 
that  we  were  able  to  give  universal  circulation  to  the 
addresses  of  the  President,  putting  them  in  every  language 
within  forty-eight  hours  of  their  delivery. 

Under  the  direction  of  Ernest  Poole,  the  author,  a 
Foreign  Mail  Press  Bureau  was  also  formed  that  soon 
enlisted  the  services  of  many  well-known  writers  and 
publicists  in  the  United  States.  Week  by  week,  a  package 
went  out  to  every  one  of  our  foreign  representatives, 
carrying  material  designed  to  clear  away  all  points  of 
misunderstanding  and  misconception  that  prevailed,  or 
might  prevail,  in  foreign  countries  in  regard  to  America, 
its  life,  work,  ideals,  and  opinions;  material  in  the  shape 

243 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

of  editorial  comment  from  newspapers,  and  original 
special  articles  prepared  by  accepted  authorities,  covering 
every  phase  of  our  national  activity — education,  agri- 
culture, invention,  co-operative  ventures,  modern  ma- 
chinery, rural  free  delivery,  social  legislation,  etc.,  etc. 

Charles  Dana  Gibson,  at  the  head  of  the  mobilized 
artists  of  the  United  States,  and  Charles  S.  Hart,  director 
of  the  Film  Division,  worked  closely  with  Mr.  Poole,  and 
through  the  Foreign  Press  Bureau  went  out  posters, 
captioned  in  every  language,  millions  of  picture  postals, 
and  "still"  photographs  for  purposes  of  display.  In 
every  country  the  show-windows  of  American  business 
houses  were  commandeered  and  used  for  the  display  of 
posters,  bulletins,  and  photographs,  all  changed  at  short 
intervals  just  as  a  theatrical  offering  is  changed. 

The  problem  of  the  spoken  word  was  an  awkward  one 
to  solve.  At  first  we  tried  the  experiment  of  selecting 
Americans  of  foreign  birth,  men  of  achievement  in  their 
particular  trades  and  professions,  and  sending  them  back 
to  their  native  lands  for  speaking  tours.  Certain  patriotic 
Socialists,  despatched  to  France  and  Italy,  did  splendid 
work  along  this  line,  and  various  other  groups  functioned 
very  well.  Speakers  were  not  sent  anywhere,  however, 
unless  they  could  be  kept  under  careful  observation,  so 
that  the  use  of  oratory  was  therefore  limited. 

Capt.  Charles  E.  Merriam  finally  evolved  the  idea 
of  finding  native  Italians  who  knew  America,  filling  them 
up  with  our  latest  facts  and  figures,  and  sending  them  out 
to  talk  to  their  own  people.  The  scheme  worked  so  well 
that  we  adopted  it  in  some  other  countries,  drawing  im- 
partially from  the  universities,  shops,  and  farms.  It  was 
Captain  Merriam,  too,  who  thought  of  suggesting  to 
General  Pershing  that  wounded  Americans  of  Italian 
birth  or  descent  be  invalided  to  Italy  for  convalescence. 
These  men  turned  out  to  be  our  best  propagandists,  preach- 

244 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

ing  the  gospel  of  democracy  with  a  fervor  and  under- 
standing that  would  have  shamed  many  an  heir  of  Plym- 
outh Rock. 

James  F.  Kerney,  in  charge  in  France  until  the  late 
summer  of  1918,  added  to  our  working  capital  of  experience 
by  virtually  mobilizing  the  French  universities  in  the  in- 
terests  of  America.  French  professors  of  standing  who 
*  knew  the  United  States  were  "educated"  up  to  date,  and 
these  volunteers,  proceeding  from  university  to  university, 
"educated"  the  various  faculties,  who  in  turn  spread 
out  over  the  communities  with  the  truth  about  the  United 
States  and  L*  effort  americain. 

Reading-rooms  were  also  established,  with  all  the  pam- 
phlets, posters,  and  picture  postals  of  the  Committee  for 
distribution,  and  with  a  full  equipment  of  American  books, 
newspapers,  and  magazines.  Mr.  Robert  H.  Murray, 
head  of  the  work  in  Mexico,  introduced  a  rather  novel  ex- 
periment in  the  shape  of  classes  in  English,  American 
residents  giving  their  time  as  teachers  free  of  charge. 
These  classes,  ten  a  week,  drew  an  average  attendance  of 
about  eight  hundred  young  men,  and  the  instruction  gave 
splendid  opportunity  to  preach  the  history,  aims,  and  ideals 
of  America,  with  the  result  that  every  one  of  the  eight 
hundred  became  an  understanding  champion  of  the  United 
States. 

The  foreign-born,  and  those  of  foreign  descent,  played 
no  small  part  in  our  educational  effort.  As  I  have  related 
in  previous  chapters,  the  twenty-three  principal  foreign- 
language  groups  in  the  United  States  formed  themselves 
into  loyalty  leagues  and  aided  in  the  organization  of  great 
meetings  from  coast  to  coast  that  not  only  pledged  the  de- 
votion of  America's  adopted  sons  to  the  President  and  the 
war,  but  also  sent  resolutions  across  the  seas  to  strengthen 
the  hearts  of  the  firing-line  and  sustain  the  determination 
of  the  civilian  population. 
17  «*6 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

After  the  Caporetto  disaster,  when  it  seemed  that  Italy 
might  have  to  be  dismissed  as  a  factor  in  the  war,  the 
Italians  in  America  rallied  as  one  man,  and  for  weeks  the 
cables  were  loaded  down  with  messages,  and  the  mails 
were  filled  with  letters,  all  telling  the  preparations  of 
America,  pledging  the  aid  of  America,  calling  for  courage 
and  redoubled  effort.  The  results  were  almost  instantly 
apparent,  and  the  Italian  government  has  stated  repeat- 
edly that  it  was  this  cry  of  faith  and  command  from  the 
United  States  that  stiffened  the  Italian  defensive  into  a 
resistless  offensive. 

A  feature  of  this  phase  of  the  work  that  had  the  most 
far-reaching  effect  probably  was  the  great  Fourth-of-July 
celebration,  organized  and  handled  by  those  of  foreign 
birth  or  foreign  descent.  Each  race  in  each  city  had  its 
own  story  to  send  back  to  its  country,  its  own  set  of 
motion  pictures  for  distribution  in  its  native  land,  and  there 
was  the  great  climax  in  the  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Vernon 
by  representatives  of  the  thirty-three  foreign-language 
groups  as  the  guests  of  the  President.  To  this  very  day, 
in  almost  every  country  of  the  world,  the  stories  of  the 
Fourth  of  July  are  being  printed,  the  pictures  are  being 
shown,  and  the  speech  of  President  Wilson  has  been  trans- 
lated into  every  language  and  has  achieved  wide  use  in  the 
public  schools. 

So  the  work  went  on,  each  day  forcing  enlargements, 
each  week  witnessing  progress,  until  at  last  there  came 
the  time  when  it  was  possible  to  say,  "We  have  won." 
The  things  that  we  set  out  to  do  were  done.  The  morale 
of  the  Allied  fighting  fronts  had  been  galvanized,  and  faith 
and  friendship  had  been  substituted  for  dislike  and  dis- 
trust in  the  hearts  of  the  civilian  populations;  the  neutral 
nations  had  been  brought  to  a  conviction  of  American 
victory  and  a  belief  in  American  idealism,  and  the  German 
censorship,  breaking  under  our  attack,  let  through  the 

246 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

truth  to  soldiers  and  civilians  a  flood  that  crumbled  the 
rotten  structures  of  lies.  Whatever  may  be  the  con- 
dition to-day  after  months  of  a  Congress  that  brought  to 
the  surface  all  that  was  mean  and  despicable  in  American 
life,  the  fact  remains  that  on  the  day  of  the  armistice  there 
was  not  a  corner  of  earth  that  did  not  know  us  as  we  were 
—a  people  with  failures  behind  us,  but  struggling  indomi- 
tably to  the  heights ;  a  people  materialistic  in  achievement, 
but  idealistic  in  every  aspiration — and,  knowing  us,  they 
liked  and  trusted  us. 

As  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information, 
keenly  aware  of  the  importancies  and  intricacies  of 
these  foreign  activities,  I  exercised  personal  direction  of 
all  the  work  until  the  various  trails  were  well  blazed  and 
when  the  need  of  undivided  executive  attention  became 
imperative.  Mr.  Arthur  Woods,  former  police  commis- 
sioner of  New  York  City,  was  decided  upon  as  director 
of  the  Foreign  Section,  but  within  a  week  the  aviation 
division  of  the  army  begged  his  services,  and,  knowing  the 
bitter  need  for  his  type  of  genius,  I  released  him.  In 
January,  1918,  at  the  height  of  our  new  search  for  the  right 
man,  Will  Irwin  dropped  from  heaven,  via  Europe,  and  vol- 
unteered for  six  months  of  service.  He  knew  Western 
Europe  intimately,  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  German 
propaganda  in  all  of  its  forms,  and  in  addition  to  this 
knowledge  he  brought  vision  to  the  work,  originality,  and 
an  enthusiasm  that  had  the  carry  of  a  bullet. 

He  stayed  his  promised  six  months,  carrying  through  the 
great  Fourth-of-July  celebration  that  was  his  idea,  and  after 
his  return  to  his  European  work  the  post  of  director  of 
the  Foreign  Section  fell  to  Edgar  G.  Sisson,  just  back  from 
Russia.  At  his  right  hand  Mr.  Sisson  placed  Carl  Byoir 
as  associate  and  business  director,  and  Harry  N.  Rickey 
as  assistant  general  director,  and  these  three  swept  the  pro- 
gram through  to  the  end.  Mr.  Rickey,  formerly  executive 

247 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

head  of  the  Newspaper  Enterprise  Association,  had  served 
as  the  Committee's  representative  in  London,  and  brought 
experience  to  the  aid  of  his  rare  ability.  As  for  Mr.  Byoir, 
he  had,  like  Mr.  Sisson,  "grown  up"  with  the  Committee. 
Sacrificing  his  own  business  interests  to  serve,  he  soon 
came  to  be  known  among  us  as  the  "multiple  director," 
for  I  used  his  organizing  ability  in  division  after  division, 
moving  him  from  one  to  the  other,  and,  whether  the  activity 
was  domestic  or  foreign,  he  showed  equal  skill  in  giving 
it  efficiency,  force,  and  direction. 

The  record  would  not  be  complete  without  recognition 
of  the  devoted  and  effective  services  of  those  who  served 
the  Foreign  Section  in  the  capitals  of  the  world.  In  Russia 
Arthur  Bullard,  author  and  publicist,  fought  the  fight  from 
Petrograd  to  Vladivostok;  Charles  E.  Merriam,  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  spread  the  gospel  over  Italy; 
James  F.  Kerney,  editor  of  The  Trenton  Times,  handled  the 
difficult  .^clearing-house  job  in  France;  Charles  Edward 
Russell,  Harry  Rickey,  and  Paul  Perry  wrestled  in  turn 
with  the  English  problem;  George  Edward  Riis,  son  of 
Jacob  Riis,  went  to  Denmark,  the  home  of  his  fathers;  Eric 
Palmer,  a  first-class  newspaper  man  of  Swedish  descent, 
and  Guy  Croswell  Smith,  in  charge  of  films,  were  our 
representatives  in  Sweden;  Mrs.  Norman  de  R.  White- 
house  carried  the  cause  to  victory  in  Switzerland;  Henry 
Suydam,  European  correspondent  of  The  Brooklyn  Eagle, 
gave  up  his  position  to  serve  his  country  in  Holland; 
Frank  J.  Marion,  president  of  the  Kalem  Company, 
looked  after  Spain  and  Portugal;  Robert  H.  Murray, 
for  years  the  correspondent  of  The  New  York  World,  was 
our  representative  in  Mexico;  to  Buenos  Aires  we  sent 
Henry  B.  Sevier;  to  Chile,  A.  A.  Preciado;  in  Peru  we  found 
C.  V.  Griffis,  an  American  editing  a  powerful  newspaper; 
in  Brazil  Ambassador  Edwin  V.  Morgan  was  the  real  head 
of  the  work;  S.  P.  Verner  handled  Central  America,  from 

248 


THE  FIGHT  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

Panama;  and  in  the  Orient,  Carl  Crow,  the  American 
correspondent,  achieved  brilliantly,  aided  at  all  times  by 
Paul  Reinsch,  our  Minister  to  China,  and  Roland  Morris, 
our  Ambassador  to  Japan. 

Each  man  went  to  his  post  with  few  assistants,  usually 
a  good  news  editor,  a  motion-picture  expert,  and  perhaps 
a  stenographer.  Translators  were  expected  to  be  engaged 
on  the  ground  and  from  the  American  colony.  Every- 
where the  consular  corps  gave  intelligent,  earnest  aid. 
Too  great  credit  cannot  be  given  to  the  devoted  drudgery 
of  these  small  forces. 


II 


AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 


WHEN  we  first  set  about  the  creation  of  a  news  ma- 
chinery to  carry  American  facts  to  the  world  a  natural 
reliance  was  placed  upon  cables,  the  one  established  medium 
for  international  communication.  The  cables,  however, 
were  virtually  all  foreign  owned,  the  rates  were  prohibitive, 
and,  what  was  even  more  conclusive,  all  were  so  overbur- 
dened as  to  endanger  vital  war  business  by  their  delays. 
Forced  to  look  in  some  other  direction,  our  eyes  fell  upon 
the  wireless,  taken  over  by  the  navy  some  time  before 
and  lying  idle  for  a  good  part  of  the  time.  Without  more 
ado,  we  placed  our  problem  before  Secretary  Daniels, 
who,  understanding  and  co-operative  as  always,  put  the 
wireless  stations  of  the  United  States  at  our  disposal,  and 
likewise  the  expert  navy  personnel. 

The  next  step  was  an  organization,  and  in  the  very  mo- 
ment of  need  a  gangling,  youngish,  Lincolnesque  type 
walked  into  my  office  with  a  burst  of  conversation  about 
"world  communication."  Others  may  collect  stamps  or 
coins,  play  golf  or  polo,  but  Walter  S.  Rogers  of  Chicago, 
as  far  as  I  know,  is  the  only  living  man  whose  hobby  is 
"news  transmission,"  and  it  took  a  world  war  to  get  him 
his  chance  to  ride  it.  It  was  his  belief,  and  a  sane  one,  that 
peoples  best  understand  each  other  through  the  exchange 
of  news,  and  he  had  just  returned  from  a  world  tour 
devoted  to  a  study  of  cable  rates,  press  agencies,  distribu- 
ting machinery,  etc. 

250 


AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 

Mr.  Rogers  was  made  director  of  the  newly  established 
Division  of  Wireless  and  Cable  Service,  and  as  his  associate 
we  were  fortunate  in  the  securement  of  Perry  Arnold, 
cable  editor  of  the  United  Press,  and  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  experienced  men  in  the  newspaper  profession.  An- 
other piece  of  good  luck  was  Capt.  David  W.  Todd, 
Chief  of  Naval  Communications,  for  aside  from  his  brill- 
iant specialized  ability  he  gave  a  co-operation  that  was 
as  helpful  as  it  was  enthusiastic. 

Offices  were  taken  in  New  York,  a  news  force  gathered, 
and  in  September,  1917,  "Compub,"  as  its  code  address 
soon  advertised  it  to  the  world,  commenced  business. 
The  first  service  was  from  Tuckerton  to  the  wireless  station 
at  Lyons.  From  Lyons  by  arrangement  with  the  French 
government  it  went  to  our  office  in  Paris,  and  after  trans- 
lation and  distribution  to  the  press  of  France,  Mr.  Kerney 
relayed  it  to  our  offices  in  Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Portugal. 

The  next  step  in  the  world  dissemination  of  news  came 
through  arrangements  heartily  entered  into  by  the  British 
government.  The  same  wireless  report  sent  to  Lyons 
was  intercepted  by  navy  operators  at  the  American  naval 
base,  and  relayed  to  London,  where  the  representatives 
of  the  Committee  received  it,  and  distributed  it  to  the 
English  press. 

The  London  office,  in  turn,  relayed  the  service  to  the 
Committee's  representative  in  The  Hague  for  the  Dutch 
press,  a  highly  important  operation  in  the  machinery,  as 
many  Dutch  papers  managed  to  get  past  the  German 
censorship.  A  further  relay  was  to  our  offices  in  Copen- 
hagen and  Stockholm  for  translation  and  distribution  to 
the  newspapers  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  and 
here  again,  particularly  in  the  case  of  Copenhagen,  we  had 
a  chance  to  beat  the  German  censors.  In  Switzerland,  too, 
we  scored  heavily  against  the  Germans  in  the  same  fashion. 

251 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  service  also  went  from  London  to  Saloniki  and  other 
Greek  points,  for  not  only  was  Greece  to  be  considered, 
but  it  was  good  ground  from  which  to  shoot  into  the 
Balkans. 

Our  first  effort  to  serve  Russia  was  by  wireless,  and  after 
much  experimentation  under  the  direction  of  Captain 
Todd  we  were  actually  able  to  reach  the  Russian  station 
at  Moscow.  When  the  Bolsheviki  overthrew  Kerensky, 
however,  one  of  their  first  actions  was  to  grab  the  wireless 
stations.  The  one  at  Moscow,  either  intentionally  or 
through  ignorance,  they  put  out  of  operation.  Cut  off  in 
this  quarter,  the  Committee's  representatives  managed 
to  obtain  permission  for  a  cable  service,  and  this  went  from 
New  York  direct  from  three  to  five  hundred  words  a  day. 
When  the  President  spoke  or  when  some  major  action  was 
taken,  we  shot  it  through  as  a  "special." 

With  Europe  accounted  for,  attention  was  next  given 
to  South  and  Central  America.  At  first  glance  it  seemed 
a  simple  enough  proposition,  for  virtually  every  South 
and  Central  American  country  had  a  wireless  station  and 
each  government  agreed  instantly  to  take  our  news  ser- 
vice out  of  the  air.  Our  representatives  would  then 
attend  to  the  business  of  translation  and  distribution. 
It  was  not  even  the  case  that  dependence  had  to  be  placed 
on  the  one  wireless  leap  from  Tuckerton,  for  there  was  our 
own  high-power  station  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  to  act 
as  a  relay.  What  seemed  easy  in  theory,  however,  proved 
impossible  in  practice.  Only  Brazil "  made  good,"  the  other 
South  American  stations  falling  down  completely.  As  a 
consequence  Compub  had  to  inaugurate  a  cable  service 
from  New  York  to  the  Argentine,  but,  fortunately  enough, 
we  were  able  to  arrange  a  "drop  copy"  plan  that  gave 
the  matter  to  Lima,  Santiago,  Valparaiso,  and  all  other 
cities  touched  by  the  cable.  Buenos  Aires  distributed 
to  Uruguay  and  Paraguay,  the  Brazilian  wireless  took  care 

252 


AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 

of  the  north,  and  so  in  a  few  months  South  America  was 
thoroughly  covered. 

Mr.  John  Collins,  "borrowed"  from  the  Panama  Canal 
Board,  handled  Central  America  from  Darien,  broad- 
casting it  for  interception  by  the  wireless  stations  of  the 
United  Fruit  Company.  There  was  also  a  special  cable 
service  circulated  gratis  through  co-operation  of  the 
Haiti  Cable  Company.  It  consisted  of  a  summary  of  the 
day's  news,  approximating  four  hundred  words  daily, 
which  was  prepared  by  this  office  and  sent  over  cables 
of  the  Haitian  Company  to  all  their  offices.  By  these 
offices  it  was  posted  in  various  Central  American  and  Carib- 
bean cities  or  sold  by  the  cable  company's  agents  to  various 
newspapers,  etc.  In  this  way  many  cities  and  xjommu- 
nities  otherwise  totally  cut  off  from  news  of  the  world 
received  adequate  news  summaries  of  the  day's  happen- 
ings and  true  news  of  America. 

On  studying  Mexico,  a  distinct  problem,  we  discovered 
that  while  the  Associated  Press  served  the  Mexican  morn- 
ing newspapers,  the  afternoon  press  was  not  reached  by 
any  American  agency.  Compub,  therefore,  undertook 
a  special  service  of  its  own,  sending  three  hundred  words 
daily  to  the  City  of  Mexico  for  national  distribution  by 
Mr.  Murray's  office.  A  duplicate  was  generally  sent  to 
the  American  consular  services  along  the  Texas  border, 
and  very  effective  use  was  made  of  it. 

The  next  link  in  the  world  chain  was  the  Orient.  Com- 
pub opened  a  branch  office  in  San  Francisco,  and  Mr.  W. 
B.  Clausen,  "loaned"  to  us  by  the  Associated  Press, 
commenced  the  preparation  of  a  daily  service  of  particu- 
lar interest  to  China,  Japan,  the  Philippines,  and  Hawaii. 
The  navy  wireless  station  at  San  Diego  flashed  this  to 
Pearl  Harbor  for  distribution  to  the  Hawaiian  press,  and 
from  Pearl  Harbor  it  went  to  the  Philippines.  Our  origi- 
nal theory  was  that  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  stations 

253 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

would  receive  from  Manila,  but  owing  to  many  mechanical 
difficulties  it  became  necessary  for  our  own  station  at 
Guam  to  take  the  service  out  of  the  air  and  put  it  on  the 
cables  to  Tokio  and  to  Shanghai.  In  China  Mr.  Crow, 
the  Compub  representative,  distributed  the  service 
through  a  specially  organized  chain  of  newspapers, 
and  in  Japan  we  worked  through  the  Kokusai  and 
Nippon  Dempo,  the  two  principal  news  associations. 
Mr.  Crow,  in  Shanghai,  also  relayed  the  service  to 
Vladivostok,  where  our  office  gave  it  Siberian  circu- 
lation. Distant  Australia  picked  the  service  out  of 
the  air  and  used  it.  As  the  importance  of  the  work  became 
apparent,  and  as  results  were  proved,  the  service  increased 
its  output.  The  regular  wireless  "report"  was  doubled 
and  trebled  in  size,  the  navy's  splendid  efficiency  in  radio 
transmission  permitting  this  expansion,  and  utilization 
was  also  made  of  the  cables.  Where  some  important 
official  statement  was  released  and  publication  desired 
abroad,  Compub,  with  the  co-operation  of  the  foreign 
press  associations  and  correspondents,  sent  such  state- 
ments for  simultaneous  delivery  and  release. 

This,  then,  was  the  ground-plan  of  America's  world 
news  service.  When  its  strength  and  efficiency  had  been 
tested  thoroughly,  the  machinery  was  augmented  and  im- 
proved at  every  possible  point.  Mr.  Rogers  and  Mr. 
Arnold,  selecting  slowly  and  carefully,  had  gathered  about 
them  such  newspaper  men  as  Herman  Suter,  R.  R.  Reilly, 
Frank  S.  Gardner,  Theodore  Wallen,  R.  J.  Rochon,  E.  F. 
Wilson,  and  Lieut.  F.  E.  Ackerman  and  Lieut.  P.  S. 
O'Reilly  (borrowed  from  the  navy),  constituting  a  force 
ready  for  any  expansion. 

Continued  pressure  upon  the  Italian  government  finally 
resulted  in  wireless  improvements  to  such  a  degree  that 
the  station  in  Rome  was  able  to  receive  directly  from 
Tuckerton.  This  did  away  with  the  necessity  of  relay 

254 


AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 

from  Paris  and  enabled  the  New  York  office  to  pour  a 
daily  stream  of  news  straight  into  Italy,  an  immediate 
contact  to  which  the  Italian  press  responded  enthusiasti- 
cally. 

As  Spain  became  more  and  more  of  a  battle-ground, 
the  relay  service  from  Paris  became  insufficient,  so  a  special 
cable  service  was  sent  to  New  York  direct  to  Mr.  Marion 
in  Madrid,  who  worked  out  a  splendid  co-operative  arrange- 
ment with  Fabra,  the  official  Spanish  news  agency,  as  well 
as  serving  Madrid  papers  directly,  and  issuing  a  news 
bulletin  of  his  own. 

The  installation  of  Compub  at  Vladivostok,  Harbin, 
Irkutsk,  and  Omsk  in  Siberia  enabled  us  to  send  a  direct 
Russian  service  from  the  wireless  station  at  San  Francisco. 
The  naval  vessel  Brooklyn  relayed  the  service  at  Vladi- 
vostok until  a  land  wireless  station  was  erected  there. 
From  London,  in  time,  also  went  out  several  hundred 
words  a  day  by  cable  to  the  American  consul  at  Archangel, 
which  were  distributed  to  the  American  soldiers  in  that 
region  as  well  as  to  the  press. 

London's  importance  as  a  clearing-house  was  recog- 
nized by  the  addition  of  a  "localized"  service  of  some  six 
hundred  words  to  the  regular  daily  wireless.  This  included 
specialized  news  for  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  Ireland, 
Holland,  Scandinavia,  Greece,  and  other  nations.  The 
Field,  a  British  periodical  of  large  circulation,  was  induced 
through  representatives  of  the  Committee  on  duty  in  Lon- 
don to  arrange  for  an  "American  Department."  In  this 
department  the  division  furnished  a  great  deal  of  American 
publicity  matter,  including,  generally,  a  special  cabled 
article  weekly.  Aside  from  the  publicity  obtained  in  this 
magazine,  the  editor,  Sir  Theodore  Cook,  a  great  admirer 
of  America  and  of  Americans,  took  a  keen  interest  in  cir- 
culation of  American  news,  and  through  wide  personal 
acquaintance  with  British  editors  and  journalists  got  them 

255 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

frequently  to  reprint  the  American  articles  appearing  in 
his  periodical. 

The  National  News  organization  was  a  British  propaganda 
agency  operating  throughout  the  British  Isles  and  particu- 
larly in  Ireland.  Many  special  news  articles  were  prepared 
for  this  agency  by  Compub,  and  it  proved  a  very  effective 
medium  of  distribution.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  also  gave  a  daily 
bulletin  circulation  among  rest  houses,  camps,  and  clubs. 

As  the  maintenance  of  Allied  morale  was  one  of  Compub  *s 
fundamental  purposes,  naturally  enough  Compub  was 
called  upon  to  assist  in  the  work  of  keeping  up  the  morale 
of  American  soldiers  in  France.  What  the  doughboys 
missed  most,  and  wanted  most,  was  news  of  home  and 
home  folks.  What  news  was  printed  was  mostly  of  national 
affairs  or  of  the  war.  There  was  no  newspaper  in  Europe 
which  could  afford  the  expense  of  cabling  items  of  purely 
local  interest  to  the  boys  from  Helena,  Mont.,  or  of  Mil- 
waukee, or  San  Francisco,  or  Cincinnati,  or  scores  of  other 
American  cities.  What  was  wanted  was  tiny  bits  of  "home 
news"  for  the  soldier — little  items  which  would  keep  him 
in  touch  with  conditions  in  his  home  town,  just  as  a  letter 
from  his  chum,  or  his  mother,  brother,  sister,  or  sweet- 
heart, or  wife  would  do. 

To  meet  this  need,  Compub  inaugurated  a  "home  news" 
service,  sending  it  by  wireless  to  France  in  addition  to  the 
regular  daily  service. 

The  American  press  was  combed  by  readers  in  the  New 
York  offices  for  "homey  news,"  every  effort  being  made 
to  cover  the  whole  of  the  United  States,  and  a  report  of 
nearly  fifteen  hundred  words  daily  was  prepared  from  these 
small  items  of  news,  none  of  which  in  themselves  averaged 
more  than  fifty  words  each.  The  wireless  carried  this, 
and,  incidentally,  the  Paris  edition  of  The  London  Daily 
Mail,  and  of  The  New  York  Herald,  used  this  service 
daily. 

256 


AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 

In  the  distribution  of  this  matter  to  the  soldier  overseas 
the  Foreign  Press  Cable  Service  had  the  co-operation  of 
all  American  welfare  services — the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  Red  Cross,  Knights  of  Columbus,  Young 
Men's  Hebrew  Association,  Salvation  Army,  and  others— 
as  well  as  the  army  authorities.  The  latter  granted 
permission  for  transmission  of  these  home-news  items 
over  army  wires  from  Paris  to  the  front.  The  welfare 
organizations  received  copies  in  the  huts  close  to  the  front 
and  posted  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers.  Several 
welfare  organizations  in  London  and  Paris  printed  a  daily 
"newspaper"  composed  of  these  items,  and  despatched 
copies  by  mail  to  all  recreation  centers,  hospitals,  canteens, 
huts,  etc.,  within  reach.  American  sailors  received  them, 
navy  wireless  operators  copying  them  throughout  the 
reach  of  the  American  wireless  sending  station. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1918,  when  American  troops 
entered  in  the  "great  push,"  Compub  was  called  upon 
to  extend  its  services  of  information  still  farther.  Perry 
Arnold  was  sent  abroad  to  study  methods  of  news  dis- 
tribution and  to  organize  a  "news  from  the  American 
front"  service.  He  inspected  the  Committee's  offices  in 
London,  Paris,  and  Madrid,  and  employed  Maximilian 
Foster,  the  well-known  novelist  and  writer,  as  the  Com- 
mittee's representative  at  the  front  with  the  American 
army,  after  himself  having  started  such  a  service. 

This  service  from  the  front  was  cabled  and  wirelessed 
throughout  the  world,  giving  a  daily  analysis  of  what 
American  troops  were  doing  in  the  Great  War.  General 
Pershing's  staff  at  American  headquarters  was  at  all  times 
in  full  sympathy  with  a  plan  of  telling  the  world  exactly 
what  American  soldiers  were  doing,  and  Compub 's  repre- 
sentative was  accorded  the  fullest  facility  in  visiting  the 
front  and  in  transmitting  his  despatches  via  army  wires. 

The  formation  in  New  York  of  the  local  foreign  corre- 

257 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

spondents  in  an  association,  one  of  Mr.  Rogers's  ideas, 
resulted  in  the  doubling  and  trebling  of  the  descriptive 
and  interpretative  matter  that  went  out  from  the  United 
States  to  the  other  countries  of  the  world.  As  a  result, 
a  new  and  keener  interest  in  America  was  aroused,  and  many 
of  the  European  papers  established  "American  depart- 
ments." To  meet  this  demand,  Compub  commenced  a 
biweekly  wireless  service  that  carried  feature  matter 
and  specialized  material  susceptible  to  illustration  and  edi- 
torial treatment. 

Another  duty  of  Compub  was  to  keep  in  the  closest 
possible  touch  with  the  trend  of  enemy  propaganda.  Its 
agents  abroad  reported  on  conditions  frequently,  and  in 
the  New  York  office  certain  employees  were  detailed 
regularly  to  read  and  analyze  all  German  propaganda 
material  received  here — a  great  part  of  it  being  wireless 
matter  sent  by  the  great  German  wireless  station  at  Nauen 
and  intercepted  by  the  United  States  Navy  Communi- 
cation station.  By  a  co-operative  arrangement  with  the 
publicity  offices  in  America  of  the  Allies,  Compub  likewise 
distributed  to  the  American  press  all  of  the  official  British 
propaganda  wireless  material  (intercepted  by  the  American 
wireless  stations)  and  on  occasion  special  announcements 
"broadcasted"  by  the  stations  of  the  French  and  Italian 
governments. 

In  this  manner,  and  scores  of  other  ways,  Compub 
expanded  and  improved,  swift  to  take  advantage  of  oppor- 
tunity, keen  to  see  new  needs,  and  growing  in  strength, 
certainty,  and  importance.  At  its  peak  no  news  organi- 
zation in  the  world,  or  in  history,  equaled  Compub  in  the 
sweep  of  its  operations,  for  there  was  not  a  corner  of  the 
earth  into  which  it  did  not  flash  America's  message.  What 
is  more,  it  was  a  message  that  carried  conviction,  for  at  no 
time  did  Compub  depart  from  its  original  purpose — the 
presentation  of  facts.  It  was  not  our  idea  to  argue,  but  to 

258 


AMERICA'S  WORLD  NEWS  SERVICE 

inform,  for  such  was  the  justice  of  America's  case,  the 
wonder  of  America's  achievement,  that  we  felt  that  in- 
formation was  in  itself  the  most  conclusive  argument. 

The  most  important  of  all  Compub  activities  and  the 
most  dramatic  was  the  universal  circulation  of  the  Presi- 
dent's official  addresses.  From  the  day  that  he  went 
before  the  Senate,  asking  it  to  recognize  the  existence  of  a 
state  of  war,  the  President  was  accepted  by  the  Allies  as  the 
official  spokesman,  for  his  imperishable  words  cut  through 
every  confusion  of  controversy  down  to  the  very  heart 
of  truth  and  justice  in  human  aspiration.  Nevertheless, 
owing  to  the  congestion  of  the  cables  and  the  enormous 
expense  of  cable  tolls,  the  President's  addresses  were  not 
printed  in  full  in  Europe,  and  in  other  countries  of  the 
world  only  trifling  excerpts  were  given  to  the  people. 
This  opened  the  door  to  a  double  danger,  for  not  only 
were  the  Allied  Powers  being  deprived  of  an  effective 
weapon,  but  the  German  propaganda  machine  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  situation  to  suppress,  to  distort,  and  even 
to  circulate  text,  not  alone  in  Germany,  but  in  the  neutral 
nations. 

One  of  our  first  decisions  was  to  give  textual  distribu- 
tion of  the  President's  speeches,  not  only  to  Europe  but 
to  every  quarter  of  the  civilized  globe.  This  vast  project 
could  not  have  been  carried  through  to  success  without 
the  generous  co-operation  of  the  great  world  press  agencies. 
Compub  paid  the  cable  and  telegraph  tolls  on  the  speeches 
and  messages  plus  a  small  overhead  charge,  but  this  only 
partially  covered  the  immense  expenditure  of  time  and 
energy  in  the  distribution. 

Immediately  upon  the  signing  of  the  armistice,  orders 
were  given  to  close  every  division  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information  with  the  exception  of  the  wireless  and 
cable  service  and  their  necessary  distributing  offices.  It 
was  not  only  the  case  that  there  still  remained  the  neces- 

259 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

sity  of  putting  true  reports  of  the  Peace  Conference  before 
the  people  of  the  world,  but  the  press  of  America  itself 
demanded  aid  in  telling  the  story  of  Paris  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  The  cables,  already  overburdened, 
became  hopelessly  jammed  when  an  army  of  American 
newspaper  men  commenced  to  file  daily  despatches  in 
Paris  for  quick  transmission. 

Mr.  Rogers  proceeded  to  France  at  once,  and  after 
conference  with  the  Associated  Press,  the  United  Press, 
the  International  News  Service,  and  the  correspondents  of 
metropolitan  dailies,  a  plan  was  worked  out  that  put  Corn- 
pub  at  the  disposal  of  the  newspapers  of  the  United  States. 


Ill 

THE  FOEEIGN  MAIL  SERVICE 

A1  the  outset  it  was  seen  that  the  wireless  and  the  cables, 
even  used  to  the  utmost,  could  not  meet  our  foreign 
needs.  It  was  not  enough  to  give  the  world  the  daily 
news  of  America's  war  effort,  our  military  progress,  and  the 
official  declarations  and  expositions  with  respect  to  our  war 
aims  and  determinations.  There  were  lies  of  long  stand- 
ing that  had  to  be  met  and  defeated — lies  that  attacked 
America  as  "dollar-mad,"  that  maligned  our  free  insti- 
tutions, that  denied  our  liberty  and  our  justice.  What 
was  needed  were  short  descriptives  of  our  development 
as  a  nation  and  a  people;  our  social  and  industrial  progress; 
our  schools;  our  laws;  our  treatment  of  workers,  women 
and  children;  a  mail  service,  in  fact,  that  could  be  taken 
by  our  foreign  representatives,  translated,  rewritten  if 
necessary,  and  pushed  into  the  foreign  press  to  the  greatest 
possible  extent. 

Mr.  Ernest  Poole  was  given  charge  of  this  new  under- 
talcing,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Paul  Kennaday, 
he  gathered  about  him  a  volunteer  staff  of  brilliant  men 
and  women  writers. 

One  feature  that  would  have  justified  the  work,  had  it 
stood  alone,  was  a  series  of  weekly  or  monthly  letters  by 
such  well-known  authors  as  Owen  Wister,  Booth  Tarking- 
ton,  Gertrude  Atherton,  William  Shepard,  Ellis  Parker 
Butler,  Henry  Kitchell  Webster,  Robert  Herrick,  Arthur 

18  261 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Gleason,  Will  Payne,  Mary  Shipman  Andrews,  Anne 
O'Hagan  Shinn,  and  Walter  Prichard  Eaton.  Other  dis- 
tinguished contributors  were  William  Dean  Howells,  Ida 
Tarbell,  Wallace  Irwin,  Meredith  Nicholson,  Fannie  Hurst, 
Edna  Ferber,  Samuel  Merwin,  and  William  Allen  White, 
also  scores  of  government  experts,  university  and  college 
professors,  and  men  and  women  of  specialized  abilities. 
The  Foreign  Press  Bureau  was,  in  effect,  a  "feature  ser- 
vice" operating  on  demand.  Our  foreign  representatives 
would  cable,  "Can  use  to  good  advantage  one  thousand 
words  on  American  lumber  industry,"  or  on  equal  suffrage, 
or  on  university  extension,  or  on  unions,  or  on  free-milk 
depots,  or  on  the  use  of  the  schoolhouse  as  a  community 
center,  or  the  co-operative  marketing  of  dairy  products 
in  Wisconsin,  or  the  "honor  and  trust"  system  of  Colorado 
prisons,  or  the  jury  system  of  the  United  States,  or  mu- 
nicipal bath-houses,  or  free  legal-aid  bureaus,  or  a  short 
history  of  the  United  States  for  children,  etc.  And 
straightway  the  home  office  would  get  in  touch  with  "the" 
authorities  on  the  various  subjects,  and  have  them  turn 
out  the  signed  articles.  For  instance,  we  made  Booth 
Tarkington  drop  everything  to  write  "American  Facts  and 
German  Propaganda,"  an  article  so  virile  and  attractive 
that  after  millions  had  read  it  in  the  English  papers  the 
British  government  made  arrangements  with  our  London 
representative  to  reprint,  and  at  its  own  expense  distributed 
eight  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pamphlets  in  England. 
It  was  also  widely  used  in  other  countries. 

In  describing  war  aims  and  national  activities  the  Foreign 
Press  Bureau  took  the  statements  of  the  President,  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  and  of  other  government  officials, 
material  from  several  hundred  newspapers,  weekly  and 
monthly  magazines,  also  the  pronouncements  of  promi- 
nent citizens  and  organizations  throughout  the  country, 

giving  every  shade  of  opinion. 

262 


THE  FOREIGN  MAIL  SERVICE 

About  one-half  of  the  service  consisted  of  news  and  feat- 
ure articles,  government  bulletins,  etc.,  describing  the 
activities  of  the  army  and  navy — war  preparations  of  all 
kinds,  the  recruiting  of  volunteers,  the  method  and  opera- 
tion of  the  selective  draft,  the  work  in  the  cantonments, 
the  going  of  our  troops  to  France,  and  the  many  increasing 
activities  there.  Also  the  making  of  munitions,  the  build- 
ing of  ships,  the  vast  work  of  the  United  States  navy,  and 
the  rapidly  deepening  spirit  all  over  the  United  States 
of  unity  and  determination  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

In  addition  we  dealt  with  various  fields  of  activities, 
such  as  agriculture  and  food  conservation,  industry  and 
finance,  labor,  education,  religion,  and  medicine,  in  relation 
to  the  work  of  the  war  and  the  growth  of  our  democracy. 
These  articles  were  a  means  of  reaching  a  wider  public 
abroad — for  owing  to  the  lack  of  paper  the  foreign  news- 
papers were  greatly  diminished  in  size,  and  although  a 
large  amount  of  our  material  did  succeed  in  gaining  a  place 
in  their  columns,  we  felt  it  urgent  to  go  farther,  and  by 
sending  many  special  articles  and  getting  them  published 
in  the  trade  and  other  special  journals  and  magazines  of 
each  country,  we  gradually  widened  our  circle  of  readers. 

On  the  staff,  or  working  as  volunteer  helpers  from  out- 
side, were  men  and  women  with  a  special  knowledge  of 
England,  France,  Italy,  Russia,  Holland,  Sweden,  Norway, 
Denmark,  Germany,  Austria,  Serbia,  Spain,  and  Latin- 
American  countries.  With  Hamilton  Owens  as  editor-in- 
chief,  it  was  their  work  to  write  or  edit  supplementary 
material  of  particular  interest  to  each  country.  Prof. 
Arthur  Livingston,  the  editor  for  Italy,  could  write  col- 
loquial Italian  and  had  a  good  working  knowledge  of  the 
principal  newspapers  in  Italy.  He  wrote  for  such  papers 
special  news  letters,  which  were  sent  by  mail  or  cable, 
describing  activities  of  Italians  in  this  country,  their 
support  of  the  war,  etc.;  also  editorial  opinion  here  as 

263 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

it  concerned  our  relations  with  Italy  and  the  part  that 
country  played  in  the  war;  messages  from  administration 
officials  here  on  Italian  operations  and  comment  from  United 
States  public  men  on  Italian  problems  and  events;  also 
statements  by  various  well-known  Italians  who  visited 
this  country  during  the  war.  The  various  official  missions 
from  Italy  were  in  constant  touch  with  this  office;  we 
supplemented  the  official  programs  arranged  by  other 
organizations,  bringing  the  visitors  into  touch  with  people 
they  desired  to  meet,  getting  publicity  for  them  in  various 
ways,  and  furnishing  them  with  special  material  for  use 
after  their  return  to  Europe.  In  this  connection  we  insti- 
tuted the  plan  for  having  a  ship  christened  the  Piave  and 
for  making  the  event  an  occasion  for  the  exchange  of 
official  and  popular  expressions  of  esteem  between  the 
governments  of  Italy  and  of  the  United  States. 

More  or  less  along  these  lines  special  articles  were  also 
sent  to  England,  France,  and  Spain  in  large  numbers, 
being  written  or  edited  either  by  staff  editors  or  by  volun- 
teer helpers  from  outside.  At  first  by  Mr.  Elias  Tobenkin, 
and  later  by  Dr.  Francis  Snow,  similar  work  was  done 
for  Russia  whenever  that  was  possible,  meeting  Bolshevist 
and  German  statements  against  us  by  articles  describing 
true  conditions  in  this  country,  our  democracy  at  home, 
and  our  purpose  in  the  war,  as  well  as  the  wide-spread 
friendliness  here  at  first  toward  the  Russian  revolution 
and  the  willingness  to  support  any  effort  which  gave,  in 
our  opinion,  hope  of  a  real  and  lasting  practical  democracy 
there. 

For  Austria  and  Germany  articles  were  obtained  by 
Doctor  Groszmann,  of  our  staff,  from  prominent  German- 
Americans  here  loyal  to  this  country  and  making  an  appeal 
to  the  people  of  Germany  and  Austria  to  throw  off  their 
old  rulers  and  begin  to  re-establish  themselves  in  the  good 
opinion  of  the  world.  Such  articles  made  it  plain  that  the 

264 


THE  FOREIGN  MAIL  SERVICE 

warfare  conducted  by  the  German  and  Austrian  govern- 
ments had  made  these  countries  hated,  not  only  by  native 
Americans,  but  by  those  of  German  birth.  In  this  con- 
nection we  also  ran  various  articles  exposing  German 
methods  of  propaganda. 

For  the  Scandinavian  countries  and  Holland,  a  bureau 
under  Mr.  Edwin  Bjorkman  did  such  good  work  that  it 
soon  became  impossible  to  pick  up  a  Scandinavian  publica- 
tion of  any  kind  without  finding  references  to  America, 
indicating  an  eager  desire  to  understand  what  this  country 
stood  for  and  what  it  intended  to  do  in  the  future.  It 
was  through  Sweden,  among  others,  that  some  of  our 
material  directed  to  the  Germans  was  sent  after  the  sign- 
ing of  the  armistice. 

A  pictorial  service  grew  up  in  response  to  increased 
demands  from  our  agents  in  foreign  countries.  Under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Whitton  and  Mr.  Frank  Tuttle, 
it  provided  each  week  photographs,  cuts,  and  mats  to 
illustrate  our  articles,  photographs  to  the  number  of 
fifteen  hundred  per  week  for  display  upon  easels  in  shop- 
windows,  and  some  sixty  thousand  large  news  pictorials 
to  be  placed  in  the  many  thousands  of  shop-windows  in 
foreign  countries  which  were  available  for  our  use.  Seven 
hundred  and  fifty  wooden  easels  were  made,  each  carrying 
twelve  pictures,  and  the  resident  commissioners  distributed 
them  and  provided  for  the  weekly  change  of  photographs 
that  gave  each  easel  the  attraction  of  a  "show."  The 
pictorial  service  also  distributed  widely  the  war  posters 
of  this  country  and  millions  of  picture  post-cards  showing 
forth  our  war  activities.  The  window  hangers  were  sent 
out  in  sets  of  six  each  week  with  captions  in  various  lan- 
guages, such  as  English,  French,  Italian,  Swedish,  Portu- 
guese, Spanish,  Danish,  Norwegian,  and  Dutch.  Unim- 
printed  display  sheets  were  sent  to  Russia,  China,  Japan, 
Korea,  some  parts  of  India,  etc.  For  the  Oriental  coun- 

265 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

tries  a  special  version  was  printed,  with  a  wide  margin  on 
the  right-hand  side,  thus  allowing  the  space  necessary  for 
imprinting  the  language  of  the  country  receiving  them. 
With  all  unimprinted  material  either  English  printed 
samples  or  English  captions  were  inclosed. 

Through  various  organizations  of  United  States  exporters 
to  foreign  countries  an  Export  Service  was  established 
under  Mr.  Edward  Bernays,  beginning  with  Latin  America 
and  finally  taking  in  a  large  part  of  Europe.  Our  articles 
and  photographs  were  printed  regularly  in  the  several 
large  export  journals,  and  from  our  articles  we  made,  in 
various  languages,  brief  inserts  telling  of  war  aims  and 
activities  to  be  inclosed  with  business  catalogues  and  also 
to  be  sent  in  tens  of  thousands  of  letters  mailed  weekly 
from  the  United  States.  In  obtaining  means  of  distri- 
bution, the  confidential  lists  of  many  great  commercial 
interests  were  used.  The  exporters  put  themselves  solidly 
behind  every  resident  commissioner,  and  the  success  of 
the  pictorial  service  was  entirely  due  to  the  fact  that 
six  hundred  and  fifty  branches  of  American  business  houses 
scattered  over  the  world  put  all  their  window  space  at 
the  Committee's  disposal. 

The  distribution  of  pamphlets  was  made  by  mail  or 
direct  delivery.  Important  utterances  of  the  President 
and  documents  prepared  in  each  country  with  a  view  to 
answering  local  questions  were  printed  locally  in  numbers 
running  from  five  to  thirty  thousand  and  distributed 
through  co-operation  with  American,  British,  French,  and 
Italian  commercial  and  government  organizations  in  each 
country. 

The  American  reading-rooms  opened  by  resident  com- 
missioners received  their  supplies  from  the  Foreign  Press 
Bureau,  and  lectures  delivered  in  different  countries  by 
nationals  were  also  based  on  material  furnished  by  the 
home  office.  Data  regarding  the  United  States,  including 

266 


THE  FOREIGN  MAIL  SERVICE 

standard  magazines,  books,  and  periodicals,  were  furnished 
to  public  and  private  bodies  and  schools,  and  public  libra- 
ries were  supplied  with  American  newspapers  and  peri- 
odicals, and  in  some  cases  particularly  desirable  books 
relating  to  public  questions. 

The  Foreign  Press  Bureau,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Export  Division,  also  devoted  itself  to  the  preparation 
of  particular  pamphlet  and  news  material  for  South 
America,  under  the  direction  of  Lieutenant  Ackerman, 
U.  S.  N.,  attached  to  the  staff.  It  furnished  the  head- 
quarters in  the  different  countries  with  posters  from  all 
the  branches  of  the  government  devoted  to  war-work  and 
aided  the  bureaus  in  forwarding  campaigns  for  War, Savings 
Stamps,  Liberty  Loan,  and  Red  Cross,  and  other  activities 
in  each  of  their  territories.  It  arranged  for  the  publication 
in  all  magazines  in  the  United  States  having  foreign  cir- 
culation for  such  articles  and  editorials  indicating  our 
attitude  toward  world  questions.  In  addition  to  serving  the 
accredited  commissioners  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information,  a  Bureau  of  Latin-American  Affairs  sent 
pamphlet  and  news  material,  pictures,  cuts,  mats,  and  the 
pictorial  news  service  to  a  large  number  of  volunteer 
distributors  throughout  Mexico  and  Central  and  South 
America. 

The  Foreign  Press  Bureau,  while  setting  forth  in  detail 
the  aims  and  ideals  of  America,  the  determinations  and 
war  efforts  of  a  free  people,  also  put  great  emphasis  upon 
acquainting  the  rest  of  the  world  with  the  facts  of  American 
life.  We  wanted  other  nations  to  know  us,  to  understand 
us,  and  in  consequence  the  work  concentrated  in  certain 
great  fields.  For  instance,  with  respect  to  education,  we 
endeavored  to  reach  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  teachers 
in  foreign  countries  through  the  press  and  to  bind  them 
together  more  closely  in  friendship  and  good  will.  They 
represented  a  great  international  force  hitherto  unmobil- 

267 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

ized,  but  united  by  multiple  bonds  of  similar  aims  and  ac- 
tivities. Throughout  the  neutral  and  Allied  world  enemy 
propagandists  had  circulated  among  them  every  conceivable 
distortion  of  our  education  and  ideals.  These  needed  to 
be  counteracted  by  truthful  interpretations,  which,  how- 
ever, sought  to  avoid  tendencies  toward  superlatives,  and 
to  allow  accurate  statements  of  fact  to  carry  their  own  story. 

Each  week  we  sent  out  articles  on  education,  edited  by 
Dr.  William  H.  Hirt,  which  were  forwarded  to  some 
thirty-five  foreign  countries,  where  our  representatives 
received,  translated,  and  passed  them  on  to  the  press  of 
the  country  in  question.  There,  as  a  rule,  they  appeared 
either  in  the  public,  the  literary,  or  the  technical  educational 
press.  Many  of  these  articles  were  especially  written  for 
us  on  request  by  leading  educators  all  over  the  United 
States. 

Further,  the  educational  press  of  the  United  States 
generously  gave  permission  to  use  their  current  articles, 
and  also  signified  a  readiness  to  accept  our  proposed  ex- 
change service.  This  exchange  program  was  based  on 
the  idea  that  only  as  people  have  things  in  common  can 
they  co-operate.  Basic  among  these  things  is  knowledge 
about  one  another.  Unfortunately,  the  teachers  of  the 
world  know  little  about  one  another.  The  great  mass  of 
the  graded  school-teachers  have  had  little  chance  for  travel 
or  study  of  other  peoples.  So  while  we  asked  our  educators 
to  interpret  our  educational  system  and  ideals  and  progress 
to  others,  we  also  asked  foreign  nations  to  interpret  their 
systems  to  us,  feeling  that  we  had  much  to  learn  from 
these  older  cultures.  In  England,  in  Spain,  and  elsewhere 
the  government  authorized  a  native  educator  to  mobilize 
such  writings  of  his  people  for  us. 

For  the  purpose  of  translating  such  articles  over  here  a 
large  staff  of  volunteer  translators  offered  their  services 
without  compensation.  Special  requests  cabled  from  cer- 

268 


THE  FOREIGN  MAIL  SERVICE 

tain  countries  were  met,  and  the  articles,  often  illustrated 
with  pictures  of  American  school  equipment  and  life,  went 
by  the  next  mail. 

With  respect  to  food,  fuel,  and  textiles,  our  aim  was  to 
emphasize  the  position  of  the  United  States  as  the  greatest 
source  of  the  world's  reserve  supplies  of  food,  fuels,  and 
textiles,  and  to  show  this  country's  determination  to  keep 
the  Allied  fighting  forces  and  civilian  populations  provided 
with  the  necessities  of  life.  We  emphasized  throughout 
the  patriotism,  self-sacrifice,  and  good  will  toward  Allied 
nations  among  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  expressed 
in  food  and  fuel  production  and  conservation, 

Also,  at  all  times  it  was  endeavored  to  reflect  the  spirit, 
progress,  and  development  of  the  rural  United  States,  espe- 
cially in  the  direction  of  greater  democracy,  increased  in- 
terest in  co-operation,  organization,  and  farmer  representa- 
tion in  national  affairs,  and  the  application  of  principles  of 
the  larger  internationalism  to  the  life  and  interests  of  the 
farmers  of  America.  Principles  and  measures  whereby  the 
government  is  co-operating  with  and  assisting  the  farmer 
were  also  discussed,  explained,  and  their  significance 
pointed  out. 

The  editor  of  this  division,  Mr.  E.  L.  D.  Seymour,  sent 
out  regular  weekly  letters  on  farm  and  crop  conditions, 
Food  Administration  activities  and  achievements,  and  the 
fuel  situation.  Posters,  administration  bulletins,  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  reports,  and  other  illuminating  pub- 
lications were  sent  in  considerable  quantity. 

With  the  generous  co-operation  of  many  trade  and  in- 
dustrial journals  and  organizations,  we  set  forth  the  mani- 
fold activities  of  the  various  trades  and  industries  in  support 
of  the  war.  The  editors  of  many  of  the  leading  trade 
journals  in  the  country  became  regular  volunteer  contribu- 
tors, giving  us  weekly  or  monthly  reviews  of  the  progress 
of  war- work  in  their  particular  fields.  These  special  news 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

letters  were  sent  to  the  foreign  agents,  together  with  a  list 
of  trade  journals  in  each  foreign  country,  asking  our  agents 
to  try  to  place  such  special  articles  in  special  journals 
abroad. 

In  the  field  of  finance,  we  described  the  financial  strength 
of  this  country,  the  good  will  of  the  people,  and  the  evi- 
dence of  democracy  in  the  various  financial  measures 
carried  out  by  the  government.  We  used  reports  from  the 
Treasury  Department,  and  also  statements  issued  by  that 
department  from  time  to  time;  fully  described  the  various 
Liberty  Loan  drives  in  popular  news  articles,  and  we  ob- 
tained from  the  editor  of  The  American  Bankers'  Magazine, 
Mr.  Elmer  Youngman,  weekly  financial  articles,  which 
in  many  foreign  countries  our  agents  readily  placed  in  the 
financial  columns  of  the  foreign  press.  We  also  obtained 
from  time  to  time  statements  especially  written  for  us  by 
well-known  bankers  and  economists  in  this  country. 

From  many  angles  the  bureau  established  the  warm 
support  of  the  war  by  the  labor  elements  in  this  country. 
Our  editor,  Mr.  Norman  Matson,  used  largely  the  reports 
and  statements  of  government  bodies  dealing  with  labor, 
as  well  as  those  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  and 
various  state  and  municipal  bodies  belonging  to  the  feder- 
ation. We  ran  statements  of  prominent  labor  leaders, 
and  published  articles  describing  labor  activities  in  ship- 
yards and  other  centers  where  war- work  was  carried  on. 
We  gave  the  workers'  and  the  employers'  sides,  and  showed 
the  new  relations  and  mutual  understandings  between 
employer  and  employed,  which  in  many  places  were  built 
up  during  the  work  of  the  war. 

As  for  religion,  Mrs.  Shinn  of  our  staff  (better  known  as 
Anne  O'Hagan)  showed  the  churches  of  all  denominations 
rallying  to  the  support  of  the  war.  We  made  it  a  special 
point  to  answer  in  Catholic  countries  abroad  the  German 
false  allegations  that  in  this  country  the  Catholic  Church 

1270 


THE  FOREIGN  MAIL  SERVICE 

was  being  persecuted  by  the  government  and  was  hostile 
to  the  war.  We  ran  statements  by  prominent  men  both 
in  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches,  and  also  by  leaders 
of  the  Jewish  religion.  We  described  war  activities  of  the 
churches,  and  ran  extracts  from  sermons  setting  forth  the 
ideals  and  war  aims  of  this  nation. 

In  medicine,  we  described  both  in  popular  and  in  more 
technical  articles  the  activities  of  the  medical  profession 
in  the  war.  Doctor  Liber  of  our  staff  used  largely  the  re- 
ports and  statements  from  the  Surgeon-General's  office,  also 
from  the  Red  Cross,  and  from  many  non-government  bodies 
having  to  do  not  only  with  strictly  military  work,  but  also 
with  the  public  health. 

The  press  material  of  the  bureau,  beginning  with  a 
weekly  service  of  about  30,000  words  and  running  as  high 
as  80,000  in  English  and  20,000  in  Spanish,  was  sent 
regularly  to  17  foreign  commissioners  of  the  Committee, 
to  22  diplomatic  and  consular  representatives  in  Countries 
where  there  were  no  Committee  commissioners,  to  10 
United  States  citizens  abroad  co-operating  as  agents  of 
the  Committee,  to  the  British  ministry  of  labor,  and  to  18 
accredited  correspondents  in  this  country  of  foreign  news- 
papers. Close  touch  was  maintained  with  all  these  com- 
missioners and  agents  through  letters  sent  out  regularly 
once  a  week  and  through  frequent  cables.  Advised  through 
such  correspondence  of  the  openings  in  each  country  for 
articles  along  various  lines,  the  service  to  each  country 
became  more  and  more  specialized  as  the  work  continued. 
We  were  thus  enabled,  also,  to  serve  as  a  clearing-house 
for  methods  of  publicity  that  had  been  tried  with  success 
in  each  country,  such  as  the  distribution  of  quantities 
of  small  American  flags,  buttons  carrying  the  flags  of  the 
United  States  and  those  of  our  allies,  maps  of  Europe 
for  window  exhibition,  showing  the  location  of  the  American 
forces  on  the  western  front,  sets  of  American  band  music, 

271 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

American  newspapers,  magazines,  and  books  for  the 
equipment  of  small  reading-rooms  in  connection  with  our 
foreign  offices. 

The  extent  to  which  our  press  material  was  printed  in 
foreign  newspapers  and  magazines  week  after  week  was 
remarkable,  testifying  at  once  to  the  new  interest  of  the 
world  in  things  American  and  to  the  ability  with  which 
this  office  was  able  to  meet  this  demand  with  newspaper 
and  magazine  material  prepared  by  a  corps  of  experienced 
writers  on  our  staff  and  by  a  large  number  of  volunteers, 
who  generously  and  repeatedly  responded  to  our  appeals 
for  articles  on  special  subjects. 


IV 

FIGHTING   WITH   FILMS 

S  in  the  United  States,  motion  pictures  played  a 
great  part  in  the  work  of  the  Foreign  Section,  rank- 
ing as  a  major  activity.  To  millions  unable  to  read,  to  lit- 
erate millions  unreached  by  newspaper  or  magazine,  to  city 
audiences  and  village  crowds,  the  screen  carried  the  story 
of  America,  flashing  the  power  of  our  army  and  navy, 
showing  our  natural  resources,  our  industrial  processes, 
our  war  spirit,  and  our  national  life.  Our  method  of  pres- 
entation was  either  to  rent  a  theater  outright,  giving  our 
own  shows,  or  to  rent  the  pictures  themselves  to  exhibitors, 
although  in  many  of  the  rural  districts  we  put  a  projector 
on  an  automobile  and  traveled  from  village  to  village, 
delighting  the  rustic  populace  with  "the  wonders  of 
America." 

War  pictures,  as  a  matter  of  course,  gave  the  point  to 
every  program.  A  steady  stream  of  wonderful  "fighting 
stuff"  was  poured  into  our  foreign  channels,  so  that  the 
eyes  of  the  world  followed  America's  war  progress  from  the 
cantonment  to  the  ship,  from  St.  Nazaire  to  the  firing-line, 
along  the  firing-line  from  Chateau-Thierry  to  the  Argonne, 
and  saw  America's  war  preparations  from  the  shipyard 
to  the  sea,  from  the  factory  to  the  great  supply  depots  in 
France.  Great  feature-films  like  "Pershing's  Crusaders" 
and  "America's  Answer"  could  stand  alone,  but  the 
majority  of  "war  stuff"  had  to  be  accompanied  by  con- 

273 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

trasting  material.  Not  only  this,  but  it  was  also  the  case 
that  we  wanted  the  world  to  see  America  "at  home." 

In  the  first  days,  Jules  E.  Brulatour,  a  pioneer  in  the 
motion-picture  industry,  and  one  of  its  fine,  inspiring 
figures,  came  to  the  Committee  as  a  volunteer,  and  it  was 
his  job  to  collect  "educational  stuff,"  meaning  every  sort 
of  a  movie  that  would  show  American  cities,  factories, 
and  farms,  our  social  progress,  our  industrial  life,  and  our 
adventures  in  altruism  and  humanity.  He  knew  exactly 
which  of  the  great  manufacturing  concerns  "went  in" 
for  motion  pictures,  and  straightway  commenced  a  begging 
tour  that  took  in  Henry  Ford,  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  the  International  Harvester  Company,  Water- 
man's Pen,  the  Corn  Products  Company,  the  lumber 
companies,  coal  companies,  etc.,  until  he  had  thou- 
sands of  reels  showing  every  phase  of  American  industry. 
Then  he  went  to  the  Bureau  of  Parks  and  got  "nature 
stuff,"  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  scientific 
farming  pictures,  to  the  Bureau  of  Education  for  "school 
stuff,"  to  the  Public  Health  Service  for  "sanitation  stuff," 
and  on  down  the  line  until  he  had  everything  that  the 
government  possessed  in  the  way  of  an  educational  film. 
An  arrangement  with  the  film-news  weeklies  permitted 
us  to  comb  their  releases,  and  from  them  we  bought 
footage  that  showed  patriotic  celebrations,  women  voting, 
Labor  Day  parades,  seashore  scenes,  baby  contests,  stock 
shows,  athletic  games,  and  everything  else  that  threw  any 
light  on  us  as  a  people. 

All  of  the  manufacturers  were  generous  in  the  extreme, 
giving  us  a  full  set  of  positives  without  debate,  although 
Henry  Ford  led  all  others  in  princely  donations  that  totaled 
thousands  of  dollars.  The  task  of  duplication  was  Mr. 
Brulatour's,  also  the  hard,  tedious  job  of  putting  the 
titles  into  the  various  languages.  It  was  a  remarkable 
task  that  Mr.  Brulatour  carried  to  success,  although  a  very 

274 


LLEWELLYN  THOMAS     J  JULES  BRULATOUR.*P^GUY  CROSWELL  SMITH 


E.  L.  STARR  WILBUR  H.  HART 

LT.  JOHN  TUERK 


FIGHTING  WITH  FILMS 

enthusiastic  word  must  be  said  for  Lieut.  John  Tuerk, 
borrowed  from  the  army  by  reason  of  his  wide  experience 
in  the  motion-picture  field.  The  old  Kalem  studio  on 
West  Twenty-third  Street  in  New  York  was  taken  over, 
and  hummed  night  and  day  with  the  rush  of  picture 
selection  and  picture  shipping. 

Later,  when  the  Foreign  Section  was  fully  organized, 
Mr.  Hart's  Division  of  Films  became  the  source  of  supply, 
and  Mr.  Byoir  was  placed  in  charge  of  operations.  As 
a  result  of  these  combined  activities,  the  foreign  commis- 
sioners were  able  to  present  a  well-balanced  program, 
starting  out  with  pictures  of  an  American  city  or  some 
national  park,  following  with  typical  American  scenes, 
then  showing  schools,  model  farms,  welfare  work 'in  fac- 
tories, a  shipyard  or  munitions-factory,  and  then  finishing 
strong  with  an  American  cantonment,  the  grand  fleet,  the 
arrival  in  France,  and  "over  the  top  with  the  Yanks." 

All  of  which  was  very  fine  as  far  as  it  went,  but  upon 
investigation  we  found  that  it  did  not  go  far  enough. 
What  the  war-weary  foreigners  liked  and  demanded  was 
American  comedy  and  dramatic  film.  They  had  to  have 
their  Mary  Pickford  and  Douglas  Fairbanks  and  Charlie 
Chaplin  and  Norma  Talmadge.  The  Germans,  either  by 
outright  purchase  of  picture-houses  or  else  by  subsidizing 
exhibitors,  were  largely  in  control  in  every  neutral  country, 
and  used  American  entertainment  film  to  put  across  their 
propaganda  material.  As  a  result,  we  stood  to  be  left 
out  in  the  cold. 

Looking  around,  we  discovered  that  no  film  of  any  kind 
could  be  sent  out  of  the  United  States  without  a  license 
from  the  War  Trade  Board.  Without  waste  of  time, 
we  saw  Vance  McCormick,  the  chairman,  and  secured 
from  him  a  ruling  to  the  effect  that  every  application  for 
a  license  must  bear  the  indorsement  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information.  The  rest  was  simple. 

275 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Calling  a  meeting  of  all  the  film  supporters,  we  explained 
the  situation  in  detail,  and  while  promising  that  the  Com- 
mittee would  use  all  of  its  influence  to  expedite  film  ship- 
ments, we  demanded  in  return  that  the  motion-picture 
industry  should  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Committee  in  equal 
degree.  As  a  result  of  negotiations  this  arrangement  was 
worked  out: 

(1)  That  every   shipment  for  entertainment  film  from  the 
United  States  should  contain  at  least  20  per  cent,  "educational 
matter." 

(2)  That  not  a  single  foot  of  American  entertainment  film 
would  be  sold  to  any  exhibitor  who  refused  to  show  the  Commit- 
tee's war  pictures. 

(3)  That  no  American  pictures  of  any  kind  would  be  sold  to 
houses  where  any  sort  of  German  film  was  being  used. 

This  method  shut  the  German  film  out  of  Sweden  and 
Norway  in  a  few  weeks  after  the  adoption.  With  respect 
to  Switzerland  and  Holland,  where  the  German  control 
was  virtually  complete,  the  Committee  adopted  an  even 
more  drastic  mode  of  procedure.  It  was  asked  of  the  lead- 
ing film-producers,  and  agreed  to  by  them,  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Committee  should  have  the  absolute  and 
unquestioned  disposition  of  every  foot  of  commercial  film 
that  went  into  the  two  countries.  As  a  consequence  of 
this  air-tight  arrangement,  Mrs.  Whitehouse  and  Mr. 
Suydam  were  not  only  in  possession  of  the  Committee's 
war  and  educational  pictures,  but  also  had  entire  charge 
of  every  comedy  and  dramatic  picture  that  went  out  from 
the  shores  of  the  United  States.  No  motion-picture  house 
could  do  business  without  our  product,  and  it  was  very 
soon  the  case  that  the  Germans  were  being  run  out  of  both 
fields.  In  Switzerland,  where  they  held  most  tenaciously, 
the  lid  was  falling  relentlessly  when  the  armistice  came. 

In  France,  England,  and   Italy  the  initial    showing  of 

276 


FIGHTING  WITH  FILMS 

our  picture  films  was  always  an  event,  the  high  officials 
of  government  attending  formally,  and  even  in  the  neutral 
countries  we  were  able  eventually  to  make  our  own  pro- 
ductions on  an  impressive  scale.  Our  most  glittering 
success,  perhaps,  was  in  The  Hague,  where  the  police  had 
to  stop  one  performance  of  "America's  Answer"  owing  to 
"the  great  pro- American  demonstrations  that  it  aroused." 
In  Mexico,  however,  much  the  same  result  was  achieved. 

As  the  work  grew,  and  as  the  fight  took  on  greater  in- 
tensity, it  became  apparent  that  film  experts  would  have 
to  be  despatched  to  aid  the  resident  commissioners,  also 
that  we  would  have  to  install  our  own  laboratories  in 
certain  countries  and  export  our  own  raw  material  and 
equipment.  The  success  of  Guy  Croswell  Smith  in  Scandi- 
navia had  shown  that  this  should  be  the  method.  Coming 
out  of  Russia  with  Mr.  Sisson  in  March,  1918,  he  took 
film  charge  of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark  immediately. 

In  furtherance  of  the  general  plan,  H.  C.  Hoagland  went 
to  France,  where  he  established  intimate  contact  with  the 
Signal  Corps,  enlarging  laboratories,  vitalizing  procedure, 
and  generally  increasing  and  improving  the  output.  He 
handled  the  Italian  situation  also,  making  arrangements 
in  Rome  for  the  national  exhibition  of  American  programs. 
Llewellyn  R.  Thomas,  sent  to  The  Hague,  handled  306,000 
feet  of  dramatics,  52,000  feet  of  comedies,  12,000  feet  of 
Committee  war  film,  92  reels  of  news  pictures,  and  200,000 
feet  of  raw  stock.  He  operated  fifty  eight-reel  programs, 
and  his  speed,  ability,  and  enthusiasm  dazzled  the  Dutch 
and  routed  the  Germans.  From  the  very  outset  our 
"movie"  work  in  Russia  was  attended  by  every  difficulty. 
The  fall  of  Kerensky  made  Russian  consignments  a  prob- 
lem, and  to  meet  this  situation  we  made  arrangements  with 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  by  which  its  representatives  would  carry 
film  to  the  Committee's  representatives  in  Petrograd  and 
Moscow.  In  the  fall  of  1917  we  assembled  thousands  of 

19  277 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

reels,  covering  every  field  of  American  activity,  and  in- 
trusted them  to  A.  C.  Harte,  who  was  proceeding  to  Russia 
for  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Through  various  unforeseen  changes 
in  Mr.  Harte's  plans,  he  turned  back  at  Stockholm,  and,  as 
the  Russian  frontier  was  closed,  our  pictures  continued 
to  rest  in  Sweden.  Another  effort  was  made  through  the 
agency  of  Herman  Bernstein,  the  war  correspondent  of 
The  New  York  Herald,  who  took  with  him  many  cases  of 
film,  and  who  also  agreed,  if  he  found  it  possible,  to  pick 
up  the  shipment  left  in  Stockholm  by  Mr.  Harte.  Mr. 
Bernstein's  chance  to  get  into  Russia  came  suddenly  and 
he  had  to  travel  without  impediment  of  any  kind;  the  films 
that  he  carried  took  their  place  in  storage  alongside  of 
those  left  by  Mr.  Harte. 

As  a  consequence,  Mr.  Sisson  and  Mr.  Bullard  were 
compelled  to  rely  entirely  upon  the  small  amount  of  film 
already  possessed,  and  while  they  used  it  over  and  over 
again  with  remarkable  results,  there  was  always  the  sense 
of  bitter  disappointment.  When  the  Bolsheviki  finally 
threw  pretense  aside  and  came  out  as  open  enemies  of 
America,  the  Committee  changed  its  basis  of  operation 
from  Moscow  and  Petrograd  to  Archangel  and  Vladivostok. 

To  Vladivostok,  the  center  of  east  Siberian  motion- 
picture  trade,  the  Committee  sent  carloads  of  equipment, 
including  six-B  cameragraphs,  delco  light  plants,  monoplane 
lamps,  re  winders,  motors,  etc.,  motion-picture  film-printing 
machines,  motion-picture  rheostats,  screens,  etc.  This 
permitted  the  installation  of  our  laboratory  with  full 
titling  facilities,  and  as  a  consequence  the  Committee  was 
able  to  ship  continuously  and  in  quantity.  As  in  other 
countries,  arrangements  were  made  with  the  commercial 
producers  for  exclusive  rights,  and  feature  dramas  and 
comedies  soon  joined  with  the  Committee's  war  and  in- 
dustrial film  for  the  presentation  of  well-balanced  eight- 
reel  programs. 

278 


FIGHTING  WITH  FILMS 

Charles  Philip  Norton  and  H.  Y.  Barnes  handled  the 
motion-picture  campaign  for  Mr.  Bullard,  and  under  their 
direction  the  Committee  showed  pictures  throughout 
Siberia.  Not  only  were  our  programs  presented  in  picture- 
houses,  but  through  the  co-operation  of  the  Red  Cross, 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  the  Military 
and  Naval  Association  we  reached  the  firing-line,  the 
churches,  the  rural  communities,  and  other  places  where 
the  Russian  peasants  assembled  in  any  number.  Read 
Lewis,  the  Committee's  commissioner  at  Archangel,  had 
been  supplying  one  motion-picture  theater  in  Archangel, 
and  two  in  a  suburb,  with  programs,  and  in  conjunction 
with  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  was  furnish- 
ing three  reels  of  features  and  comedies  and  two  reels  of 
educationals.  Harry  P.  Inman,  ordered  to  Archangel  to 
assist  Mr.  Lewis,  carried  with  him  a  laboratory  outfit  for 
the  manufacture  and  exhibition  of  motion  pictures,  also 
a  large  amount  of  negative  and  positive  raw  stock,  42  reels 
of  feature  dramas,  16  reels  of  good  comedies,  26  reels  of 
news  weeklies,  and  all  our  official  film,  including  "Pershing's 
Crusaders,"  "America's  Answer,"  "Bridge  of  Ships," 
"Official  War  Review."  Not  the  least  of  Mr.  Inman's 
many  successful  undertakings  was  an  arrangement  with 
the  educational  department  of  the  Russian  Co-operative 
Unions  (which  is  recognized  by  the  present  Archangel  gov- 
ernment) for  films  to  be  released  in  towns  within  a  two- 
hundred-mile  radius  of  Archangel.  Wilbur  H.  Hart, 
sent  to  China,  found  that  distribution  through  established 
theaters  was  not  feasible,  inasmuch  as  less  than  2  per  cent, 
of  their  entire  attendance  was  Chinese.  In  many  of  the 
principal  theaters  in  Shanghai  and  in  Pekin  he  presented 
the  feature-films  of  the  Committee  with  success  and  fol- 
lowed up  with  special  presentations  of  various  kinds  in  an 
effort  to  reach  the  purely  Chinese  population.  Japan 
was  comparatively  simple,  as  we  dealt  with  a  well-estab- 

279 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

lished  system  of  exchanges.  E.  L.  Starr,  the  motion- 
picture  expert  despatched  to  South  America,  made  a  very 
complete  survey  and  worked  out  a  plan  that  gave  maximum 
results.  In  Buenos  Aires  a  theater  was  taken  for  official 
showing  of  the  Committee's  feature-films,  after  which  a 
commercial  arrangement  was  made  with  the  leading  dis- 
tributor in  the  Argentine.  In  Brazil  the  motion-picture 
industry  was  controlled  almost  entirely  by  the  French 
and  Italians,  and  Mr.  Starr  made  arrangements  for  distri- 
bution through  the  American  Embassy  at  Rio  de  Janeiro. 
Mr.  Morgan,  the  Ambassador,  gave  the  matter  his  personal 
supervision,  and  as  a  result  it  was  not  long  before  American 
films  held  highest  place  in  the  favor  of  the  Brazilian  people. 

In  Peru  the  motion-picture  theaters  were  found  to  be 
crude  and  unsatisfactory,  the  greater  portion  of  the  Peru- 
vian population  being  Indian  and  entirely  illiterate.  Rail- 
roads reached  some  of  the  more  important  mining  and  agri- 
cultural sections,  but  a  vast  amount  of  this  territory  was 
accessible  only  by  burro  through  mountain  trails.  The 
distribution  of  motion  pictures  for  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Ecua- 
dor, made  through  Lima,  was  based,  therefore,  on  a  system 
worked  out  by  C.  V.  Griffis,  commissioner  of  the  Committee 
in  Peru,  head  of  the  American  Society,  and  editor  of  the 
only  English  weekly  on  the  west  coast.  Mr.  Griffis  owed 
much  to  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Handley,  American  consul- 
general  at  Lima. 

Arrangements  were  made  for  the  showing  of  the  films 
in  Peru  through  the  Peru  chapter  of  the  American  Red 
Cross  in  each  of  the  cities  and  towns  having  a  Red  Cross 
branch.  After  this  showing  the  films  were  turned  over  to 
the  only  important  distributing  corporation  in  the  country, 
the  Impreso  de  Teatros  y  Cinemas,  Limitada,  which 
agreed  to  play  the  films  in  every  city  and  town  having  a 
cinema  theater  (26  towns  and  cities  with  a  total  of  34 
theaters).  That  gave  us  over  a  period  of  time  a  very 

280 


FIGHTING  WITH  FILMS 

efficient  distribution.  Bolivia  had  five  towns  in  which 
we  made  the  same  arrangement  as  in  Peru.  Ecuador 
likewise  had  eight  towns  in  which  the  same  arrangement 
for  distribution  was  effected. 

In  Chile  the  official  films  of  the  Committee  were  turned 
over  to  Mr.  Sevier,  the  Compub  commissioner,  and  in 
the  larger  cities  they  were  shown  in  conjunction  with  va- 
rious charities.  In  the  American  mining  towns  and  camps 
the  films  were  shown  by  the  American  Red  Cross  under  the 
auspices  of  the  local  chapters,  and  at  the  completion  of 
these  showings  the  Southern  Pacific  Paramount  Company 
released  these  pictures  in  two  or  three  reel  lengths,  in 
every  city  and  town  and  camp  having  a  cinema  theater. 

It  was  not  only  that  the  Committee  put  motion  pictures 
into  foreign  countries.  Just  as  important  was  the  work 
of  keeping  certain  motion  pictures  out  of  these  countries. 
As  a  matter  of  bitter  fact,  much  of  the  misconception 
about  America  before  the  war  was  due  to  American  motion 
pictures  portraying  the  lives  and  exploits  of  New  York's 
gun-men,  Western  bandits,  and  wild  days  of  the  old  frontier, 
all  of  which  were  accepted  in  many  parts  of  the  world  as 
representative  of  American  life. 

What  we  wanted  to  get  into  foreign  countries  were  pict- 
ures that  presented  the  wholesome  life  of  America,  giv- 
ing fair  ideas  of  our  people  and  our  institutions.  What 
we  wanted  to  keep  out  of  world  circulation  were  the  "thrill- 
ers," that  gave  entirely  false  impressions  of  American 
life  and  morals.  Film  dramas  portraying  the  exploits 
of  "Gyp  the  Blood,"  or  "Jesse  James,"  were  bound  to 
prejudice  our  figbt  for  the  good  opinion  of  neutral  nations. 

Our  arrangements  with  the  War  Trade  Board  gave  us 
power  and  we  exercised  it.  Under  the  direction  of  Lieu- 
tenant Tuerk,  offices  were  opened  in  New  York,  and  when 
applications  for  export  licenses  were  made  the  pictures 
themselves  were  examined  by  competent  committees  in 

281 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

which  tne  army,  the  navy,  and  the  customs  were  equally 
represented.  As  the  motion-picture  industry  commenced 
to  understand  our  purpose  and  realized  that  we  stood 
ready  to  expedite  all  proper  licenses,  as  well  as  to  make 
the  fight  for  shipping  space,  the  co-operation  became 
enthusiastic.  Not  only  was  it  the  case  that  all  harmful 
film  was  barred  from  export,  but  producers  became  more 
and  more  willing  to  incorporate  a  large  percentage  of 
"educational  pictures"  in  their  shipments.  "Educa- 
tional" in  our  sense  of  the  word  meant  film  that  showed 
our  schools,  our  industrial  life,  our  war  preparations,  our 
natural  resources,  and  our  social  progress. 

The  spirit  of  co-operation  reduced  the  element  of  friction 
to  a  minimum.  Oftentimes  it  was  the  case  that  a  picture 
could  be  made  helpful  by  a  change  in  title  or  the  elimi- 
nation of  a  scene,  and  in  no  instance  did  a  producer  fail 
to  make  the  alterations  suggested.  During  its  existence, 
according  to  the  report  of  Lieutenant  Tuerk,  more  than 
eight  thousand  motion  pictures  were  reviewed,  the  greater 
percentage  of  which  went  forward  into  foreign  countries 
with  the  true  message  from  America. 


BREAKING   THROUGH   THE  ENEMY  CENSORSHIP 

fTlHE  Germans  were  not  whipped  by  man-power  alone. 
JL  No  grain  of  credit  is  to  be  taken  away  from  the 
courage  of  the  Allies  or  the  heroic,  decisive  charges  of  the 
Americans  at  Chateau-Thierry,  St.  Mihiel,  and  -Belleau 
Wood,  but  there  are  certain  facts  that  prove  the  impor- 
tance of  other  compulsions  than  major  force. 

On  the  day  that  the  Germans  signed  the  armistice, 
accepting  defeat  as  overwhelming  as  their  ambitions  had 
been  colossal  they  had  two  million  men  under  arms  on 
the  western  front  alone.  This  army  was  well  equipped 
with  supplies  and  munitions,  and  behind  it  still  stretched 
line  after  line  almost  impregnable  by  reason  of  natural 
strength  and  military  science.  Not  one  inch  of  German 
territory  knew  the  feet  of  an  invading  force,  and  to  the 
east  there  were  the  armies  of  Mackensen  and  von  Sanders. 
Nothing  is  more  apparent  than  that  a  defensive  warfare 
could  have  been  waged  for  months,  taking  a  tremendous  toll 
in  Allied  and  American  lives.  In  1870,  even  after  Sedan, 
without  an  army,  food,  or  munitions,  the  French  fought  on, 
Paris  standing  a  siege  of  six  months. 

What  happened  to  the  Germans  was  an  utter  spiritual 
collapse,  a  disintegration  of  morale  both  on  the  firing-line 
and  among  the  civilian  population.  Slowly  at  first,  but 
always  more  swiftly,  the  truth  made  its  way  into  Germany, 
sapping  a  foundation  of  lies  laid  carefully  through  long 
years.  People  and  fighting-men  alike  commenced  to  feel 

283 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  loathing  of  the  world,  came  to  understand  the  might 
arrayed  against  them,  the  inevitability  of  defeat,  and  when 
French,  English,  Italians,  Serbians,  and  Americans  began 
to  deal  the  sledge-hammer  blows  directed  by  Foch,  appre- 
hension turned  to  certainty,  fear  became  panic,  and  the 
whole  rotten  structure  went  tumbling  into  ruins. 

Getting  the  truth  into  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary 
was  as  hard  a  battle  as  any  fought  in  France.  A  censor- 
ship cunningly  conceived  and  rigidly  enforced  not  only 
guarded  the  frontiers,  but  crushed  every  internal  attempt 
to  speak  or  write  honestly.  Soldiers  and  civilians  were 
drugged  with  lies  about  "Germany's  defensive  war," 
the  "cruel  purposes"  of  the  enemy,  the  collapse  of  the 
Allies,  the  utter  inability  of  America  to  train  or  transport 
troops,  and  the  near  approach  of  a  tremendous  victory 
that  would  mean  world  mastery. 

These  lies  had  all  the  force  of  divisions  and  it  was  as 
necessary  to  destroy  them  as  though  each  had  been  a 
machine-gun  nest.  The  Committee  fought  the  German 
censorship  on  every  front,  attacking  from  France,  Italy, 
Greece,  Russia,  and  from  such  border  nations  as  Switzer- 
land, Holland,  and  Denmark.  From  the  very  first,  the 
Paris  office  of  the  Committee  worked  in  close  co-operation 
with  the  French  department  of  enemy  propaganda.  Mr. 
Kerney,  our  commissioner,  was  assisted  by  Lieut.  Harry 
A.  Franck  of  the  Intelligence  Section  of  the  A.  E.  F., 
an  officer  with  intimate  knowledge  of  the  German  language 
and  the  German  people. 

As  the  importance  of  the  work  came  to  be  recognized 
many  efforts  were  made  to  bring  about  a  single  command 
so  that  resources  might  be  pooled  and  confusion  avoided. 
The  Committee  was  at  all  times  eager  for  co-operation  and 
designated  Mr.  James  Keeley,  editor  of  The  Chicago  Herald, 
as  our  representative  in  the  various  conferences  called  by 
Lord  Northcliffe  and  participated  in  by  all  the  Allied 

284 


BREAKING  THROUGH  THE  ENEMY  CENSORSHIP 

Powers.  Aside  from  a  very  valuable  exchange  of  ideas, 
nothing  ever  came  of  these  efforts  and  the  Committee 
continued  to  go  its  own  way,  working  hand  in  hand  with 
the  Intelligence  Section  of  the  A.  E.  F.  An  office  was 
opened  in  Padua  for  an  attack  upon  the  morale  of  Austria, 
and  from  France  and  Italy  we  managed  to  maintain  a 
reasonable  flow  of  American  facts  into  the  Central  Powers. 
German  and  Austrian  newspapers  were  carefully  studied 
and  their  misrepresentations  met  with  leaflets. 

As  the  American  Expeditionary  Force  grew  in  size  and 
power  it  became  increasingly  apparent  that  American 
propaganda  was  the  best  wedge  to  drive  it  to  the  German 
censorship.  The  French  bureau  was  reorganized  and  Com- 
mandant Chaix,  a  thoroughgoing  business  man,  placed 
at  its  head  with  full  power  to  work  intimately  with  the 
Paris  office  of  the  Committee.  A  most  efficient  equip- 
ment was  assembled,  and  documents  were  given  a  genuine 
German  appearance  as  to  paper,  type,  typesetting,  and  the 
fine  points  of  German  diction.  The  printers  were  German 
prisoners  chosen  for  this  particular  task.  For  the  troops, 
special  matter  was  prepared  according  to  nationalities. 
The  military  authorities,  as  soon  as  they  noted  the  presence 
in  certain  trenches  of  Jugoslav,  Polish,  or  other  elements, 
or  of  German  troops  from  disaffected  districts,  at  once 
conveyed  the  information  to  the  end  that  material  specially 
designed  to  appeal  to  these  respective  forces  might  be 
despatched. 

While  it  was  easy  enough  to  write  and  print  the  "shrap- 
nel," it  was  always  difficult  to  determine  the  most  effective 
way  to  fire  it.  The  most  obvious  method  of  distribution 
was  by  airplanes,  of  course,  and  over  firing-lines,  towns, 
and  cities  the  sky  rained  single  sheets  that  told  the  truth 
in  short,  sharp  sentences.  But  the  demand  was  so  great 
for  'planes  for  the  more  imperative  purposes  of  war  that 
they  could  not  be  obtained  in  sufficient  numbers  for  prop- 

285 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

aganda  use  and  other  and  additional  means  of  distri- 
bution had  to  be  found. 

The  French  introduced  a  rifle  grenade  that  carried 
leaflets  about  six  hundred  feet  in  a  favoring  wind,  and  a 
75-shell  that  carried  four  or  five  miles.  The  British 
developed  a  six-inch  gun  that  carried  ten  or  twelve  miles 
and  scattered  several  thousand  leaflets  from  each  shell. 
The  Italians  used  rockets  for  close  work  on  the  front,  each 
rocket  carrying  forty  or  fifty  leaflets.  The  obvious  smash 
at  German  morale  was  through  America's  aims  and  swift 
war  progress,  and  for  this  reason  the  Allies  used  the  Presi- 
dent's speeches  and  our  military  facts  freely  and  some- 
times even  exclusively. 

To  reach  farther  behind  the  lines,  all  fronts  used  paper 
balloons  filled  with  coal-gas.  They  would  remain  in  the 
air  a  minimum  of  twenty  hours,  so  as  to  make  a  trip  of 
six  hundred  miles  in  a  thirty-mile  wind.  On  a  Belgian 
fete-day  such  balloons  carried  four  hundred  thousand 
greetings  into  Belgium,  and  some  flew  clear  across  Belgium. 
Fabric  balloons,  carrying  seventeen  or  eighteen  pounds  of 
leaflets,  were  also  employed,  but  with  all  the  balloons  the 
uncertainty  of  the  wind  made  the  work  haphazard.  A 
paper  balloon,  with  propaganda  intended  for  Alsace,  came 
down  in  Kent,  and  a  French  balloon  intended  to  reach 
the  Rhine  towns  came  down  in  Geneva. 

The  attempt  was  made  to  fly  kites  over  the  trenches 
and  drop  leaflets  from  traveling  containers  that  were  run 
up  the  kite  wire,  but  this  method  could  be  used  only  on 
fronts  where  airplanes  were  not  active,  because  the  wires 
were  a  menace  to  the  'planes.  The  paper  used  in  the 
leaflets  was  chemically  treated  so  that  they  would  not 
spoil  if  they  lay  out  in  the  rain. 

An  American  invention  that  gave  promise  of  supplant- 
ing all  others  was  a  balloon  that  carried  a  tin  container 
holding  about  ten  thousand  sheets.  The  Committee  on 

286 


BREAKING  THROUGH  THE  ENEMY  CENSORSHIP 

Public  Information  carried  the  inventor  and  his  idea  to 
the  War  Department,  and  provided  the  money  for  tests 
and  experimentation  that  proved  encouragingly  successful, 
but  the  armistice  prevented  full  firing-line  use.  A  clock 
attachment  governed  the  climb  of  the  balloon,  it  had  a 
sailing  range  of  from  six  to  eight  hundred  miles,  and  the 
mechanism  could  be  set  in  such  a  manner  as  to  have  the 
pamphlets  dropped  in  a  bunch  or  one  at  a  time  at  regular 
intervals,  the  whole  business  blowing  up  conclusively  with 
the  descent  of  the  last  printed  "bullet." 

At  the  end  of  June  and  during  early  July,  when  some 
of  the  German  newspapers  began  to  wake  up  to  the  fact 
that  there  really  was  more  than  a  million  American  troops 
in  France  and  that  they  were  fighters,  there  appeared 
articles,  indicating  war-weariness  and  hints  that  all  might 
not  be  going  so  well  on  the  western  front.  This  material 
was  quickly  reproduced  in  Paris  and  spread  among  the 
German  troops.  It  was  along  in  July  that  the  first  genuine 
effects  of  the  enemy  propaganda  were  felt.  On  July  18, 
1918,  a  conference  of  heads  of  the  British,  French,  Belgian, 
and  American  services  was  held  in  the  Paris  office  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information.  It  was  the  frank 
consensus  of  opinion  that  the  place  for  concentrated 
effective  work  was  in  front  of  the  American  lines,  then 
shortly  to  be  very  greatly  extended.  General  Nolan, 
Major  James,  and  Capt.  Mark  Watson  of  the  Intelli- 
gence Section,  A.  E.  F.,  attended  the  conference,  and  soon 
thereafter  a  special  group  of  experts,  under  the  immediate 
direction  of  Major  James,  took  over  the  American  end 
of  the  work. 

All  this  was  on  the  western  front.  In  the  East,  up  to 
the  Brest-Litovsk  treaty,  the  problem  was  merely  one  of 
printing  and  distribution,  and  with  due  appreciation  of 
the  Bolshevik  surrender  that  was  on  the  way,  we  strove 
mightily  during  the  days  of  opportunity.  Edgar  G. 

287 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Sisson  and  Arthur  Bullard,  in  charge  of  the  Committee's 
educational  work  in  Russia,  put  the  speeches  of  President 
Wilson  into  German  and  into  Magyar  (the  latter  for  Hun- 
garians) and  secured  distribution  from  Russia  across  the 
line  into  the  enemy's  country  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands. 
Even  when  the  Germans  advanced  into  Russia  they  found 
the  walls  of  the  towns  freshly  plastered  with  the  President's 
Fourteen  Points  speech,  printed  in  German  for  the  infor- 
mation of  the  German  soldiers. 

The  preparation  of  the  material,  no  matter  what  the 
front,  followed  a  set  plan.  At  first  all  time  and  space 
was  devoted  to  the  causes  that  drove  the  United  States 
to  war — the  brutal  purposes  of  Germany,  her  plots  and 
intrigues,  her  record  of  bloody  cruelty — the  absolute  dis- 
interestedness of  America,  and  the  great  truth  that  the 
free  world  we  fought  for  was  a  victory  in  which  the  wretched 
victims  of  the  Prussian  military  machine  would  be  permitted 
to  share.  The  second  step  was  to  preach  the  doctrine  of 
American  achievement;  the  selective  service  law,  the  mir- 
acle of  cantonments  and  training-schools,  the  building 
of  ships  and  'planes,  the  rush  of  men  across  the  sea,  the 
mighty  resources  of  America,  and  the  inevitability  of 
German  defeat  and  of  Allied  victory. 

And  always  the  speeches  of  President  Wilson!  They 
were  our  most  effective  weapons  and  it  was  easy  to  mark 
their  progress  through  the  enemy  country  by  the  trail 
of  ferment  and  disaffection  that  each  one  left.  Never  at 
any  time  did  the  German  censorship  dare  to  kill  a  Wilson 
speech  outright,  but  the  first  addresses  were  invariably 
cut  in  such  manner  as  to  distort  and  misrepresent  the  mean- 
ing. What  we  did  was  to  have  the  entire  speech  printed 
in  German,  playing  up  all  deleted  words  and  passages, 
and  then,  with  the  varied  devices,  begin  to  pound  in  upon 
the  German  people  the  new  deceits  practised  upon  them 
by  their  government.  It  was  this  backfire  that  compelled 

288 


BREAKING  THROUGH  THE  ENEMY  CENSORSHIP 

the  Germans  eventually  to  publish  the  President's  addresses 
in  their  entirety. 

The  first  proof  of  effectiveness  was  an  order  issued  by 
the  German  General  Staff  establishing  death  as  a  penalty  for 
all  those  seen  picking  up  our  matter  or  found  with  it  in 
their  possession.  And  even  before  this  Austria-Hungary 
had  given  orders  to  shoot  or  imprison  all  soldiers  or  citizens 
guilty  of  the  abominable  crime  of  reading  "printed  lies" 
against  the  government. 

Accounts  of  trials  and  cruel  sentences  contained  in 
Austrian  papers  proved  conclusively  that  there  was  no 
"bluff"  about  it  as  far  as  the  Dual  Monarchy  was  con- 
cerned; but  it  is  very  questionable  whether  the  Germans 
went  very  far  in  enforcement  of  the  orders.  Eight  prison- 
ers out  of  every  ten  captured  by  the  Americans  had  our 
"stuff"  in  their  pockets,  and  reports  united  in  declaring 
the  literature  "well  thumbed." 

A  medium  of  attack  wider  in  effect,  even  if  less  direct, 
was  through  the  press  of  Switzerland,  Denmark,  and  Hol- 
land. Through  methods  that  will  be  described  later, 
the  public  opinion  of  these  countries  was  won  for  America, 
and  our  material  was  given  daily  place  in  the  newspapers. 
It  was  under  this  strain  that  the  German  censorship  began 
to  crack,  breaking  at  last  with  a  loud  report,  and  letting 
in  daylight  with  a  rush. 


VI 

FRANCE,    ENGLAND,   AND   ITALT 

XTATURALLY  enough,  the  Allied  countries  were 
JL  11  first  consideration  in  the  matter  of  intensive  activi- 
ties, for  the  maintenance  of  French,  English,  and  Italian 
morale  was  of  the  supremest  importance.  It  was  not  that 
either  soldiers  or  civilians  lacked  courage  or  were  lessening 
in  determination,  but  war-weariness  had  sapped  ardor 
and  enthusiasm,  and  there  was  the  ever-present  conscious- 
ness that  the  enemy  advanced  in  spite  of  every  resistance. 
"Can  America  come  in  time?"  This  was  a  question  in 
every  heart,  if  not  on  every  lip,  and  the  Germans  answered 
it  by  sneering  assertions  that  America  had  neither  troops, 
transports,  nor  munitions.  It  was  the  job  of  the  Committee 
to  answer  this  lie  by  daily  report  on  America's  war 
progress,  so  that  on  every  firing-line,  and  back  of  them,  there 
might  be  understanding  of  the  invincibility  of  the  United 
States,  the  speed  of  its  preparations,  and  the  certainty 
of  swift  and  decisive  aid. 

France  was  not  only  of  peculiar  importance  in  itself, 
but  Paris  was  the  clearing-house  for  our  cable  and  wireless 
service,  the  center  from  which  Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Portugal  drew  direct  information.  To  this  impor- 
tant post  we  sent  James  Kerney,  editor  of  The  Trenton 
Evening  Times,  a  choice  for  which  I  was  blamed  no  little 
in  the  first  days.  Mr.  Kerney  did  not  know  Europe, 
did  not  speak  French,  and  had  no  familiarity  with  diplo- 
matic usage,  and  these  lacks  were  assumed  to  unfit  him 

290 


CHARLES  E.  MERRIAM  PAUL  PERRY 

HENRY  SUYDAM 


FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND  .ITALY 

for  the  task  in  hand.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  supposed 
qualifications  were  always  of  minor  importance  in  our 
calculations.  We  did  not  want  a  commissioner  who  had 
the  European  point  of  view,  or  one  who  fancied  himself 
a  diplomat,  but  we  wanted  an  American  who  thought 
regularly  and  enthusiastically  in  terms  of  America  and  who 
would  worry  over  his  job,  not  over  his  dignity.  That  was 
why  we  selected  "Jim"  Kerney,  a  first-class  newspaper 
man,  a  dynamo  of  energy  and  originality,  an  enthusiast 
with  an  unfailing  supply  of  optimism,  and,  above  all,  a 
real  American.  Not  only  did  he  fulfil  every  hope  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties,  but,  humorously  enough,  the  French 
took  him  to  their  hearts  at  once,  and  he  enjoyed  a  popular- 
ity that  was  never  attained  by  the  careful,  precise  gentlemen 
who  "knew  Europe,  spoke  French,  and  were  familiar  with 
diplomatic  usage." 

i  At  the  very  outset  Mr.  Kerney  established  close  work- 
ing relations  with  Ambassador  Sharp,  General  Pershing, 
and  Admiral  Wilson,  linked  up  with  the  Maison  de  la 
Presse,  the  French  propaganda  bureau,  and  gained  inti- 
mate contacts  with  the  editors  of  the  provincial  press 
as  well  as  the  great  Paris  dailies.  It  was  soon  the  case 
that  the  French  press  and  reviews  were  filled  with  American 
news,  and  a  smooth-running  machinery  took  care  of  the 
relay  of  the  wireless  service  to  Berne,  Rome,  Madrid, 
and  Lisbon. 

A  next  step  was  "American  front  stuff,"  not  the  usual 
communiqu69  but  live  news  stories,  day  by  day,  that  would 
give  the  Allies  and  the  neutral  nations  a  vivid  understand- 
ing of  how  the  Yankees  were  massing,  preparing,  and  fight- 
ing. Martin  Egan,  at  General  Pershing's  headquarters, 
was  of  invaluable  aid  in  putting  across  the  plan,  and  before 
long  this  service  was  in  operation,  Maximilian  Foster 
roaming  the  fighting  front,  his  author's  eye  quick  to  see. 
his  artist's  hand  keen  to  write. 

291 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Not  only  were  there  American  objections  to  overcome, 
but  there  was  the  French  censorship  itself  that  the  new 
firing-line  service  had  to  buck  up  against.  Mr.  Kerney 
saw  Premier  Clemenceau  personally,  and  as  a  result  the 
rules  were  modified  in  such  manner  as  to  permit  free 
relation  of  the  wonderful  story  of  "America  in  France." 
The  Foster  communiques,  as  they  came  to  be  called,  were 
not  only  added  to  the  Committee's  news  service  for  Europe, 
but  became  an  integral  part  of  the  world  service  as  well, 
doing  their  work  in  South  America  and  the  Orient  as  well 
as  in  Holland  and  Scandinavia. 

As  a  further  use  for  the  Committee's  wireless  service, 
Mr.  Kerney  relayed  it  by  telegraph  to  American  head- 
quarters and  the  various  American  bases  in  France  for 
the  information  of  the  A.  E.  F.,  and  also  put  it  in  the  offices 
of  the  Paris  editions  of  The  London  Daily  Mail,  The  New 
York  Herald,  The  Chicago  Tribune,  and  The  Stars  and  Stripes. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  bulk  of  the  American  news  that 
appeared  in  these  papers  was  furnished  by  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information,  and  certainly  it  was  the  principal 
source  of  the  "home  news"  that  meant  so  much  to  the 
individual  doughboy. 

As  in  the  case  of  so  many  other  foreign  commissioners, 
Mr.  Kerney  was  hurried  to  Paris  with  instructions  to  find 
his  force  "on  the  ground,"  for  even  had  there  been  time 
for  the  selection  of  assistance,  there  was  the  objection 
that  he  could  not  know  what  personnel  he  needed  until 
he  found  out  exactly  what  it  was  that  he  had  to  do.  The 
building  of  his  organization  is  not  only  a  matter  of  interest 
in  itself,  but  it  may  give  some  idea  of  how  the  Committee, 
driving  always  at  top  speed,  was  forced  to  rely  upon  its 
representatives  and  to  trust  to  good  fortune  in  the  secure- 
ment  of  expert  assistance. 

One  of  Mr.  Kerney 's  first  acquisitions  was  Madame 
Edith  Bagues,  the  American  wife  of  a  distinguished  French 

292 


FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND  ITALY 

officer,  who  entered  the  Committee's  office  to  serve  as 
executive  secretary.  Speaking  French  like  a  native, 
knowing  France  intimately,  and  blessed  with  brains  as 
well  as  beauty,  Madame  Bagues  was  a  voice,  a  right  hand, 
a  rudder,  and  an  inspiration.  Frank  M.  Mansfield  and 
A.  Brace,  two  competent  American  newspaper  men,  were 
located  and  put  in  charge  of  the  wireless  service,  Wilmot 
H.  Lewis,  a  cosmopolitan  correspondent,  handled  all  con- 
tacts with  the  French  press,  and  two  clever  French  journal- 
ists, M.  Claude  Berton  and  M.  Beryl,  were  assigned  to  the 
task  of  translation.  James  Hazen  Hyde,  long  resident 
in  Paris,  was  finding  Red  Cross  work  an  insufficient  out- 
let for  his  eager  patriotism  and  tremendous  energies,  and 
Mr.  Kerney  soon  captured  him.  It  can  safely  be  said 
that  Mr.  Hyde  knew  everybody  in  France  who  was  worth 
knowing,  and  he  put  his  time  entirely  at  the  service  of 
the  Committee,  rendering  aid  of  inestimable  value. 
Marquise  de  Polignac,  formerly  Mrs.  "Jimmy"  Eustis 
of  New  York,  was  another  American  that  Mr.  Kerney 
pressed  into  service,  and  Marquis  de  Polignac  himself  was 
also  used  vigorously  in  the  work  of  distributing  specially 
prepared  leaflets  to  the  peasants  of  France. 

Maj.  A.  L.  James,  Jr.,  chief  of  the  press  and  censorship 
division  of  the  Intelligence  Section,  took  offices  immediately 
adjoining  those  of  the  Committee,  and  in  addition  Mr. 
Kerney  won  to  close  and  understanding  contact  with 
Gen.  Dennis  E.  Nolan,  chief  of  the  Intelligence  Section, 
and  with  Gen,  Edgar  E.  Russel,  chief  of  the  Signal 
Corps.  Whether  it  was  in  connection  with  pictures,  the 
relay  of  news,  or  getting  our  matter  in  the  German  terri- 
tory, these  officers  never  failed  to  put  men  and  facilities  at 
Mr.  Kerney's  disposal. 

Edgar  B.  Hatrick,  a  film  expert  in  France  in  the  interests 
of  the  Red  Cross,  was  taken  over  by  Mr.  Kerney,  and  not 
only  planned  productions,  but  organized  channels  for  the 

20  *93 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

flow  of  pictures  from  the  Signal  Corps  to  the  Committee. 
In  order  to  save  time,  all  firing-line  photographs  were  sent 
to  the  European  offices  of  the  Committee  directly  from 
Paris,  going  out  in  weekly  shipments.  Under  the  direction 
of  Mr.  Hatrick,  a  great  feature-film  was  assembled  under 
the  title  of  "America's  Answer  to  the  Hun,"  and  the 
Gaumont  Palace  in  Paris  was  rented  for  a  presentation. 
It  was  witnessed  by  the  members  of  the  Senate  and  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,  the  diplomatic  representatives  of  Great 
Britain,  Italy,  and  Japan,  as  well  as  many  of  the  Allied 
military  and  naval  chiefs,  and  was  given  a  mighty  reception. 
This  film  in  four  reels  depicted  the  protection  afforded  by 
the  American  navy  to  transports,  disembarking  of  troops, 
our  construction  and  installations  at  ports  and  along  the 
lines  of  communication  right  up  to  the  fighting  front,  the 
ambulance  and  supply  services.  It  concluded  with  a  num- 
ber of  scenes  showing  the  American  fighters  in  action  at 
Chateau-Thierry,  and  one  section  of  the  theater  was  re- 
served for  wounded  doughboys  from  the  hospitals  in  and 
about  Paris.  Columns  of  space  were  devoted  to  the 
event  in  the  newspapers  of  France  and  England,  and  copies 
of  the  film  were  promptly  sent  to  all  the  Allied  and  neutral 
countries  for  showing  there.  The  big  commercial  pro- 
ducers, Gaumont  and  Pathe,  arranged  at  once  to  send  it 
into  all  their  houses  in  France,  and  it  was  used  most  suc- 
cessfully among  the  troops,  in  factories,  universities, 
schools,  etc. 

This  feature-film,  brought  to  the  United  States,  was 
enriched  with  the  cantonment  scenes  and  pictures  of  the 
shipyards  and  the  navy,  and  released  under  the  title  of 
"America's  Answer." 

One  of  the  most  enduring  features  of  Mr.  Kerney's 
work  was  a  system  of  university  and  university  extension 
lectures.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  he  met  the  presidents 
of  all  the  French  universities  and  presented  to  them  a  plan 

294 


FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND   ITALY 

aimed  at  combating  the  wide-spread  anti-American  propa- 
ganda throughout  France,  by  making  known  the  spirit 
and  extent  of  America's  part  in  the  war.  These  lectures 
were  further  framed  to  put  the  story  of  America's  greatness, 
in  some  permanent  form,  into  the  minds  of  the  local 
leaders  of  thought,  as  well  as  into  the  minds  of  the  people. 
The  Committee  was  able  to  get  into  personal  touch  with 
more  than  two  hundred  qualified  lecturers,  furnishing 
them  with  literature  and  documents,  as  well  as  lantern 
slides,  with  the  result  that  practically  every  part  of  France 
was  reached.  The  presidents  of  the  universities  gave 
their  heartiest  co-operation,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  copies  of  a  pamphlet  containing  a  summari- 
zation of  American  information  were  distributed  to  the 
school-teachers.  The  university  presidents,  together  with 
the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction,  agreed  upon  M.  Firman 
Roz  of  the  University  of  Paris  as  a  man  most  eminently 
fitted  to  inaugurate  the  American  lectures.  M.  Roz, 
together  with  some  other  university  representatives  and 
writers,  was  taken  over  the  American  lines  of  communi- 
cation and  supplies,  as  well  as  to  the  front  lines.  The 
series  of  lectures  began  at  the  Sorbonne,  M.  Lucien  Poin- 
care,  brother  of  the  President  of  the  Republic,  presiding, 
and  immediately  after  this  initial  lecture  M.  Firman  Roz 
began  his  tour  of  the  universities,  speaking  at  Bordeaux, 
Toulouse,  Montpellier,  Marseilles,  Grenoble,  Chambery, 
Lyons,  Dijon,  Besangon,  Caen,  Rennes,  Poitiers,  and 
Clermont-Ferrand . 

These  lectures  gave  America  much  publicity  in  the 
provincial  press  and  had  an  especially  good  influence  on 
the  editorial  columns.  The  presidents  of  the  respective 
universities  had  invited  to  the  lectures  leading  professors 
from  each  town  in  the  educational  district  under  the  control 
of  the  university.  In  this  way  the  university  extension 
lectures  were  developed,  the  local  professors  organizing 

295 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

lecture  centers.  A  complete  list  of  these  lecturers  was  kept 
in  Paris  and  fresh  literature,  giving  the  latest  information 
about  America,  regularly  mailed  to  them.  Local  lectures 
were  also  given  in  many  of  the  big  provincial  towns,  the 
Committee  receiving  fine  co-operation  on  the  part  of  Amer- 
ican consular  representatives.  Through  the  consulates 
everywhere  printed  matter  was  distributed,  and  in  the 
larger  centers,  such  as  Havre,  Cherbourg,  Marseilles, 
Nantes,  Tours,  St.  Nazaire,  Lyons,  Boulogne,  Franco- 
American  demonstrations,  including  lectures  and  pro- 
duction of  movie  films,  were  provided. 

At  the  urgent  request  of  the  French  Minister  of  Muni- 
tions, lectures  on  the  American  participation  in  the  war 
were  given  in  the  various  industrial  plants  in  France 
engaged  in  manufacturing  war-supplies,  the  purpose  being 
to  stem  the  unrest  constantly  cropping  up.  These  lect- 
ures were  given  by  Dr.  Herbert  Adams  Gibbons,  the 
American  writer  who  had  been  in  France  since  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  and  who  gladly  turned  his  time  and 
abilities  over  to  Mr.  Kerney.  Both  the  French  govern- 
ment officials  and  the  manufacturers  pronounced  this  work 
as  highly  valuable  in  its  effect  on  the  industrial  situation. 
The  proprietors  and  managers  of  the  big  steel  and  muni- 
tions plants  were  brought  together  in  Paris  on  July  5th,  the 
meeting  being  presided  over  by  M.  Loucher,  Minister  of 
Munitions,  who  dwelt  upon  the  importance  of  the  lect- 
ure and  cinematographic  work  of  the  Committee  in  France. 

Doctor  Gibbons's  first  lecture  in  this  unique  course  was 
at  the  factory  of  Louis  Renault,  where  airplane  motors, 
motor-trucks,  tanks,  cannon,  and  shells  were  being  pro- 
duced. The  lecture  was  given  twice  in  this  plant,  being 
recorded  both  stenographically  and  on  the  phonograph 
in  order  that  it  might  get  the  most  complete  distribution 
among  the  twenty-five  thousand  employees.  M.  Renault 
subsequently  declared  that  this  exposition  of  America's 

396 


FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND  ITALY 

part  insured  his  plant  against  any  labor  disturbances  for 
at  least  six  months.  The  film  was  shown  and  the  lecture 
given  in  all  of  the  large  plants  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  war  materials  throughout  France.  Upward  of  one 
hundred  thousand  copies  of  the  lecture  were  printed  at 
the  expense  of  the  manufacturers  for  distribution  among 
their  employees. 

On  the  invitation  of  the  official  French  Propaganda 
Bureau,  Doctor  Gibbons  spent  several  days  lecturing  in 
the  mining  country  and,  at  the  instance  of  the  same  or- 
ganization, went  for  ten  days  into  Alsace,  explaining  the 
American  situation  to  the  populations  of  the  reconquered 
regions  and,  in  turn,  explaining  the  Alsatian  question  to 
the  American  troops  occupying  sectors  on  that  front. 

At  our  suggestion,  Mr.  Kerney  established  a  "visitors' 
bureau"  for  the  purpose  of  taking  American  correspondents 
on  trips  to  the  various  fighting  fronts,  and  Mr.  Kerney 
soon  broadened  this  original  purpose  by  invitations  to 
the  correspondents  of  every  country. 

Leading  writers  for  the  French  dailies,  magazines,  and  re- 
views, with  illustrators,  were  taken  to  the  American  front, 
and  the  publications  were  soon  crowded  with  the  remark- 
able accomplishments  of  our  army  and  navy.  This  liberal 
treatment  of  the  work  continued  until  accounts  of  the  glori- 
ous conduct  of  the  troops  at  the  fighting  front  produced 
the  finest  propaganda  that  ever  appeared  in  any  country. 
Writers  from  Spain,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Holland,  and  the 
Scandinavian  countries  were  brought  to  France  and  shown 
over  the  sectors  in  which  the  Americans  were  operating, 
and  the  reports  they  published  were  exceedingly  useful 
in  their  effect  not  only  in  their  home  countries,  but  upon 
the  civilian  morale  of  Germany.  This  was  particularly 
the  case  with  the  publication  of  American  news  in  Switzer- 
land, which  occupied  the  most  advantageous  position  in 
the  matter  of  enemy  propaganda.  Photographs  of  the 

297 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

American  work  and  of  the  American  fighters  were  supplied 
in  great  quantities,  through  the  Signal  Corps  of  the  army, 
and  were  likewise  despatched  weekly  to  the  Committee's 
representatives  all  over  Europe,  with  the  result  that  Amer- 
ican pictures  and  American  news  filled  the  reviews  and 
journals  everywhere. 

The  English  situation  was  never  very  bothersome,  coming 
to  be  handled  almost  as  a  matter  of  routine.  The  great 
London  dailies  maintained  correspondents  in  New  York 
and  Washington,  and  in  addition  to  this  the  British  gov- 
ernment made  it  a  practice  to  invite  groups  of  prominent 
Americans  for  English  tours.  While  the  purpose,  of  course, 
was  to  have  England's  story  brought  back  to  the  United 
States  in  the  interests  of  better  understanding,  it  was 
equally  the  case  that  these  Americans  put  the  facts  of  our 
own  accomplishments  before  the  people  of  England. 

Mr.  Harry  N.  Rickey,  formerly  head  of  the  Newspaper 
Enterprise  Association,  was  our  first  London  representative, 
opening  the  office  and  remaining  until  called  back  to  the 
United  States  to  assist  in  the  direction  of  the  Foreign 
Section.  By  reason  of  his  ability,  experience,  and  person- 
ality, Mr.  Rickey  put  the  work  on  firm  foundations. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Charles  Edward  Russell,  who  gave 
most  of  his  time  to  public  speaking,  while  his  son,  John 
Russell,  looked  after  the  office  routine.  Mr.  Russell  was 
too  valuable  in  the  speaking  field  to  be  kept  on  a  single 
job  for  any  length  of  time,  and  he  was  soon  moved  to 
France  and  Italy,  where  he  put  the  motives  and  purposes 
of  America  before  the  workers  of  the  two  countries.  Paul 
Perry  followed  Mr.  Russell  as  head  of  the  London  office, 
serving  with  distinction  to  the  end. 

Had  the  English  situation  presented  any  real  problem, 
as  in  the  case  of  other  countries,  the  way  of  the  Committee 
would  have  been  difficult.  Lord  Northcliffe  was  in  charge 
of  enemy  propaganda,  there  was  a  press  bureau  under  the 

298 


FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND   ITALY 

direction  of  Sir  Frederick  Cook  and  Sir  Frederick  Swetten- 
han,  the  Foreign  Office  held  certain  propaganda  functions 
and  claimed  a  right  of  general  control,  Wellington  House 
prepared  and  distributed  pamphlets,  Sir  William  Jury  had 
a  motion-picture  organization  of  his  own,  and  the  Board 
of  Naval  Control  possessed  censorship  powers  that  were 
autocratic  and  varied.  Intelligent  co-operation  was  an 
impossibility  and  the  many  changes  in  personnel,  the  end- 
less jealousies,  the  continuous  connection  between  authori- 
ties, oftentimes  resulted  in  confusion  and  failure.  For 
the  most  part,  therefore,  we  used  England  as  a  clearing- 
house, avoiding  as  far  as  possible  any  contact  with  the  pull 
and  haul  of  the  various  organizations. 

Italy,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  distinct  problem,  for 
German  propaganda  not  only  poured  in  from  the  outside, 
but  worked  with  equal  vigor  from  the  inside.  On  looking 
the  field  over  for  a  fit  representative,  we  learned  that 
Prof.  Charles  E.  Merriam  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
was  a  captain  in  the  army  and  engaged  in  some  compara- 
tively unimportant  work  in  one  of  the  Southern  camps. 
Here  was  not  only  a  professor  and  economist  and  a  sociolo- 
gist, but  also  a  man  with  a  wide  and  varied  experience  in 
public  life,  and  by  personal  appeal  to  Secretary  Baker 
the  army  was  induced  to  lend  him  to  us. 

Just  as  we  were  fortunate  in  securing  Captain  Merriam, 
so  was  he  fortunate  in  finding  John  Hearley,  in  Rome. 
Aside  from  his  very  remarkable  natural  ability,  Mr.  Hearley 
had  served  as  Italian  correspondent  for  the  United  Press 
and  at  the  time  of  Captain  Merriam's  arrival  was  operat- 
ing an  American  news  bureau  under  the  direction  of  Am- 
bassador Page.  Due  to  the  energy  and  vision  of  these 
two  men,  thirteen  thousand  cities  and  towns  in  Italy  were 
brought  to  thorough  understanding  of  America  and  the 
army  itself  was  fired  to  the  old  hope,  the  old  enthusiasm. 

Lieut.  Walter  Wanger  was  borrowed  from  the  American 

299 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

air  service  to  act  as  liaison  officer  with  the  Italian  army, 
Miss  Gertrude  Barr,  an  American  of  rare  executive  capacity, 
was  drafted  as  executive  secretary,  and  Capt.  Piero  Tozzi 
and  Lieut.  Albert  Peccorini  of  the  Italian  army  came  into 
the  office  to  serve  as  expert  advisers.  Miss  Alice  Rohe, 
the  well-known  writer,  was  another  valuable  volunteer  by 
reason  of  her  intimate  knowledge  of  Italy,  and  others  who 
gave  time  and  effort  unflaggingly  were  Kingsley  Moses, 
E.  Q.  Cordner,  and  Byron  M.  Nester. 

Mr.  Hearley,  assisted  by  Kenneth  Durant,  sent  over 
from  the  Washington  office  for  this  particular  purpose, 
gave  first  attention  to  the  news  service.  By  arrangement 
with  the  Agenzia  Stefani,  Italy's  largest  press  association, 
every  paper  in  Italy  received  the  Committee's  daily  cable 
and  wireless  service,  and  in  addition  to  this  a  daily  news 
bulletin  was  printed  for  direct  distribution  in  military, 
journalistic,  educational,  and  governmental  circles.  The 
Poole  service  was  turned  over  to  Miss  Rohe  and  Mr. 
Moses,  who  prepared  illustrated  feature  articles  for  the 
daily  press  and  the  periodical  press.  The  people  of  Italy 
were  almost  childishly  eager  for  American  news,  and  both 
services  were  enthusiastic  and  given  columns  in  every 
publication. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Captain  Merriam,  the  Committee 
made  a  selection  in  the  United  States  of  certain  men  cal- 
culated to  have  influence  in  Italy,and  among  those  sent  over 
were  Dr.  Rudolph  Altrocchi  from  the  Chicago  University, 
Senator  Salvatore  Cotillo  of  the  New  York  State  legislature, 
Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey,  and  Arthur  Bennington,  the  Italian 
authority  of  The  New  York  World.  It  was  also  our  good 
fortune  to  secure  Captain  Fiorello  from  the  army,  as  he 
proved  a  forceful  and  convincing  speaker.  Judge  Cravates, 
United  States  judge  at  Cairo,  was  also  brought  to  Italy, 
and  from  native  sources  Captain  Merriam  gained  the 
assistance  of  Agostino  d'Isernia,  Doctor  Professor  Satorio, 

300 


FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND  ITALY 

Doctor  Professor  Penunzio,  Signor  Poggiolini,  and  the 
thirteen-year-old  Alberto  Gelpi.  Besides,  Professoressa 
Gugliesmina  Ronconi,  a  prominent  Italian  social  worker, 
and  her  several  associates  were  attached  to  this  department. 
These  concerned  themselves  with  the  women  workers, 
peasant  women,  and  school-children,  holding  frequent 
morale  and  educational  conferences  or  discussions  for  them 
in  popular  halls,  workshops,  and  farm  centers. 

Whenever  possible,  American  moving  pictures  or  lantern 
slides  were  used  to  illustrate  all  these  discourses. 

The  native  speakers  did  a  splendid  work,  but  Italian 
enthusiasm  was  reserved  for  those  who  came  to  them  from 
the  United  States.  The  cities  and  towns  turned  out  en 
masse  to  hear  them,  and  in  many  of  the  villages  the  people 
drew  the  carriage  through  the  streets  and  rained  flowers 
on  the  flattered  occupant. 

Mr.  Hoagland,  proceeding  to  Italy  from  France,  estab- 
lished a  laboratory  and  worked  with  Lieutenant  Wanger 
and  Mr.  Cordner  in  the  building  of  the  machinery  that 
carried  the  Committee's  pictures  to  every  corner  of  the 
nation. 

The  perfected  films  with  Italian  captions  were  shown 
to  both  military  and  civilian  populations,  at  the  front 
and  behind  the  lines,  aid  being  received  from  private  and 
public  agencies,  such  as  Italian  cinema  houses,  patriotic 
associations,  schools,  Italian  offices  of  naval  and  military 
propaganda,  the  American  Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ation. 

Once  a  week  the  Committee  supplied  the  Inter-Allied 
Weekly,  a  war-time  Pathe  of  the  Italian  government, 
with  appropriate  American  film  material  for  display  in 
theaters  throughout  Italy. 

More  peculiarly  than  any  other  people,  the  Italians  loved 
picture-cards  and  little  gimcracks  of  all  kinds,  and  under 
Mr.  Nester's  direction  the  Committee  distributed  4,500,500 

301 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

post-cards  bearing  American  war  pictures;  American  flag 
bow-pins,  Italo-American  ribbons  and  buttons,  154,854; 
President  Wilson  posters,  68,574;  assorted  American 
war  posters,  66,640;  American  flags  in  paper,  200,000; 
American  flags  in  cloth,  30;  sheet  music,  "The  Star-spangled 
Banner,"  33,300;  booklets  containing  extracts  from  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  speeches,  326,650;  pamphlets  containing 
American  war  statistics  and  other  information,  364,235; 
United  States  maps,  200;  President  Wilson  photographs, 
500;  President  Wilson  engravings,  35. 

Reprints  from  American  photographic  displays  were 
exhibited  in  three  thousand  Italian  towns  and  cities.  In 
some  form  or  other  American  educational  information 
was  disseminated  through  sixteen  thousand  towns  and  cities 
of  Italy  by  this  department  alone. 


VII 

THE  WORK   IN  MEXICO 

MR.  ROBERT  H.  MURRAY,  for  years  the  corre- 
spondent of  The  New  York  World  in  the  City  of 
Mexico,  and  a  man  of  proved  ability,  courage,  and  honor, 
was  selected  to  have  charge  of  the  Committee's  activities 
in  Mexico.  His  report  is  given  in  full,  not  only  that  Mr. 
Murray's  own  achievement  may  be  estimated,  but  because 
"  is  clear,  concise  chronicle  will  permit  readers  to  under- 
stand the  nature  of  the  work  done  by  all  foreign  commis- 
sioners, thereby  obviating  the  necessity  of  complete  re- 
ports in  every  case. 

In  the  beginning,  elements  confronted  the  Mexico  Section 
which  rendered  its  task  peculiarly  difficult  and,  to  a  certain 
extent,  unique.  With  the  possible  exception  of  Spain,  in  no 
other  country  outside  of  Mexico  did  the  German  propaganda 
attain  such  vigor  and  proportion,  and  nowhere  was  it  waged 
with  more  determination  and  vicious  mendacity.  Events  and 
conditions,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  recapitulate,  had  caused 
the  people  and  the  government  of  Mexico  to  become  highly 
responsive  to  overt  or  covert  propaganda  directed  against  the 
United  States  and  in  favor  of  Germany.  The  people,  espe- 
cially the  masses,  reacted  favorably  almost  to  a  unit  to  the 
specious  and  insidious  endeavors  of  the  Germans  to  deceive 
them  into  believing  that  the  triumph  of  the  arms  of  the  United 
States  spelled  menace  and  disaster  to  Mexico,  and  that  a  German 
victory  would  insure  for  them  and  their  country  every  manner 

of  political  and  economic  benefit. 

303 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Thus  the  German  propaganda  thrived  upon  fruitful  soil. 
It  appealed  to  a  ready-made,  receptively  sympathetic  audience. 
Nevertheless,  as  the  writer  prophesied  early  in  February,  1918, 
in  a  resume  of  the  Mexican  situation  which  he  furnished  to 
Chairman  Creel,  the  German  propaganda  up  to  that  time  had 
not  been  successful  in  creating  anything  substantial  or  lasting 
commensurate  with  the  effort  and  money  expended.  Nor  did  it 
later.  This  was  proved  when,  as  a  result  of  the  defeat  of  the 
German  military  power,  the  German  propaganda  in  Mexico 
collapsed  almost  overnight,  leaving  nothing  save  a  faint  and 
rapidly  disappearing  impression  upon  the  Mexican  public  to  show 
for  the  expenditure  of  more  than  four  years'  time  and  intensive 
effort  and  at  least  10,000,000  marks  in  German  money.  The 
German  propaganda  failed  in  Mexico,  as  elsewhere,  because, 
as  a  writer  in  The  Journal  of  the  American  Chamber  in  Mexico 
expressed  it  in  the  November  number  of  that  publication: 

"It  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  propaganda  of  lies.  Because  it 
deals  exclusively  in  lies.  Because  it  is  composed  of  lies.  Because 
it  is  organized  and  managed  by  arch  liars  who  work  with  intent 
to  lie  and  to  deceive.  But  the  German  propaganda  has  failed 
principally  because,  in  the  long  run,  truth  will  beat  lies  every  time." 

Whatever  success  the  Mexico  Section  attained  may  be  at- 
tributed, in  the  main,  to  the  fact  that  it  dealt  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  exclusively  in  truth.  Its  sole  mission  in  Mexico 
was  to  tell  the  Mexicans  the  truth,  not  only  about  the  United 
States,  why  it  went  to  war,  what  it  was  doing  in  the  war,  and 
what  the  real  attitude  of  the  people  and  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States  was  toward  Mexico,  but  also  what  German 
militarism  actually  stood  for,  what  the  conduct  of  German 
statesmen,  soldiers,  and  sailors  had  been  in  the  war,  and  what 
were  the  sinister  aims  of  the  Kaiser  and  his  accomplices  toward 
democracy  and  free  governments  of  free  peoples. 

The  fight  to  win  Mexico,  or  at  least  to  obtain  for  the  com- 
mon cause  an  adequate  hearing  before  the  Mexican  people, 
was  essentially  our  fight.  And  this  quite  regardless  of  what- 
ever interest  any  other  nation  embattled  against  the  Germans 
might  have  held  in  the  way  of  impressing  their  cause  and  their 
point  of  view  upon  the  Mexicans.  That  the  Mexican  fight  was 
our  fight  became  apparent  from  the  fact  that  it  was  only  from 
the  day  we  declared  war  that  the  German  propaganda  in  Mexico 
really  began  to  flourish.  The  Germans  were  cunning  enough 

304 


H.  H.  SEVIER  FRANK  J.  MARION 

VIRA  B.  WHITEHOUSE 


THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 

immediately  thereafter  to  play  upon  the  anti-American  string. 
That  was  their  best  asset  in  Mexico,  and  they  omitted  no  effort 
or  expense  to  capitalize  and  profit  by  it. 

This  had  been  going  on  for  almost  a  year  when  the  Mexico 
Section  was  created.  The  Germans  had  organized  well.  For 
the  most  part,  their  propaganda  was  financed  by  loans  made 
to  the  German  Minister  in  Mexico  by  wealthy  German  com- 
mercial houses  and  individuals.  These  provided  the  Minister 
with  unlimited  funds  in  Mexican  currency  with  which  to  corrupt 
public  sentiment  in  Mexico,  and  which  they  loaned  upon  drafts 
upon  the  German  government.  In  passing,  it  may  be  said  that 
none  of  these  drafts  has  yet  been  paid.  No  source  of  revenue 
of  this  nature  was  available  to  the  Mexico  Section.  The  only 
financial  support,  with  one  exception,  which  this  office  received 
from  American  nationals  was  indirect.  It  came  through  news- 
paper advertising  from  American  business  houses,  which  was 
provided  for  the  support  and  encouragement  of  legitimate  news- 
papers who  championed  the  cause  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
Allies.  This  movement,  although  it  was  originated  before  the 
Mexico  Section  came  into  being,  was  latterly  revived  and  placed 
upon  a  more  effective  basis  through  the  influence  of  this  office, 
with  the  assistance  in  various  members  of  the  American  Chamber 
of  Commerce  in  Mexico,  notably  William  L.  Vail,  who  volun- 
teered to  take  charge  of  the  work. 

Details  of  the  operation  of  the  propaganda  of  the  enemy 
did  not  differ  materially  from  those  employed  in  every  neutral 
country.  The  basis  of  their  work  was  conventional,  practical, 
and  sound.  Upon  that,  however,  they  had  reared  a  structure 
of  falsification,  misrepresentation,  and  chicanery.  It  was  upheld, 
on  the  part  of  those  among  the  Mexicans  whom  they  drew  to 
their  support,  not  because  of  conscientious  conviction  of  the 
justice  of  the  cause  which  they  were  espousing,  but  solely  because 
they  were  paid  for  what  they  did  with  copious  moneys  dealt 
out  by  the  German  information  service.  Authenticated  docu- 
ments from  the  records  of  the  German  information  service, 
which  are  in  possession  of  this  office,  show  that  the  Germans 
were  paying  subsidies  aggregating  nearly  $25,000  United  States 
currency  monthly  to  twenty-three  newspapers  and  periodicals, 
besides  supplying  them  with  free  paper  and  an  alleged  "cable" 
service  made  in  Mexico.  At  a  conservative  estimate  the  press 
activities  alone  of  the  Germans  in  subsidies,  paper,  telegraph 

305 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

service,  and  tolls  must  have  cost  them  not  far  from  $50,000 
United  States  currency  monthly. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  and  one  which  redounds  to  the  credit 
of  the  reputable,  honorable  journalists  of  Mexico,  that  during 
the  war  there  was  not  a  single  newspaper  or  periodical  in  the 
Republic  which  pleaded  the  German  cause  that  was  self-sustain- 
ing. All  were  subsidized  with  German  gold.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  was  not  one  pro-American  Ally  newspaper  or  periodical 
which  was  not  self-sustaining.  The  Mexico  Section,  directly 
or  indirectly,  did  not  subsidize  any  publication 

When  the  work  of  this  office  began  the  Germans  had  the 
field  virtually  to  themselves.  With  rare  exceptions  the  news- 
papers which  were  not  avowedly  pro-German  gave  the  cause 
of  the  United  States  and  of  the  Allies  languid  and  indifferent 
support.  Largely  the  fault  for  this  condition  was  ours.  Un- 
til we  started  our  work  no  organized,  adequate,  authoritative 
channels  for  obtaining  information  regarding  the  purposes  and 
the  acts  of  the  United  States  at  war  were  available  to  newspapers 
or  individuals  who  were  inclined  to  be  friendly.  The  reverse 
was  impressively,  emphatically,  and,  to  us,  reproachfully  true, 
so  far  as  the  Germans  were  concerned. 

But  this  initial  handicap  was  speedily  overcome.  From  the 
outset  it  was  assumed  that  the  Mexican  press  and  public,  or 
at  least  that  portion  of  it  which  was  not  debauched  by  German 
money  and  German  lies,  was  fair  and  receptive.  This  was  almost 
instantaneously  proved.  We  worked  always  in  the  open.  Official 
notice  was  served  upon  the  Mexican  government  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  offices  of  the  Committee  in  the  City  of  Mexico  and 
of  the  purpose  of  the  Committee  in  extending  its  operations  into 
Mexico.  We  hid  nothing  from  public  view.  There  was  nothing 
to  hide.  Incidentally  this  principle  was  laid  down  and  main- 
tained to  the  point  that  the  director  felt  free  to  declare,  and  still 
does  declare,  that  there  is  not  a  document,  record,  payment,  or 
act  of  the  Mexico  Section  which  is  not  open  to  the  full  and  un- 
restricted scrutiny  of  any  person  in  or  out  of  Mexico, 

From  the  beginning  this  office  stressed  the  fact  and  gave  it 
the  widest  proper  publicity,  that  the  Mexico  Section  spoke  and 
functioned  officially  for  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  stood  back  of 
every  statement  contained  in  every  cable  report  or  piece  of 
literature  issued  by  us.  Our  challenge  of  responsibility  for  word 


THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 

and  deed,  both  on  behalf  of  our  government  and  of  this  office, 
was  not  once  questioned  or  accepted  by  those  who  opposed  us. 

Our  sole  mission  was  to  inform  the  people  of  Mexico.  It  has 
been  said  that  we  did  this  adequately.  All  things  considered — 
the  remoteness  of  many  of  the  populous  parts  of  the  Republic 
from  our  headquarters  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  the  regrettable 
delay  in  commencing  our  work,  the  vast  numerical  preponder- 
ance of  the  illiterate  over  the  literate  among  the  population  of 
Mexico,  their  latent  antagonism  to,  and  suspicion  of,  the  United 
States,  and  the  modest  sum  available  for  the  purpose  of  the 
Committee  in  Mexico — one  feels  that  inspection  of  the  record 
of  the  Mexico  Section  may  safely  be  invited  from  any  critics, 
friendly  or  unfriendly. 

The  director  was  fortunate  in  being  able  to  surround  him- 
self with  a  corps  of  assistants — Americans  for  the  greater 
part,  but  including  Mexicans,  British,  Russians,  and  French — 
who  gave  him  efficient,  loyal,  and  patriotic  support.  He  owes 
much  to  them,  and  he  takes  pleasure  in  acknowledging  that 
obligation  with  deep  thanks.  The  always  constructive,  ap- 
preciated, and  helpful  interest  and  co-operation  of  the  American 
Ambassador,  Henry  Prather  Fletcher,  Esq.,  contributed  immeas- 
urably to  the  success  of  the  work  of  the  Committee  in  Mexico. 
Enthusiastic  and  invaluable  aid  was  also  rendered,  almost  with- 
out exception,  by  the  members  of  the  consul  corps  of  the  United 
States  in  Mexico.  Equally  important  service  was  given  by  vol- 
unteer correspondents  in  all  parts  of  the  Republic,  who  included 
not  only  Americans,  but  Mexican  citizens  and  nationals  of  sub- 
stantially every  country  on  earth  which  either  militantly  or  sen- 
timentally were  alined  on  the  side  of  justice  and  democracy 
against  despotism  and  ruthless  force. 

Two  dominant  facts  stand  out  clearly  as  a  result  of  the  ex- 
perience: One  is  that  much  was  accomplished  in  acquainting 
the  people  of  Mexico  with  the  power,  the  resources  in  national 
crises,  the  righteously  militant  spirit,  the  ideals,  the  under- 
lying altruism  of  their  neighbors  to  the  north.  The  obvious 
reply  to  this,  of  course,  is  that,  considering  the  close  geographical, 
commercial,  and  political  ties  of  the  two  countries,  the  Mexican 
people  should  have  known  all  this  before.  Which  is  quite  true. 
But  they  didn't.  It  had  never  been  the  business  of  any  one  to 
enlighten  them  systematically,  purposefully,  and  truthfully.  The 
other  fact  is  that  much  of  permanent  benefit  to  the  United  States 

307 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

and  Mexico  could  and  should  be  built  upon  the  foundation  laid 
by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 

Two  expressions  of  judgment  upon  the  work  of  the  Mexico 
Section  may  properly  be  included  in  this  report.  The  first  is 
in  the  form  of  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  American  Chamber  of 
Commerce  in  Mexico,  as  follows : 

"Resolved,  That  this  chamber  commends  in  the  highest  terms 
the  work  accomplished  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
in  Mexico  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Robert  H.  Murray,  it 
being  its  judgment  that  a  decided  change  for  the  better  in  the 
attitude  of  the  Mexican  people  has  been  brought  about  through 
its  efficient  work. 

"Resolved,  That  copies  of  the  resolution  be  sent  to  the  American 
Ambassador,  American  Consul-General  in  Mexico,  Mr.  George 
Creel,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in 
Washington,  and  to  Mr.  Robert  H.  Murray,  director  of  the 
Mexican  Section." 

The  second  is  an  editorial  published  in  La  Prensa,  a  daily 
newspaper  printed  in  the  city  of  Puebla,  on  December  24,  1918. 

"Varied  and  contradictory  were  the  notices  which  during  the 
terrible  European  War  were  circulated  by  the  foreign  information 
agencies  established  in  the  capital  of  the  Republic,  news  ema- 
nating from  the  battle-fields  according  to  the  events  occurring 
and  sent  to  Mexico  from  the  very  countries  at  war.  The  effect 
of  all  this  on  the  various  parties  is  past  history,  each  group 
wishing  success  for  the  side  they  sympathized  with.  The  time 
is  also  past  of  uneasy  expectation  on  the  part  of  neutral  nations, 
who  anxiously  followed  the  march  of  events  as  given  out  by  the 
respective  agencies,  and  who,  while  regretting  the  bloodshed 
and  destruction  of  war,  thought,  as  they  still  do,  uneasily  about 
the  future  of  the  world  in  respect  to  commercial  relations  and 
that  state  of  peace  which  was  to  form  a  league  of  nations. 

"Now  that  the  great  struggle  has  been  solved  by  an  armistice 
which  will  lead  to  the  basis  of  a  lasting  peace;  now  with  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  powerful  empire  of  the  autocratic  and  warlike 
German  Kaiser,  who  carried  destruction  and  extermination  into 
France  and  Belgium,  and  that  the  European  nations  breathe 
freely  again;  and  now,  also,  that  we  can  appreciate  present  events, 
as  deductions  from  the  past  great  battles,  we  see  clearly  that  the 
reports  of  some  foreign  agencies  were  not  true  as  to  the  course 
of  events  in  the  theaters  of  war,  since  we  remember  that  for  many 

308 


THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 

days  after  the  German  failure  and  the  abdication  of  a  conquered 
William  II,  the  pro-German  papers  and  agencies  continued  to 
deny  these  events  for  a  purpose  the  ultimate  end  of  which  would 
be  ridicule,  as  actually  happened  in  the  case  of  these  agencies. 

"  We  must  confess,  however,  because  facts  have  so  proved  this, 
that  the  agency  in  the  capital  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  of  the  United  States  government  in  charge  of  Mr. 
Robert  H.  Murray  never  diverged  from  the  truth  and  never 
tried  to  alter  the  telegrams  which  it  received,  whether  they 
were  favorable  or  adverse  to  the  nation  to  which  it  belonged. 
Its  reports  were  an  exact  statement  and  a  truthful  one  of  events, 
and  its  straightforward  conduct  must  be  valued  for  its  true 
worth,  if  we  remember  those  days  of  anxiety,  of  expectation, 
and  of  worry  as  to  the  results  of  the  world  struggle  which  had  no 
equal  in  the  centuries." 

"We  have  always  relied  upon  the  reports  issued  by  Mr.  Mur- 
ray's agency;  we  always  received  them  with  pleasure  and  entire 
confidence,  and  in  repeating  them  to  the  public  as  received  we 
invariably  did  so  with  the  conviction  of  truth-bearers  as  to  the 
terrible  events  happening  overseas  in  which  all  Europe  was 
involved. 

The  organization  of  the  Mexico  Section  was  arranged  by  sub- 
divisions, according  to  the  nature  of  the  work.  To  the  director 
fell  the  general  executive  functions.  Next  in  authority  came  the 
office  manager,  Mr.  Arthur  de  Lima,  followed  by  the  managers  of 
the  Editorial  Department,  the  Motion  Picture  Department,  the 
Still  Picture  Department,  the  Reading  Room  and  School,  and 
the  Mailing  Department.  Each  department  had  the  necessary 
corps  of  translators,  editors,  teachers,  clerks,  stenographers, 
messengers,  and  office-boys.  At  no  time  did  the  entire  force  of 
the  executive  office  exceed  40  persons.  Salaries  ranged  down- 
ward from  100  pesos  (substantially  $50  United  States  currency), 
which  was  the  highest  paid.  Our  salaries  as  a  rule  were  lower 
than  paid  for  similar  service  by  commercial  houses.  Preference 
in  employment,  so  far  as  possible,  was  given  to  American  citizens. 

Thanks  to  the  co-operation  of  Compub  in  New  York,  an 
excellent  and  carefully  selected  general  war-news  service  which 
ran  as  high  as  1,000  words  daily,  according  to  the  im- 
portance and  interest  of  the  occurrences  at  home  and  abroad, 
was  received  in  the  City  of  Mexico  by  cable,  via  Galveston. 
Translators  reduced  the  cables  to  Spanish.  Copies  were  trans- 
21  309 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

mitted  by  messenger,  or  land-telegraph  wires,  to  31  newspapers, 
9  in  the  capital  and  22  in  the  interior.  In  many  instances  the 
newspapers  gave  the  Committee's  cable  service  preference  in 
display  to  despatches  of  their  own  special  correspondents,  or 
those  of  regular  news  agencies.  At  frequent  intervals  the  news- 
papers in  the  capital  issued  extra  afternoon  editions  on  the  war 
news  furnished  them  by  the  Committee. 

Implicit  confidence  was  placed  upon  the  authenticity  of  our 
news — so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  several  newspapers  which  had 
been  printing  the  alleged  news  despatches  of  the  German  in- 
formation service  abandoned  them  and  instead  used  those  of 
the  Committee. 

It  was  notorious  that  the  German  news  service  was  fabricated 
in  Mexico  and  that  the  Germans  did  not  receive  a  word  of  cable 
news  from  without  the  Republic.  German  agents  stationed 
at  border  points,  notably  Nuevo  Laredo  and  Juarez,  rewrote 
cable  news  clipped  from  the  United  States  newspapers  and 
stolen  from  news  bureaus'  and  special  correspondents'  de- 
spatches sent  to  Mexican  newspapers,  distorted  them  to  suit 
the  purposes  of  the  Germans,  and  distributed  them  to  their 
dupes  and  subsidized  newspapers  as  "special"  cable  or  "wire- 
less" messages. 

Approximately  4,433,000  words  of  our  daily  cable  service  were 
distributed  to  the  Mexican  newspapers  during  the  eleven  months 
of  the  existence  of  the  Mexico  Section.  Mimeographed  copies 
of  the  daily  despatches  were  prepared  and  a  total  of  35,000  of 
them  were  distributed  in  the  City  of  Mexico  among  business 
firms,  which  displayed  them  in  show  windows,  to  the  foreign 
legations,  Mexican  government  officials,  and  individuals. 

Spanish  translations  of  special  articles  prepared  by  the 
Foreign  Press  Bureau  of  the  Committee  in  New  York,  and 
made  suitable  by  careful  editing  and  revision  for  the  Mexican 
field  and  the  limited  space  of  the  newspapers,  were  sent  daily 
to  the  65  newspapers  and  periodicals  on  our  list.  The  record 
shows  that  nearly  60  per  cent,  of  this  material  was  used.  On 
an  average  300  articles  monthly,  or  3,300  in  all,  were  dis- 
tributed. The  supply  was  not  equal  to  the  demand,  the  same 
being  true  of  cuts  and  matrices.  Of  the  latter  more  than  2,000 
were  used. 

To  the  newspapers  also  supplementary  daily  news  letters  (virtu- 
ally a  complete  telegraphic  service)  were  mailed,  the  total  being 

310 


THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 

178,000.  For  the  benefit  of  persons  outside  of  Mexico,  who  were 
interested  in  Mexican  affairs,  it  was  deemed  expedient,  and  within 
the  functions  of  the  Committee,  to  issue  a  weekly  news  bulletin 
in  English.  In  this  bulletin  appeared  only  matter  relating  to 
official  Mexican  government  activities  and  topics  connected 
with  reconstruction,  industry,  development,  etc.  This  was  sent 
by  mail  to  1,000  individuals  and  firms  in  the  United  States. 
Eighteen  editions  were  published  with  a  total  circulation  of 
20,000.  The  bulletin  met  with  appreciative  reception  and  com- 
ment from  hundreds  of  persons  among  those  who  received  it, 
including  members  of  the  United  States  Congress,  the  Librarian 
of  Congress,  and  other  officials  of  our  government  and  corpora- 
tions and  individuals  having  investment  interests  in  Mexico. 
Requests  for  this  bulletin  were  received  in  almost  every  mail 
and  from  parts  as  distant  as  England,  Canada,  and 'Japan. 
Franking  privileges  were  granted  by  the  Mexican  government 
for  both  the  news  letter  and  the  English  bulletin. 

Several  months  before  the  war  closed  it  was  found  advisable 
to  issue  a  weekly  publication  devoted  exclusively  to  the  interests 
and  war  activities  of  our  government.  This  bore  the  title, 
America  in  the  War.  It  consisted  of  sixteen  illustrated  pages, 
well  edited  and  attractively  arranged  and  printed.  Its  success 
was  instantaneous  and  it  developed  into  one  of  the  most  effective 
elements  of  our  educational  campaign.  Especially  was  it  valu- 
able in  inspiring  and  maintaining  interest  and  enthusiasm  among 
our  correspondents,  and  bringing  them  more  intimately  in  touch 
with  this  office.  Of  America  in  the  War  more  than  100,000  were 
circulated  in  weekly  editions  of  from  4,000  to  5,000  copies.  We 
also  bought  and  distributed  not  far  from  500,000  copies  of 
various  publications  containing  special  articles  in  support  of  the 
cause  of  the  United  States,  or  throwing  light  upon  the  friendly 
attitude  of  the  United  States  toward  the  Mexican  people  and 
government. 

Mr.  George  F.  Weeks  was  manager  of  the  Editorial  Department. 

With  respect  to  literature,  the  chief  difficulty  encountered  was 
not  to  find  channels  and  outlets  for  carrying  the  word  to  the 
people,  but  to  obtain  enough  material  with  which  to  satisfy  their 
demands.  We  distributed  a  total  of  985,000  pieces  of  literature 
of  all  descriptions — pamphlets,  posters,  folders,  post-cards,  not 
counting  between  50,000  and  75,000  Liberty  Loan  and  other  war 
posters  and  half-tone  window  hangers,  consigned  to  us  from 

311 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Washington  and  New  York.  Not  less  than  75  per  cent,  of  our 
correspondents  filed  repeat  orders  for  substantially  every  ship- 
ment of  literature  sent  them.  It  was  impossible  to  meet  all  of 
these  requisitions.  Double  the  amount  of  literature  could  have 
been  circulated  had  it  been  available.  Travelers  constantly 
brought  us  word  of  having  seen  in  remote  places  copies  of  the 
more  popular  of  the  pamphlets,  President  Wilson's  Fourteen 
Points,  his  address  to  the  Mexican  editors  who  visited  him  at  the 
White  House,  his  war  speeches  to  the  Congress,  a  condensation 
of  Brand  Whitlock's  story  of  Belgium,  the  circumstantial  ac- 
counts of  the  German  atrocities,  and  Prince  Lichnowsky's  pillory- 
ing of  his  government  for  precipitating  the  war,  which  had  been 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  and  read  and  reread  until  the  pages 
were  in  tatters. 

In  general,  the  literature  was  circulated  in  two  ways — by  the 
correspondents  in  their  respective  districts  and  by  mail  directly 
from  headquarters.  A  mailing-list  was  prepared  which  contained 
nearly  20,000  names  of  professional  men,  government  officials, 
school-teachers,  merchants,  clergymen,  labor  leaders,  farmers, 
and  others  in  the  middle  and  higher  walks  of  life.  Many  hun- 
dreds of  letters  were  received  from  the  persons  who  obtained 
literature,  expressing  their  thanks,  asking  for  more,  and  not 
seldom  inclosing  the  names  of  friends  to  whom  they  wished 
pamphlets  mailed.  So  far  as  possible,  pamphlets  were  prepared 
which  contained  matter  calculated  to  appeal  especially  to  sundry 
classes,  such  as  working-men,  the  clergy,  educators,  etc.  When- 
ever the  text  permitted,  they  were  embellished  with  illustrations. 

Posters  were  effective  and  we  used  them  freely.  Care  was 
taken  to  phrase  them  tersely  and  simply. 

No  literature  was  issued  anonymously.  We  officially  stood 
sponsor  for  everything.  Each  piece  of  printed  matter  bore  the 
imprint  of  the  Committee  and  the  slogan  of  the  office:  "The  War: 
Remember,  The  United  States  Cannot  Lose!"  Constant  and 
indefatigable  reiteration  of  this  phrase  eventually  elevated  it 
to  the  dignity  of  an  impressive  and  confident  prophecy.  It  was 
effective — so  much  so  that  for  a  time  it  enjoyed  ephemeral  life 
as  a  popular  catchword  in  the  streets  and  on  the  stage  of  the 
capital.  In  their  heyday  the  Germans  made  it  the  subject  of 
sarcastic  jest. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  among  a  population  in  which 
illiterates  unfortunately  predominate  motion  pictures  possess 

312 


THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 

an  enormous  influence  as  a  medium  for  conveying  impressions 
and  creating  sentiment  where  the  printed  word  is  without  value. 
In  Mexico  the  motion-picture  films  proved  to  be  one  of  our 
greatest  assets.  The  pictures  "got  over"  and  won  converts 
to  our  cause  where  other  mediums  would  inevitably  have  failed. 
Our  motion-picture  campaign  was  successful.  But  at  first  it 
was  uphill  work.  German  agents  saw  to  it  diligently  in  the 
beginning  that  displays  of  war  pictures  of  American  soldiers, 
in  the  camp  or  in  the  field,  of  our  preparations  in  every  branch 
of  our  mobilizations  of  the  industrial,  military,  naval,  and  social 
forces  which  the  government  brought  to  bear  in  the  conflict, 
met  with  an  uproariously  hostile  reception  from  the  audiences 
to  which  they  were  shown.  Frequently  the  police  were  sum- 
moned to  restore  order.  Complaints  to  the  authorities  were  made 
by  our  opponents  that  our  pictures  were  inciting  riots  and  that 
the  screening  of  portraits  of  the  President,  General  Pershing,  and 
other  notable  personages,  and  of  the  American  flag  floating  at 
the  forefront  of  marching  troops  or  at  the  masthead  of  naval 
units,  constituted  an  insult  to  the  Mexican  government  and 
people  and  were  in  violation  of  Mexico's  neutrality.  On  various 
occasions  our  displays  were  halted  until  the  local  authorities 
could  be  convinced  by  tactful  explanations,  and  by  private  ex- 
hibitions given  for  their  benefit,  that  the  pictures  might  properly 
be  allowed  on  view. 

Gradually  the  demonstrations  lessened,  and  finally  ceased. 
The  pictures  won  their  way.  The  attitude  of  the  public  altered 
until  after  a  few  months  we  were  repaid  for  our  persistence  by 
reports  from  our  agents  telling  of  cheering  and  applause  in 
place  of  hoots  and  yells,  and  even  of  vivas  being  given  for  the 
flag,  the  President,  American  war- vessels,  and  American  soldiers. 

American  industrial  films,  with  which  we  were  freely  supplied, 
aroused  a  disappointing  volume  of  interest.  The  public  appetite 
would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  tame  than  actual  war  pictures 
or  commercial  films  telling  stories  to  Germany's  discredit.  Meas- 
urably successful  exhibitions  of  the  industrial  films  were  given 
in  the  open  air,  in  schools,  and  before  selected  audiences. 

On  the  circuit  organized  by  the  Motion  Picture  Department, 
of  which  Dr.  M.  L.  Espinosa  was  in  charge,  our  films  were  shown 
in  68  houses  throughout  the  Republic,  and  to  audiences  which, 
according  to  our  carefully  kept  reports,  aggregated  4,500,000 
persons. 

313 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Effective  use  was  made  of  the  still  pictures  sent  us  from 
Washington.  Boards  were  provided  which  had  space  for  twelve 
pictures,  each  with  an  explanatory  caption  in  Spanish.  The 
boards  were  attractively  made  and  painted  and  bore  in  Spanish, 
"The  Committee  on  Public  Information,  Mexico  Section,"  in 
addition  to  printed  cards,  which  were  frequently  changed,  with 
educational  references  to  what  the  United  States  was  doing  in  the 
war.  These  pictures  were  changed  weekly.  The  boards  were 
exhibited  in  shop-windows  and  other  conspicuous  places.  They 
amply  supplemented  the  appeal  of  the  motion  pictures,  and, 
probably  to  the  same  extent  as  the  latter,  impressed  through  the 
medium  of  the  eye  the  might  and  resources  which  the  United 
States  arrayed  against  German  military  despotism.  Altogether 
there  were  displayed  in  this  manner  116,256  separate  still  pictures. 
Mr.  L.  Kuhn  was  manager  of  the  Still  Picture  Department. 

Two  experiments  which  were  approached  with  a  degree  of 
caution  and  doubt — our  Reading  Room  and  School  in  the  City 
of  Mexico — proved  to  be  among  the  most  successful  and  effective 
branches  of  the  work.  The  Reading  Room  was  designed  as  a 
popular  center  for  general  dissemination  of  information.  It 
became  all  of  that  and  more.  Quarters  were  obtained  in  a  large 
store-room  on  one  of  the  most  frequented  thoroughfares  in  the 
business  heart  of  the  capital.  Appropriate  equipment  of  tables, 
chairs,  etc.,  was  provided.  With  flags,  bunting,  pictures  of 
American  and  Allied  notables,  posters,  etc.,  the  room  was  at- 
tractively decorated.  Files  were  kept  of  the  Mexican  news- 
papers and  periodicals  and  also  of  the  principal  American  news- 
papers and  illustrated  magazines. 

An  abundant  supply  of  Spanish-printed  literature,  including 
all  of  the  publications  of  the  Committee,  was  available,  both  for 
reading  and  on  the  premises  and  for  distribution. 

Our  daily  cable  news  was  displayed  on  bulletin-boards,  inside 
and  outside  of  the  Reading  Room.  Free  toilet  conveniences, 
a  dressing-room  for  women,  telephone,  and  writing-paper  were 
included  in  the  equipment.  From  the  beginning  the  Reading 
Room  was  patronized  to  capacity  day  and  evening.  The  visitors 
came  from  all  ranks  of  citizens,  artisans,  laborers,  shopkeepers, 
professional  men,  women,  flocking  there  for  enlightenment  as 
to  the  issues  and  progress  of  the  war,  and  to  exchange  views  on 
the  situation.  Spirited  discussions  took  place.  Several  times 
weekly  lectures  or  talks  upon  the  war,  the  United  States,  Mexican 

314 


THE  WORK  IN  MEXICO 

affairs,  and  kindred  topics  were  given.  Occasionally  the  discus- 
sions were  illustrated  by  motion  pictures.  During  the  seven 
and  a  half  months  in  which  the  Reading  Room  was  open  the 
number  of  visitors,  by  actual  count,  totaled  106,868. 

Encouraged  by  the  reception  given  the  Reading  Room,  it 
was  determined  to  take  advantage  of  the  wide-spread  demand, 
indicated  frequently  among  the  visitors,  to  open  a  school  for 
instruction  in  English.  A  shop  adjoining  the  Reading  Room 
was  rented  and  furnished  with  desks,  benches,  and  blackboards. 

From  the  initial  session,  the  capacity  of  the  school  was  taxed. 
English  was  the  most  eagerly  sought-for  study,  but  French, 
bookkeeping,  and  stenography  classes  were  well  patronized. 
A  corps  of  teachers,  volunteers  or  paid,  labored  diligently,  in- 
telligently, and  successfully.  Instruction  was  free  and  many 
pupils  were  drawn  from  institutions  where  tuition  fees  were 
charged  because,  as  they  said,  more  practical  and  effective 
teaching  was  given  in  the  Committee's  school  than  in  the  others. 
The  zest  of  the  pupils  to  acquire  English  was  amazing.  Their 
curiosity  regarding  the  government  of  the  United  States,  its 
history,  art,  literature,  and  the  customs  of  our  people,  was 
evinced  to  a  degree  which  the  management,  owing  to  the  limita- 
tions imposed  upon  it,  found  difficult  to  satisfy. 

In  age  the  students  ranged  from  boys  and  girls  of  sixteen  to 
elderly  men  and  women.  The  working-classes  predominated. 
With  few  exceptions  those  who  entered  studied  hard  and  per- 
sistently. Uninterested  pupils  were  weeded  out,  and  their  places 
given  to  the  more  ambitious  and  serious  applicants.  When  the 
school  closed  1,127  individual  pupils  were  registered.  The  total 
school-day  attendance  was  nearly  30,000.  Sixteen  English  classes 
were  in  operation  with  an  average  of  65  pupils,  two  French  classes 
with  an  average  of  103  pupils,  and  four  special  English  and 
two  special  classes  with  an  average  of  12  pupils. 

No  one  who  watched  the  operation  of  the  school  and  ap- 
preciated by  observation  the  zest  of  the  students  to  learn  Eng- 
lish, and  the  sympathetic  mental  trend  toward  the  United 
States  inspired  among  them  in  the  process,  could  fail  to  regret 
that  the  classes  might  not  have  been  continued  permanently, 
and  that  some  arrangement  might  not  be  made  for  extending 
on  a  larger  scale  throughout  Mexico  what  the  Committee  ac- 
complished in  an  experimental  way  in  the  capital. 

Through  the  efforts  of  the  section  six  reading-rooms   were 

315 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

established  and  successfully  conducted  outside  of  the  capital, 
in  Guadalajara,  Vera  Cruz,  Aguascalientes,  Leon,  Durango,  and 
Irapuato. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Frisbie  was  manager  of  the  Reading  Room  and  School. 

A  trial  shipment  of  50,000  celluloid  buttons  bearing  the  flags 
of  the  United  States  and  of  the  Spanish-American  Republics 
which  entered  the  war  against  Germany,  and  the  legend,  "Allied 
in  Honor,"  proved  so  popular  that  100,000  more  were  obtained. 
The  end  of  the  war  rendered  it  unnecessary  to  continue  this 
distribution. 

The  Liberty  Truth  Committee,  composed  of  representatives 
of  the  American  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Mexico,  and  operating 
in  close  co-operation  with  the  section,  aided  vitally  in  our  news- 
paper campaign  by  obtaining  advertising  appropriations  from 
American  business  concerns  for  the  legitimate  encouragement  of 
newspapers  and  other  publications  which  supported  our  cause. 

The  Advertising  Section  bought  and  used  freely  advertising 
space,  plainly  marked  as  such,  in  newspapers  and  magazines. 
Its  appropriation  for  this  purpose  was  inadequate,  but  profitable 
reaction  resulted  from  what  expenditures  it  was  able  to  make. 
Especially  effective  was  a  series  of  full-page  and  half-page  ad- 
vertisements announcing  the  heavy  oversubscription  to  the 
Fourth  Liberty  Loan  which  were  printed  to  counteract  the  in- 
tensive and  desperate  efforts  of  the  Germans  to  delude  the 
Mexican  public  into  believing  that  the  American  people  had 
repudiated  the  war  through  failure  to  subscribe  the  full  amount 
of  the  loan. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  sparsely  settled  and  remote  points, 
operations  extended  through  the  entire  Republic.  Represent- 
atives of  the  Committee  were  stationed  in  every  city  and  im- 
portant town  in  the  country.  When  the  armistice — the  date 
upon  which  the  work  of  the  section  was  at  flood-tide — was 
signed  on  November  11,  1918,  the  Mexico  Section  had  222 
individual  correspondents,  who  covered  165  points. 


VIII 

THE  WORK   IN  SWITZERLAND 

QWITZERLAND  was  a  notable  victory  and  full  credit 
|^  must  go  to  Mrs.  Norman  de  R.  Whitehouse,  in  charge 
from  bitter  first  to  happy  last.  It  was  a  new  thing  to  place 
a  woman  in  such  a  position  of  absolutely  international 
importance,  but  behind  her  was  a  record  of  achieve- 
ment that  made  the  appointment  wise  and  necessary. 
Equal  suffrage  in  New  York  after  its  defeat  in  1915  was 
apparently  "dead,"  but  Mrs.  Whitehouse  accepted  the 
office  of  state  chairman,  galvanized  the  movement,  gave 
it  new  force  and  enthusiasm,  and  drove  it  through 
to  victory.  It  proved  rare  understanding  of  people  and 
their  prejudices;  it  meant  technical  knowledge  of  every 
medium  of  appeal,  and,  above  all,  it  showed  the  translation 
of  devotion  into  terms  of  energy  and  actual  drudgery. 
Mrs.  Whitehouse's  job  was  to  put  America  across  in  Swit- 
zerland just  as  she  had  put  equal  suffrage  across  in  New 
York. 

We  knew  that  she  was  doing  well,  by  our  study  of  the 
Swiss  papers,  and  we  knew  that  she  was  winning  when  the 
German  press  commenced  to  attack  her  and  the  work 
with  hysterical  bitterness;  but  it  remained  for  the  six 
Swiss  journalists,  arriving  in  the  United  States  as  our 
guests,  to  tell  the  whole  story  of  accomplishment. 

"She  has  changed  the  whole  attitude  of  Switzerland," 
they  joined  in  declaring.  "It  was  never  the  case  that  we 

317 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

were  pro-Germans,  but  rather  that  we  did  not  know 
America.  This  was  the  knowledge  that  she  gave  us, 
openly,  honestly,  and  with  rare  intelligence,  overcoming 
suspicions,  climbing  over  a  hundred  and  one  obstacles, 
and  reaching  the  heart  and  mind  of  Switzerland  in  a  manner 
never  approached  by  the  agent  of  any  other  country." 

With  the  exception  of  those  owned  by  Germans,  there 
was  not  a  paper  that  she  failed  to  influence  fairly;  her 
ultimate  control  of  the  motion-picture  situation  was  com- 
plete; her  use  of  speakers  and  literature  was  without  an 
ounce  of  waste,  and  effective  to  the  last  degree  was  her 
inspiration  of  the  German  radical  group  in  Switzerland, 
a  band  of  enthusiasts  who  preached  the  gospel  of  democ- 
racy in  the  days  when  the  world  did  not  dream  that  the 
Hohenzollern  could  be  divorced  from  his  asserted  union 
with  divinity. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  which  Mrs.  Whitehouse  was  as- 
signed. Switzerland,  right  under  the  German  fist,  lived 
in  fear  of  meeting  Belgium's  fate,  and  there  was  a  further 
compelling  consideration  in  that  the  Swiss  were  dependent 
upon  German  coal  for  their  railroads  and  industries.  In 
addition  to  all  this,  German  propaganda  had  been  de- 
veloping in  Switzerland  for  thirty  or  forty  years  and  was 
conducted  by  a  corps  of  trained  experts.  It  was  com- 
mon gossip  that  there  were  between  eight  and  twelve 
hundred  German  diplomatic  representatives,  a  large 
majority  of  whom  had  no  other  function  than  to  praise 
Germany  and  to  attack  her  enemies.  A  fundamental 
feature  of  the  German  policy  was  to  buy  or  subsidize 
Swiss  newspapers  and  news  agencies  and  leave  them  under 
the  Swiss  directors.  They  also  had  a  system  of  paying  the 
smaller  papers  throughout  Switzerland  for  every  pub- 
lished paragraph  or  item  sent  out  by  German-owned 
news  agencies. 

The  majority  of  the  motion-picture  houses  in  German- 
sis 


THE  WORK  IN  SWITZERLAND 

Switzerland  were  either  owned  outright  or  controlled  by 
the  German  government.  The  same  conditions  applied 
to  theaters,  opera-houses,  commercial  establishments, 
and  even  to  the  news-stands.  Aside  from  these  controls, 
German  agents  had  a  very  complete,  accurate,  and  efficient 
system  of  circulation,  and  as  a  result  Switzerland  was  inun- 
dated not  only  by  pro-German  propaganda,  but  with 
anti-Ally  and  especially  anti-American  propaganda. 

"On  my  arrival,"  to  quote  from  the  report  of  Mrs. 
Whitehouse,  "I  found  that  the  Germans  were  maintaining 
that  America  could  not  raise  an  army  in  spite  of  her  draft 
law,  that  she  could  not  train  it,  could  not  arm  it,  could 
not  transport  it  to  Europe,  and  that  if  she  did,  the  untrained 
soldiers  could  not  face  the  German  heroes.  They  tried 
to  persuade  the  Swiss  that  America  was  going  to  invade 
Switzerland  in  order  to  attack  Germany.  They  agitated 
a  great  deal  about  a  secret  treaty,  which  was  supposed  to 
exist  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  regard 
to  Japan.  They  tried  to  show  our  weakness  at  home  by 
reporting  that  our  difficulties  on  the  Mexican  border 
amounted  to  our  being  at  war  with  that  country  and  they 
insinuated  that  we  meant  to  annex  it.  They  tried  to  create 
difficulties  between  the  Allies  by  articles  showing  that  the 
Americans  had  invaded  France  to  the  latter  country's 
disadvantage.  They  harped  upon  our  supposed  effort 
to  steal  Great  Britain's  place  as  the  leader  of  commerce 
on  the  seas,  and  particularly  did  they  exaggerate  every 
delay  in  grain  shipments  from  America,  charging  a  Yankee 
effort  to  *  starve  poor  Switzerland."1 

Nowhere  was  there  a  single  agency  interested  in  present- 
ing America's  position  or  the  American  effort.  The  French 
and  the  English  were  concerned  only  with  their  own  per- 
suasions, and  the  news  services  sent  out  by  Reuters  and 
Havas  contained  few  American  items.  The  importance 
of  Switzerland  to  us  as  a  news  center  was  that  it  was  the 

319 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

only  neutral  nation  whose  newspapers  are  printed  in  the 
German  language,  and  all  of  them  had  a  free  and  large 
circulation  in  Austria  and  Germany.  They  were  not  only 
read  by  Germans,  but  the  German  press  quoted  from  them 
freely,  the  liberal  papers  especially  following  everything 
that  appeared  in  the  Swiss  papers.  Getting  our  news 
into  the  German-Swiss  press  was  the  best  way  of  getting 
it  into  Germany.  It  was  also  the  case  that  Switzerland 
was  filled  with  Germans  and  Austrians  seeking  escape 
from  the  privations  of  war,  and  these  were  naturally  in- 
fluenced by  the  Swiss  papers  that  they  read.  In  addition 
a  great  number  of  Germans  came  back  and  forth  into 
Switzerland  very  freely  and  in  large  numbers,  forming 
a  virtual  messenger  service.  It  is  therefore  easy  to  be 
seen  that  Switzerland  was  a  "first-line  trench"  in  our 
drive  against  the  morale  of  the  German  people. 

It  can  be  said  truthfully  that  never  at  any  time  did  Mrs. 
Whitehouse  receive  the  assistance  to  which  she  was  en- 
titled. In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Stovall,  the  American  Min- 
ister, while  a  very  delightful  gentleman,  was  a  Southerner 
with  all  the  traditions  of  the  South,  and  he  had  the  very 
deep  conviction  that  "woman's  place  is  the  home."  In 
the  second  place,  just  before  Mrs.  Whitehouse  sailed,  The 
New  York  Times  printed  a  story  to  the  effect  that  she 
was  proceeding  to  Switzerland  as  a  representative  of  the 
President  and  giving  the  idea  that  her  mission  was  diplo- 
matic in  its  nature.  This  wretched  canard,  copied  in  the 
Swiss  press,  caused  certain  unpleasant  reactions  in  all 
circles,  and  shortly  before  Mrs.  Whitehouse's  arrival  an 
announcement  was  made  to  the  effect  that  her  work 
in  Switzerland  would  be  concerned  with  "women  and 
children." 

These  misunderstandings  were  straightened  out  event- 
ually by  the  frank  statement  of  purpose  that  was  our 
invariable  policy.  The  President  defined  Mrs.  White- 


THE   WORK  IN  SWITZERLAND 

house's  functions  and  the  Swiss  government,  when  it 
understood  the  true  nature  of  her  errand,  gave  full  approval 
and  all  assistance.  Even  then,  however,  obstacles  arose 
to  embarrass  and  impede.  As  the  real  work  had  to  be 
done  in  German-Switzerland,  Mrs.  Whitehouse's  needs 
were  translators  and  assistants  who  knew  the  German 
language  in  all  of  its  dialects  and  idioms,  and  quite  naturally 
this  need  could  only  be  met  by  men  and  women  of  German 
birth.  We  searched  the  country  over  for  this  type  of 
American  and  succeeded  in  finding  several  who  possessed 
the  necessary  qualifications  as  well  as  having  records  for 
loyalty  that  were  above  question.  No  passports  could  be 
issued  without  the  approval  of  Military  Intelligence,  and 
the  officers  of  this  division  refused  to  let  our  selections  go 
to  Switzerland  until  after  weeks  and  weeks  of  tedious 
investigation.  Even  when  every  test  had  been  met,  and 
when  permission  to  sail  had  been  granted,  the  French 
came  forward  with  objections,  and  additional  months  had 
to  be  taken  to  convince  them  that  the  people  we  were 
sending  were  loyal  Americans  and  not  spies.  All  the  while 
Mrs.  Whitehouse  was  without  this  very  necessary  assist- 
ance, so  that  a  great  burden  of  unnecessary  drudgery  fell 
upon  her  own  shoulders. 

Unable  to  secure  proper  offices,  lacking  an  office  force, 
and  compelled  to  work  under  every  inconvenience,  Mrs. 
Whitehouse  drove  ahead  with  unflagging  energy.  Borrow- 
ing Mr.  George  B.  Fife  from  the  Red  Cross,  her  first  activity 
was  the  translation  and  distribution  of  the  daily  cable 
and  wireless  service  received  from  her  office  in  Paris. 
To  quote  from  her  report: 

Our  service  arrived  early  in  the  morning.  It  was  rewritten 
in  simple  English,  translated  into  French  and  German  and  de- 
livered to  the  Agence  Tel6graphique  Suisse,  the  official  Swiss 
news  agency,  which  distributed  it  for  us  to  the  Swiss  press.  This 
agency  was  reported  to  be  unsympathetic,  and  whether  because 

321 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

of  this  fact  or  not,  we  found  that  mistakes  were  made  in  our 
figures  and  that  sometimes  important  items  were  overlooked. 
This  compelled  us  to  take  pains  in  confirming  and  reconfirming 
by  telephone  and  by  letter  all  figures,  and  in  order  to  avoid 
any  oversight  in  distributing  important  news  items  we  ourselves 
would  telegraph  or  telephone  such  items  directly  to  the  papers. 

In  August  I  was  able  to  report  to  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  in  Washington  that  an  estimated  minimum  of 
2,000  paragraphs  of  our  service  was  being  published  weekly  in 
the  Swiss  papers.  All  of  the  President's  speeches  and  notes  were 
translated  in  full  and  sent  both  in  English  and  German,  or  Eng- 
lish and  French,  to  every  newspaper.  Previously  only  extracts 
had  been  carried  by  Havas  and  Reuter.  In  addition,  the  News 
Service  Department  sent  weekly  bulletins  directly  to  the  edi- 
torial offices  of  all  the  papers,  reviewing  the  American  events 
of  greatest  interest  of  the  past  week,  and  commenting  upon  their 
significance. 

The  news  items  from  our  service  aroused  great  public  interest 
and  discussion,  and  as  a  result  both  Havas  and  Reuter  com- 
menced to  include  a  larger  amount  of  American  news  in  their 
daily  releases.  We  believe  that  to  this  fact  is  due  the  enormously 
increased  use  of  the  Havas  and  Reuter  items  on  American  events. 

From  the  Foreign  Press  Bureau  in  New  York  we  received 
special  articles  and  feature  stories  through  the  diplomatic  pouch. 
These  articles  we  found  of  great  value,  but  they  presented 
enormous  difficulties.  They  had  to  be  rewritten  and  edited  from 
the  Swiss  point  of  view  and  connected  with  events  in  Switzer- 
land, before  they  were  translated.  Until  the  armistice  negotia- 
tions began  to  absorb  public  attention,  we  placed  almost  100 
per  cent,  of  these  articles  which  we  succeeded  in  having  trans- 
lated. Extracts  from  the  Foreign  Press  Bureau  were  useful  as 
news  items  also,  although  they  were  many  weeks  old  when  we 
received  them. 

We  also  sent  a  biweekly  inform  ationservice  to  the  editorial 
staffs  of  the  newspapers,  including  in  this  service  such  material 
as  Secretary  Baker's  military  report,  the  Shipping  Board's  report, 
navy  reports  on  naval  constructions,  etc.  Many  extracts  from 
them  were  printed  in  the  press  and  they  furnished  good  material 
for  editorials. 

The  Mittel  Presse,  an  agency  which  served  a  collection  of 
small  German-Swiss  papers,  formerly  considered  pro-German, 


THE  WORK  IN  SWITZERLAND 

accepted  a  service  of  special  articles  from  us  three  times  a 
week 

A  number  of  pamphlets  were  issued  and  circulated,  including 
the  Bolshevik  revelations,  President  Wilson's  speeches,  and  one 
on  America's  achievement  in  the  first  year  of  the  war.  These 
pamphlets  were  printed  in  comparatively  small  numbers — about 
10,000  in  the  first  edition.  They  were  distributed  free  to  men 
of  prominence  and  influence  and  put  on  sale  at  bookshops  and 
news-stands  at  a  nominal  price. 

It  was  in  connection  with  pamphlet  distribution  that 
Mrs.  Whitehouse  gave  most  convincing  proof  of  her  execu- 
tive intelligence.  It  had  been  the  habit  of  the  Allied 
propagandists  to  print  pamphlets  in  huge  quantities,  giving 
them  circulation  without  reference  to  readers.  Mrs. 
Whitehouse  made  a  survey  of  Switzerland  that  established 
the  number  of  Swiss  that  spoke  German,  the  number  that 
spoke  French,  the  number  of  men  and  women  who  could 
read,  and  the  number  of  illiterates.  As  a  consequence 
she  issued  ten  thousand  pamphlets  instead  of  a  million 
and  had  a  mark  for  every  one  of  her  "paper  bullets." 

From  a  score  of  sources  we  learned  of  her  tirelessness 
and  courage.  If  she  could  not  get  a  passenger-train  she 
traveled  on  a  freight.  She  made  personal  trips  to  every 
city  and  town,  visited  every  editor,  established  relations 
with  all  the  business  and  social  organizations,  and  not  the 
least  of  her  achievements  was  the  manner  in  which  she 
enlisted  the  services  of  the  university  professors.  William 
E.  Rappard  of  the  University  of  Geneva,  one  of  Switzer- 
land's most  distinguished  scholars,  gave  wonderful  assist- 
ance, and  so  unselfish  and  unremitting  were  his  efforts 
that  it  might  almost  be  said  that  he  became  a  part  of  the 
organization  itself. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  President  Wilson  sent  a 
message  direct  to  the  people  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Empire,  a  great  word  of  encouragement  that  had  the  force 
of  a  military  offensive.  It  was  most  important  that  the 

323 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

President's  address  should  reach  the  people  for  whom  it 
was  intended,  and  without  thought  of  danger  or  privation 
Mrs.  Whitehouse  herself  crossed  the  frontier  and  placed 
the  message  in  the  proper  channels  for  thorough  circulation. 

In  the  matter  of  motion  pictures,  the  Allied  propagand- 
dists  recognized  that  this  was  an  important  field  of  propa- 
ganda and  appointed  an  inter- Allied  committee  to  work 
out  a  plan  of  co-operation.  The  mere  report  of  joint 
action  caused  one  of  the  German-owned  companies  to 
offer  for  sale  their  large  chain  of  houses,  but  in  spite  of 
this  indication  of  power,  the  Allies  could  agree  to  no  plans 
except  that  Allied  film  of  commercial  value  should  not 
be  sold  except  on  condition  that  a  certain  per  cent,  of  news 
or  propaganda  film  should  be  shown  with  it.  In  the  mean 
time  the  British  and  French  disputed  that  the  Committee's 
propaganda  films  should  be  shown  with  American  films 
of  commercial  value.  The  British  claimed  that  all  Amer- 
ican commercial  films  were  British  property  because  the 
accepted  business  method  was  to  sell  American  films  to 
British  firms,  who  reproduced  them  in  England  on  British 
material.  The  French  claimed  they  were  French  property 
because  the  method  of  renting  them  in  Europe  was  through 
French  firms  with  right  for  other  countries. 

Mrs.  Whitehouse  cut  this  Gordian  knot  by  asking  the 
Committee  in  Washington  to  obtain  for  her  the  exclusive 
rights  for  the  distribution  of  all  American  commercial  film 
in  Switzerland,  and  not  only  did  we  do  this,  but  we  sent 
such  film  directly  to  her  in  the  diplomatic  pouch.  It  was 
also  the  case  that  the  Paris  office  sent  her  battle-front  film 
direct  each  week.  Without  further  reference  to  the 
French  and  English,  she  prepared  her  own  programs, 
combining  the  Committee's  pictures  with  comedies  and 
drama  films,  and  gave  them  a  circulation  that  soon  covered 
the  entire  field. 

With  respect  to  photographs,  Mrs.  Whitehouse  filled 

324 


THE  WORK  IN  SWITZERLAND 

the  shop-windows  in  Switzerland  with  them,  and  also 
arranged  a  system  of  glass  display  cases  in  which  the  pict- 
ures were  changed  weekly.  In  one  month  alone  more 
than  2,000  enlarged  photographs  of  127  different  kinds 
were  on  exhibition  in  77  places,  in  33  towns. 

It  was  Mrs.  Whitehouse  who  suggested  that  the  Com- 
mittee, in  the  name  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  should  invite  the  representative  editors  of  Switzer- 
land for  the  inspection  of  our  war  effort,  and  proof  of  the 
standing  that  she  had  gained  in  Switzerland  was  furnished 
by  the  fact  that  the  delegation  was  virtually  selected  by 
the  government  itself  and  was  almost  official  in  its  char- 
acter. The  tour  of  these  six  journalists  was  the  finishing 
blow  in  our  fight  for  the  public  opinion  of  Switzerland. 
Not  only  was  it  the  case  that  each  man  sent  back  daily 
cables  that  increased  in  enthusiasm  regularly,  but  upon 
their  return  they  told  the  story  of  our  resolve  and  invinci- 
bility in  such  direct  phrases  as  to  convince  Switzerland 
that  Germany  was  beaten  and  that  the  free  peoples  of 
the  world  had  nothing  to  fear  from  our  victory,  but  could 
look  to  it  with  hope  and  rejoicing. 

There  is  no  finer  comment  upon  the  work  of  Mrs. 
Whitehouse  than  the  following  editorial,  written  by  the 
Swiss  Middle  Press  News  Bureau,  anti-American  in  the 
beginning,  and  printed. in  scores  of  papers  that  had  been 
pro-German  at  the  start: 

It  is  stated  that  the  American  Committee  on  Public  Infor- 
mation at  Berne  will  close  its  bureau  and  discontinue  its  news 
service  on  February  22d. 

This  announcement  cannot  be  passed  over  in  silence.  The 
American  press  service  in  Switzerland,  as  no  other  bureau  which 
supplied  the  Swiss  press  with  news  and  articles,  has  from  the 
start  taken  a  position  which  placed  it  far  above  the  usual  stand- 
ard of  propaganda.  In  this  respect  it  formed  a  counterpart  to 
the  Swiss  Mission,  which  not  long  ago  went  to  America  and  was 
accompanied  by  Minister  Sulzer,  because  it  made  it  its  principal 
22  325 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

object  to  explain  to  the  Swiss  the  true  conditions  and  intentions 
of  America  and  to  bring  the  two  republics  to  a  better  mutual 
understanding.  Just  because  of  this  high  interpretation  of  its 
task,  it  has  fulfilled  its  purpose.  As  far  as  its  activity  concerned 
the  war,  it  was  anything  but  an  imperialistic  war  agitation;  rather 
has  it  carried  on  only  propaganda  for  a  just  and  lasting  peace 
and  thereby  gained  the  full  appreciation  of  Switzerland.  There 
is  probably  no  state  and  no  statesman  so  highly  esteemed  and 
regarded  with  so  much  confidence  in  Switzerland  as  the  North 
American  Union  and  its  President  Wilson. 

The  following  editorial  from  the  Berner  Tageblatt  is  also 
significant : 

As  we  are  informed,  the  American  "Committee  of  Public 
Information"  in  Berne  will  close  its  offices  and  discontinue  its 
news  service.  On  this  occasion,  the  recognition  is  due  to  this 
Press  Bureau  that  its  practice  has  been  to  give  real  information 
and  not  one-sided  colored  propaganda,  as  has  been  conspicuously 
the  custom  of  similar  foreign  enterprises. 

If  I  have  seemed  to  deal  too  briefly  with  the  Swiss 
achievement,  it  is  because  Mrs.  Whitehouse  has  written 
her  own  story.  A  Year  As  a  Government  Agent,  published 
by  Harper  &  Brothers,  sets  down  her  experiences  in  careful 
and  fascinating  detail. 


IX 

THE  WOKK   IN  HOLLAND 

HOLLAND  must  be  regarded  as  having  offered  the 
main  avenue  of  attack  upon  the  public  opinion  of 
the  German  masses.  It  was  not,  like  other  neutral  coun- 
tries adjacent  to  German  territory,  the  scene  of  interna- 
tional conferences  or  sinister  outside  influences,  but 
presented  a  clear  and  homogeneous  field  for  the  dissemi- 
nation of  information.  The  information  provided  was 
therefore  designed  to  gain  direct  circulation  in  Holland, 
but  the  content  was  always  chosen  with  regard  to  the 
ultimate  effect  on  the  German  masses. 

Henry  Suydam,  European  correspondent  for  The  Brook- 
lyn Eagle,  was  the  man  decided  upon  to  serve  as  commis- 
sioner for  Holland.  It  was  not  only  that  his  work  stood 
out  by  reason  of  its  strength,  breadth,  and  analytical 
keenness,  but  personal  reports  placed  even  larger  emphasis 
upon  his  personality.  It  was  a  difficult  post  to  which 
Mr.  Suydam  was  called,  and  it  is  a  deserved  tribute  to 
say  that  he  carried  the  work  forward  to  success  without 
a  single  blunder.  The  following  excerpts  from  his  report 
will  show  the  manner  in  which  the  Dutch  situation  was 
handled: 

The  general  problem  confronting  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  in  the  Netherlands  was  twofold:  (1)  To  enlighten 
Dutch  public  opinion  with  regard  to  the  fairness  and  detachment 
of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  to  provide  an  adequate  picture  of 
American  war  effort  as  a  factor  in  international  affairs,  and 

327 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

(2)  to  use  Holland,  as  far  as  that  might  legitimately  be  done 
without  committing  a  belligerent  act,  as  a  means  of  approach 
to  all  classes  of  Germans,  who  were  to  be  convinced  that  the 
United  States  was  strong  and  would  use  that  strength  for  the 
common  good.  The  effort  was  to  obtain  facts  emphasizing  these 
points,  and  to  present  these  facts  to  Dutch  and  Germans  with 
due  force  and  precision. 

When  my  work  in  Holland  began,  the  Dutch  press — through 
which  the  German  press  maintained  a  large  degree  of  contact  with 
the  United  States — was  without  adequate  American  news. 
American  editorial  comment  appeared  in  the  Dutch  press  when 
it  furthered  the  peculiar  interests  of  some  foreign  news  agency, 
and  not  often  otherwise.  American  news  was  frequently  selected 
by  these  agencies  for  interested  reasons.  Reuter  and  Havas 
were,  in  the  opinion  of  Dutch  editors,  nothing  more  than  the 
mouthpieces  of  the  British  and  French  governments,  and  as  such, 
little  better,  in  effect,  than  the  German  Wolff  Bureau.  It  was 
perhaps  unavoidable,  but  none  the  less  unfortunate,  that  many 
of  the  earlier  of  President  Wilson's  speeches  reached  the  Germans 
first  through  these  agencies.  With  the  co-operation  of  John  W. 
Garrett,  American  Minister  at  The  Hague,  I  never  ceased 
to  insist  that  these  speeches  should  reach  the  Germans  first 
either  through  an  American  or  Dutch  source.  In  two  or  three  in- 
stances the  text  of  such  speeches  was  telegraphed  direct  to  me, 
and  distributed  to  a  Dutch  news  agency,  which  either  telegraphed 
the  text  direct  to  the  German  press  or  handed  it  to  German 
correspondents,  who  telegraphed  it  to  their  newspapers,  as  notably 
in  the  case  of  the  Frankfort  Gazette.  The  Frankfort  Gazette  was 
the  organ  of  the  Reichstag  majority  parties,  and  publication  of 
the  President's  speeches  therein,  in  correct  text,  some  hours 
previous  to  publication  in  the  semi-official  German  government 
organs,  such  as  the  North  German  Gazette  and  the  Cologne  Gazette, 
forced  them  to  publish  accurate,  unaltered  versions.  This 
method  not  only  purveyed  them  to  the  German  masses  without 
outside  interference,  but  often  had  the  effect  of  forcing  the  Ger- 
man government  to  issue  the  full  text.  When  the  method  was 
finally  adopted  of  issuing  the  President's  speeches  on  the  American 
wireless,  the  text  appeared  fully  and  quickly  in  both  the  Dutch 
and  German  press,  and  the  question  was  solved. 

Although  Reuter's  Telegraph  Agency  offered  very  great  and 
very  unstinted  assistance  at  all  times,  I  felt  that,  however  ir- 

328 


THE  WORK  IN  HOLLAND 

reproachable  its  motive  for  the  common  cause,  it  had  identified 
its  service  too  exactly  with  the  British  government  to  be  of 
exclusive  value  to  the  United  States  in  a  neutral  country,  and 
therefore,  although  I  did  not  discriminate  against  it,  I  saw  no 
reason  why  Reuter  should  be  favored  over  the  two  Dutch 
agencies.  These  were  the  Hollandsche  Nieuws  Bureau  (The 
Hague)  and  the  Persbureau  M.  S.  Vas  Dias  (Amsterdam),  and 
although  the  former  especially  was  under  some  suspicion  as  hav- 
ing too  close  German  connections,  I  felt  that  its  full  use  for  our 
own  purposes  was  justifiable,  especially  as  it  was  the  one  Dutch 
news  service  of  consequence.  A  regular  service  of  American 
news,  selected  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in  New 
York,  under  my  constant  correction  and  advice,  was  telegraphed 
to  me  daily,  together  with  a  special  service  from  general  head- 
quarters of  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces.  Both  of  these 
services  were  edited  and  issued,  in  various  forms  and  through 
various  means,  direct  to  the  Dutch  press.  I  was  also  furnished 
with  a  daily  copy  of  the  American  news  wireless  from  a  Dutch 
receiving  station,  and  issued  sections  of  these  items  to  such 
Dutch  agencies  as  did  not  operate  a  wireless  receiving  station 
and,  in  many  instances,  to  Reuter  as  well. 

Although  there  were  no  Dutch  newspaper  men  in  the  United 
States,  all  the  larger  Dutch  dailies  maintained  men  in  London 
and  Paris.  It  was  my  plan  to  have  these  men  in  close  touch 
with  American  official  sources  of  information  in  those  capitals. 
While  in  England  on  an  official  mission,  I  gave  a  dinner,  in  the 
mess  of  the  American  Embassy  in  London,  to  the  four  Dutch 
editors  resident  in  England  (representing  Nieuwe  Rotterdamsche 
Courant,  Handelsblad  and  Telegraaf  of  Amsterdam,  and  Nieuws 
van  den  Dag  of  The  Hague.  There  were  present  representa- 
tives of  the  American  army  and  navy  and  of  all  other  departments 
of  the  government  functioning  in  England,  all  of  whom  expressed 
willingness  to  provide  information  for  the  Dutch  editors  on  de- 
mand. From  subsequent  information  coming  from  official 
sources  I  learned  that  the  effect  of  this  entertainment  on  the 
Dutch  editors  was  to  give  them  a  new  conception  of  Americans 
and  Americanism. 

The  advantage  thus  gained  was  quickly  followed  up.  On 
June  5,  1918,  I  escorted  Dr.  Peter  Geyl,  editor  in  England  of 
Nieuwe  Rotterdamsche  Courant,  and  Mr.  E.  W.  de  Jong,  editor 
in  England  of  Handelsblad  (Amsterdam),  to  Queenstown  for  an 

329 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

inspection  of  the  American  destroyer  base,  engaged  in  convoy 
and  anti-submarine  work.  Upon  returning  from  Queenstown, 
the  correspondents  had  a  long  interview  with  Admiral  Sims, 
who  explained  with  great  frankness  the  methods  and  policies 
of  our  anti-submarine  campaign.  On  June  14th  we  arrived  in 
Paris,  proceeding  thence  to  the  French  coast  at  St.  Nazaire,  and 
following  the  American  lines  of  communication  to  the  front  in 
Lorraine.  Thus  the  representatives  of  the  two  most  important 
newspapers  in  Holland  had  followed  the  course  of  an  American 
soldier  from  the  moment  his  transport  was  picked  up  by  the  con- 
voys until  he  had  arrived  in  a  front-line  trench.  From  this 
trip,  which  was  one  of  the  first  excursions  of  neutral  editors  to 
the  American  front,  there  resulted  nineteen  long  telegrams  and 
eight  mail  stories  in  the  Dutch  press,  all  of  which  were  copied 
extensively  in  the  German  press,  and  thus  provided  the  first 
independent  neutral  testimony  of  the  size  of  American  effort. 
The  interview  with  Admiral  Sims  on  the  success  of  our  anti- 
submarine measures  provoked  much  protest  from  German  naval 
experts,  and  Mr.  de  Jong's  telegram,  "The  American  phase  of 
the  war  has  begun,"  was  produced  in  all  the  important  German 
newspapers  and  circulated  by  the  semi-official  Wolff  Bureau. 

From  confidential  information  which  reached  me  through  a 
direct  source  which  I  do  not  feel  can  yet  be  disclosed,  I  learned 
about  August  1,  1918,  that  when  Mr.  de  Jong's  figures  regarding 
the  size  of  the  American  establishment  in  France  were  published, 
both  the  German  Foreign  Office  and  the  General  Staff  summoned 
the  Berlin  correspondent  of  the  Handelsblad  and  demanded  to 
know  whether  Mr.  de  Jong  was  the  type  of  man  who  would  allow 
himself  to  be  bought  by  the  American  government.  It  was 
apparent  that  the  German  authorities  were  simply  staggered 
at  the  direct  revelations  made  as  the  result  of  this  excursion, 
which  I  regard  as  one  of  the  most  important  single  contribu- 
tions of  our  whole  work  in  the  Netherlands. 

Arrangements  were  later  made  for  the  Dutch  editors  in  Paris 
to  make  similar  trips,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Paris  office  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information. 

To  summarize,  then,  our  solution  of  the  problem  of  providing 
adequate  American  news  to  the  Dutch  press,  through  Dutch 
or  American  sources,  I  was  able  to  accomplish  the  following: 
(1)  To  provide  direct  telegraphic  and  wireless  news  and  comment 
from  the  United  States  to  Dutch  news  agencies  and  newspapers; 

330 


THE  WORK  IN  HOLLAND 

(2)  to  establish  contact  between  Dutch  editors  in  Great  Britain 
and   France  with   American   news   sources,   and,   furthermore, 

(3)  to  maintain  close  personal  contact  with  the  more  important 
Dutch  editors  in  Holland;   and  (4)  later  to  issue,  in  the  form  of 
a  daily  bulletin,  translations  of  the  more  significant  news  items 
and   comment  appearing  in  the  American  press  during  each 
twenty -four  hours — a  service  that  was  sent  regularly  to  some 
seventy-six  Dutch  newspapers.     Through  these  means  I  was  not 
only  able  to  reduce  the  suspicion  of  Dutch  editors  of  American 
news    served    through   non-American    sources    and    censorship, 
but  to  establish  direct  news  communication  be     een  the  two 
countries. 

The  German  government — whether  the  Imperial  government 
before  the  armistice  or  the  Republican  government  afterward — 
maintained  a  very  elaborate  organization  on  which  millions  of 
marks  were  expended.  It  was,  of  course,  impossible  for  me  to 
fight  such  an  organization  with  its  own  weapons.  Frequent 
attacks,  however,  were  made  on  the  United  States,  either  by 
means  of  deliberate  lies  or  perversions  of  the  truth.  These  were 
constantly  contradicted  in  the  Dutch  press  by  means  of  special 
information  telegraphed  from  Washington,  at  my  request,  from 
the  government  department  concerned.  The  German  propa- 
ganda fell  into  well-reorganized  lines  of  policies,  such  as  question- 
ing the  intellectual  sincerity  of  American  war  aims,  belittling 
our  physical  effort,  and  attempting  to  corrupt  relations  between 
the  Allied  and  Associated  Governments.  We  were  able  to  fight 
the  Germans  along  these  same  lines,  and  by  insisting,  time  after 
time,  on  a  given  point,  to  induce  them  ultimately  to  abandon  the 
gesture  as  worthless. 

The  German  so-called  "intellectual  propaganda"  in  Holland 
was  very  effective.  Prof.  Hans  Delbrueck,  professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin,  and  leader  of  a  group  of  German  Moderates, 
made  frequent  excursions  to  Holland,  for  the  purpose  of  lecturing 
at  the  universities  and  talking  with  prominent  Dutchmen.  He 
was  usually  accompanied  by  Kurt  Hahn,  a  young  German  edu- 
cated in  England,  who  was  believed  to  provide  the  lines  of  attack 
to  the  German  "intellectual  propagandists"  in  Holland. 

This  form  of  German  propaganda  was  very  successful.  Al- 
though my  remedy  for  this — the  establishment  of  a  two-year 
lectureship  at  the  University  of  Leyden  in  American  history, 
held  by  a  prominent  American  academician,  who  was  to  have 

331 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

revived  historical  Holland-American  unity  with  a  living  senti- 
ment— was  not  adopted,  we  were  able  to  make  considerable 
progress.  Lieut.  Leonard  van  Noppen,  U.  S.  N.  R.  F.,  former 
Queen  Wilhelmina  Professor  of  Dutch  in  Columbia  University, 
and  assistant  naval  attache  at  The  Hague,  was  of  very  great 
service  in  reaching  the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  Holland.  I 
myself  made  it  a  point  to  know  as  many  important  Dutchmen 
as  possible,  to  meet  them  frequently,  and  to  set  them  right,  in 
short  conversations,  on  many  points  of  American  policy  which 
they  professed  to  misunderstand.  John  C.  Wiley,  second  secre- 
tary of  the  American  Legation  in  The  Hague,  and  Paul  L.  Ed- 
wards, commercial  attache,  were  of  very  great  assistance  in  this 
difficult  work. 

Although  the  use  of  the  pamphlet  as  an  educational  measure 
had  been  very  general  in  Europe  during  the  war,  I  was  convinced 
that,  for  our  work,  the  extensive  printing  of  such  matter  would 
be  a  waste  of  money.  We  issued  only  one  booklet — a  collection 
of  the  pronouncements  of  President  Wilson  concerning  the  League 
of  Nations,  comprising  excerpts  from  his  speeches  and  statements 
from  February  1,  1916,  to  September  27,  1918.  Of  these,  ten 
thousand  copies  were  printed,  and  distributed  to  universities, 
schools,  public  libraries,  editors,  members  of  both  Houses  of 
Parliament,  members  of  the  government,  and  other  persons  of 
importance.  The  residue,  after  such  distribution,  was  sent  to 
various  persons  on  the  mailing-list  of  the  German  propaganda  in 
Holland,  a  copy  of  which  had  come  into  my  hands. 

Special  articles  on  various  American  subjects  from  American 
magazines  and  reviews  were  translated,  however,  and  issued 
to  the  Dutch  press  or  to  individual  editors,  and  these,  in  my 
opinion,  were  of  far  greater  value  than  any  cheap  pleading  by 
pamphlets  scattered  about  in  barber  shops  and  bars. 

The  second  most  important  aspect  of  our  work  was  education 
by  means  of  motion  pictures.  Upon  my  arrival  in  Holland 
from  England  I  found  several  consignments  of  very  old  and  un- 
suitable films,  dealing  mostly  with  current  events  in  the  United 
States.  Furthermore,  there  was  no  co-operation  between  the 
British,  French,  and  Italians.  Mr.  George  F.  Steward,  repre- 
sentative of  the  British  Ministry  of  Information  in  Holland,  aided 
me  in  establishing  an  inter-Allied  cinema  committee,  which 
functioned  in  connection  with  an  inter- Allied  blockade  committee, 
composed  of  the  commercial  attaches  of  the  four  Allied  legations. 


THE  WORK  IN  HOLLAND 

As  the  Dutch  exhibitors,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Dutch  au- 
diences, had  been  subject  to  war  films  for  almost  four  years 
when  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in  Holland  arrived 
on  the  scene,  it  was  my  conviction  that  only  the  most  unusual 
American  war  films  would  have  effect.  Moreover,  it  was  our 
opinion  that  straight  American  commercial  films  of  superior 
sort  would  be  a  new  and  invaluable  form  of  education  for  the 
Dutch  public.  I  therefore  cabled  to  Washington,  pointing  out 
the  shortage  of  good  Allied  war  films,  together  with  the  dangers 
arising  from  an  adequate  German  supply,  and  requesting  a 
large  consignment  of  straight  commercial  films  as  well.  As  a 
result  of  this  telegram,  Mr.  Llewellyn  R.  Thomas  of  New  York, 
a  motion-picture  expert,  was  despatched  to  The  Hague,  and  ar- 
rived with  several  hundred  thousand  feet  of  war,  educational, 
and  commercial  film,  all  of  which  was  sold,  not  given,  to  the  Dutch 
exhibitors,  for  the  total  sum  of  $57,340 . 80,  with  a  very  consider- 
able profit  to  the  American  producers,  for  whose  future  benefit, 
moreover,  an  American  market  was  thus  established. 

On  November  4,  1918,  a  private  performance  of  "America's 
Answer"  was  given  to  the  general  staffs  of  the  Dutch  army  and 
navy  in  The  Hague.  The  Dutch  officers  expressed  themselves 
as  greatly  impressed,  and  many  in  the  audience  showed  their 
appreciation  by  rising  when  President  Wilson  and  General 
Pershing  were  thrown  on  the  screen. 

A  regular  supply  of  photographs  dealing  with  American  war- 
making  was  received  from  Washington  and  general  headquarters 
of  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces.  These  were  exhibited 
in  shop-windows  in  the  larger  cities  and  towns  throughout 
Holland.  They  were  regularly  sent  to  Dutch  photographic 
agencies  and  published  in  the  Dutch  illustrated  press.  The 
Dutch  agencies  also  sent  them  to  German  agencies  in  Berlin 
and  Vienna,  and  many  of  them  were  printed  in  the  German 
illustrated  journals. 

There  was  a  noticeable  absence  of  books  and  magazines  in  the 
Dutch  libraries  concerning  American  topics.  Apart  from  the 
distribution  of  American  newspapers,  reviews,  magazines,  and 
trade  publications,  four  complete  sets  of  books  were  obtained 
from  the  Foreign  Section  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
in  Washington.  These  books,  written  by  American  experts  in 
international  law,  politics,  history,  economics,  social  conditions, 
and  various  other  aspects  of  Americanism,  were  presented  to 

333 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  Nieuwe  of  Litteraire  Societeit,  the  largest  club  in  Holland, 
situated  in  The  Hague,  and  frequented  by  all  important  govern- 
mental officers  and  business  men,  to  the  Royal  Library  in  The 
Hague,  to  the  University  of  Leyden,  and  to  the  State  University 
of  Amsterdam.  There  were  about  twenty-five  volumes  in  each  set. 

It  was  a  settled  policy  to  act  in  very  close  co-operation  with 
the  Legation,  and  more  especially  with  Mr.  John  W.  Garrett, 
the  Minister  in  The  Hague.  As  the  Committee  on  Public  In- 
formation was  in  a  general  sense  the  mouthpiece  of  the  United 
States  government  in  Holland,  I  considered  it  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  acquaint  myself  with  the  general  business  of  the 
Legation  as  far  as  it  affected  relations  between  the  two  countries. 
Although  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  was  a  separate 
organization,  I  maintained  close  contact  with  the  diplomatic 
situation  as  conceived  by  the  Legation,  and  in  return  received 
the  advice  and  assistance  of  the  Minister.  Our  relations  were 
always  most  cordial,  and  both  of  us  were  able  to  perform  services 
for  the  other  which  ordinarily  would  have  lain  outside  our  regular 
duties. 

Through  the  kindness  of  the  Minister  in  allowing  us  to  install 
a  motion-picture  projector  in  his  residence,  we  were  able  to  reach 
many  of  the  influential  members  of  the  Dutch  government  and 
of  the  Allied  and  neutral  diplomatic  corps  who  otherwise  would 
never  have  been  available  for  our  motion-picture  educational 
campaign. 

I  wish  to  record  my  own  opinion  that  the  activities  of  the 
Foreign  Section  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  had 
throughout  a  certain  definite  constructive  value  in  helping  to 
create  that  firmest  assurance  against  the  sudden  passionate 
crises  that  so  often  lead  to  war — namely,  mutual  understanding 
and  sympathy  between  Europe  and  America,  based  upon  the 
freest  possible  interchange  of  exact  and  continuous  information, 
in  the  form  of  news.  This,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  an  effort  that 
could  be  made  incredibly  inspiring.  That  it  often  proved  so 
in  the  case  of  important  official  and  non-official  Hollanders  to 
whom  I  presented  Holland-American  questions,  and  indeed  the 
general  international  situation,  in  that  light,  was  sufficient 
justification  of  my  own  policy  of  stating  facts  about  the  United 
States,  instead  of  resorting  to  the  essentially  weaker  European 
method  of  special  pleading. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  state  that  the  work  of  the  Committee 

334 


THE  WORK  IN  HOLLAND 

on  Public  Information  in  Holland  was  designed  to  show  to  the 
Dutch,  and,  as  might  be,  to  the  Germans,  what  Americanism, 
as  a  moral  force  in  operation,  really  meant.  My  work  started 
at  a  very  critical  time,  when  neither  the  dignity  of  President 
Wilson's  position  nor  the  strength  of  our  Americanism  that 
supported  it  was  credited  either  in  Holland  or  within  the  German 
borders.  The  details  of  what  was  accomplished  remain  a  matter 
of  record.  In  giving  to  the  Dutch  public  an  array  of  facts 
through  American  sources,  we  appealed  to  both  their  reason  and 
sentiment — not  through  a  blatant  propaganda,  but  through 
restrained  presentation  of  the  truth — to  a  degree  which  must 
have  lasting  effect  on  the  good  relations  between  the  Netherlands 
and  the  United  States. 


THE  WORK   IN   SPAIN 

THE  situation  in  Spain,  no  less  than  in  Mexico,  was 
a  very  ugly  one  indeed.  The  German  penetration 
was  evident  in  every  department  of  Spanish  activity, 
particularly  in  the  army,  and  many  of  the  most  important 
Spanish  papers  were  receiving  German  subsidies  and  pour- 
ing out  a  steady  stream  of  untruths  against  America. 
Every  effort  was  made  to  revive  the  passions  of  1898,  and 
nowhere  in  the  whole  country  was  there  a  single  voice 
that  spoke  for  America.  The  following  extracts  from 
Madrid  papers  will  show  the  lengths  to  which  the  Germans 
went  in  their  campaign  of  vilification: 

In  my  last  article  I  gave  a  brief  account  of  the  horrible  crime 
committed  by  Wilson  against  Nicaragua.  If  this  were  not  more 
than  enough  to  show  that  the  Yankee  President  is  disqualified 
in  law  and  in  equity  to  speak  to  us  Europeans  in  such  words 
as  he  uses  in  his  answer  to  the  Pope — if  the  moral  opinion  of 
the  world  had  not  been  excited  against  the  cynicism  and  un- 
equaled  perversities  of  Wilson,  who,  though  on  trial  for  lese- 
humanite,  has  tried  to  constitute  himself  the  judge  of  Europe 
and  America,  unfortunately  there  still  exist,  to  the  shame  of 
humanity  and  the  dishonor  of  civilization,  other  monstrous  deeds 
done  by  Wilson,  against  which  the  world  has  not  protested. 
.  .  .  No:  we  must  tear  the  mask  from  the  hypocrite,  Wilson. 

After  having  carefully  examined  the  sinister  chapters  of  Yankee 
imperialistic  history,  each  and  every  one  of  which  is  a  crime 
whose  principal  author  is  the  actual  President  Wilson,  our  heart 


THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 

rebels  against  this  man,  against  this  Puritan,  who  has  the  bare- 
faced insolence  to  appear  as  a  mediator  between  nations.  This 
is  his  role  in  his  speeches  and  proclamations,  but  his  deeds  are 
those  of  brute  force,  of  war  without  quarter,  of  inconceivable 
extermination  and  devastation.  Blushing  at  the  sight  of  the 
repulsive  creature,  we  ask  ourselves  the  question  whether  the 
moral  sense  of  humanity  has  been  perverted  when  it  listens  to 
the  words  of  the  false  and  evil  Wilson. 

In  addition  to  the  aspersion  of  motives  there  was  a  con- 
tinual flood  of  lies  into  the  news  columns  as  a  means  of 
convincing  the  Spanish  people  that  Germany  was  winning 
and  that  America  and  the  Allies  were  meeting  with  dis- 
astrous defeats.  By  way  of  example,  the  following  is 
taken  from  a  Barcelona  paper  of  November  10,  1917: 

News  comes  from  Halifax  via  New  York  that  the  North 
American  battleship  Texas  and  other  units  of  the  North  American 
fleet  were  sunk  by  a  German  U-boat  75  miles  from  the  Island 
of  Guernsey  and  120  miles  from  Cherbourg  at  the  entrance  of 
the  Channel,  the  latter  part  of  September  of  last  year.  Eleven 
thousand  men  found  their  death  in  the  waves;  only  3,260  soldiers 
and  2,585  men  of  the  crew  were  saved. 

The  counter-attack  of  the  Allies  had  failed  utterly. 
Not  only  were  the  efforts  ill-advised,  but  there  was  a  natural 
Spanish  prejudice  against  England  on  account  of  Gib- 
raltar, and  as  a  Catholic  country  Spain  looked  upon 
France  as  a  land  of  "Jacobins  and  libertines." 

The  first  efforts  of  the  Committee  were  in  connection 
with  "movies,"  and  the  work  was  intrusted  to  Frank  J. 
Marion,  president  of  the  Kalem  Company  and  one  of  the 
outstanding  figures  in  the  motion-picture  industry.  He 
carried  with  him  a  large  stock  of  films,  showing  America 
at  work  as  well  as  America  at  war.  Upon  arrival  in  Spain 
he  found  that  neither  France  nor  England  was  permitted 
to  show  their  motion  pictures  in  public,  but  by  sheer  force 

337 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

of  personality  and  skilful  emphasis  upon  the  "movies" 
that  showed  agriculture  and  industry  Mr.  Marion  suc- 
ceeded in  having  his  entire  stock  passed  by  the  Spanish 
censors.  An  arrangement  was  made  with  a  great  distribu- 
ting house  that  sent  our  film  throughout  Spain,  and  from 
the  theaters  Mr.  Marion  expanded  to  the  schools  and  col- 
leges, eventually  giving  open-air  shows  in  cities  and 
villages.  Some  of  the  audiences  ran  as  high  as  nine  thou- 
sand people,  and  when  the  Spanish  garrisons  asked  to  see 
the  pictures  Mr.  Marion  was  justified  in  feeling  that 
he  had  succeeded. 

The  original  plan  was  to  have  Mr.  Marion  inaugurate 
the  motion-picture  work  in  Spain  and  then  proceed  to 
Italy.  No  sooner  had  he  left  Spain,  however,  than  a 
flood  of  cables  commenced  to  pour  in  that  convinced  us 
that  Mr.  Marion  was  the  man  above  all  men  for  the 
Spanish  job.  As  a  consequence  he  was  ordered  back 
from  Rome,  appointed  commissioner  for  Spain,  and  given 
full  authority  to  launch  a  complete  campaign.  The  fight 
was  a  long  one,  and  bitterly  difficult,  but  when  the  tide 
turned  it  turned  with  a  vengeance.  Malaga  and  Barce- 
lona extended  the  rights  of  citizenship  to  President  Wilson, 
city  after  city  in  Spain  changed  the  name  of  some  principal 
thoroughfare  to  that  of  President  Wilson,  and  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  and  the  addresses  of  President  Wilson 
were  used  in  the  public  schools  of  Spain  for  the  reading- 
classes. 

The  following  excerpts  from  Mr.  Marion's  report,  while 
giving  little  idea  of  the  genius  with  which  he  overcame 
obstacles,  nevertheless  indicate  somewhat  the  sweep  of 
his  activities: 

Before  the  commencement  of  the  Committee's  work,  the 
amount  of  American  news  printed  in  Spanish  papers  was  not 
only  small,  but  concerned  entirely  with  epidemics,  disasters,  and 
lynchings.  We  learned  later  that  these  lynching  items  were 

338 


THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 

very  generously  furnished  to  the  Spanish  press  by  the  German 
propaganda  office. 

From  the  first  gun  of  the  war  the  enemy  had  been  maintain- 
ing a  wireless  service  from  Nauen,  which  was  distributed  to  the 
Spanish  press  free  of  charge.  England,  France,  and  Italy  were 
maintaining  a  so-called  news  service  through  their  embassies, 
but  the  propaganda  element  was  so  strong  as  to  make  them 
worthless.  The  material  was  sent  to  the  newspapers  on  embassy 
letter-heads  in  embassy  envelopes  by  uniformed  embassy  mes- 
sengers, and  in  almost  every  instance  the  embassies  received 
a  bill  for  the  printing  at  a  substantial  figure  per  line. 

Most  of  the  leading  papers  in  Spain  were  under  regular  sub- 
sidy from  the  German  Embassy,  and  I  was  told  by  my  French 
colleagues  that  space  could  not  be  secured  in  the  Spanish  press 
without  paying  for  it.  A  very  large  sum  was  suggested  as  neces- 
sary to  carry  out  the  plan.  However,  I  was  convinced  that 
truthful  news  items  from  America  would  be  welcomed  by  all 
the  progressive  papers  and  that  the  system  then  in  vogue  of 
sending  out  "official"  communiques  from  the  various  embassies 
virtually  compelled  the  treatment  of  the  material  as  advertising. 

Looking  around,  I  discovered  the  Fabra  Agency,  a  Spanish 
press  association  doing  a  small  business,  and  I  laid  before  the 
managers  a  plan  to  incorporate  our  cable  services  into  their 
daily  "flimsy."  I  had  no  difficulty  in  procuring  complete  co- 
operation, even  to  the  extent  of  having  their  news  editor  come 
to  my  office  each  day  so  that  the  translations  might  be  made 
under  my  direction. 

The  venture  was  a  success  from  the  start.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  our  news  service  was  printed  in  papers  known  to  be  under 
German  subsidy.  The  point  of  it  was  that  it  was  real  news, 
and  interesting  news  from  a  newspaper  point  of  view.  It  was 
what  Spain  had  wanted  from  America  for  years,  and  when  the 
service  was  finally  discontinued  there  was  a  storm  of  protest 
from  the  leading  Spanish  papers. 

However,  the  Fabra  Agency  was  not  furnishing  the  service 
to  the  smaller  papers  of  the  provinces  which  could  not  afford 
to  pay  the  telegraph  tolls,  because  of  the  high  cost  of  print 
paper  and  the  scarcity  of  advertising.  Accordingly,  with  the  aid 
of  Captain  Decker,  the  naval  attache,  who  placed  his  various 
secret  agents  throughout  Spain  at  my  disposal,  I  organized  my 
own  distributing  system  and  within  a  short  time  had  the  satis- 

339 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

faction  of  seeing  the  entire  press  of  Spain  printing  more  news 
from  America  than  from  the  Allied  countries  combined. 

Following  the  establishment  of  the  Foreign  Press  Bureau  of 
the  Committee  in  New  York  my  office  commenced  to  receive 
regular  weekly  instalments  of  special  articles,  photographs, 
posters,  window-display  cards,  etc.  This  material  necessitated 
further  expansion.  Very  little  that  appears  in  the  Spanish  news- 
paper carries  any  influence  unless  it  is  signed  with  the  name 
of  a  writer  of  acknowledged  standing.  As  a  consequence,  none 
of  the  hundreds  of  special  articles  that  were  sent  us  was  put  out 
over  the  names  of  the  American  authors  responsible  for  them. 
Each  article  was  given  as  an  exclusive  fund  of  material  to  some 
Spanish  writer,  who  would  rewrite  it  in  his  own  particular  style. 
It  would  then  be  published  in  the  Spanish  papers  over  his  name 
and  with  his  authority.  We  were  suspected  of  paying  these 
distinguished  literary  lights  for  the  work,  but  not  a  cent  ever 
went  to  a  single  one  of  them.  My  chief  translator,  Senor  Jose 
Armas,  for  many  years  correspondent  of  The  New  York  Herald, 
and  Sefiorita  Raquel  Alonzo,  formerly  of  the  Gulick  School 
for  Girls,  performed  prodigies  of  labor  and  could  always  be  re- 
lied upon  to  give  not  only  accurate  translations,  but  translations 
of  a  high  literary  style. 

One  of  our  original  beliefs  was  in  the  value  of  pamphlets. 
A  visit  to  the  offices  of  the  British,  Italian,  and  French  organi- 
zations soon  convinced  me  that  if  there  had  ever  been  any 
advantage  in  this  phase  of  work,  it  had  completely  disappeared, 
for  in  nearly  every  instance  the  pamphlets,  which  had  been 
prepared  at  the  home  offices  to  be  distributed  in  Spain,  were 
used  to  keep  fires  going  in  the  grates.  The  main  trouble  was 
defective  Spanish.  A  pamphlet  which  was  prepared  by  my  own 
committee  in  Washington,  and  sent  to  me  as  a  sample,  was  so 
full  of  errors  as  to  be  absolutely  useless.  Later  when  large 
window-display  photographs  were  sent  to  me  lettered  in  Spanish, 
many  of  these  were  found  to  be  useless  for  a  similar  reason. 

WTiile  attending  the  propaganda  conference  in  Paris,  I  became 
convinced  that  the  strongest  arguments  in  behalf  of  the  Allied 
cause  were  embodied  in  the  various  official  utterances  of  President 
Wilson,  and  following  that  conviction,  we  used  every  effort  to  give 
them  widest  possible  publicity.  Not  only  were  they  published 
immediately  in  the  Spanish  press,  but  they  were  printed  in  pam- 
phlet form  as  well  and  sent  under  letter  postage  to  upward  of  ten 

340 


THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 

thousand  prominent  Spaniards.  So  accurate  and  elegant  in 
its  diction  was  Prof.  Romero-Navarro's  translation  of  the  Presi- 
dent's famous  Fourteen  Points  speech  that  it  was  adopted  as  a 
literary  text-book  by  one  of  the  leading  schools  for  boys  in  Madrid. 
In  the  distribution  of  this  and  other  material  we  were  greatly 
assisted  by  Senor  Amato  of  the  Fabra  Agency.  As  a  general 
proposition,  pamphleteering  had  been  overdone  in  Spain  by 
both  the  Allies  and  the  enemy  embassies  and  we  did  not  deem 
it  advisable  to  enter  to  any  great  extent  into  this  branch  of  work. 

Every  center  of  population  in  Spain  from  the  tiny  mountain 
pueblo  to  the  capital  city  has  its  atheneum.  This  is  a  civic 
center.  For  the  purpose  of  taking  advantage  of  these  forums, 
Prof.  M.  Romero-Navarro  of  the  Department  of  Romance 
Languages  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  a  Castilian  by 
birth  and  education,  and  still  a  Spanish  citizen,  was  persuaded 
to  give  up  his  collegiate  work  and  come  to  Spain  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  an  extended  series  of  lectures.  Professor  Navarro 
lectured  on  Spanish  artistic,  literary,  and  historic  influences 
in  America,  and  against  this  background  painted  a  splendid 
picture  of  America's  idealism,  unselfishness,  and  military 
invincibility. 

A  Spaniard  likes  to  have  things  visualized  and  the  illustrated 
papers  were  all  eager  for  American  photographs.  The  Committee 
offices  in  Washington,  New  York,  and  Paris  sent  us  a  weekly 
supply  well  selected  as  to  subject  and  excellent  as  to  photographic 
quality,  and  as  a  result  we  had  a  virtual  monopoly  of  the  illus- 
trated press  in  Spain.  It  was  not  at  all  unusual  for  us  to  have 
two-thirds  of  the  pictures  in  one  illustrated  paper.  None  of 
these  pictures  was  distributed  from  our  own  office.  We  employed 
a  local  agent,  who  peddled  them  from  paper  to  paper  as  his  own 
stock  and  sold  them  on  their  own  merits  to  pro-German  as  well 
as  to  pro-Ally  papers. 

The  poster  situation  presented  one  of  our  greatest  problems. 
The  German  posters  were  scurrilous  and  indecent.  One  most 
widely  circulated  in  Spain  purported  to  represent  typical  soldiers 
of  the  various  armies  opposed  to  Germany,  and  in  each  case  the 
type  was  as  brutal  and  degenerate  as  the  German  mind  could 
conceive.  It  would  have  been  easy  to  plaster  Spain  with  our 
own  posters  showing  the  American  idea  of  the  Prussian  face, 
but  we  decided  that  the  best  answer  was  to  fill  the  illustrated 
papers  and  the  store-windows  with  photographs  of  our  manly 
23  341 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

doughboys  at  the  front  so  that  the  Spaniard  could  judge  for 
himself. 

For  our  window-display  campaign  we  started  by  securing 
the  co-operation  of  American  firms  doing  business  in  Spain. 
These  were  very  few  indeed,  but  one  alone,  the  Singer  Sewing 
Machine  Company,  put  the  windows  of  some  seven  hundred 
branch  stores  in  Spain  at  our  disposition,  saw  to  the  trimming 
of  the  windows,  the  display  of  the  material,  and  even  took  care 
of  the  transportation  expenses.  All  we  had  to  do  was  to  deliver 
our  material  at  the  main  office  of  this  patriotic  concern  and  the 
rest  was  attended  to  better  than  we  could  have  done  it  ourselves. 

The  Eastman  Kodak  Company  and  the  ^Eolian  Company 
were  two  other  American  concerns  which  gave  us  the  continual 
use  of  their  window-display  space  without  cost. 

The  central  feature  of  all  of  our  window-display  work  was  a 
handsomely  framed  group  of  photographs  covering  both  the 
preparations  in  America  and  behind  the  line  scenes  in  France. 
Hundreds  of  frames  were  made  up  and  kept  in  continuous  circu- 
lation, and  our  own  personal  observation  shows  that  they  in- 
variably attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention  and  favorable  com- 
ment. On  at  least  two  occasions  the  Eastman  Kodak's  window 
display  of  our  materials  in  their  handsome  store  on  the  Puerta 
del  Sol  nearly  blockaded  traffic. 

Quite  a  notable  success  was  made  with  the  exhibition  of  Joseph 
Pennell  drawings.  One  of  the  stanchest  friends  of  America 
in  Spain  was  Sorolla,  the  great  painter.  Senor  Sorolla  personally 
took  charge  of  this  collection,  patronized  its  exhibitions  through- 
out the  leading  cities  of  Spain,  and  finally  saw  to  it  that  the 
collection  was  properly  housed  in  the  National  Academy  of  Mod- 
ern Arts  in  Madrid  as  the  gift  of  Mr.  Pennell  to  the  Spanish 
government.  These  magnificent  pictures  showed  various  phases 
of  our  preparatory  work  in  shipyards  and  munition-plants. 
If  they  had  been  exhibited  in  the  ordinary  way  as  propaganda 
they  would  have  come  under  the  ban  of  Spanish  censorship, 
but  shown  as  a  pure  art  exhibit  under  the  patronage  of  Sorolla, 
they  met  with  no  objection  and  everywhere  attracted  favorable 
comment  from  the  press. 

In  July,  1918,  we  started  the  publication  of  a  weekly  bulletin 
in  English,  the  American  News,  which  was  distributed  free  of 
charge  to  all  Americans  whose  names  we  could  secure  in  Spain 
and  Portugal.  The  purpose  of  this  bulletin  in  the  form  of  a 

342 


THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 

small  eight-page  newspaper  was  to  put  the  facts  of  our  war 
preparations  and  achievements  into  the  hands  of  Americans 
to  be  disseminated  by  them  in  their  contact  with  the  Spanish 
people.  The  editor  of  this  paper  was  Seward  B.  Collins,  a  Prince- 
ton student  unable  to  get  into  the  army  or  navy,  but  eager  to 
serve.  In  many  respects  this  was  one  of  our  most  important 
activities. 

The  spy  system  maintained  by  the  Germans,  and  by  the 
Allies  as  well,  may  only  be  described  as  a  "scream."  After 
about  six  months'  residence  in  Madrid  I  happened  in  at  an  out- 
of-the-way  cafe  and  met  a  reliable  Spanish  friend. 

"What  are  you  doing  here? "  he  asked. 

"Having  a  cup  of  coffee." 

"Don't  you  know  what  sort  of  a  place  you  are  in?" 

"No,  I  don't.     Tell  me." 

"This  is  the  place,"  he  said,  "where  all  the  spies  get  together 
at  four  o'clock  every  afternoon  and  exchange  lies  to  be  reported 
to  the  various  embassies  the  following  morning.  The  German 
spies  hand  a  bunch  of  inside  information  from  their  embassy 
to  their  friends  who  are  working  for  the  Allies,  and  in  return 
receive  a  mess  of  stuff  which  they  hand  back  to  the  Ger- 
mans. Thus  both  sides  are  satisfied  and  a  prosperous  business  is 
established." 

My  friend  then  pointed  out  to  me  the  agents  of  the  various 
embassies,  enemy  agents  and  Allied  agents  chatting  like  the  best 
of  friends.  Scarcely  a  day  went  by  but  that  a  half-dozen  men 
would  call  upon  us  to  tell  the  same  kind  of  story ;  that  they  had 
been  employed  by  the  German  Embassy,  that  they  were  poor 
but  honest  men,  that  their  hearts  were  really  with  the  Allies, 
and  if  we  would  pay  them  a  little  more  money  they  would  come 
to  us  and  tell  us  secrets  of  the  greatest  importance. 

A  book  might  be  written  on  this  phase  of  outside  war-work 
alone.  From  the  standpoint  of  an  American  I  want  to  go  on 
record  as  being  of  the  opinion  that  the  spy  system  as  I  saw  it 
in  operation  in  Spain  for  eighteen  months,  both  enemy  and  the 
Ally,  is  "bunk."  There  is  no  other  word  that  so  adequately 
expresses  it. 

Jack  Johnson,  the  ex-champion,  was  generally  understood  to 
be  a  spy  in  the  employ  of  the  Germans.  He  claimed  to  have 
access  to  the  German  Embassy,  and  offered  to  make  a  night 
entry  and  rob  it  of  all  its  files  if  by  doing  so  he  could  only  get 

343 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

back  to  his  "dear  old  U.  S.  A."  again.  He  was  told  that  the  best 
way  to  do  that  would  be  to  go  to  France  and  enlist,  upon  which 
he  faded  away.  Johnson  posed  in  Spain  as  a  typical  American, 
claiming  that  he  was  still  champion  of  the  world,  and  was  one 
of  the  worst  elements  of  negative  propaganda  in  Spain.  There 
seemed  to  be  little  doubt  that  he  was  being  paid  by  the  Germans 
to  keep  in  a  prominent  position,  and  there  was  seldom  a  gala 
performance  at  the  opera  that  did  not  see  Johnson  in  full  evening 
dress  seated  directly  in  front  of  the  royal  box.  There  was  mur- 
der in  the  hearts  of  all  Americans,  but  there  was  nothing  we 
could  do. 

The  Palace  Hotel,  where  Johnson  made  his  headquarters,  was 
a  nest  of  German  spies.  Every  employee  of  the  hotel  was  a  German 
spy.  I  arrived  in  Madrid  at  two  o'clock  one  fine  afternoon,  with 
Mr.  David  Harrell  of  the  War  Trade  Board,  Mrs.  Harrell,  and  their 
son  David,  a  lad  of  seventeen.  David  stayed  behind  for  a  minute 
as  we  went  down  the  hall,  and  before  we  had  time  to  round  the 
corner  a  German  spy  was  in  the  room,  ransacking  our  bags. 
David  reached  out  of  the  bathroom  door,  grabbed  the  man  by  the 
collar,  and  sprawled  him  headlong  into  the  hall.  The  man 
struck  his  head  so  hard  that  David  was  afraid  he  had  hurt  him, 
so  he  gave  him  two  pesetas  to  square  himself  and  then  came  down 
and  told  us  about  it.  During  the  two  weeks  we  were  compelled 
to  stay  at  the  hotel,  our  every  step  was  dogged  and  our  every 
word  was  listened  to.  None  of  us  had  any  information  of  the 
slightest  use  to  the  enemy,  but  the  sleuths  were  set  on  us  just 
the  same. 

Most  of  the  German  propaganda  was  as  stupid  as  their  spy 
system.  A  typical  specimen  of  their  work  was  a  comic  picture 
book  printed  in  Barcelona  by  the  German  propaganda  office. 
This  was  gotten  up  like  our  five-cent  story  editions  of  Puss  in 
Boots  or  Jack  the  Giant  Killer — fifteen  or  twenty  pages  of  gro- 
tesque figures  in  color  with  verses.  The  title  of  the  book  was 
Kings  Without  a  Throne,  and  a  page  was  devoted  to  each  of  the 
petty  European  rulers  who  had  lost  his  crown  because  of  defying 
the  wrath  of  the  all-powerful  one  in  Berlin.  This  book  was 
printed  in  enormous  numbers  and  distributed  to  the  children 
as  they  came  out  of  school.  The  object-lesson,  of  course,  was 
that  if  the  King  of  Spain  did  not  recognize  German  might,  he, 
too,  would  lose  his  throne.  Many  of  the  pictures  in  this  book 
were  positively  obscene.  The  German  cartoon  of  President 

844 


THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 

Wilson  found  everywhere  in  Spain  in  the  form  of  picture  post- 
cards was  that  of  a  lantern-jawed  maniac.  Always  in  the  Ger- 
man window  displays  the  central  feature  would  be  the  Kaiser, 
Ludendorff,  and  Hindenburg,  portrayed  as  magnificent  and  in- 
spiring specimens  of  manhood,  while  the  representatives  of  the 
Allies  were  pictured  as  degenerates. 

Another  example  of  stupidity  was  the  insertion  of  a  paid 
article  in  one  or  two  papers  in  all  the  principal  cities  that  the 
American  army  was  irreligious,  that  no  Catholic  priest  was  al- 
lowed to  function  in  his  sacred  vestments,  that  Pershing  and  his 
staff  were  all  members  of  the  Liberty  Lodge  of  Masons  in  Brook- 
lyn, and  that  the  American  army  in  France  was  being  directed 
by  the  Masonic  order,  its  real  purpose  the  crushing  of  Cathol- 
icism in  Europe.  Our  answer  to  this,  in  illustrated  papers  and 
window  displays,  was  a  magnificent  picture  of  six  thousand 
soldiers  in  uniform  attending  an  open-air  mass  near  the  front 
lines  in  France. 

Of  course,  the  principal  accusation  against  the  Americans 
was  that  all  our  claims  were  Yankee  bluff,  that  we  had  no  army, 
couldn't  raise  an  army,  couldn't  train  an  army  if  we  could  raise 
one,  had  no  officers,  and  even  if  we  could  raise  and  train  an  army 
we  couldn't  transport  them,  because  we  had  no  ships,  and  even 
if  we  did  get  ships,  the  German  submarines  would  take  care  of 
them.  We  sent  a  delegation  of  prominent  Spanish  newspaper 
men  to  France,  headed  by  the  Marquis  Valleglesias,  owner 
and  editor  of  Epoca,  and  this  delegation  returned  to  Madrid 
after  ten  days  with  our  troops  and  announced  that,  instead  of 
bluffing,  the  Americans  had  not  told  one  tenth  of  the  story. 

We  had  so  many  different  schemes  at  work  at  the  same  time  that 
the  Germans  finally  became  rather  bewildered.  Prince  Ratibor 
and  his  daughters,  the  Princesses  of  Taxis  and  Thurn,  went  to  a 
ball  at  the  Ritz  one  night  and  had  a  wonderful  time  dancing  to  the 
music  of  "Over  There"  and  all  our  popular  war  songs.  We  were 
supplied  with  orchestrations  of  all  this  music  from  our  foreign  ser- 
vice department  in  New  York,  and  for  the  last  six  months  of  the 
war  we  had  all  the  bands  in  Spain  playing  American  music. 

The  educational  campaign  in  Spain  was  not  conducted  by  the 
representative  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  alone 
and  unassisted.  In  the  first  place  the  need  of  the  work  was 
recognized  by  Capt.  Benton  C.  Decker,  Chief  of  Naval  Intelli- 
gence, of  Spain.  When  I  arrived  in  Spain  every  facility  of 

345 


(HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Captain  Decker's  office  was  put  at  my  disposal.  Although 
ordered  by  the  Ambassador  to  refrain  from  assisting  or  helping 
the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in  any  way,  Captain 
Decker,  with  a  high  sense  of  patriotic  duty,  insisted  upon  doing 
so,  and  was  recalled  at  the  request  of  Ambassador  Willard  in 
May,  1918.  From  that  time  on  the  work  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information  was  entirely  detached  from  all  other  Amer- 
ican agencies,  but  the  utmost  encouragement  and  all  needed  help 
were  given  by  Captain  Crossley,  succeeding  Captain  Decker, 
and  later  by  Capt.  Chester  Wells,  succeeding  Captain  Crossley. 
Both  the  Madrid  and  Barcelona  branches  of  the  War  Trade 
Board,  headed  by  Mr.  Waldmar  Chadbourne  of  the  former  office, 
and  Mr.  David  Harrell,  of  the  latter,  were  in  the  warmest  sym- 
pathy with  our  work,  and  gave  every  possible  assistance  and 
encouragement.  Preston  Morris  Smith  of  the  War  Trade  Board 
did  almost  as  much  work  for  the  Committee  on  Public  Informa- 
tion as  for  his  own  department,  all  without  recompense  and  for 
the  good  of  the  cause. 

Among  the  Spanish  gentlemen  who  aided  the  cause  in  many 
and  varied  ways  may  be  named  Senor  I.  DeMora  of  The  Pic- 
torial Review;  Senator  Paloma  of  Seville;  Sorolla,  the  painter; 
Azorin,  Ariquistain,  and  Aznar,  three  of  the  most  famous  edi- 
torial writers;  the  entire  personnel  of  the  Fabra  News  Agency, 
headed  by  Senor  A.  Mato;  and  Ledesma  and  Villeseca,  the 
motion-picture  distributors. 

On  my  own  staff  particular  credit  is  due  to  my  secretary  and 
personal  representative,  Senor  Jose  M.  Gay,  an  American  citi- 
zen of  Filipino  descent,  a  lawyer  and  a  thorough  patriot.  Next 
to  Senor  Gay  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Collins  and  to  Prof.  Romero- 
Navarro. 

Every  American  in  Spain  loyally  assisted,  but  particular  ser- 
vice was  rendered  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  American  Chamber 
of  Commerce  of  Barcelona,  headed  by  Messrs.  Brewer,  van  Tress, 
and  Preston  M.  Smith,  all  of  whom  could  be  relied  upon  to  do 
any  work  that  seemed  necessary  in  their  territory.  And  above 
all,  the  most  effective  argument  was  the  work  of  our  army  and 
navy.  As  our  campaign  progressed,  the  pro-German  tendency 
of  Spain  began  perceptibly  to  fade,  and  when  Spain  sent  its 
peremptory  note  to  Germany  regarding  the  sinking  of  Spanish 
merchant-ships  we  felt  that  the  climax  of  our  efforts  had  been 
reached. 

346 


THE  WORK  IN  SPAIN 

As  evidencing  the  value  of  the  Committee's  work  in 
Spain,  carried  forward  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Marion, 
the  Madrid  correspondent  of  The  Christian  Science  Monitor 
wrote  as  follows  under  date  of  October  23,  1918: 

A  development  of  the  popular  attitude  that  has  been  most 
marked  in  recent  months,  and  has  become  a  significant  feature 
of  Spanish  inclination,  has  been  a  sincere,  anxious,  and  deep 
interest  that  Spain  has  begun  to  take  in  all  that  concerns  the 
United  States,  and  especially  on  her  productive  and  industrial 
side.  .  .  .  Demonstrations  by  cinema  pictures  and  in  other  ways 
of  how  things  are  done  in  America  have  been  greatly  appreciated. 
So  have  the  object-lessons  of  what  the  Americans  have  been  doing 
in  the  way  of  metamorphosis  in  France  in  various  directions. 
An  indication  of  the  new  state  of  interest  that  Spain  feels  in 
regard  to  American  institutions,  systems,  and  so  forth,  is  fur- 
nished by  the  long  articles  that  continually  appear  about  them 
in  some  of  the  daily  newspapers,  especially  in  the  newer  journals. 
Lectures  on  similar  subjects  are  increasingly  popular,  and  multi- 
tudinous papers  have  been  read  before  the  members  of  literary 
and  scientific  institutions  concerning  different  aspects  of  Amer- 
ican development. 

In  this  connection  it  is  of  special  interest  to  point  out  that 
at  the  present  time  Senor  Miguel-Navarro,  professor  of  Spanish 
language  and  literature  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  is 
in  the  country  and  has  been  delivering  some  pointed  discourses 
which  have  received  close  attention  and  have  been  reported  in 
detail  in  the  newspapers. 

And  on  December  11,  1918,  The  Monitor  said: 

What  may  be  called  the  Wilson  cult  is  truly  making  aston- 
ishing progress  in  Spain,  as  shall  be  shown.  Three  months  ago 
the  President  of  the  United  States  was  known  but  little  to  the 
general  community.  To-day  there  is  hardly  a  city  of  any  con- 
sequence in  Spain  whose  newspapers  are  not  devoting  innumerable 
columns  to  articles  upon  his  career,  his  views  in  general,  and  his 
present  actions,  with  occasional  personal  details. 


XI 

THE  WORK   IN   SCANDINAVIA 

FROM  the  very  beginning  of  the  World  War,  Sweden 
was  a  paradise  for  the  German  propagandists,  many 
natural  causes  creating  a  very  intense  sympathy  for  the 
Kaiser's  cause  both  among  the  people  generally  and  in 
the  government  itself.  Norway,  by  reason  of  the  de- 
struction of  her  shipping  by  German  submarines,  was 
strongly  pro-Ally,  but  in  Denmark  the  situation  was  almost 
as  bad  as  in  Sweden.  In  the  first  place  there  was  the 
delicacy  of  Denmark's  position  proceeding  from  geograph- 
ical considerations  that  made  her  absolutely  helpless. 
When  Denmark  lost  Schleswig,  and  the  Kiel  Canal  was 
built,  there  disappeared  the  last  hope  of  successfully  de- 
fending Copenhagen  from  attack  by  the  Germans.  A 
fleet  of  airships  sailing  from  Warnemunde,  the  German 
Baltic  port,  could  lay  Copenhagen  in  ruins  in  five  hours. 
German  big  guns  could  bombard  Copenhagen  from  the 
Baltic.  They  could  also  sweep  the  peninsula  of  Jutland 
from  one  side  to  the  other.  Therein  was  the  secret  of  the 
Danish  fear. 

The  Germans  had  been  unloading  propaganda  on  Den- 
mark for  three  years,  working  through  a  strong  organi- 
zation that  included  a  number  of  young  authors  who  had 
been  unsuccessful  in  having  their  works  published.  The 
Germans  tempted  them  by  telling  them  they  would  see 
their  names  in  print  and  offered  free  publication  for  the 

348 


THE  WORK  IN  SCANDINAVIA 

books  they  wrote.  In  among  these  books  were  cleverly 
sandwiched  others  full  of  German  propaganda.  These  books 
were  issued  from  a  large  publishing-house  and  later  another 
smaller  firm  was  added.  They  had  a  clientele  of  from 
one  hundred  thousand  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
The  Germans  also  tempted  newspapers  which  were  known 
to  be  in  financial  difficulties,  by  offering  them  paying 
advertising  contracts  and  a  supply  of  printing  paper  at 
considerably  less  cost  than  they  were  able  to  get  it  from 
Allied  sources.  This  paper  was  to  be  delivered  free  at 
the  plant,  and  ink  and  printing-machines  were  also  offered. 
The  leader  of  the  German  propaganda  was  Louis  vom 
Kohl,  of  an  old  Danish  family,  and  a  clever  author".  He 
and  his  associates  bought  up  a  chain  of  eight  Danish  maga- 
zines, and  while  none  of  the  more  influential  ones  fell  into 
their  clutches,  the  publicity  influence  wielded  by  the 
group  was  very  real. 

To  Denmark  we  sent  George  Edward  Waldemar  Riis, 
an  able  newspaper  man  himself,  but  possessing  added 
values  by  being  the  son  of  that  great  Danish-American, 
Jacob  Riis.  When  Mr.  Riis  arrived  in  Denmark  he  found 
no  adequate  conception  of  America's  motives  of  the  goal 
we  sought  to  attain,  of  what  we  were  capable  of  doing 
under  pressure  of  great  necessity,  and  what  our  partici- 
pation and  final  triumph  would  mean  to  the  small  nations 
of  Europe.  When  his  work  ceased  Denmark  understood 
us  as  never  before.  America's  work  had  been  carried 
into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  kingdom.  The  spirit 
of  America  had  been  photographed  for  the  Danes  by  word 
of  mouth,  by  written  article,  and  by  picture,  so  that  they 
saw  us  clearly  and  comprehended  us.  Mr.  Riis  found 
them  looking  through  glasses  darkly.  He  left  them  with 
a  new  vision  of  our  people,  our  activities,  and  the  lofty 
principles  which  governed  us.  Our  material  appeared 
in  every  publication  of  any  importance  in  the  land  and  our 

349 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

pictures  were  displayed  in  towns  which  had  never  seen 
American  war  film.  He  won  powerful  newspapers  to  our 
side;  he  made  people  our  lasting  friends,  for  he  taught 
them  that  our  fight  was  for  Denmark  as  well  as  ourselves; 
that  America  had  no  ax  to  grind;  that  we  sought  gain  of 
neither  land  nor  gold;  that  we  strove  to  attain  only  peace 
and  universal  justice.  An  idea  of  the  activities  may  be 
gained  by  these  extracts  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Riis : 

Denmark  was  tired  of  propaganda  when  I  came  and  if  we  had 
attempted  to  put  out  material  plainly  tagged  as  such  it  would 
have  gone  into  the  waste-basket.  I  adopted  a  new  line  of  en- 
deavor. I  went  to  the  editors  and  told  them  frankly  what  we 
were  aiming  at.  I  hid  nothing.  I  said  we  were  conducting  a 
news  bureau.  Before  I  did  that  I  went  to  the  chief  censor,  Mr. 
Marinus  Yde  (one  of  the  fairest,  ablest  men  I  ever  met),  and  was 
perfectly  frank  with  him.  I  showed  him  our  files  and  said  he 
might  come  back  and  look  at  our  office  at  any  time.  We  strove 
to,  and  we  did,  convince  the  people  that  we  were  there  not  so 
much  to  advertise  our  wares  as  to  bring  about  a  better  relation- 
ship, a  mutual  understanding  between  our  country  and  theirs 
as  to  the  aims,  objects,  and  purposes  of  each.  Frankness  on 
our  part  begot  frankness  on  their  part. 

We  did  not  feed  the  Danes  cut-arid-dried  propaganda.  We 
carefully  selected  those  articles  which  we  knew  the  Danish  pub- 
lications would  be  eager  for.  In  this  I  had  the  invaluable  aid 
of  Mr.  Herman  Bente,  my  assistant  director,  who  knew  the  likes 
and  dislikes  of  the  Danish  press  all  through  the  land.  We  let 
the  Danish  editors  know  that  we  were  running  a  straight  news 
bureau — that  we  had  news  of  interest  about  America  and  what 
was  going  on  behind  the  scenes  there.  We  did  not  urge  it  on 
them.  They  could  take  it  or  leave  it,  as  they  chose.  They 
took  it  and  called  for  more.  At  first  we  went  to  them.  Then 
they  came  to  us.  We  put  the  breath  of  life  in  dry  material. 
We  put  an  American  journalistic  punch  in  it.  We  aimed  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  pictures  in  short,  crisp  sentences  so  that  they 
would  hit  the  reader  between  the  eyes.  When  we  were  sending 
over  three  hundred  thousand  troops  a  month  I  figured  out  how 
many  men  that  would  mean  departing  from  our  shores  every 
minute,  and  wrote  a  short  story  stating  that  every  minute  so 

350 


THE  WORK  IN  SCANDINAVIA 

many  men  were  going  out  from  the  States  to  serve  under  the  flag. 
There  was  need  of  this.  The  Germans  had  said  that  we  were 
not  able  to  send  an  army.  They  said  that  such  troops  as  we  had 
were  ill  equipped.  We  were  able  to  convince  the  Danes  to  the 
contrary. 

When  the  great  American  offensive  at  St.  Mihiel  began  we 
received,  just  in  time,  a  picture  of  Pershing,  but  no  written 
matter  with  it.  The  people  of  Denmark  were  unable  to  visualize 
Pershing.  What  manner  of  man  was  he?  What  was  his  previous 
military  experience?  What  had  he  done  that  he  had  earned  the 
right  to  lead  the  American  armies?  From  my  material  I  wrote  a 
column  story  which  appeared,  along  with  the  picture,  on  the  first 
page  of  the  second  largest  newspaper  in  Denmark,  Berlingske 
Tidende,  the  time  of  the  publication  fitting  in  with  the  beginning 
of  the  offensive. 

When  I  found,  on  first  coming,  that  nobody  knew  just  what 
was  going  on  behind  the  scenes  at  home,  I  sat  down  and  wrote 
an  article  telling  what  I  had  seen  of  the  strength  and  power  of 
our  war  preparations,  letting  them  know  that  we  did  not  want 
this  war,  but  when  we  found  that  it  had  to  be  fought  we  became 
one  great  workshop  in  which  all  the  people  were  working  unitedly 
to  end  the  war  as  quickly  and  as  effectively  as  possible.  When 
I  found  that  the  Danes  had  only  an  imperfect  idea  of  President 
Wilson,  how  he  rose  to  fame,  what  he  meant  in  the  life  of  the 
people,  how  he  was  trying  to  interpret  the  spirit  of  his  country, 
just  what  he  stood  for  and  what  he  strove  to  attain,  I  wrote  a 
three-column  story,  "Wilson,  Hope  of  the  World,'*  in  which  I 
endeavored  properly  to  interpret  him  and  his  principles.  Along 
with  it  I  tried  to  mirror  the  spirit  of  my  people.  That  story  was 
favorably  commented  on  all  over  Denmark.  It  was  not  only 
printed  in  one  of  the  largest  of  the  Copenhagen  newspapers, 
Berlingske  Tidende,  but  ran  the  rounds  of  the  provincial  press. 
It  was  published  in  four  provincial  papers,  four  of  the  leading 
papers,  and  among  others  in  the  leading  newspaper  of  Ribe, 
three  miles  from  the  German  border.  That  was  just  where  I 
wanted  to  get  it. 

I  made  several  speeches  in  Copenhagen  and  in  the  provinces 
after  they  had  asked  me  to  do  so.  I  delivered  one  at  a  large 
concentration  camp  for  soldiers  at  Sandholm.  I  was  asked  to, 
and  did,  deliver  one  in  the  auditorium  of  the  chief  Copenhagen 
newspaper,  Politiken,  just  before  I  left.  I  made  myself  a  personal 

351 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

friend  of  the  editors.  I  called  on  some  of  them  almost  daily.  I 
went  to  the  provinces,  and  to  the  editors  there  I  explained  what 
we  were  trying  to  do.  These  calls  were  followed  by  an  encourag- 
ing result  in  the  greater  use  of  our  material. 

We  kept  careful  track  of  what  the  newspapers  were  saying, 
either  to  our  detriment  or  to  our  credit.  When  they  said  any- 
thing which  was  incorrect,  and  we  knew  it  to  be  incorrect,  we 
went  after  them.  When  one  newspaper,  which  had  been  printing 
erroneous  reports  about  us,  wrote  vicious  subheads  on  a  news 
article  dealing  with  an  address  delivered  by  the  President  and 
referred  to  him  as  the  "Trustland's  President,"  I  called  them  to 
account,  and  the  second  editor  came  to  my  office  and  apologized. 
He  did  more.  A  two-column  article  was  written  praising  our 
work.  The  newspaper  swung  over  so  that  it  took  with  eagerness 
articles  sent  out  by  us,  attributing  them  to  our  Committee.  This 
newspaper  published  two  columns  of  Justice  Clark's  important 
decision  on  the  eight-hour  law  and  credited  it  to  our  Committee. 
The  story  went  the  rounds  of  the  Social  Democratic  papers. 

Every  magazine  of  any  prominence  using  pictures  published 
ours.  We  had  more  pictures  in  the  magazines  than  any  of  the 
other  Allied  bureaus  were  able  to  show.  Sometimes  half  a  dozen 
such  pictures  would  appear  in  an  issue  of  a  single  magazine  hav- 
ing a  circulation  of  200,000.  Many  hundreds  of  pictures  were 
sent  out  by  us  through  the  Pressens  Illustrations  Bureau,  which 
serves  between  200  and  300  publications  in  Scandinavia,  and  this 
material,  sent  out  in  Copenhagen,  was  published  in  Norway 
as  well. 

Copenhagen  was  filled  with  our  pictures.  They  were  posted 
in  places  conveniently  located.  The  Germans  afterward  fol- 
lowed us  up  and  put  up  pictures  where  we  did.  We  put  them 
up  on  side-streets  where  pictures  had  not  been  shown  before  and 
in  outlying  districts.  We  sent  them  to  provincial  towns,  such  as 
Aarhus,  Esbjerg,  Ribe,  Kallundborg,  Roskilde,  and  other  places. 
We  grouped  them  so  that  people  could  see  the  gradual  develop- 
ment of  small-arms  manufacture,  of  the  progress  of  the  Browning 
machine-gun,  of  the  flying-machine,  and  we  put  red-lettered 
captions  and  stories  under  them  which  conveyed  a  ready  lesson 
to  the  man  in  the  street.  These  pictures  were  viewed  daily  by 
thousands. 

We  gave  pictures  to  the  British  Legation  to  be  used  in  their 
illustrated  booklets,  and  to  lecturers.  We  even  paid  for  lantern 

352 


THE  WORK  IN  SCANDINAVIA 

slides  for  such  men  as  Winding,  one  of  the  prominent  journalists 
on  the  staff  of  Poiitiken,  who  had  been  a  correspondent  at  the 
front  and  who  afterward  delivered  lectures  telling  what  American 
troops  were  doing  in  the  war,  what  they  were  like,  and  the  spirit 
which  actuated  them. 

We  furnished  school-teachers  with  printed  material  in  the  shape 
of  articles  or  pamphlets,  likewise  writers.  We  sent  a  volume  of 
President  Wilson's  messages  to  a  large  publishing-house,  which 
got  them  out  in  Danish. 

We  took  up  the  Schleswig  question  at  a  time  when  scores  of 
persons  came  to  see  me  to  ask  that  the  United  States  help  to  adjust 
the  Schleswig  problem  on  a  basis  of  justice  to  the  Danes,  and  I 
sent  home  cables,  articles,  and  pamphlets  dealing  exhaustively 
with  the  entire  Schleswig  question.  I  wrote  home  about  it, 
and  even  sent  a  letter  to  the  President,  pointing  out  that  the 
people  of  the  small  neutral  nation  which  had  suffered  so  griev- 
ously looked  to  him  in  the  wistful  hope  that  he  would  right  an 
ancient  wrong  and  strike  off  the  shackles  of  the  Danes  in  Schleswig 
who  for  fifty  long  years  had  felt  the  tyranny  and  oppression  of 
Prussian  rule. 

When  Mr.  Edgar  Sisson's  Bolshevist  disclosures  first  reached 
Denmark  by  cable,  I  got  the  complete  text,  and  that  night  I 
called  a  meeting  of  my  staff  and  instructed  them  to  go  get  out 
the  entire  text  on  our  duplicating  machine  first  thing  in  the  morn- 
ing. I  invited  the  chief  censor  to  sit  in  on  our  talk.  It  was  not 
necessary  for  us  to  get  it  out  on  the  duplicating  machine,  for  the 
newspapers  were  impressed  with  its  extreme  importance  as  news 
and  the  next  day  all  the  Danish  newspapers  gave  it  all  the  space 
that  was  possible.  The  Social-Demokraten,  the  strongest  organ 
among  the  Socialists  of  Denmark,  alone  published  eight  columns 
of  the  revelations.  The  newspapers  continued  to  publish  the 
story  for  three  days.  Later  we  got  rid  of  between  ten  thousand 
and  fifteen  thousand  copies  of  the  disclosures  printed  in  pam- 
phlet form,  part  in  Danish  and  part  in  Russian.  The  Russians 
who  were  combating  Bolshevism  snapped  them  up  eagerly. 

We  published  three  pamphlets  in  Denmark.  One  was  by 
Booth  Tarkington,  dealing  with  our  awakening;  another  was 
by  Ernest  Poole  and  described  the  spirit  of  the  army;  a  third 
was  an  appeal  to  the  reason  of  the  German  people  written  by 
a  Captain  Helwig,  born  in  Germany,  but  an  American  serving 
as  a  captain  in  our  army. 

353 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  last-named  pamphlet  was  published  in  German.  It  was 
distributed  in  the  last  months  of  the  war.  From  one  place  alone 
we  received  reports  that  it  had  been  given  into  the  hands  of  about 
three  hundred  Germans.  Copies  of  that  pamphlet  were  left 
at  all  hotels  and  restaurants  frequented  by  Germans.  We  sent 
many  into  Germany. 

I  suggested  and  helped  to  arrange  the  visit  to  our  country 
of  the  twelve  Scandinavian  journalists.  That  visit  did  much 
to  cement  the  friendly  relations  between  ourselves,  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark.  When  they  returned  they  wrote  many 
admirable  articles  showing  a  ready  understanding  of  our  people 
and  our  spirit  and  correcting  such  impressions  as  that  we  were 
a  dollar-chasing  land  engrossed  merely  in  our  own  selfish  con- 
siderations. Emil  Marot,  one  of  the  Danes  and  a  member  of 
Parliament,  gave,  on  his  return,  a  series  of  twenty-five  lectures 
in  which  he  explained  us  to  his  people. 

I  have  seen  a  change  of  feeling  come  over  people  who  had  not 
understood  us  before.  I  have  seen  a  new  understanding  of  Pres- 
ident Wilson  come  into  the  minds  of  the  Danes,  so  that  they 
placed  him  on  a  plane  beside  their  greatest  national  heroes. 
I  have  known  them  to  cut  out  the  photographs  of  him  sent  out 
by  us,  which  appeared  in  Danish  papers,  and  place  them  in  a 
sort  of  family  shrine.  Yes,  I  have  known  the  rough  farmers 
to  do  that  on  the  lonely  heath  lands.  I  know  that  the  people 
of  the  small  neutral  nations  of  Europe,  soul-sick  with  war,  yearn- 
ing for  an  enduring  peace,  have  looked  to  him  in  the  hour  of 
trial  as  the  great  deliverer,  the  Moses  in  a  wilderness  of  trouble. 
They  looked  to  him  to  lead  them  to  the  light,  to  lasting  peace, 
to  bind  the  nations  in  the  great  brotherhood  of  which  so 
many  millions  dream.  They  believed  in  him  and  in  us  when 
I  left. 

Mr.  Eric  Palmer,  the  Committee's  news  representative 
in  Sweden  and  Norway,  won  to  success,  as  did  Mr.  Riis, 
and  from  first  to  last  enjoyed  the  powerful  and  in- 
telligent support  of  the  American  Minister,  Mr.  Ira  Nel- 
son Morris.  Finland  also  came  within  the  scope  of  Mr. 
Palmer's  activities,  and  the  following  tribute  from  Thorn- 
well  Haynes,  our  consul  at  Helsingfors,  is  not  without  its 
own  interest: 

854 


THE  WORK  IN  SCANDINAVIA 

So  far  the  results  in  Finland  of  the  work  of  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  have  been  most  gratifying,  especially 
considering  the  irritating  obstacles  to  be  overcome  in  the  way 
of  pre-existing  German  propaganda.  In  whatever  direction 
the  faces  of  the  Finns  were  turned,  there  flourished  German  arti- 
cles and  maps  and  pictures,  German  books  and  newspapers,  even 
little  Finns  toddling  in  and  out  of  newly  established  German 
kindergartens.  Bookstore  windows  contained  more  German 
literature  than  Swedish  or  Finnish,  and  such  superior  German 
war  maps  were  broadcasted  that  even  Allied  consulates  bought 
them  for  reference.  A  daily  paper,  printed  in  German  and  re- 
ceiving financial  support  from  the  Finnish  Treasury,  made  its 
appearance  in  the  capital  every  evening.  German  uniforms 
were  seen  everywhere,  Finnish-German  clubs  were  formed  and 
German  banks  established.  In  fact,  as  far  as  propaganda  was 
concerned,  Finland  was  a  German  vassal  state. 

The  work  done  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information, 
though  single-handed  and  alone,  has  contributed  wonderfully 
toward  saving  the  situation.  In  this  respect  I  consider  the  dis- 
crimination shown  in  the  selection  of  the  news  by  far  the  most 
deserving.  It  has  been  done  so  as  to  create  no  irritation,  and  yet 
quietly  demonstrated  its  force  in  supplanting  William  by  Wilson 
and  Militarism  by  America. 

While  of  course  the  turning  of  battle  on  the  western  front 
was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  turning  of  public  opinion  in 
Finland  toward  the  Entente,  the  work  done  by  the  Committee 
has  most  effectively  cleared  the  way  and  prepared  a  suitable 
soil  wherein  the  unwillingly  changed  public  opinion  can  reason- 
ably and  conscientiously  grow. 

Guy  Croswell  Smith,  just  out  of  Russia,  was  left  in  Stock- 
holm by  Mr.  Sisson  in  1918  and  given  charge  of  film  dis- 
tribution in  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark.  This  brief 
extract  from  his  report  will  indicate  the  manner  in  which 
he  handled  his  problem: 

Upon  investigation  of  the  situation  I  found  that  an  immense 
amount  of  German  propaganda  and  drama  films  was  being 
presented  in  the  picture  theaters  throughout  these  countries. 
The  Scandinavians  like  films  very  much  and  to  the  large  attend- 

355 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

ance  at  the  five  hundred-odd  theaters  was  constantly  being 
conveyed  a  broad  influence — always,  of  course,  for  the  German 
point  of  view.  The  propaganda  films  showed  the  success  of 
the  Germans  and  Austrians,  scenes  in  German  cities,  munition- 
factories,  etc.,  all  tending  to  demonstrate  how  Germany  was 
winning  the  war.  And  there  was  absolutely  no  representation 
as  to  what  the  United  States  was  doing.  In  Sweden  particu- 
larly the  German  film  propaganda  was  especially  damaging 
toward  the  existence  of  any  ideas  of  fair  neutrality  for  the  reason 
that  the  Swedes  were  practically  all  inclined  to  be  pro-German 
and  the  influence  of  these  films  was  a  constant  stimulus  in  the 
same  direction.  I  foresaw  that  our  films  would  have  to  be 
forced  upon  the  theaters  and  distributing  companies  in  the 
same  way. 

The  supply  of  American  drama  films  in  the  country  was  limited 
on  account  of  the  embargo  that  had  existed,  which  for  a  time 
had  excluded  the  possibility  of  importing  films  from  the  United 
States.  This  condition  had  made  it  easy  for  the  German  film- 
producers  to  get  in  their  product,  but  they  sold  only  with 
the  provision  that  some  German  propaganda  subjects  would 
be  taken  with  the  drama  films. 

Shortly  before  my  arrival  in  Stockholm,  the  export  prohibition 
on  American  drama  films  had  been  provisionally  raised  and  ship- 
ments again  began  to  come,  addressed  to  the  American  legations 
in  the  various  countries.  Before  releasing  these  to  the  con- 
signees, they  signed  agreements  that  the  films  would  never  be 
shown  in  any  program  with  a  German  drama  or  propaganda  film 
and  that  one  reel  of  American  "war  stuff'*  would  always  be  shown 
with  them.  This  agreement  they  in  turn  made  with  the  theaters 
before  distributing.  The  largest  three  companies  controlling 
theaters  in  Scandinavia  further  agreed  that  they  would  never 
permit  any  films  previously  received  to  be  shown  in  the  same 
program  with  German  subjects.  Inasmuch  as  American 
films  were  much  more  popular  with  the  public  on  account  of 
their  superiority,  the  effect  of  these  agreements  was  quickly 
evident.  German  films  were  gradually  forced  out  to  such  an 
extent  that  in  three  months  after  my  arrival  it  was  difficult  to 
find  a  theater  showing  German  drama  films,  and  the  German 
propaganda  films  had  been  completely  driven  out  and  replaced 
by  our  official  films.  I  kept  close  check  on  the  programs 
throughout  the  three  countries  and  in  the  few  instances  where 

356 


THE  WORK  IN  SCANDINAVIA 

theaters  did  not  keep  their  agreement  and  showed  a  German 
film  their  ability  to  get  American  film  was  discontinued.  During 
the  eight  months  I  was  in  Scandinavia  I  distributed  about 
one  hundred  thousand  feet  of  official  films.  This  included 
American  industrial  subjects;  Hearst-Pathe  and  Universal 
weeklies  showing  the  Allies'  war  activities  and  events  in  the 
United  States;  "Pershing's  Crusaders"  and  the  Allied  War 
Review.  These  pictures  were  first  shown  in  the  best  theaters 
of  the  capitals — Stockholm,  Christiania,  and  Copenhagen — and 
then  went  in  rotation  to  the  smaller  houses  in  these  cities  and 
afterward  throughout  the  other  cities  and  towns  of  the  three 
countries.  Thus,  where  previously  this  immense  number  of 
theater-goers  had  seen  the  war  news  only  through  German  eyes, 
they  now  saw  America  and  Americans — at  home,  at  work,  and 
under  arms,  laying  aside  the  pursuits  of  peace  to  fight  in  defense 
of  freedom. 
24 


XII 

THE   WORK   IN   THE   ORIENT 

CHINESE  dislike  of  England  and  Chinese  hatred  of 
Japan  pointed  clearly  to  the  fact  that  the  Allied 
fight  for  public  opinion  in  China  would  have  to  be  made 
by  America  and  Americans.  The  Germans  had  carried 
on  a  very  extensive  and  expensive  propaganda,  and,  while 
unmarked  by  any  particular  cleverness,  the  work  swept 
forward  to  success  on  the  wave  of  anti-Japanese,  anti- 
British  feeling.  A  principal  feature  of  the  Hun  activity 
was  a  news  agency  that  supplied  a  daily  cable  service  from 
Berlin  to  the  Chinese  press.  Pay  was  taken  in  the  form  of 
advertising  space,  which  in  turn  was  allotted  to  the  German 
houses  doing  business  in  China.  As  a  consequence,  both 
news  and  advertising  columns  were  regularly  poisoned,  and 
China  stood  in  danger  of  seeing  the  World  War  through 
Hun  spectacles  only. 

Reuters,  the  official  news  agency,  was  in  control  of  the 
field  as  far  as  Allied  information  was  concerned.  All 
American  news,  for  instance,  went  into  China  by  way  of 
London,  and  the  part  sent  on  by  Reuters  dealt  mainly 
with  our  crimes,  corruptions,  and  commercial  hypocrisies. 
Our  policies  were  never  referred  to  except  when  British 
interests  were  affected.  In  addition  to  Reuters  there  was 
a  separate  propaganda  organization  that  seemed  to  have 
no  other  object  than  to  preach  Great  Britain's  preponder- 
ating part  in  the  war.  This  work  was  directed  from  three 

358 


THE  WORK  IN  THE  ORIENT 

headquarters:  (a)  the  British  colony  of  Hongkong;  (6) 
the  British  Legation  in  Peking;  (c)  the  British  consulate 
in  Shanghai.  Through  the  four  years  of  the  war  these 
three  agencies  worked  at  cross-purposes,  often  in  opposition 
to  one  another,  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  were  still  quarrel- 
ing over  which  one  of  the  three  should  run  the  show. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  plan  of  campaign  was 
different  in  each  place.  In  Shanghai  the  work  was  turned 
over  to  a  clerk  in  the  consulate,  who  worked  under  the 
direction  of  Reuters'  agent  and  the  British  consul.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  war  they  established  a  daily  Chinese 
newspaper  in  Shanghai,  at  a  cost  said  to  be  about  $125,000. 
A  great  deal  of  British  advertising  was  diverted-  to  this 
paper,  but  it  was  not  a  financial  success  and  reverted  to 
Chinese  ownership  after  the  armistice.  They  also  pub- 
lished a  fortnightly  war  magazine,  distributed  through 
British  firms.  In  the  establishment  of  these  publications 
the  British  ignored  existing  mediums  and  created  more  or 
less  resentment  among  Chinese  publishers.  A  daily  resume 
of  war  events  was  made  and  telegraphed  to  some  fifty  or 
sixty  points  in  the  Yangtze  Valley  to  Britishers,  who 
undertook  the  work  of  translating  these  messages  and 
securing  their  publication  in  the  Chinese  press.  This 
resume  was  also  published  in  handbill  form  and  seven 
thousand  distributed  in  Shanghai  each  afternoon.  In 
Peking  a  similar  resume  was  sent  to  the  newspapers  and 
once  a  week  a  poster  was  issued  giving  the  resume  of  the 
week's  news.  This  poster  was  put  up  by  the  police  in 
Peking  and  was  posted  in  the  waiting-rooms  of  the  British- 
controlled  railways.  The  Hongkong  committee  published 
daily  an  official  bulletin  in  English  giving  all  Reuters' 
telegrams.  This  was  sent  to  Chinese  officials. 

Through  a  connection  between  Reuters  and  the  Kokusai 
(the  official  Japanese  news  agency)  the  Japanese  were  able 
to  present  their  views  in  China,  as  news  sent  from  Tokio 

359 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

is  distributed  by  Reuters.  This  means  that  when  there 
was  a  controversial  issue  between  Japan  and  America, 
Japanese  views  were  given  the  widest  publicity  in  China, 
while  American  opinions  were  learned  only  after  they  had 
been  edited  in  London.  This  arrangement  between  the 
Kokusai  and  Reuters  was  similar  to  that  between  the 
Associated  Press  and  Reuters,  with  this  important  differ- 
ence— that  Japanese  news  was  sent  direct  to  China, 
while  American  news  sent  by  the  Associated  Press  had  to 
come  through  London. 

In  addition  to  this  arrangement  with  Reuters,  the 
Japanese  originated  a  semi-official  news  agency  which  sup- 
plied Far  Eastern  news  to  Chinese  publications.  Japanese 
consuls  acted  as  correspondents  for  this  agency,  the  de- 
spatches being  sent  in  code.  In  the  treaty  ports  the  Jap- 
anese adopted  the  policy  of  registering  Chinese  news- 
papers at  the  Japanese  consulate,  thereby  giving  them 
protection  against  Chinese  officials,  and  gaining  more  or 
less  control  over  the  papers.  In  addition  the  Japanese 
owned  a  number  of  Chinese  papers  and  secretly  controlled 
several  English-language  papers  by  means  of  loans  and 
subsidies.  None  of  the  Japanese  propaganda  was  directed 
toward  creating  a  sentiment  favorable  to  the  Allies,  but 
to  the  furtherance  of  Japan's  aims  in  China. 

French  propaganda  was  directed  from  Shanghai  and 
consisted  principally  in  the  publication  of  a  fortnightly 
magazine  of  about  sixteen  pages,  containing  pictures  and 
articles  about  the  war.  Several  posters  were  issued. 
About  two  months  before  the  signing  of  the  armistice  the 
French  wireless  station  in  Shanghai  got  in  touch  with  the 
Lyons  wireless  station  and  received  French  communiques 
daily.  These  were  handed  to  Reuters  for  distribution  to 
the  English  -  language  press  and  were  translated  into 
Chinese  by  the  French  consulate  and  sent  out  to  a  list 
of  about  thirty  Chinese  papers. 

360 


THE  WORK  IN  THE  ORIENT 

For  reasons  that  must  be  obvious,  Allied  propaganda  had 
failed  when  we  entered  the  field.  Our  first  approach  was 
through  Dr.  Paul  Reinsch,  our  Minister  in  Peking,  one 
of  the  five  or  six  members  of  the  diplomatic  service  that 
gave  the  Committee  unfailing  assistance  instead  of  enmity 
and  sabotage.  Through  his  arrangement,  our  wireless 
service  was  taken  out  of  the  air  by  the  legation  station 
in  Peking,  and  was  also  intercepted  at  Shanghai  by  the 
French  municipal  wireless  station.  In  both  places  the 
service  was  handed  to  Reuters  for  distribution,  but  we 
soon  discovered  that  this  distribution  was  anything  but 
adequate.  Mr.  Carl  Crow,  a  brilliant  correspondent  and 
a  man  who  knew  China  and  the  Chinese  intimately  and 
sympathetically,  was  soon  appointed  to  be  the  Committee's 
commissioner,  and  these  excerpts  from  his  report  tell  the 
story  of  his  conquest  of  the  problem. 

After  a  survey  of  the  situation  and  consultation  with  a  num- 
ber of  Americans  we  came  to  the  conclusion  (1)  that  Reuters, 
because  of  its  attitude  toward  American  news  and  its  indiffer- 
ence to  the  Chinese  press,  could  not  be  depended  on  to  give  the 
American  wireless  news  any  wide  distribution;  (2)  that  while 
the  publication  of  the  American  news  in  the  English-language 
press  of  the  Far  East  is  of  comparatively  little  importance, 
it  is  of  the  very  greatest  importance  that  it  be  published  in  Chi- 
nese newspapers;  (3)  that  there  was  no  existing  agency  for  the 
distribution  of  the  news  to  the  Chinese  press  and  that  one  must 
be  created. 

In  carrying  out  the  above  program  a  company  of  American  busi- 
ness and  professional  men  organized  the  Chinese-American  News 
Agency  (Oriental  News  Agency)  for  work  with  the  Chinese 
press.  In  the  mean  time  I  engaged  a  staff  of  translators  and 
trained  them  to  the  very  difficult  work  of  preparing  translations  of 
American  war  news  which  would  be  intelligible  to  the  average 
newspaper  reader.  In  due  time  the  news  agency  began  sending 
out  its  daily  report,  which  included  the  American  wireless  news, 
special  articles,  Chinese  news,  etc.  The  report  went  to  more 
than  three  hundred  Chinese  papers  and  was  published  in  part 

361 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

in  practically  all  of  them.  There  was  no  other  news  agency 
of  a  national  character  in  China  and  this  agency  developed  into 
an  organization  occupying  the  Chinese  field  as  fully  as  the 
Associated  Press  occupies  the  field  at  home.  The  only  aid  given 
the  agency  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  was  to 
supply  it  with  the  translations  for  distribution  to  the  newspapers 
and  to  pay  it  for  the  performance  of  specific  functions  (distri- 
bution of  pictures,  presidential  addresses,  etc.)  which  the  agency 
could  perform  economically.  In  working  out  the  above  plans 
I  was  in  close  co-operation  with  Doctor  Reinsch  and  Mr.  J.  B. 
Powell,  with  whom  I  consulted  regarding  every  phase  of  my  work. 

In  order  to  distribute  literature  and  collect  information  about 
Chinese  in  the  interior  it  was  necessary  to  secure  the  co-operation 
of  a  number  of  volunteer  agents.  These  were  secured,  about 
four  hundred  in  number,  from  the  ranks  of  the  American  mission- 
aries, teachers,  and  Standard  Oil  employees.  These  men  under- 
took their  work  with  great  enthusiasm  and  constituted  an  active 
body  of  agents  of  tremendous  value.  It  would  have  been  im- 
possible for  any  other  country  to  organize  a  body  of  this  sort 
because  no  other  country  was  so  ably  represented  in  the  interior 
of  China. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  the  Brit- 
ish-American Tobacco  Company,  the  Singer  Sewing  Machine 
Company,  and  other  American  concerns  in  China,  we  had  at 
our  disposal  several  thousand  stations  where  pictures  and  posters 
could  be  displayed.  These  stations  were  the  sales  agencies  of 
the  above  concerns  in  almost  every  town  and  village  in  the 
country,  exceptionally  well  located  on  busy  streets  where  pict- 
ures received  the  greatest  possible  attention. 

I  collected  the  principal  addresses  of  President  Wilson  and 
gave  them  to  the  Commercial  Press,  a  large  Chinese  publishing- 
house,  with  the  suggestion  that  they  bring  out  a  Chinese  edition. 
This  was  published,  and  the  first  edition  was  all  sold  out  in  two 
weeks,  compelling  a  second  edition.  This  volume  became  the 
best  seller  in  China,  and  the  Commercial  Press  is  pushing  the 
sale  of  the  book  to  Chinese  schools. 

As  a  means  of  promptly  reaching  the  ruling  class  in  China, 
it  was  decided  to  compile  a  mailing-list,  which  would  comprise 
the  names  of  the  real  Chinese  leaders  of  thought  in  each  com- 
munity. The  help  of  the  volunteer  agents  mentioned  above 
was  enlisted  and  the  work  of  compiling  the  list  went  forward 

362 


THE  WORK  IN  THE  ORIENT 

rapidly.  I  included  the  names  and  addresses  of  all  members 
of  the  Provincial  Assembly,  all  members  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  all  officials  of  or  above  the  rank  of  magistrate,  and 
all  Chinese  scholars.  In  the  end  we  had  the  most  valuable 
mailing-list  in  China,  consisting  of  about  twenty-five  thousand 
names.  As  far  as  funds  at  our  disposal  permitted,  I  sent  to  each 
name  on  this  list  a  copy  of  President  Wilson's  addresses. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  program  of  work  outlined  above 
contemplated  propaganda  among  the  ruling  classes.  It  did  not 
take  into  consideration  the  student  classes,  because  funds  were 
not  sufficient  for  work  in  both.  The  students  are  more  easily 
reached  and  influenced,  and  if  it  were  possible  to  plan  and  carry 
out  a  program  to  extend  over  a  period  of  years,  great  good 
would  result  from  it  in  the  future.  The  most  obvious  and  direct 
way  of  reaching  the  students  would  be  by  distribution  of  liter- 
ature in  both  English  and  Chinese  to  mission  and  government 
schools.  There  are  great  possibilities  in  a  sustained  program 
among  the  students.  The  text-book  publishing  industry  is  at 
present  undeveloped  and  it  would  be  possible  to  secure  the  use 
in  Chinese  schools  of  text-books  planned  and  edited  by  Americans. 
This  would  not  involve  any  expenditures  for  publication,  as  the 
books  would  be  published  and  their  use  developed  by  Chinese 
publishing-houses.  Some  American  university  should  send  a 
man  to  China  for  several  years  to  make  a  study  of  this  situation. 
He  should  be  supplied  with  funds  enough  to  enable  him  to  organ- 
ize a  translation  bureau.  The  result  of  his  studies  would  doubt- 
less disclose  many  ways  in  which  America  can  be  of  benefit  to 
China  in  developing  her  educational  system.  Several  American 
text-book  companies  have  interested  themselves  in  this  field, 
but  chiefly  as  a  market  for  English  text-books. 

Japan,  strangely  enough,  presented  few  problems.  In 
the  first  place,  Ambassador  Morris  put  his  personal  and 
official  influence  behind  the  Committee  at  the  very  outset 
and  drove  through  an  arrangement  that  worked  splendidly. 
The  daily  Compub  service  was  turned  over  to  the  Kokusai, 
the  official  Japanese  news  agency,  for  translation  and  dis- 
tribution to  the  Japanese  press.  A  clipping  bureau  main- 
tained a  constant  check  on  the  operation  and  never  at 
any  time  did  we  have  cause  to  complain,  either  as  to  the 

363 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

distribution  itself  or  with  respect  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  Japanese  newspapers  printed  it. 

In  the  matter  of  films,  we  found  that  the  Universal 
Company  had  built  up  a  good  Oriental  business,  and  the 
Ambassador  entered  into  a  working  agreement  with  its 
representative,  Mr.  Cochran,  that  gave  us  the  services  of 
an  established  organization.  Mr.  Cochran  gave  generously 
of  his  titne  and  effort  and  the  Committee's  pictures  became 
feature  attractions  in  the  provinces  as  well  as  in  the  cities. 


XIII 

THE  WORK   IN   SOUTH   AMERICA 

SOUTH  AMERICA  and  Central  America,  like  Mexico 
and  Spain,  were  parade-grounds  for  the  agents  of 
Germany.  Colombia  and  Venezuela  were  bitterly  hostile, 
and  in  every  other  country  there  was  a  distinct  distrust 
of  our  sincerity  and  a  very  lively  fear  of  our  strength. 
In  every  city  and  in  every  town  Germans  were  prominent 
in  business,  and  the  constant  stream  of  money  from  Berlin 
subsidized  newspapers  and  individuals  to  make  a  daily  and 
direct  attack  upon  the  United  States. 

Lieut.  F.  E.  Ackerman,  a  newspaper  man  of  wide  ex- 
perience, was  borrowed  from  the  navy  and  sent  on  a  tour 
of  South  America  to  study  methods  of  news  distribution 
and  to  organize  offices  for  the  Committee.  He  visited 
Pernambuco,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Santiago,  Lima,  Valparaiso, 
Buenos  Aires,  and  numerous  other  South  American  cities, 
and  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of  American  diplomatic 
and  consular  officials  soon  had  an  intensive  publicity 
campaign  on  throughout  South  America. 

The  commissioner  selected  for  Argentina,  Uruguay,  and 
Paraguay  was  H.  H.  Sevier,  a  newspaper  man  of  Austin, 
Texas,  and  from  his  headquarters  in  Buenos  Aires  he 
planned  and  perfected  a  publicity  organization  that  swept 
through  the  cities  and  reached  down  to  the  very  villages. 
There  is  not  space  for  the  whole  report  of  Mr.  Sevier,  but 
organization  and  results  may  be  gathered  from  the  fol- 
lowing excerpts: 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  value  and  importance  of  such  a  service  may  be  more  fully 
appreciated  if  it  is  understood  that  before  the  advent  of  your 
Committee  the  amount  of  news  of  any  character  concerning 
the  United  States  carried  by  South  American  publications  was 
practically  negligible.  The  European  news  agencies  occupied 
the  field  without  opposition  of  consequence.  The  French  and 
English  associations  naturally  devoted  their  services  to  the 
interests  of  their  own  countries.  The  affairs  of  the  United 
States,  even  our  war  activities,  were  treated  lightly.  Under 
subsidies  of  the  German  government  and  German  capitalists 
three  daily  newspapers  were  published  in  Buenos  Aires.  One, 
WTitten  in  the  Spanish  language,  was  a  positive  force,  because 
of  the  skill  with  which  it  distorted  the  facts  and  the  cleverness 
of  its  editorial  misrepresentation  of  the  cause  of  the  Allies.  The 
other  two,  printed  in  German,  gave  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
Teutonic  element. 

The  percentage  of  literacy  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay,  particu- 
larly, is  remarkably  high,  and  every  newspaper  of  any  impor- 
tance at  all  in  those  countries  has  a  considerable  following. 
The  good  will  and  co-operation  of  the  leading  journals  were 
secured  at  the  beginning,  and  within  a  reasonable  length  of  time 
90  per  cent,  of  the  publications,  of  all  classes  in  the  countries 
named,  were  receiving  and  using  our  service.  The  newspapers 
of  the  cities  and  towns  carried  daily  a  specially  prepared  cable 
service  covering  official  announcements  from  Washington,  the 
development  of  our  war  preparations,  and  the  extent  of  our 
participation  in  the  actual  fighting;  the  progress  of  our  ship- 
building, munitions  manufacture,  and  the  financial,  moral,  and 
other  aid  extended  to  our  allies.  These  news  stories  were  fre- 
quently played  up  with  illustrations  of  our  air  and  sea  craft, 
our  camps,  cantonments,  and  trenches,  our  factories,  and  our 
guns;  and  with  photographs  of  our  statesmen,  soldiers,  and  citi- 
zen workers  in  every  branch  of  war  activity. 

Weekly  and  class  publications  were  regularly  supplied  with 
special  articles  and  illustrations,  carefully  prepared  to  meet 
their  particular  requirements  and  style.  The  triweekly,  semi- 
weekly,  and  weekly  press  of  the  provinces  was  furnished  with 
condensed  news  stories  assembled  from  the  more  important 
developments  of  the  period  between  publication. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  all  news  stories  and  special  arti- 
cles were  translated  by  experts  in  our  offices,  and  always  in  the 


THE  WORK  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

language  of  the  publication  receiving  our  service.  During  the 
periods  of  important  military  operations  and  through  the  excit- 
ing times  preceding  the  armistice  a  day  and  night  service  was 
maintained,  with  our  offices  in  constant  touch  with  the  great 
newspapers  of  the  three  countries.  In  submitting  our  matter 
we  invariably  stipulated  that  it  was  offered  for  reproduction 
either  in  total  or  in  part,  at  the  discretion  of  the  editor,  and  that 
no  credit  to  the  Committee  was  necessary.  In  many  instances, 
however,  our  credit  line  was  carried,  and  in  no  instance,  to  our 
knowledge,  was  our  matter  garbled  or  falsely  construed. 

An  important  feature  of  the  work  of  your  Buenos  Aires  office 
was  the  preparation,  printing,  and  distribution  of  pamphlets, 
posters,  circulars,  etc.  A  list  of  all  American  business  concerns 
was  secured.  A  card  index  indicated  how  much  matter  each 
could  effectively  distribute.  The  packing-houses,  banks,  ship- 
pers, merchants,  and  selling  agencies  cheerfully  agreed  to  inclose 
our  literature  in  their  daily  correspondence.  Many  patriotic 
institutions  and  individuals  took  from  us  copies  of  the  speeches 
of  President  Wilson  and  other  leaders  by  the  thousands,  forward- 
ing them  to  their  representatives  and  customers  in  all  sections 
of  the  country.  The  ever-increasing  demand  from  these  sources 
indicated  the  interest  with  which  America's  message  was  being 
received. 

The  photograpns  sent  from  Washington  were  captioned  and 
catalogued  on  their  arrival.  They  were  used  in  profusion  in 
newspapers  and  magazines  both  with  and  without  explanatory 
articles.  In  addition,  and  perhaps  most  effective,  were  the 
exhibitions  of  the  pictures  in  public  places.  For  such  displays 
some  one  hundred  or  more  light,  attractive  frames  were  designed, 
each  frame  carrying  twelve  photographs.  These  were  placed 
in  the  show  windows  of  the  largest  business  houses,  the  lobbies 
of  the  leading  hotels,  and  the  reading-rooms  of  various  social, 
commercial,  and  working-men's  clubs.  In  every  city  or  town 
of  any  importance  one  or  more  of  these  frames  was  conspicuously 
located.  By  a  carefully  worked-out  system  we  were  able  to 
change  these  displays  once  a  week. 

In  the  offices  of  the  Committee  files  of  such  American  news- 
papers, magazines,  trade  journals,  etc.,  as  were  sent  us  or  could 
be  purchased  were  kept.  These,  together  with  our  government 
reports,  the  Official  Bulletin,  authoritative  articles  on  banking, 
industrial,  manufacturing,  agricultural,  and  other  subjects  by 

367 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

American  experts,  were  at  the  disposition  of  the  general  public. 
From  them  data  were  obtained  by  educators,  journalists,  and 
students.  We  wrote  articles  on  given  subjects  and  assembled 
facts  and  figures  for  addresses  delivered  to  various  organizations 
and  societies.  Editors  of  Argentine,  Spanish,  French,  Italian, 
and  British  publications  were  constantly  supplied  with  material 
which  was  desired  in  order  to  answer  statements  of  enemy 
writers. 

Personal  association  with  leaders  of  South  American  thought 
was  not  overlooked  or  neglected.  Your  commissioner  was 
frequently  extended  the  privilege  of  addressing  the  universities 
and  schools  in  response  to  requests  from  the  student  bodies 
for  information  concerning  "North  America."  A  sincere  desire 
on  the  part  of  many  students  to  attend  universities  in  the  United 
States,  in  order  that  they  might  perfect  themselves  in  the  English 
or  "North  American"  language  and  study  our  life,  our  laws, 
and  our  business  methods,  was  developed,  and  at  the  suggestion 
and  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Ernesto  Nelson  of  Buenos  Aires 
and  Doctor  Galves  of  the  University  of  Chile  a  plan  for  an 
exchange  of  North  American  for  South  American  students  was 
worked  out  and  about  to  be  placed  in  operation  when  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Committee  were  suspended. 

Your  commissioner  is  under  obligations  to  Mr.  Frederico 
Crocker  of  Montevideo,  who  acted  as  local  representative  in 
Paraguay;  to  William  Dawson,  Esq.,  American  consul  at  Monte- 
video, and  to  the  American  colony  of  Uruguay  in  general.  The 
assistance  of  Hon.  Daniel  Mooney,  American  Minister,  and  the 
American  residents  of  Ascension,  was  of  much  value  in  our  efforts 
in  Paraguay. 

For  the  work  in  Peru,  Ecuador,  and  Bolivia  the  Com- 
mittee was  fortunate  in  securing  the  services  of  C.  V. 
Griffis,  a  resident  of  Lima  for  six  years,  and  the  head  of 
an  established  publicity  organization  in  the  form  of  The 
West  Coast  Leader,  an  Anglo-American  newspaper.  Aside 
from  Mr.  Griffis's  own  ability  and  expert  knowledge,  he 
placed  the  services  of  the  Leader  organization — its  agents, 
correspondents,  and  friends — entirely  at  the  disposition 
of  the  Committee,  obtaining  for  its  material  a  compre- 
hensive circulation  in  territory  which  would  otherwise 


THE  WORK  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

have  been  difficult  and  expensive  to  cover.  Thus  in  ad- 
dition to  telegraph  and  mail  service  reaching  the  important 
centers,  such  as  Lima  and  Arequipa  in  Peru,  La  Paz  and 
Oruro  in  Bolivia,  and  Guayaquil  and  Quito  in  Ecuador,  the 
pamphlet  and  pictorial  publications  were  sent  broadcast 
through  the  more  remote  provinces  of  the  three  republics 
—to  the  isolated  mining-camps,  the  scattered  estates — 
to  points  as  widely  separated  and  as  difficult  to  reach  as 
Santa  Cruz  de  la  Sierra  and  Trinidad  in  Bolivia,  Moyo- 
bamba  and  the  Chanchamayo  Valley  in  Peru,  Esmeraldas 
and  Cuenca  in  Ecuador. 

To  quote  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Griffis: 

It  is  not  my  desire  in  any  way  to  overestimate  the  importance 
of  the  results  obtained  by  the  work  conducted  in  this  territory. 
Accurate  analysis  of  these  results  is,  of  course,  impossible.  Yet 
it  cannot  be  denied  that,  as  a  result  of  the  few  months'  intensive 
work  undertaken  by  the  Committee  in  this  field,  the  mass  of 
people  in  all  sections  of  the  country  have  acquired  a  far  more 
graphic  and  comprehensive  idea  of  the  power  and  position  of 
the  United  States,  as  well  as  the  policies  and  ideals  of  the  Amer- 
ican people,  than  they  ever  had  before.  These  conceptions  could 
not  possibly  have  been  obtained  through  ordinary  channels, 
and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Peruvians  and  their  neighbors  have 
a  much  clearer  idea  of  the  war  efforts  and  achievements  of  the 
States  than  they  have  of  the  efforts  and  achievements  of  any 
of  our  European  allies,  though  the  latter  were  engaged  in  the  war 
for  a  much  longer  period.  This  clearer  conception  is  due  almost 
wholly  to  Compub  activities,  for  other  agencies  of  intercommu- 
nication made  no  radical  departure  in  their  established  policies 
to  meet  the  radically  altered  conditions. 

What  I  regard  as  concrete  evidence  of  some  of  the  statements 
made  in  the  above  paragraph  is  supplied  by  the  magnificent 
response  of  Lima,  a  city  of  less  than  200,000  inhabitants,  to  the 
Fourth  Liberty  Loan,  with  a  total  of  $700,000.  Lima  is  far  from 
being  a  wealthy  city,  and  this  subscription  was  $400,000  more 
than  the  maximum  set  by  the  committee  in  charge  of  the  sale 
of  bonds.  But  the  investing  public  here  had  become  thoroughly 
convinced  of  the  boundless  resources  and  impregnable  economic 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

strength  of  the  States.  They  could  not  evade  absorbing  that 
impression.  The  Committee  photographs  setting  forth  American 
industrial  resources  were  constantly  surrounded  by  interesting 
crowds,  while  the  morning  and  afternoon  paperr  invariably 
carried  their  columns  of  supplementary  data.  As  a  first-hand 
observer  of  Latin-American  opinion  during  the  past  few  years 
I  would  say  that  the  old  conception  of  the  United  States  held 
in  1913,  an  admixture  of  Mexican  and  Colombian  suspicions 
and  general  distrust,  has  given  entirely  way  in  1919  to  a  wholly 
new  conception  and  realization  of  the  full  magnitude  of  American 
power  and  policy. 

The  most  important  and  perhaps  the  most  influential  feature 
of  the  Compub  service  from  the  point  of  view  of  this  particular 
field  was  the  daily  cable  service.  Owing  to  arrangements 
effected  by  cable,  railway  telegraph,  and  wireless  communica- 
tion two  trunk  systems  were  thrown  out  from  the  central  office 
in  Lima,  covering  a  wide  stretch  of  territory  at  a  very  low  cost. 

The  first  system  was  south  from  Lima,  wireless  messages 
being  filed  at  the  San  Christobal  (Lima)  radiographic  station, 
which  were  picked  up  by  the  Cachendo  wireless  station,  located 
near  Arequipa  on  the  Southern  Railway  of  Peru.  Through 
arrangement  with  Mr.  L.  S.  Blaisdell,  manager  of  the  Southern, 
an  experienced  telegraph  operator  received  the  messages  from  the 
state  wireless  service  and  sent  them  out  over  the  railway  telegraph 
line  to  Mollendo,  Cuzco,  Arequipa,  Puno,  and  La  Paz,  and  inter- 
mediate points.  At  all  of  these  points  the  messages  were  given 
full  publicity.  Arrangements  were  being  made  for  a  farther 
extension  of  this  southern  trunk  line  by  sending  out  the  messages 
from  La  Paz  over  all  of  the  Bolivian  railway  telegraph  lines, 
but,  owing  to  the  signing  of  the  armistice  shortly  after  this  office 
was  opened  and  the  falling  off  of  cable  service,  no  regular  service 
was  ever  established  on  the  Bolivian  railways,  though  many 
of  the  more  important  messages  were  given  publicity  throughout 
Bolivia  in  this  manner. 

The  second  line  was  north  from  Lima,  by  Central  &  South 
American  Cable  Company,  to  Payta,  Peru,  and  Guayaquil, 
Ecuador.  At  the  latter  point  the  messages  were  filed  free  of 
charge  on  the  Guayaquil  &  Quito  Railway  telegraph  line  to 
Quito,  Ecuador,  and  intermediate  points. 

The  sub-agents  co-operating  with  this  office  on  the  southern 
line  wire  service  were  L.  S.  Blaisdell,  manager  of  the  Southern 

370 


THE   WORK  IN   SOUTH  AMERICA 

Railway,  at  Arequipa,  and  Mr.  Victor  Tyree,  of  Denniston  & 
Company,  at  La  Paz. 

Those  co-operating  with  this  office  on  the  northern  wire  service 
were  C.  W.  Copeland,  of  the  American  consulate,  Guayaquil, 
and  Prof.  E.  S.  Brown,  of  the  Allied  committee  at  Quito.  Ex- 
penditure in  connection  with  this  service  is  duly  set  forth  in  the 
accounts  of  the  Lima  office,  which  have  been  submitted. 

By  means  of  the  foregoing  service  the  daily  cables  of  the 
Committee  were  distributed  and  published  in  all  of  the  more  im- 
portant newspapers  of  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Ecuador. 

In  addition  to  the  newspapers,  there  were  many  small  com- 
munities, particularly  mining-camps,  along  the  line  of  the  Central 
Railway  of  Peru,  where  no  newspapers  existed,  but  where  this 
telegraphic  news  was  received  and  placed  on  bulletin-boards. 
The  same  condition  applied  to  the  Southern  Railway  system  in 
southern  Peru  and  the  Guayaquil  &  Quito  Railway  in  Ecuador, 
over  which  Compub  telegrams  were  transmitted. 

As  stated  in  the  previous  report  of  the  pamphlets  received 
by  this  office  for  distribution,  some  40  per  cent,  were  retained  in 
Peru,  30  per  cent,  shipped  to  Ecuador,  and  30  per  cent,  shipped  to 
Bolivia.  Of  the  amount  retained  in  Peru  practically  all  were 
sent  into  the  smaller  towns  and  provinces.  This  was  owing  to 
the  fact  that  in  the  metropolitan  centers  the  daily  press  and  other 
abundant  reading  material  nullified  to  a  considerable  degree  the 
propaganda  value  of  the  pamphlet;  whereas  in  the  provinces 
reading  matter  is  exceedingly  scarce  and  difficult  to  secure  and 
even  patent-medicine  almanacs  are  read  religiously  through. 
My  experience  has  been  that  even  the  most  attractive  pamphlets, 
though  they  may  be  carefully  conserved  by  their  recipients, 
are  rarely  if  ever  read  through  in  the  metropolitan  centers. 
Vast  sums  of  money  were  spent  by  British  propaganda  on  costly 
lithographed  pamphlets,  but  it  is  now  generally  admitted  that 
this  money  was  inadvisably  spent  and  that  more  effective  results 
could  have  been  secured  by  other  means.  Were  it  not  for  the 
provincial  outlet,  I  personally  would  have  advised  the  suspension 
of  pamphlet  distribution.  It  might  have  reached  the  mark  in  a  few 
individual  cases,  but  in  Lima  wide-spread  pamphlet  distribution 
would  have  done  more  harm  than  good.  For  four  years  pam- 
phlets, British,  French,  Belgian,  and  German,  had  been  raining 
from  the  heavens,  the  public  were  surfeited  with  them,  and  pam- 
phlets were  actually  creating  prejudice  against  their  distributors. 

371 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

The  Photographic  Service  was,  beyond  question,  one  of  the 
most  effective  divisions  of  Compub  activities.  The  appeal  of 
the  picture  service  was  instantaneous,  not  so  much  to  the  press 
as  to  the  general  public.  It  has  been  my  experience  that  average 
newspaper  illustrations  do  not  hold  a  reader's  attention  very 
long,  while  high-quality  engravings  or  preferably  original  photo- 
graphs catch  and  hold  the  eye  of  people  in  every  walk  of  society. 
Certainly  the  12  bulletin-boards  which  we  placed  throughout 
Lima,  each  carrying  40  to  50  photographs,  were  never  lacking 
an  audience.  This  system  of  photographic  distribution  was 
highly  satisfactory  in  its  results.  After  rotating  on  the  12  Lima 
boards,  sets  of  photographs  were  sent  up  the  line  of  the  Central 
Railway  to  be  shown  at  the  various  stations  and  camps,  and  were 
also  sent  out  into  the  provinces  and  were  kept  track  of  until 
lost  or  worn  out.  In  this  manner  each  photograph  passed  before 
several  thousand  pairs  of  eyes,  while  out  of  the  abundant  supply 
the  newspapers  were  provided  with  all  they  could  use.  The 
wastage  in  photographic  publicity  material  was  therefore  practi- 
cally nil.  The  poster  reproduction  of  photographs  with  Spanish 
captions  were  also  exceedingly  popular  and  permitted  us  to  reach 
certain  provincial  districts  where  the  use  of  photographs  would 
have  been  prohibitive  from  the  viewpoint  of  cost.  All  of  the 
photographic  enlargements  were  suitably  framed,  and  after  being 
exhibited  for  several  weeks  in  shop-windows  were  distributed 
among  various  leading  clubs  and  other  institutions. 

The  activities  of  the  Committee  in  other  South  American 
countries  followed  the  same  lines  as  those  described  by 
Mr.  Sevier  and  Mr.  Griffis.  In  Brazil  Ambassador  Edwin 
V.  Morgan  maintained  constant  supervision  over  the  work 
and  his  success  was  entirely  due  to  his  force  and  vision. 
Mr.  A.  A.  Preciado  was  in  charge  in  Chile,  and  in  Vene- 
zuela the  American  Minister,  Mr.  Preston  McGoodwin, 
was  the  directing  mind.  Mr.  S.  P.  Verner,  in  the  govern- 
ment service  in  the  Panama  Canal,  gave  executive  super- 
vision as  far  as  the  whole  of  Central  America  was  con- 
cerned. Mr.  John  Collins,  borrowed  from  the  Panama 
Canal  Board,  was  in  charge  of  the  distribution  of  the  Com- 
pub service,  taking  it  out  of  the  air  at  Darien  and  trans- 

372 


THE  WORK  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

lating  and  relaying  it  to  many  cities  in  Central  America 
where  no  other  news  was  received  from  any  source. 

Fortunately,  there  are  now  two  American  news  associa- 
tions— the  Associated  Press  and  the  United  Press — oper- 
ating successfully  in  South  America  with  a  rapidly  in- 
creasing clientele.  They  are  furnishing  an  excellent  and 
comprehensive  service  and  will  undoubtedly  prove  in- 
dispensable in  carrying  on  the  campaign  for  the  permanent 
establishment  of  mutual  knowledge,  understanding,  and 
friendship  which  the  Committee  conceived  and  placed  in 
operation. 

25 


XIV 

THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

THROUGHOUT  the  summer  of  1917,  while  the  Foreign 
Section  was  building,  we  sent  a  daily  cable  service  to 
Petrograd  for  distribution  through  Vestnik,  the  official 
news  association.  For  contact  work  we  were  forced  to 
depend  upon  the  activities  and  influences  of  such  American 
organizations  as  the  Red  Cross,  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  and  volunteer  groups  formed  by  the  Amer- 
ican colonies  in  Petrograd  and  Moscow  for  the  specific 
purpose  of  "making  Russia  understand  America." 

The  temporary  nature  of  the  Root  mission,  and  the 
erratic  activities  of  the  various  "volunteer  groups,"  brought 
home  to  us  the  imperative  need  of  a  continuous  educational 
campaign  under  a  central  control,  and  Mr.  Sisson,  detached 
from  his  duties  as  associate  chairman,  was  sent  to  Russia 
with  full  authority  to  work  out  a  complete  Committee 
organization.  He  sailed  on  October  27th,  reaching  Petro- 
grad November  25,  1917,  and  his  report  tells  the  story 
pointedly  and  concisely: 

The  Bolshevik-Proletarian  revolution  had  begun  November 
7th,  and  the  city  was  still  under  the  closest  Red  Guard  military 
control.  I  was  told  by  the  Americans  on  the  scene  that  there 
was  no  possibility  of  any  open  governmental  activity.  This 
did  not  seem  logical  to  me,  but  it  necessitated  a  careful  prelimi- 
nary survey. 

In  a  week's  time  I  had  convinced  myself  not  only  that  it  was 

374 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

possible  to  go  ahead,  but  that  the  best  way  was  to  go  ahead 
openly.  This  plan,  however,  required  the  use  of  the  mechanical 
facilities  wholly  in  the  control  of  the  Bolshevik  government — 
telegraph  agencies,  printing-shops,  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  dis- 
tributing agencies. 

As  an  example  of  the  chaotic  condition  of  affairs,  the  Bolsheviki 
had  suppressed  all  the  existing  and  opposing  bourgeois  news- 
papers, leaving  for  the  chief  publications  in  Petrograd  their 
official  newspapers,  the  Isvestia  and  the  Pravda.  Such  other 
newspapers  as  appeared  were  being  obliged  to  change  their 
names  almost  with  each  issue,  so  fast  did  the  suppressions  come. 

When  I  left  the  United  States  our  cable  service  was  supposed 
to  be  ready  to  begin  to  feed  into  the  Russian  governmental 
distributing  organization,  the  Petrograd  Telegraph  Agency, 
which  in  Russia  corresponds  to  the  Associated  Press  in  the  United 
States.  The  revolution,  however,  had  broken  the  service. 
Efforts  to  replace  it  had  been  made  by  the  use  of  the  wireless 
station  at  Lyons,  France,  the  receiving  station  being  at  Moscow. 
The  project  failed  because  the  Moscow  station  itself  was  almost 
immediately  put  out  of  commission.  In  Russia  we  would  not 
have  known  of  the  effort  had  not  a  few  sentences  of  one  garbled 
message  been  picked  up  a  few  days  before  inefficient  operators 
(or  intent)  finally  wrecked  the  instruments  at  the  station. 

The  first  job,  therefore,  was  to  restore  the  cable  service.  This 
was  done  after  an  interchange  of  cables  with  Washington,  and 
after  finding  that  the  Petrograd  Telegraph  Agency  desired  to 
have  and  would  use  the  cables. 

I  called  Arthur  Bullard  up  from  Moscow,  where  of  his  own 
initiative  he  had  been  acting  as  a  volunteer  in  the  consul's  office 
in  preparing  a  mail  service  for  provincial  papers,  and  made  him 
the  director  of  the  Russian  News  Division  of  the  Committee. 
I  also  commandeered  Graham  Taylor,  Jr.,  who  had  been  engaged 
on  work  in  the  German  prison-camps  in  Russia  until  we  went 
to  war,  and  put  him  in  charge  of  the  Petrograd  office.  This  was 
done  in  order  to  enable  Mr.  Bullard  to  return  to  Moscow  and 
organize  an  office  there. 

We  opened  an  office  at  4  Gorokovaya  for  the  receipt  of  cable 
messages,  and  put  in  a  translating  force.  The  messages,  as  soon 
as  translated,  were  fed  into  the  Petrograd  Telegraph  Agency  in 
Petrograd  and  theoretically  were  telegraphed  all  over  Russia, 
as  well  as  released  to  the  Petrograd  newspapers.  Such  was  the 

375 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

disorganization  of  the  telegraph  lines,  however,  that  in  practice 
we  found  it  at  once  necessary  to  install  a  courier  service  to  Mos- 
cow, and  to  make  the  larger  part  of  the  national  distribution 
from  there.  In  both  places  we  also  released  direct  as  exigencies 
required. 

In  Moscow  each  week  we  assembled  the  cable  material  in 
pamphlet  form,  added  to  it  educational  mail  and  article  material 
and  distributed  the  pamphlets  to  the  provincial  press,  and  to 
organizations  where  we  deemed  it  useful. 

We  adopted  for  ourselves  the  Russian  name  Amerikansky 
Bureau  Pachata  (the  American  Press  Bureau),  and  attached  a 
governmental  symbol  to  indicate  its  official  nature. 

Both  the  British  and  the  French  did  their  publicity  work  as 
private  organizations,  and  it  was  a  matter  of  interest  to  me  that 
the  head  of  the  French  department  came  to  me  before  I  left 
Petrograd  and  said  that  ours  was  the  right  way.  The  British 
organization,  Cosmos,  was  raided  and  closed  by  the  Bolsheviki 
the  last  week  in  December.  The  French  never  put  out  anything 
openly.  We  were  not  seriously  interfered  with  throughout  the 
whiter. 

The  middle  of  December  found  our  news  organization  in  opera- 
tion. One  of  the  first  impressions  I  had  got  of  Petrograd  was 
of  its  billboard  possibilities.  Every  street,  including  the  Nevsky, 
was  papered  up  and  down  with  placards  and  proclamations, 
mostly  emanating  from  the  Soviet.  The  first  of  President 
Wilson's  Russian  messages  came  in  early  December.  As  I 
feared,  after  reading  it,  the  official  newspapers  refused  to  print 
it  in  full,  and  misused  and  misinterpreted  such  parts  as  they 
did  print.  Other  papers  also  used  it  insufficiently,  so  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  put  it  on  the  billboard.  I  was  advised  this  would 
be  regarded  as  a  challenge  by  the  Bolshevik  government,  but  this 
view  did  not  appear  reasonable  to  me.  I  went  about  the  matter 
openly,  gave  the  job  of  printing  to  the  biggest  government 
printing  establishment  in  Petrograd,  a  plant  that  would  compare 
favorably  with  all  but  a  few  in  the  United  States,  and  negotiated 
with  a  bill-poster  agency  to  put  up  the  message.  The  bill-posting 
man  was  the  only  person  to  show  any  fear  of  the  outcome,  but 
he  needed  the  business  and  decided  to  take  a  chance.  He  played 
"safety  first,"  and  hired  soldiers  to  do  the  pasting.  The  result 
was  that  fifty  thousand  copies  of  the  President's  message  were 
posted  one  morning  throughout  Petrograd  without  any  hindrance 

376 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

whatever.  This  posting  was  followed  by  a  street  hand  distri- 
bution of  three  hundred  thousand  copies — in  the  street-cars, 
in  the  theaters,  hotels,  stores,  and  to  the  street  crowds. 

Similar  plans  were  started  in  Moscow,  but  rioting  broke  out 
and  prevented  success.  The  third  process  of  printing,  the  turn- 
ing of  the  speech  to  pamphlet  use,  was  done  at  Moscow. 

The  experience  with  this  message  enabled  us  to  do  the  big  job 
on  the  President's  message  of  January  8th,  with  its  statement 
of  terms  of  any  possible  peace.  We  had  learned  the  machinery. 
The  speech  began  to  reach  us  January  10th,  but  did  not  come 
complete  until  January  llth.  A  successful  maneuver  enabled 
us  to  get  it  used  in  full  in  the  Isvestia,  the  direct  organ  of  the 
Soviets.  This  in  itself  gave  a  complete  all-Russia  circulation 
among  the  Soviets.  There  was  liberal  use  of  the  message  in 
nearly  all  of  the  newspapers. 

The  Petrograd  posters  were  up  January  13th.  The  street 
distribution,  again  of  three  hundred  thousand,  followed  a  few 
days  later.  The  Moscow  distribution  was  done  almost  simul- 
taneously. 

On  this  message  German  distribution  was  essential.  One 
million  copies  were  printed  in  German.  Of  this  quantity  three 
hundred  thousand  were  put  across  the  northern  line  into  the 
German  line,  and  two  hundred  thousand  similarly  at  the  central 
and  the  southern  front.  A  half-million  went  to  German  prison- 
camps  in  Russia,  for  the  reason  that  these  prisoners  were  expected 
soon  to  return  to  Germany. 

The  German  distribution  was  done  by  an  organization  of 
soldiers  through  the  help  of  Jerome  Davis,  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  who  had  used  them  for  package  distri- 
bution. The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  as  a  body 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  work.  This  soldiers'  organization 
was  later  made  a  part  of  our  own  machinery,  and  was  used  with 
high  effectiveness  in  the  distribution  of  German  and  Hungarian 
versions  of  President  Wilson's  speech  of  February  llth.  It 
worked  along  the  line  of  the  German  advance  into  Russia,  and 
fulfilled  its  instructions  to  scatter  the  messages  in  territory  about 
to  be  occupied  by  the  German  army.  The  head  of  this  organi- 
zation was  B.  Morgenstern. 

Had  the  Germans  entered  Petrograd  in  late  February  they 
would  have  been  greeted  by  posters  in  German,  of  the 
President's  messages  of  January  8th  and  February  llth.  One 

377 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

hundred  thousand  copies  of  the  former  were  run  the  middle  of 
February  to  provide  for  this  contingency. 

In  the  last  week  in  February  we  encountered  our  first  definite 
Bolshevik  stoppage.  The  colored  cartoon  poster,  showing  the 
arm  of  German  force  stabbing  the  people's  hand  and  tramping 
upon  the  people's  banner  of  liberty,  was  confiscated  on  the  press 
by  order  of  the  Bolshevik  government. 

Why? 

Smolny  laughed  at  us  when  we  asked  it. 

We  asked  in  order  to  see  whether  Smolny  would  laugh. 

The  News  Division  moved  into  larger  quarters  on  the  Nevsky 
the  last  week  in  February,  the  week  that  saw  the  exit  from  Petro- 
grad  of  the  embassies,  consulates,  and  the  missions,  including 
the  American  Embassy,  the  American  consul,  the  American 
Military  'Mission,  and  the  American  Red  Cross.  The  change 
had  been  planned  for  weeks  earlier.  We  concluded  to  be 
found  going  ahead  until  we  could  go  no  farther.  So  large 
American  flags  were  draped  across  the  windows,  and  the  division 
moved  in. 

The  Film  Division  headquarters  were  on  the  Kazansky,  half 
a  block  from  the  Nevsky,  facing  the  cathedral.  They  were  in 
charge  of  Guy  Croswell  Smith  as  director.  The  machine  stood 
ready  to  receive  new  films  by  January  1st.  The  failure  of  Hart, 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  to  bring  through  a 
quarter  of  a  million  feet  of  film  intended  for  us  kept  us  from  satu- 
rating Russia  with  American  films  in  the  early  winter.  The 
second  allotment  of  films  given  into  the  custody  of  Bernstein 
had  reached  Stockholm  when  the  Finnish  revolution  of  the 
last  days  of  January  closed  the  gates  into  Russia.  No  couriers 
came  into  Petrograd  after  February  1st. 

Smith  and  I  found  both  Hart  and  the  Bernstein  films  still  in 
Scandinavia  in  April. 

With  such  films  as  he  had  on  hand  Mr.  Smith  did  fine 
work.  The  "Uncle  Sam  Immigrant"  film  was  put  out  \\ith  a 
camouflage  title,  "All  for  Peace."  The  finished  title  would  have 
read  "All  for  Peace  Through  War,"  but  we  left  it  to  the  audi- 
ences to  find  that  out  for  themselves.  The  biggest  moving- 
picture  theater  in  Petrograd  ran  both  films,  and  they  fed  rapidly 
throughout  the  whole  of  Russia.  We  traced  them  from  the 
Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Black  Sea  and  far  into  Siberia. 

I  arranged  for  an  option  on  a  Petrograd  theater,  and  the  pur- 

378 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

pose  was  to  lease  similarly  in  Moscow,  and  after  a  run  for  adver- 
tising purposes,  to  turn  the  films  into  trade  channels,  to  add 
incentive  to  circulation.  It  is  the  method  to  use  in  Russia  and, 
in  general,  nearly  everywhere. 

In  my  opinion,  the  best  individual  work  done  in  Russia  for 
the  United  States  was  that  of  Arthur  Bullard  in  writing  the 
pamphlet,  "Letters  to  a  Russian  Friend,"  an  interpretation 
of  the  highest  order  of  America.  We  published  it  in  Russian 
as  a  Red,  White,  and  Blue  Book.  Three  hundred  thousand 
copies  were  distributed. 

The  Moscow  office  continued  the  distribution  of  the  January 
and  February  messages  in  the  remote  sections  of  Russia  after 
March  1st.  The  total  distribution  of  the  Fourteen  Points  speech, 
including  the  Hungarian  and  German  text,  was  more  than  four 
million.  Three  hundred  thousand  handbills  containing  both 
messages  were  distributed  ahead  of  the  German  advance  in 
Ukraine.  The  President's  Baltimore  speech  was  printed  in 
Irkutsk,  Omsk,  Samara,  Petrograd,  Moscow,  and  Ekaterinburg. 

A  few  weeks  after  my  own  departure  from  Russia,  in  the  spring 
of  1918,  it  became  definitely  clear  to  me  that  the  purpose  of  the 
Germans  and  of  the  Russian  Bolsheviks  was  to  bring  about  an 
untenable  situation  in  Russia  for  all  officials  and  citizens 
of  Entente  countries.  The  purpose  was  to  limit  their  freedom 
and  their  activities  more  and  more,  and  finally  to  expel  them. 
It  was  my  hope  that  all  countries  would  see  this  and  get  their 
nationals  out  of  Russia  before  they  should  be  thrown  out  humili- 
atingly.  But  at  that  time  the  international  political  world 
could  not  believe  that  this  outcome  was  inevitable. 

I  was  sure,  however,  that  within  a  few  weeks  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  get  material  into  European  Russia.  Accordingly,  I  took 
the  responsibility  of  ordering  Mr.  Bullard  and  his  American  group, 
save  one  man,  to  remove  themselves  from  the  Bolshevik  area 
of  Russia.  Our  chief  office  at  Moscow,  and  even  the  office  at 
Petrograd,  remained  open,  the  former  in  charge  of  Read  Lewis, 
and  the  latter  in  charge  of  a  Russian  assistant.  The  Moscow 
office  was  finally  raided  and  closed  by  the  Bolsheviks  the  first 
week  in  September,  1918. 

It  was  necessary  to  shift  the  organization  as  a  whole  to  a  place 
where  it  could  have  a  dependable  base  of  supplies.  Obviously, 
this  place  was  Siberia,  affording  the  opportunity  for  a  sound 
and  steady  penetration  along  the  line  of  the  Siberian  railroad 

379 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

as  fast  as  order  was  restored  along  this  railroad  line.  The 
eventual  goal  would  be  Moscow. 

This  whole  project  of  transfer  was  successfully  carried  out. 
Two  men,  Malcolm  Davis  and  William  Adams  Brown,  worked 
their  way  out  through  Siberia,  and  in  the  early  summer  had 
opened  new  offices  at  Harbin  and  Vladivostok. 

Meantime  Mr.  Bullard,  accompanied  by  Mr.  George  Bakeman, 
Mr.  Otto  Glaman,  and  Mr.  Taylor,  secured  passage  from  Arch- 
angel to  Halifax  and  about  July  1st  reached  the  United  States. 
This  nucleus  was  at  once  equipped  for  the  remainder  of  the  jour- 
ney around  the  world.  The  additional  staff,  made  up  of  news- 
paper men,  translators,  teachers,  moving-picture  experts,  and 
office  helpers,  included  Dr.  Joshua  Rosett,  Franklin  Clarkin, 
Edwin  Schoonmaker,  Robert  Winters,  George  Bothwell,  Sid 
Evans,  Prof.  William  Russell,  William  Games,  Lem  A.  Dever, 
Phil  Norton,  Dennis  J.  Haggerty,  and  H.  Y.  Barnes.  Seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  feet  of  the  best  moving-picture 
film  were  sent,  together  with  high-powered  projecting  machines. 
Four  weeks  after  he  set  foot  on  American  soil  Mr.  Bullard  was 
sailing  with  the  first  contingent  from  a  Pacific  port.1 

Too  great  credit  cannot  be  given  to  the  representatives 
of  the  Committee  who  stayed  with  the  work  from  bitter 
first  to  bitter  last,  enduring  every  hardship,  running  every 
risk,  and  called  upon  at  every  turn  to  fight  overwhelming 
difficulties.  Arthur  Bullard,  in  full  charge  after  Mr.  Sis- 
son's  departure,  not  only  gave  a  full  measure  of  devotion  and 
ability,  but  also  his  health.  It  is  not  possible  in  this  brief 
space  to  print  the  full  record  of  effort  and  accomplishment, 
but  the  following  summaries  will  serve  to  convey  some  idea 
of  the  campaign  carried  forward  entirely  by  individual 
courage  and  initiative.  Mr.  Read  Lewis  was  in  charge 
of  the  work  in  Moscow  and  Petrograd  until  the  offices  were 
closed  by  the  Soviet,  and  despite  civil  war,  governmental 
opposition,  and  his  inability  to  receive  our  cable  and  mail 
services  he  fought  on.  To  quote: 

1  Mr.  Sisson's  report  on  the  German-Bolshevik  conspiracy  is  a  separate  pub- 
lication of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

During  July  and  August  the  principal  work  of  the  Russian 
Press  Division  was  the  publication  and  distribution  of  the  Amer- 
ican Bulletin.  This  sixteen-page  pamphlet,  designed  for  the 
general  reading  public,  was  issued  weekly  and  distributed  free 
of  charge  to  a  mailing-list  of  forty  thousand  names.  The  bul- 
letin contained  the  cable  news  despatches,  so  long  as  they  were 
received,  and  articles  and  paragraphs  descriptive  of  the  different 
phases  of  American  life.  The  bulletin  mailing-list  included  all 
newspapers  and  publications,  eight  hundred  co-operative  unions 
and  their  more  than  ten  thousand  constituent  societies,  thou- 
sands of  schools  and  libraries,  all  the  Soviet  and  government 
institutions  of  the  country,  trade  unions,  teachers'  associations, 
the  old  zemstvos,  commercial  and  manufacturing  associations, 
many  business  houses  and  individuals.  The  building  up  of  this 
mailing-list  was  a  matter  of  continuous  and  careful  work.  Our 
attempt  was  to  reach  not  only  the  sources  of  public  opinion,  but 
at  least  some  part  of  the  people  themselves.  Not  a  day  went  by 
without  at  least  one  letter  from  a  provincial  Soviet,  or  one  of 
its  departments,  expressing  interest  in  our  work,  forwarding 
names  of  local  organizations,  and  requesting  sometimes  as  many 
as  fifty  copies  of  each  issue  for  its  use.  Thus,  despite  the  terri- 
tory impossible  to  reach  on  account  of  civil  war,  we  were  dis- 
tributing fifty  thousand  copies  of  each  issue  of  the  bulletin. 

In  addition  to  the  American  Bulletin  the  bureau  also  issued 
during  the  summer  a  translation  of  "How  the  War  Came  to 
America,"  and  a  pamphlet  collecting  several  of  the  speeches 
of  President  Wilson,  principally  those  of  January  8th  on  terms 
of  general  peace,  of  February  llth  replying  to  the  Central 
Powers,  and  of  April  7th  at  Baltimore.  Of  each  of  these  two 
pamphlets  one  hundred  thousand  copies  had  been  printed  and 
were  being  distributed.  We  continued  to  print  and  distribute 
the  very  successful  "Letters  of  an  American  Friend."  Of  this 
four  hundred  thousand  copies  had  been  printed  and  distributed 
and  a  new  order  was  on  the  press.  In  the  form  of  leaflets  we 
issued  and  distributed  both  the  President's  Red  Cross  speech 
of  May  18th  in  New  York  and  his  speech  of  June  llth  to  the 
Mexican  editors.  Four  million  copies,  indeed,  of  the  speech  of 
January  8th  were  distributed  throughout  the  country  and  at 
the  front.  Copies  of  it  for  posting  had  been  sent  to  all  railroad 
stations  in  Russia.  In  default  of  a  greater  variety  of  literature 
for  general  distribution  we  printed  of  the  last  several  issues  of 

381 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  bulletin  a  second  fifty  thousand  for  distribution  outside  of 
its  regular  mailing-list.  To  pamphlets  like  "Letters  of  an 
American  Friend"  and  the  speeches  of  President  Wilson,  the 
bureau  aimed  to  give  a  far  more  general  distribution  than  to 
the  weekly  bulletin.  Copies  of  such  pamphlets  were  of  course 
sent  to  the  bulletin  mailing-list.  In  Addition  the  bureau  main- 
tained a  staff  of  eleven  couriers  and  messengers  for  the  work 
of  distribution.  Two,  for  example,  devoted  their  entire  time 
to  daily  distribution  at  the  railroad  stations  in  Moscow;  two 
more  to  distribution  at  the  factories  and  co-operative  soci- 
eties in  the  Moscow  district.  A  special  effort  was  made  to  reach 
personally  with  our  literature  each  of  the  many  congresses  and 
conferences  with  their  delegates  from  different  parts  of  the 
country.  To  these  meetings  and  conventions  our  messengers 
carried  subscription  lists  and  in  this  way  were  able  to  add  to  the 
bulletin  mailing-list.  The  rest  of  our  courier  staff  were  employed 
in  making  regular  trips  to  the  provinces.  The  complete  break- 
down of  the  transportation  system  in  Russia  made  it  essential, 
if  we  were  consistently  to  reach  the  provincial  cities  and  dis- 
tricts with  our  literature,  that  we  should  have  our  own  system 
of  distribution.  The  trips  for  our  provincial  messengers  were 
carefully  planned,  each  man  being  given  a  list  of  the  organi- 
zations, factories,  persons,  etc.,  to  which  he  was  to  distribute 
literature  in  the  several  cities  which  he  was  to  visit.  Nearly 
all  men  engaged  in  this  department  of  our  work  were  members 
of  the  Society  of  Escaped  Prisoners — that  is,  they  had  been 
common  soldiers  in  the  Russian  army  and  subsequently  prison- 
ers in  Germany,  from  which  they  had  escaped. 

Through  its  department  of  distribution  the  bureau  had  thus 
distributed,  during  the  month  from  July  15th  to  August  15th, 
10,112  pieces  of  literature  at  congresses  and  conventions;  51,600 
at  railroad  stations  in  Moscow;  55,951  at  factories,  to  works 
committees  and  trade  unions;  38,007  to  co-operative  societies 
and  shops  in  Moscow  and  vicinity;  and  167,950  in  the  provinces 
by  the  bureau's  couriers.  This,  in  addition  to  a  small  miscel- 
laneous distribution  at  the  offices  of  the  committee  in  Petrograd 
and  Moscow  and  in  addition  to  the  distribution  of  the  bulletin 
by  post,  made  the  total  distribution  for  the  month  479,333. 

It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  if  we  could  have  supplied  to 
and  had  published  by  the  Russian  newspapers  the  same  or  mate- 
rial equivalent  to  that  which  we  ourselves  printed  and  distributed, 

382 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

we  should  have  employed  a  far  more  economical  and  extensive 
method  of  publication  and  distribution.  The  publication  of 
our  own  pamphlets,  and  especially  of  our  weekly  paper,  however, 
seemed  essential,  not  only  because  of  the  utter  demoralization 
of  the  Russian  press,  but  as  a  concrete  evidence  and  expression 
of  America's  policy  of  friendship  and  helpful  co-operation  with 
the  Russian  people.  Following  the  assassination  of  Ambassador 
Mirbach  early  in  July,  all  of  the  bourgeois  press  was  permanently 
closed,  and  until  I  left  Moscow,  August  28,  1918,  none  but  a  few 
Bolshevik  newspapers  appeared. 

All  through  July  and  part  of  August,  while  the  Russian  press 
was  fuming  at  Anglo-French  imperialists,  never  a  word  was  said 
about  America,  although  it  was  well  known  that  we  were  also 
parties  with  England  and  France  to  the  treaty  with  the  Mur- 
mansk Soviet.  The  different  attitude  which  the  Russian  news- 
papers and  government  have  taken  toward  America,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  other  allies,  has  been  due  not  only  to  what 
America  is,  but  also,  I  believe,  to  our  propaganda,  and  the  efforts 
we  have  made  to  make  America  understood.  It  has  been  due 
to  the  fact  that  our  propaganda  was  distinguished  from  that 
of  the  English  and  French,  has  aimed  at  reaching  the  broad 
masses  of  the  Russian  people.  We  have  tried  to  make  friends 
with  the  people  themselves.  That  we  have  at  least  in  a  small 
measure  succeeded  is  attested  by  many  letters  of  appreciation 
received  from  simple  people,  often  from  scarcely  literate  peasants 
and  working-men. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Lewis  reached  Stockholm  in  September, 
1918,  he  was  ordered  to  Archangel  and  remained  on  duty 
there  until  the  late  winter  of  1919,  a  notable  contribution 
of  citizen  service. 

Malcolm  Davis  and  William  Adams  Brown  opened 
telegraph  and  wireless -receiving  offices  at  Vladivostok 
and  Harbin  in  June,  1918.  Arthur  Bullard  and  the  staff 
of  reinforcements  joined  them  in  the  late  summer.  The 
organization  was  approaching  the  top  of  its  stride  in 
February,  1919,  when  its  demobilization  order  came.  All 
the  staff  recognized  the  inevitability  of  the  ending  of  the 
work  and  understood  the  reasons  for  it,  yet  there  was  not 

383 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

a  member  of  the  organization  who  did  not  feel  that  it 
came  at  a  most  unfortunate  time,  considered  from  the 
point  of  view  of  Siberia  and  of  Russian  relationship  gen- 
erally. Other  nations  were  developing  energetic  propa- 
ganda campaigns,  and  the  American  engineers  were  finally 
taking  up  the  task  of  railroad  reorganization  and  the  Amer- 
ican Red  Cross  extending  its  relief  activities.  These  con- 
siderations, together  with  the  fact  that  it  was  a  critical 
time  in  the  discussion  of  Russian-Allied  relations,  made 
the  withdrawal  of  the  American  Information  Bureau  re- 
grettable. That  this  was  not  merely  the  feeling  of  men 
engaged  in  the  work,  but  that  it  was  a  view  shared  by  im- 
partial representatives  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  of  America  as  well  as  by  Russians  and  by  represent- 
atives of  some  of  the  other  Allies,  is  evidenced  by  the  mes- 
sages to  Washington  of  Ambassador  Morris,  who  was  in 
Vladivostok  on  a  special  mission  from  Tokio,  from  Consul- 
General  Harris  and  all  his  consular  staff,  by  the  telegram 
of  Motosada  Zuomoto,  head  of  the  Japanese  Information 
Bureau,  and  by  letters  from  Russians,  all  urging  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  work,  if  possible. 

Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Brown  originally  left  Moscow  for  a 
survey  of  Siberia  in  March,  1918.  To  quote  from  the  report 
of  Mr.  Davis: 

We  found  the  press  under  the  strict  control  of  the  Bolshevik 
regime.  No  papers  with  a  political  color  were  being  published 
in  any  town  visited  except  the  official  Bolshevik  organ  and  one 
or  two  others  of  the  most  radical  Socialist  revolutionary  tenden- 
cies. In  general,  there  was  less  freedom  for  the  press  in  Siberia 
under  the  Bolshevik  regime  than  in  Petrograd  and  Moscow 
under  the  same  regime.  The  separate  peace  had  just  been  con- 
cluded between  the  German  government  and  the  "Russian 
Federated  Socialistic  Soviet  Republic." 

We  proceeded  on  the  same  policy  which  had  won  a  measure 
of  success  in  Moscow  and  Petrograd,  since  we  were  under  orders 
to  attempt  to  continue  publicity  in  Bolshevik  Russia  and  Siberia. 

384 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

It  had  been  decided  not  to  attack  Bolshevism  or  discuss  politi- 
cal questions  in  Russia  directly,  and  to  get  across  as  much  infor- 
mation as  possible  about  the  principles  of  democratic  government, 
the  aims  of  America  and  the  Allies,  the  war  organization  of 
America  and  the  growing  supremacy  of  the  Allied  arms,  the 
actions  of  the  German  government  in  Russia  and  other  occupied 
territories  and  spheres  of  influence,  and  as  much  general  news  and 
special-article  material  as  possible  about  political  and  social  con- 
ditions and  ideas  in  the  United  States.  This  work  was  regarded 
as  tending  to  strengthen  every  sane  democratic  movement  exist- 
ing in  the  country,  to  give  information  that  might  serve  as  a  basis 
for  working  out  new  problems  of  government  in  the  country, 
and  to  create  as  much  of  friendly  feeling  and  understanding  as 
possible  among  the  common  people  in  Russia. 

We  met  with  varying  attitudes  on  the  part  of  the  editors 
and  of  the  leaders  of  the  Soviets  or  councils  which  were  iii  charge 
of  affairs  everywhere.  While  frankly  antagonistic  to  America 
as  a  "capitalists'  country,"  they  had  no  objection  to  our  carry- 
ing on  a  campaign  of  information  so  long  as  they  were  sure  they 
knew  what  we  were  doing  and  that  we  were  not  doing  anything 
directly  against  Bolshevist  organization. 

We  had  at  this  time  the  war  anniversary  speech  of  President 
Wilson,  and  this  we  had  printed  as  a  wall  poster,  in  fifty  thousand 
copies,  for  posting  in  and  around  Omsk  and  for  mail  distribu- 
tion. The  circulation  was  carried  out,  after  our  departure, 
by  a  Russian  assistant  whom  we  engaged,  under  the  supervision 
of  American  Consul  Thomson.  An  additional  ten  thousand 
copies  of  this  poster  were  later  sent  to  Vice-Consul  Thomas  in 
Krasnoyarsk  for  display  and  distribution  there.  We  also 
arranged  at  once  for  the  distribution  of  about  fifteen  thousand 
copies  each  of  Mr.  Bullard's  pamphlet  "Letters  of  an  American 
Friend,"  which  had  been  very  successful,  and  also  of  the  weekly 
American  Bulletin  from  the  Moscow  office. 

Going  on  to  Krasnoyarsk,  we  stayed  long  enough  to  form  an 
impression  of  all  the  editors  and  Soviet  leaders  there,  and  to 
engage  a  local  Russian  representative,  who  was  to  work  in  con- 
tact with  the  American  vice-consul.  We  also  arranged  for  the 
circulation  of  material  through  the  co-operative  unions;  and  for 
the  regular  forwarding  of  telegraphic  news  and  printed  literature 
from  the  central  offices  in  Moscow.  In  order  to  circulate  copies 
of  the  President's  speeches  at  all,  we  had  to  get  the  official 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

permission  of  the  Irkutsk  commissars,  who  were  determining 
entirely  what  should  be  published  in  the  city  at  the  time.  We 
went  to  call  on  Yanson,  the  commissar  for  foreign  affairs  of  the 
Siberian  administration,  which  was  located  in  Irkutsk.  He  was 
at  first  absolutely  opposed  to  publication  of  anything  represent- 
ing an  American  or  Allied  point  of  view. 

"You  know,"  said  the  commissar,  "we  regard  all  established 
governments  with  antagonism,  for  we  aim  at  a  world-wide 
revolution  which  will  overthrow  the  power  of  the  capitalists 
everywhere." 

"  Do  you  mean,"  asked  we,  "  that  you  recognize  no  difference  be- 
tween such  a  government  as  the  government  of  the  United  States 
of  America  and  the  Prussian  military  government  of  Germany?" 

"Absolutely  none,"  replied  the  commissar.  "America  is 
one  financial  imperialism  and  Germany  is  another.  Both  system- 
atically exploit  the  working-class  and  the  people.  So  far  as  we 
are  concerned  they  are  one  and  the  same;  and  we  are  against 
them  both!" 

We  pointed  out  to  him  that  the  address  which  we  proposed 
to  publish  and  to  circulate  in  and  around  Irkutsk  was  an  official 
utterance  of  the  Chief  Executive  of  our  nation,  that  it  represented 
the  point  of  view  of  the  government  of  one  of  the  great  Powers 
both  with  regard  to  the  issues  of  the  war  in  general  and  with 
regard  to  Russia,  and  that  as  such  it  should  be  published  as  news, 
not  as  propaganda.  We  got  the  necessary  rubber-stamped 
permission  to  circulate  the  copies  of  the  address  on  the  strength 
of  this  argument,  and  proceeded  to  plaster  the  town  with  copies 
of  the  address. 

In  the  course  of  doing  the  work  in  Siberia  we  got  constant 
evidence  of  friendly  feeling  for  America  and  confidence  in  her 
intentions  on  the  part  of  the  common  people  not  allied  with 
the  Bolsheviks.  These  people  were  completely  suppressed  for 
the  time  being,  however,  and  they  could  not  make  their  point 
of  view  effective,  since  the  Bolsheviks  had  all  the  guns.  They 
did  take  our  material  and  circulate  it.  We  got  such  expressions 
of  feeling  from  the  railroad  men  along  the  Trans-Siberian  line, 
and  from  the  students,  members  of  professional  unions,  and  co- 
operative society  workers  in  cities  where  we  stopped.  This  feel- 
ing was  also  evidenced  in  an  incident  which  occurred  after  we 
left  Irkutsk.  We  had  left  all  our  printed  material  and  special- 
article  material  with  the  American  consul,  asking  him  to  give 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

it  as  much  circulation  as  possible,  since  we  were  ordered  out 
of  the  region.  He  gave  the  material  to  a  representative  of  an 
American  firm  in  Irkutsk.  There  the  material  was  displayed 
on  a  counter,  and  in  a  very  short  time  it  was  all  gone.  The  consul 
afterward  related  to  us  how  people  would  come  in  and  ask  for 
copies  and  also  for  permission  to  circulate  them  among  their 
friends.  Representatives  of  the  railroad  workers'  unions  also 
came  in  and  asked  for  permission  to  reprint  at  their  own  cost 
some  of  the  material  about  America,  for  distribution  among 
their  members. 

Having  discharged  their  task  completely,  Mr.  Davis 
and  Mr.  Brown  were  now  faced  with  the  problem  of  getting 
out  of  Bolshevik  Siberia.  Three  days'  travel  by  train  and 
then  a  boat  trip  up  the  Selenga  River  brought  them  to 
the  border,  where  they  slipped  across,  after  which  Ford 
automobiles  carried  them  through  Mongolia  and  across 
the  Gobi  Desert.  Peking  was  reached  on  May  31st,  where 
they  received  instructions  to  proceed  to  Harbin,  Man- 
churia, on  the  line  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway,  man- 
aged by  a  Russian  directorate  and  forming  an  important 
link  on  the  Trans-Siberian  line  from  the  west  to  Vladivos- 
tok. The  city  of  Harbin  at  that  time  formed  what  might 
be  called  the  external  political  capital  of  Russia,  having 
as  residents  influential  members  of  the  Russian  business 
and  political  groups  most  strongly  opposed  to  the  Bol- 
shevik regime.  It  therefore  offered  a  very  fertile  field  for 
publicity,  combining  in  its  population  the  elements  above 
mentioned  with  the  Russian  workers  in  the  large  railroad 
repair-shops  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railway. 

Purchasing  a  few  office  supplies  in  Peking,  and  as- 
sembling all  available  material,  Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Brown 
started  for  Harbin  on  June  10th,  arriving  two  days  later. 
Mr.  Davis's  report  continues  as  follows: 

The  state  of  public  opinion  in  Harbin  and  in  the  general 
section  around  it  and  reached  by  its  newspapers  was  very 

387 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

uncertain.  The  German  advance  on  the  western  front  was 
still  in  full  progress,  and  the  fresh  forces  of  the  American  army 
had  not  yet  been  thrown  into  action.  The  submarine  campaign 
was  continuing,  and  the  facts  of  American  shipbuilding  were  not 
known  as  they  needed  to  be  known  in  this  part  of  the  world. 
The  Allies  had  not  yet  adopted  a  policy  of  active  aid  to  loyal 
Russians  against  the  Bolsheviks  and  German-Magyar  ex-prisoner 
forces,  so  no  one  knew  what  would  be  the  issue  of  the  political 
situation  in  Siberia  and  Russia.  Consequently,  there  were  a 
great  many  people  who  were  listening  to  the  incessant  German 
propaganda  that  the  Russian  Bolshevik  revolution  had  destroyed 
the  last  chance  of  the  Allies  to  win,  that  the  entrance  of  America 
into  the  war  was  too  late  to  save  the  situation,  that  at  least  the 
Allies  would  be  forced  to  a  compromise  peace  in  which  Germany 
would  gain  the  main  advantages  or  else  that  Germany  would 
actually  win  the  decisive  victory  in  the  war  and  thus  dominate 
the  international  situation.  In  Russian  circles  there  were  many 
who  believed  that  a  monarchy  supported  by  an  alliance  with  the 
Prussian  monarchy  would  be  the  best  thing  for  Russia;  and 
there  were  many  others  who  believed  that  any  force  which 
could  bring  order  in  Russia  would  be  beneficial,  and  who,  conse- 
quently, were  ready  to  turn  to  Germany  for  that  result. 

We  had  arranged  before  leaving  Peking  for  the  forwarding 
from  the  American  Legation  there  of  the  daily  news  cable  service 
of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  from  Washington. 
We  also  found  in  the  American  consulate's  care  some  cases  of 
motion-picture  films,  about  sixty  different  films  in  all,  some  of 
them  in  duplicate  and  triplicate.  There  were  also  some  books 
and  pamphlets  from  America  about  American  conditions  and 
war  organization,  sent  by  the  Committee  in  Washington.  The 
Committee  had  also  sent  to  the  American  consul,  Mr.  Moser, 
the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  to  finance  a  campaign  of  publicity 
in  and  around  Harbin,  and  Mr.  Moser,  working  under  great 
pressure  in  the  complicated  situation  in  Harbin,  had  engaged 
H.  Curtis  Vezey,  formerly  editor  of  The  Russian  Daily  News 
in  Petrograd,  to  act  as  publicity  agent.  We  retained  Mr.  Vezey 
as  an  assistant,  moved  into  the  temporary  office  which  he  had 
engaged,  and  started  to  work  at  the  job  of  changing  public 
opinion  regarding  the  war. 

We  began  to  flood  the  newspapers  with  telegrams,  translated 
ready  into  Russian  and  furnished  free,  regarding  the  numbers 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

of  American  troops  being  transported  each  month  to  France, 
the  numbers  of  new  ships  being  built  for  the  battle-fleet  and  mer- 
chant marine,  amounts  of  Liberty  Loans  and  other  subscriptions 
for  the  war,  amounts  of  foodstuffs  shipped  to  the  Allies,  and 
refutations  of  rumors  about  paralyzing  strikes  in  the  United 
States  and  proofs  of  the  unity  of  the  people  in  the  effort  against 
the  Central  Empires.  Fortunately,  the  newspapers  were  either 
friendly  to  the  Allies  or  open-minded;  and  further,  they  were 
comparatively  poor  and  had  no  good  telegraph  news  service. 
The  appearance  of  the  free  American  service  was  a  boon  to  them 
and  they  printed  nearly  every  line  of  news  that  we  gave  to  them. 

We  also  began  to  translate  special  articles  on  American  national 
institutions  and  organizations,  on  labor  conditions  and  the  labor 
movement,  and  the  reasons  why  labor  was  supporting  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  war  and  would  continue  to  support  it,  on  various 
aspects  of  the  life  of  the  people  in  America,  political,  social, 
economic,  tending  to  show  what  advantages  they  already  have 
and  what  powers  they  have  to  change  conditions  constantly 
for  the  better,  all  intended  to  show  the  reasons  for  American 
unity  and  loyalty.  Many  of  these  articles  were  also  printed, 
despite  the  comparatively  small  size  of  Russian  newspapers. 
The  changed  tone  of  editorial  utterances  regarding  the  war 
showed  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  propaganda.  All  utterances 
by  the  President  were  also  translated  and  sent  to  the  papers, 
and  they  were  invariably  published  and  commented  on. 

During  all  of  this  period  our  assistant,  Mr.  Vezey,  whom  we 
employed  on  a  part-time  arrangement,  was  publishing  our  news 
in  English  in  his  Russian  Daily  News,  Occasionally,  when 
especially  important  news  arrived,  an  evening  telegraph  bulletin 
in  Russian  was  gotten  out  by  The  Russian  Daily  News  and  sold 
on  the  streets,  which  made  a  very  useful  and  effective  form  of 
quick-action  publicity. 

We  sorted  our  motion-picture  films  into  programs  and  arranged 
for  a  week  of  American  official  motion  pictures  in  one  of  the  Har- 
bin theaters  for  the  benefit  of  the  Russian  Red  Cross.  The  pict- 
ures which  we  had  were  mainly  military  and  industrial,  with  a 
few  travel  pictures  of  America  and  some  weekly  news  review 
films.  We  had  the  excellent  film,  "The  Remaking  of  a  Nation," 
and  also  much  other  film  showing  army-training  in  the  United 
States.  We  divided  the  films  off  into  programs  as  well  balanced 
as  possible;  and  then  covered  the  town  with  advertisements 
26  389 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

and  distributed  handbills  for  the  week's  program,  which  we  en- 
titled "America  for  the  Allies." 

The  pictures  were  well  attended  by  mixed  audiences  and  made 
a  considerable  impression.  Those  showing  the  efficient  drilling 
of  the  new  army  of  America  and  the  power  of  the  battle-fleet, 
however,  seemed  to  impress  them  most  of  all.  The  impression 
which  we  were  trying  to  make  constantly  was  that  America  was 
with  the  Allies,  and  for  them,  heart  and  soul,  and  that  she  was 
throwing  into  the  fight  every  bit  of  strength  and  resource  that 
she  could  make  effective,  a  fact  which  was  making  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  Allied  arms  sure.  The  pictures  also  served  as 
an  excellent  prelude  to  the  news  which  we  were  able  to  give 
shortly  afterward  about  the  first  victorious  American  drive  at 
Chateau-Thierry,  and  the  turning  of  the  tide  of  battle  which 
developed  into  victory. 

The  pictures  had  English  flash  titles,  so  we  arranged  to  show 
them  with  a  lecturer,  who  explained  each  picture  in  Russian  and 
who  answered  any  questions  about  it  from  the  audience.  After 
finishing  the  showings  in  Harbin,  the  pictures  were  sent  out  along 
the  line  of  the  Chinese  Eastern  Railroad  in  Manchuria  to  the 
Russian  theaters  in  Tsitsikar,  Hailar,  and  Manchuria  Station. 
On  their  return  they  were  sent  to  the  office  which  had  by  that 
time  been  opened  in  Vladivostok  to  have  Russian  titles  put  in. 

When  we  first  arrived  in  Harbin  the  lines  to  Vladivostok  and 
to  Siberia  were,  of  course,  closed.  The  Bolsheviks  were  still 
in  control  and  fighting  between  them  and  Semenov  was  going 
on  along  the  line  between  Manchuria  Station  and  Chita.  The 
Harbin  newspapers,  however,  were  the  only  ones  in  Russian  in 
Manchuria,  and  were  sent  to  every  Russian  community.  Con- 
sequently, by  placing  material  in  these  papers  we  were  reaching 
all  Russian  newspaper  readers.  The  Harbin  papers  were  also 
sent  through  whenever  possible,  by  various  individual  ways, 
to  Vladivostok,  to  Habarovsk,  to  Blagovestchensk,  and  to  Chita; 
and  there  they  were  read  and  often  reprinted  by  the  editors  of 
local  papers.  In  this  way,  consequently,  we  were  reaching 
as  much  of  the  Siberian  field  as  possible  at  the  moment.  Wrhen 
a  paper  was  established  at  Manchuria  Station,  we  started  send- 
ing our  telegrams  and  special  articles  there;  and  when  another 
was  started  in  Sakhalin,  just  across  the  river  in  Manchuria 
from  Blagovestchensk,  we  began  sending  material  there. 

The  President's  speech  at  Mount  Vernon,  which  we  printed 

390 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

in  a  pamphlet  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand  copies  in  Harbin, 
in  addition  to  securing  publication  in  the  newspapers,  was  dis- 
tributed in  Harbin  and  through  Manchuria  in  these  various 
ways. 

The  American  proclamation  of  August  3d,  regarding  Russia, 
caused  a  very  animated  discussion  in  the  Harbin  press.  We 
printed  twenty  thousand  copies  of  the  statement  and  distributed 
them  as  well  as  possible  in  Harbin  and  Manchuria,  sending  some 
to  Sakhalin  for  Blagovestchensk,  and  some  to  Vladivostok. 
In  this  distribution,  the  American  Railroad  Mission  was  very 
helpful.  We  also  had  selections  from  the  announcement  made 
into  plates  for  projection  on  the  moving-picture  screen  and  showed 
them  in  two  motion-picture  theaters.  From  the  large  number 
of  photographs  sent  us  from  Washington  by  the  Committee, 
twenty-five  were  selected,  and  after  some  difficulty  we  arranged 
to  have  cuts  made  of  them  and  have  them  printed  in  the  form 
of  post-cards  for  sale  in  railroad  stations  and  stationery  stores. 

The  triumph  of  the  Czechoslovaks  in  the  summer  opened 
up  the  Siberian  Railroad,  first  from  Harbin  to  Vladivostok, 
and  afterward  through  to  the  Urals,  giving  the  Committee 
a  chance  for  general  Siberian  work.  For  some  time 
Admiral  Knight,  commander  of  the  cruiser  Brooklyn  off 
Vladivostok,  had  been  receiving  the  Committee's  wireless 
reports  and  giving  them  to  the  American  consulate  for 
distribution,  so  that  the  field  was  not  entirely  virgin. 
Mr.  Brown,  going  from  Harbin  to  Vladivostok  with  motion 
pictures,  opened  the  campaign  with  successful  showings 
of  our  films,  and  Mr.  Davis,  following  him,  established  the 
usual  Committee  office.  A  staff  was  picked  up  on  the 
ground  and  authorized  translations  of  the  daily  news  ser- 
vice as  well  as  the  special  articles  contained  in  the  Poole 
service  commenced  to  flow  steadily  into  the  press.  Print- 
ing arrangements  were  made  for  the  pamphlet,  "Letters 
of  an  American  Friend,"  and  a  daily  bulletin  in  English 
was  issued  for  the  information  of  the  Allied  consulates 
and  officials.  This  bulletin  also  went  to  the  French  Red 
Cross  for  translation  for  the  French  troops  and  was  also 

391 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

put  into  Russian  for  courier  transmission  to  papers  not 
reached  by  wire.  Mr.  Carl  Kranz,  given  authority  to 
secure  offices  and  an  office  force,  did  his  work  so  well  that 
when  Mr.  Bullard  and  his  party  arrived  in  Vladivostok  he 
found  a  publicity  machine  of  such  smoothness  and  power 
that  he  was  enabled  instantly  to  make  Vladivostok  his 
headquarters,  turning  Harbin  into  a  subsidiary. 

A  film  campaign  that  reached  from  the  theaters  to  the 
schools,  the  churches,  and  the  homes  was  at  once  begun, 
and  these  exhibitions  were  a  powerful  factor  in  our  appeal 
to  the  Siberian  masses.  Some  of  the  difficulties  under 
which  the  Committee  labored  are  set  forth  in  the  following 
memorandum  filed  by  G.  S.  Both  well,  technical  director 
of  the  Motion  Picture  Division: 

The  building  we  worked  in  is  like  most  other  buildings  in 
Vladivostok.  It  has  neither  water-supply  nor  sewerage  systems, 
as  this  is  almost  unknown  in  this  place.  In  order  to  turn  out 
any  quantity  of  these  titles  we  found  it  necessary  to  have  running 
water,  and  at  an  expense  of  twenty-five  thousand  rubles  we  put 
in  a  water-supply  and  sewerage  system  which  meets  all  require- 
ments of  the  city  laws.  However,  after  this  system  was  com- 
pleted and  all  arrangements  had  been  agreed  upon,  the  city 
authorities  refused  to  turn  water  on  and  kept  us  three  weeks 
or  more  without  running  water. 

We  found  it  necessary  to  establish  a  machine-shop,  and  as 
the  Russian  government  had  many  lathes  lying  on  the  wharves 
rusting  and  fast  becoming  worthless,  we  tried  to  requisition  one. 
We  were  switched  from  one  party  to  another  by  the  Russian 
authorities  until  we  were  fighting-mad  and  at  last  pinned  them 
down  to  facts.  We  were  informed  that  if  we  deposited  sixteen 
thousand  rubles  in  a  bank  a  commission  would  let  us  know  how 
much  they  would  charge  us  for  a  lathe  worth  at  the  most  fifty 
dollars.  Despite  these  obstacles,  for  the  past  month  we  have 
been  turning  out  about  twenty-five  hundred  feet  of  completed 
titles  each  day,  quite  a  number  of  still  pictures,  and  some  motion 
pictures,  both  negative  and  positive. 

About  the  middle  of  October  we  received  our  shipment  of 
machines  and  film  that  we  brought  to  Japan  and  the  Japanese 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

held  up  when  we  reshipped  from  Kobe  to  Vladivostok.  This 
is  a  long  story,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  exactly  place  the  responsi- 
bility. 

However,  after  we  received  this  film  we  made  many  attempts 
to  get  distribution  and  found  it  most  discouraging.  The  picture- 
houses  would  not  use  these  pictures  without  Russian  titles  and 
graciously  offered  to  show  them  for  us  if  we  would  insert  good 
Russian  titles  and  pay  them  for  exhibiting  first-class  American 
films. 

We  then  got  the  Vladivostok  Zemstvo  (Russian  self-govern- 
ment for  local  districts)  interested,  with  fine  results.  They 
agreed  to  take  our  industrial  and  educational  pictures  throughout 
Siberia  and  show  them  in  the  towns  and  villages  if  we  would 
supply  the  complete  outfit,  consisting  of  generator,  motion- 
picture  machine,  etc.,  which  we  gladly  did,  and  the  results  were 
most  satisfactory.  The  first  show  was  for  the  agricultural  dis- 
tricts and  the  reports  were  simply  great.  The  village  commune 
is  common  all  over  Siberia,  and  these  people  in  many  instances 
want  to  buy  tractors  and  other  farming  implements  collectively. 
They  ask  no  end  of  questions  and  beg  for  farming  instructors 
from  America.  We  now  handle  all  the  educational  work  through 
the  Vladivostok  Zemstvo  with  gratifying  success.  Our  Russian 
titles  are  real  Russian  and  they  like  them. 

Mr.  Glaman  had  the  same  obstacles  to  overcome  in 
the  matter  of  printing.  It  was  difficult  to  find  presses, 
and  the  shortage  of  paper  compelled  him  to  buy  old  stock 
in  Shanghai  and  Japan.  The  same  difficulties  were  en- 
countered by  the  publication  department,  directed  edi- 
torially by  Malcolm  Davis  and  Graham  Taylor,  and  under 
the  business  management  of  Mr.  Glaman.  Despite  every 
discouragement,  the  work  went  on,  as  the  following  list 
of  publications  will  show: 

The  Friendly  Word. — A  weekly  magazine;  14  issues  totaling 
288  pages  and  522,350  copies.  Some  of  this  material  was  drawn 
from  the  cable  service  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information, 
particularly  the  texts  of  the  notes  exchanged  between  the  vari- 
ous nations  leading  up  to  the  armistice,  and  the  speeches  of  Pres- 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

ident  Wilson.  The  main  portion  of  the  material  was  received 
from  the  Foreign  Press  Bureau  and  included  many  articles  and 
news  notes  which  were  used  in  full,  others  which  were  shortened 
or  condensed,  and  others  which  were  used  as  the  basis  for  the 
preparation  of  material  adapted  to  meet  space  conditions  or  the 
interest  of  the  Siberian  public.  All  of  the  illustrations  appear- 
ing in  The  Friendly  Word  are  from  half-tones  or  photographs 
which  were  sent  by  the  Foreign  Press  Bureau. 

The  remaining  portion  of  the  material  used  in  The  Friendly 
Word  was  almost  wholly  written  by  members  of  the  staff  of  the 
Russian  Division.  This  included  various  editorial  notes  and 
articles;  the  articles  on  American  Activity  in  Siberia,  by  Arthur 
Bullard;  the  series  of  articles  by  Prof.  W.  F.  Russell  on  the 
Development  of  Education  in  America;  a  series  of  four  articles 
on  the  League  of  Nations,  by  E.  D.  Schoonmaker,  and  a  series 
of  four  articles  on  health — Typhus,  Tuberculosis,  Milk,  and  In- 
fant Feeding — by  Dr.  Joshua  Rosett. 

This  distribution  was  greatly  facilitated  by  the  generous  co- 
operation of  the  Czechoslovak  authorities  in  permitting  the  ship- 
ment of  bundles  of  copies  in  the  weekly  mail-car  operated  by  the 
Czechoslovaks  on  the  Trans-Siberian  Railroad. 

From  each  of  the  offices  of  the  Committee  copies  were  sent, 
as  far  as  possible,  to  individual  addresses.  The  mailing-lists 
included  governmental  and  local  officials,  libraries,  reading-rooms, 
universities  and  schools,  officers  and  members  of  zemstvos, 
co-operative  societies  and  peasant  unions,  persons  who  wrote 
letters  expressing  interest  and  requesting  copies,  etc.  In  many 
cases  organizations  such  as  zemstvos,  co-operative  societies, 
peasant  unions,  teachers'  organizations,  literary  societies,  and 
commercial  and  industrial  bodies  took  an  active  interest  in 
distributing  copies  to  their  members. 

Letters  of  an  American  Friend. — Of  this  pamphlet  of  24  pages, 
written  by  Arthur  Bullard,  director  of  the  Russian  Division, 
expressing  the  friendly  interest  of  America  in  the  democratic 
progress  of  the  Russian  people  and  explaining  the  principles  of 
American  democracy,  there  were  published  150,000  copies. 

American  Activity  in  Siberia. — This  pamphlet  of  8  pages,  con- 
taining a  reprint  of  an  article  by  Arthur  Bullard,  director  of  the 
Russian  Division,  which  originally  appeared  in  The  Friendly 
Word,  was  published  in  an  edition  of  100,000  copies. 

America  and  Peace. — This  pamphlet  of  16  pages,  compiled  by 

394 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

M.  W.  Davis,  containing,  with  an  introduction,  the  texts*of  notes 
exchanged  between  the  various  nations  in  the  negotiations 
leading  up  to  the  armistice,  and  passages  from  President  Wilson's 
speeches  bearing  on  peace,  was  published  in  an  edition  of  100,550. 

The  German  Plot  to  Control  Russia. — This  pamphlet  of  16 
pages,  by  M.  W.  Davis,  after  consultation  with  Mr.  Bullard, 
containing  the  substance  of  the  documents  in  the  Sisson  report 
made  public  by  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  to  show 
the  character  of  German  activity  in  Russia,  was  published  in  an 
edition  of  100,000  copies. 

Typhus  handbill. — This  handbill,  containing  a  reprint  of  an 
article  in  The  Friendly  Word,  designed  to  give  information  in 
popular  form  concerning  ways  whereby  each  individual  and 
family  could  help  combat  the  epidemic  of  typhus  in  Siberia,  was 
printed  in  an  edition  of  24,000. 

Development  of  Education  in  the  United  States. — This  .booklet 
of  64  pages,  containing  a  reprint  of  the  14  educational  articles 
by  Prof.  W.  F.  Russell  of  the  State  University  of  Iowa  which 
were  originally  published  in  The  Friendly  Word,  was  printed 
in  an  edition  of  50,000  and,  in  accordance  with  instructions  from 
the  main  office  of  the  Committee  in  Washington,  the  entire  edition, 
issued  just  prior  to  the  termination  of  the  Committee's  work 
in  Siberia,  was  turned  over  to  the  American  consul  in  Vladivostok 
for  distribution  under  the  supervision  of  the  various  consular 
officers  in  Siberia. 

Speeches  of  President  Wilson. — This  booklet  of  48  pages  was 
published  in  an  edition  of  100,000  copies,  7,000  on  a  good  quality 
of  paper  for  distribution  to  libraries,  reading-rooms,  schools, 
universities,  and  officials,  and  93,000  on  cheap  paper  for  popular 
distribution. 

It  is .  regrettable  indeed  that  there  is  not  space  for  pub- 
lication of  the  entire  report  by  Mr.  Davis  on  the  Siberian 
work,  but  his  closing  chapters  pay  some  deserved  tributes 
and  contain  some  very  valuable  observations.  To  quote: 

The  scope  of  this  report  does  not  give  opportunity  to  include 
the  reports  of  the  individual  field  men  in  Chita,  Irkutsk,  Omsk, 
Ekaterinburg,  and  Chelyabinsk,  which  contain  much  interest- 
ing detail.  They  worked  loyally  and  hard  in  the  service,  with 

395 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

a  spirit  of  co-operation  which  made  the  whole  relationship  a 
pleasure.  Special  notice  is  due  to  the  service  of  W.  A.  Brown,  Jr., 
who  had  the  hardest  physical  conditions  to  face.  He  traveled 
on  freight-cars  and  crowded  third  and  fourth-class  cars  con- 
stantly, and  never  complained  of  hardship  if  a  piece  of  work 
could  be  done.  He  went  to  Perm  as  soon  as  possible  after  its 
capture  from  the  Bolsheviks,  and  had  literature  dropped  across 
their  lines  from  airplanes. 

The  daily  telegraph  news  service  was  extended  to  reach  nearly 
all  Siberian  papers  through  an  agreement  with  the  Russian 
Telegraph  Agency  at  Omsk,  reached  through  R.  E.  Winters, 
our  representative  there. 

In  addition,  our  bulletins  in  English  were  sent  by  American 
headquarters  at  Vladivostok  to  Chita  and  relayed  by  our  man 
there  to  the  other  field  men,  so  that  each  would  have  the  service 
in  full.  The  field  men  also  received  weekly  packages  by  mail, 
with  special  articles  already  translated  for  the  press,  and  full 
sets  of  the  bulletin  accompanying  a  regular  service  letter. 

Early  in  January  Otto  T.  Glaman,  business  manager,  and  I 
started  out  for  a  tour  of  the  field  to  get  in  touch  with  the  men 
in  the  several  offices  and  to  co-ordinate  their  activities  further 
if  necessary.  We  traveled  in  a  freight-car,  which  had  been  made 
over  into  an  office  car,  with  a  sleeping  compartment  and  a  kitchen 
and  a  brakeman's  compartment,  specially  for  this  purpose  by 
the  American  Railway  Mission.  We  also  had  a  smaller  freight- 
car  as  trailer,  with  a  stock  of  literature  and  of  fuel  and  food 
supplies  for  ourselves  and  the  field  men. 

In  Irkutsk  we  received  the  demobilization  orders,  and  from 
there  on  the  original  purpose  of  the  trip  was  automatically 
changed.  We  went  to  Omsk,  where  we  took  Brown  from 
Ekaterinburg,  and  Winters  from  Omsk,  office  manager,  on 
board  with  us  and  started  back  for  Vladivostok  on  March  2d. 
Bakeman,  the  Irkutsk  manager,  returned  in  a  consulate  car, 
and  Clarkin,  from  Chita,  with  us. 

To  estimate  the  results  and  the  consequent  value  of  a  campaign 
of  public  information  which  could  not  be  completed  is  both 
difficult  and  problematical.  Nevertheless,  I  am  confident  in 
saying  that  all  of  the  men  engaged  in  the  work,  and  also  men 
in  other  official  American  services,  felt  at  the  close  that  the 
effort  had  justified  itself  and  been  worth  while. 

The  telegraph  news  service  alone,  reaching  one  hundred  and 

396 


THE  RUSSIAN  CAMPAIGN 

fifty  Siberian  papers  by  our  arrangement  with  the  Russian  Telegraph 
Agency  in  Omsk,  was  a  great  influence. 

When  the  division  was  ordered  to  demobilize,  the  friendly 
attitude  of  other  American  agencies,  and  especially  the  cordial 
co-operation  of  the  headquarters  of  the  American  Expeditionary 
Forces  and  of  the  consulate  general  and  branch  consulates,  were 
evidence  that  useful  work  had  been  accomplished.  This  evi- 
dence was  reinforced  by  many  expressions  from  Russians,  samples 
of  whose  letters  are  given  at  the  end  of  the  report. 

Summing  up  the  results  of  the  work,  I  should  say  that  the 
most  valuable  effect  was  the  creation  of  a  new  sense  of  acquaint- 
ance with  America  and  with  the  spirit  of  the  American  people. 
As  one  Siberian  editor  wrote,  "  I  think  that  I  am  not  mistaken 
when  I  say  that,  owing  to  the  activities  of  the  representatives 
of  the  American  Press  Bureau,  democratic  America  will  never 
again  become  a  strange  country  of  industrial  kings  to  the  popu- 
lation of  Siberia." 

This  establishment  of  a  knowledge  of  the  life  and  character 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  American  people,  and  of  the  broad 
range  of  their  interests  and  activities,  together  with  a  sense  of 
mutual  sympathetic  interest  in  common  ideals  and  aspirations, 
is  the  most  important  achievement  of  the  Siberian  Department. 
The  circulation  of  our  material  on  the  organization  and  growth 
of  a  modern  democracy,  with  its  creative  principles  of  construc- 
tive change  and  development,  may  also  do  much  to  clear  up  the 
confusion  existing  in  many  Russian  minds  challenged  for  the  first 
time  with  the  problem  of  working  out  their  own  difficulties. 
All  the  evidence  is  that  the  work  has  laid  a  basis  of  friendly 
interest  which  will  remain  for  future  relations  of  co-operative 
good  will. 

Coupled  with  this  broader  result  and  contributing  to  it  are 
certain  very  specific  things  which  the  Siberian  Department  did. 
By  circulating  broadcast  information  about  American  war  organi- 
zation and  activity,  it  helped  to  convince  the  public  mind  in 
Siberia  of  the  potential  power  of  America  and  its  promise  of 
victory  during  the  critical  days  when  the  issue  of  the  war  was 
still  in  doubt  in  1918.  By  circulating  information  about  the 
American  peace  program  and  the  League  of  Nations  proposal, 
embodied  in  the  addresses  of  President  Wilson,  it  helped  to  estab- 
lish confidence  in  the  genuine  disinterested  sincerity  of  America 
as  a  nation  and  as  a  democracy  in  matters  of  international  policy. 

397 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

By  circulating  information  regarding  the  American  policy  con- 
cerning Russia,  it  served  to  create  confidence  in  America  as  a 
country  not  seeking  for  internal  control  in  Russia  and  Siberia 
and  truly  interested  in  free  and  fair  play  for  Russians  in  the  settle- 
ment of  their  own  affairs.  The  circulation  of  information 
regarding  the  activities  of  American  relief  agencies,  such  as  the 
American  Red  Cross,  the  American  Railway  Mission,  and  the 
American  War  Trade  Board,  as  well  as  regarding  the  interest 
taken  by  Americans  at  home  in  Russian  affairs  and  the  progress 
of  the  Russian  people  in  their  struggle  for  a  better  order  under 
free  institutions,  has  at  the  same  time  kept  alive  the  sense  of 
American  friendship  and  sympathy.  Circulation  of  information 
regarding  American  methods  of  agriculture  and  industry  and 
regarding  the  life  of  the  American  farmer  and  the  efforts  for  better- 
ment of  the  conditions  of  life  of  the  worker,  regarding  the  activi- 
ties of  the  American  government  in  the  interest  of  the  people, 
and  regarding  the  powers  and  opportunities  which  the  people 
of  the  United  States  have  for  changing  and  perfecting  their 
institutions,  have  both  corrected  many  false  impressions  of 
America  and  tended  to  develop  new  standards  in  Russian  minds 
for  their  own  national  life  and  system  of  government. 


Part    III 
DEMOBILIZATION 


AFTER   THE  ARMISTICE 

THE  Peace  Treaty  has  been  attacked  from  many  sides 
as  a  "failure  in  advertising."  I  agree.  There  can  be 
no  question  that  the  Paris  proceedings  have  never  been 
placed  before  the  people  of  the  United  States  with  any 
degree  of  clearness  or  in  such  manner  as  to  put  public 
opinion  in  possession  of  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth. 

When  it  is  charged,  however,  that  the  failure  is  the  fault 
of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  because  we  did 
not  conduct  a  "vigorous  campaign,"  I  disagree  absolutely 
and  unalterably.  Nothing  would  have  been  more  instantly 
attacked,  and  justly  attacked,  than  the  use  of  governmental 
machinery  and  public  funds  for  any  such  purpose.  Bad 
as  conditions  are  to-day,  they  would  be  infinitely  worse 
had  the  President  attempted  to  support  his  cause  by 
"press-agenting"  with  the  people's  money.  As  for  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information,  its  duties  ceased  auto- 
matically when  fighting  ceased. 

Within  twenty-four  hours  from  the  signing  of  the  armis- 
tice orders  were  issued  for  the  immediate  cessation  of  every 
domestic  activity  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information. 
Many  of  the  divisions  had  a  continuing  value,  but  I  had 
the  deep  conviction  that  the  Committee  was  a  war  or- 
ganization only,  and  that  it  was  without  proper  place  in 
the  national  life  in  time  of  peace.  War  is  a  simple  fact, 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

with  victory  as  its  one  objective.  Peace  is  far  from  simple, 
and  has  as  many  objectives  as  there  are  parties  and 
political  aims  and  prejudices.  No  matter  how  honest  its 
intent  or  pure  its  purpose,  a  Committee  on  Public  In- 
formation operating  in  peace-times  would  be  caught  in- 
evitably in  the  net  of  controversy,  affording  the  highly 
improper  spectacle  of  a  government  organization  using 
public  moneys  to  advance  the  contentions  of  one  side  or 
the  other.  The  President  was  in  thorough  agreement  with 
me  and  the  order  for  domestic  demobilization  had  his 
explicit  approval. 

On  November  14th  announcement  was  made  of  the 
discontinuance  of  the  volunteer  censorship  agreement. 

On  November  15th  a  formal  statement  was  issued  to 
the  effect  that  all  press  censorship  in  connection  with  cables 
and  mails  had  been  discontinued. 

The  question  that  next  arose  was  in  connection  with 
publicity  arrangements  for  the  Peace  Conference  in  Paris. 
There  was  a  general  assumption  that  the  government 
would  exercise  certain  authorities  and  controls,  and  that 
I  would  act  as  administrative  agent.  It  was  against  this 
assumption  that  I  entered  immediate  and  vigorous  protest, 
taking  the  matter  straight  to  the  President.  What  I 
insisted  upon  was  the  government's  immediate  and  com- 
plete surrender  of  every  supervisory  function  as  far  as 
news  was  concerned  and  the  restoration  to  the  press  of 
every  power,  liberty,  and  independence.  This  course,  in 
my  opinion,  was  dictated  by  common  sense  as  well  as  by 
propriety.  The  Republican  papers,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
were  insistent  that  the  Administration  should  abandon  all 
publicity  effort,  but  it  was  also  the  case  that  the  press,  as 
a  whole,  was  flatly  in  favor  of  the  step.  From  every  quar- 
ter came  the  demand  for  full  release  from  restraint,  sug- 
gestion, or  "interference"  of  any  kind.  There  was  also 
Congress  to  be  considered. 

402 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

The  League  of  Nations  was  the  chief  issue  to  be  fought 
out  in  the  Peace  Conference  and  the  Republican  majority 
in  the  Senate  was  already  serving  notice  that  it  would  be 
regarded  as  a  controversial  and  political  question.  Any 
attempt  at  government  supervision,  regardless  of  its  hon- 
esty and  helpfulness,  was  sure  to  be  seized  upon  by  the 
Republican  Senators  and  by  the  Republican  press  as  an 
effort  of  the  Administration  to  "muzzle  the  press"  and  to 
give  the  people  no  other  information  than  that  favorable 
to  the  President's  cause. 

What  I  urged  was  the  lifting  of  every  barrier,  full  per- 
mission and  aid  for  every  American  newspaper  man  de- 
siring to  go  to  Paris,  open  sessions  of  the  Peace  Conference, 
and  instant  demand  upon  England  and  France  that  Amer- 
ican news  should  be  exempted  from  censorship  of  any  kind. 

The  President  stated  that  he  stood  unqualifiedly  for 
open  sessions,  authorized  the  announcement  that  all  pass- 
port regulations  would  be  lifted  in  the  case  of  accredited 
newspaper  men,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  informed 
me  that  the  governments  of  France  and  England  had 
acceded  to  his  request  that  the  despatches  of  American  cor- 
respondents should  not  be  subjected  to  censorship.  These 
facts  were  duly  given  to  the  press,  and  all  was  "quiet  along 
the  Potomac." 

With  Peace  Conference  publicity  disposed  of  presum- 
ably, and  with  the  domestic  activities  of  the  Committee 
in  process  of  settlement,  there  then  remained  only  the 
Foreign  Section  with  its  representatives  in  every  capital, 
its  intricate  machinery,  and  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  involved  in  the  adjustment  of  assets  and  liabilities. 
Paris  was  the  one  logical  center  for  this  demobilization 
and  the  President  believed  that  the  importance  of  this 
liquidation  required  my  personal  attention.  At  the  same 
time,  with  his  usual  kindliness  of  thought,  he  asked  me 
to  be  his  guest  on  the  George  Washington  if  I  could  make 

403 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

my  plans  coincide  with  his  sailing  date.  This,  then,  was 
why  I  went  to  Paris,  and  how  I  happened  to  be  on  the 
George  Washington.  The  wisdom  of  my  course  in  taking 
a  stand  against  "salesmanship"  was  soon  demonstrated  in 
conclusive  fashion. 

To  assist  in  the  heavy  detail  of  checking  the  books  of 
the  European  offices,  in  paying  bills,  selling  assets,  and  col- 
lecting money  due,  I  sent  an  advance  delegation  to  Paris, 
consisting  of  Mr.  Edgar  G.  Sisson,  director  of  the  Foreign 
Section;  his  associate,  Mr.  Carl  Byoir;  and  a  force  of  ac- 
countants and  stenographers.  The  New  York  World,  on 
the  alleged  authority  of  some  member  of  the  party  whose 
name  was  not  given,  announced  that  these  purely  clerical 
employees  constituted  "The  United  States  Official  Press 
Mission  to  the  Peace  Conference." 

At  almost  the  same  time  the  Postmaster-General  an- 
nounced the  taking  over  of  the  cables,  an  action  as  remote 
as  the  moon  from  my  authority  and  duties.  Straightway 
the  inevitable  Senate  group  —  Reed,  Watson,  Hiram 
Johnson,  Sherman,  and  New — started  off  with  their  full- 
mouthed  baying,  and  the  press,  with  equal  recklessness 
and  enthusiasm,  joined  in  the  hue  and  cry.  The  President, 
Mr.  Burleson,  and  I  were  in  a  deep  and  dark  conspiracy 
to  gag,  stifle,  muzzle,  and  throttle.  With  the  cables  in  our 
clutches,  mine  was  to  be  the  task  of  censorship  in  Paris, 
my  autocratic  whim  would  decide  what  news  of  the  Peace 
Conference  should  reach  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
and  my  "interpretations"  would  be  forced  upon  suffering 
correspondents. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  no  Senator  made  the  slightest 
effort  to  ascertain  the  facts,  the  press  carried  their  f ulmina- 
tions  with  glaring  head-lines,  and  editors  thundered  against 
the  hapless  stenographers  composing  "The  United  States 
Official  Press  Mission"  and  denounced  my  "iniquitous 
pact"  with  Mr.  Burleson.  The  following  statement  was 

404 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

issued  on  November  21st  in  an  effort  to  stem  the  tide  of 
absurdity  and  falsehood: 

With  respect  to  my  charged  connection  with  the  cables  and 
cable  censorship,  there  is  no  such  connection,  nor  will  there 
be  any. 

On  November  14th  announcement  was  made  by  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  of  the  discontinuance  of  the  volunteer 
censorship  agreement  under  which  the  press  of  the  United 
States  has  operated  with  the  government. 

On  November  15th  a  formal  statement  was  issued  to  the 
effect  that  all  press  censorship  in  connection  with  cables  and  mails 
would  be  discontinued  forthwith. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  press  censorship  of  any  kind  existing 
in  the  United  States  to-day.  No  plan  of  resumption  has  been 
suggested  or  even  contemplated. 

The  whole  domestic  machinery  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Information  is  being  dismantled  and  will  cease  operation  by 
December  15th  at  the  very  latest.  As  for  my  work  in  Europe, 
and  that  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  it  will  have 
absolutely  no  connection  whatsoever  with  the  control  of  the 
cables,  any  form  of  censorship,  or  any  supervision  over  the 
press. 

The  charge  that  I  will  have  control  of  all  publicity  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Peace  Commission  has  no  base  in  fact.  The  policy 
decided  upon  is  that  there  shall  be  no  selection  or  discrimination 
in  the  matter  of  the  representation  of  the  press  either  in  the 
matter  of  passports  or  in  foreign  arrangements.  Any  responsible 
newspaper  man  is  entitled  to  go  and  equally  entitled  to  fair  and 
impartial  treatment  abroad. 

These  men,  on  the  ground  and  with  every  right  and  chance 
to  observe,  estimate,  and  interview,  will  write  as  they  please 
and  with  their  usual  independence.  As  for  press  arrangements, 
conveniences,  and  privileges,  these  matters  will  necessarily  be 
governed  in  large  degree  by  the  desires  of  the  authorities  of  the 
country  in  which  the  Peace  Conference  is  held. 

The  one  proper  effort  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
will  be  to  open  every  means  of  communication  to  the  press  of 
America  without  dictation,  without  supervision,  and  with  no 
other  desire  than  to  facilitate  in  every  manner  the  fullest  and 
freest  flow  of  news. 
27  405 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

This  statement  clarified  the  atmosphere  in  some  degree, 
but  attack  continued  from  many  quarters,  and  as  late  as 
November  29th  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  public  print,  accepted 
the  story  that  my  stenographers  and  accountants  were 
"The  United  States  Official  Press  Mission  to  the  Peace 
Conference,"  added  that  these  men  and  women  had  been 
sent  by  the  President  himself,  and  asserted  that  the  whole 
purpose  was  the  determination  of  the  President  to  "make 
the  news  sent  out  from  the  Peace  Conference  to  ourselves, 
our  allies,  and  our  enemies  what  they  desire  to  have  told 
from  their  own  standpoint,  and  nothing  more." 

On  November  23d,  or  thereabouts,  a  committee  of  the 
Washington  correspondents  came  to  me  to  learn  my  plans 
for  "handling  them."  It  was  an  amazing  situation  that 
had  more  humor  in  it  than  irritation.  Before  me  were  the 
very  men  who  had  been  most  insistent  that  "Creel  must 
take  his  hands  off,"  that  there  must  be  "no  interference 
with  correspondents,"  and  as  a  consequence  of  their  clamor 
I  had  issued  a  public  statement  binding  myself  to  avoid 
even  an  appearance  of  supervision. 

It  developed,  however,  that  none  of  them  had  taken  the 
trouble  to  engage  passage  or  to  apply  for  passports,  and 
that  unless  authoritative  help  came  quickly  they  stood 
small  chance  of  getting  to  France  in  time.  At  the  request 
of  these  correspondents,  and  acting  entirely  in  a  personal 
capacity,  I  went  to  the  President  and  begged  him  to  let 
the  newspaper  group  travel  with  him  on  the  George  Wash- 
ington. He  pointed  out  that  there  was  no  way  by  which 
any  fair  discrimination  could  be  made,  and  that  if  one  cor- 
respondent were  given  the  privilege,  the  same  invitation 
would  necessarily  have  to  be  extended  to  every  other 
correspondent  in  the  United  States.  He  explained  further 
that  the  accommodations  on  the  George  Washington  were 
not  unlimited,  as  every  one  seemed  to  suppose,  and  that 
the  inclusion  of  the  Peace  Commission,  the  scores  of  ex- 

406 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

perts  attached  to  the  commission,  the  State  Department 
group,  etc.,  had  already  brought  about  a  condition  of  con- 
gestion. With  the  full  approval  of  the  correspondents  I 
then  devoted  my  efforts  to  placing  the  representatives  of 
the  Associated  Press,  United  Press,  and  the  International 
News  Service  on  the  George  Washington,  and  these  three 
men  were  asked  by  the  President  as  his  guests.  This  done, 
I  took  up  with  the  War  Department  the  question  of 
securing  a  transport  for  the  use  of  such  correspondents  as 
desired  to  go  to  France.  The  Orizaba  happened  to  be  the 
one  boat  available,  and  while  it  was  not  a  Cunarder,  it  was 
a  good  seaworthy  boat,  and  at  the  time  there  was  no  quar- 
rel with  it  whatsoever,  only  a  great  thanksgiving  that  a 
ship  of  any  kind  had  been  secured.  These  activities  on 
my  part,  undertaken  entirely  at  the  request  of  the  cor- 
respondents themselves,  aroused  a  new  outcry  in  the 
Senate,  and  even  in  some  of  the  newspapers  that  I  was  try- 
ing to  serve,  and  on  November  27th  the  following  state- 
ment was  issued: 

It  has  been  arranged  that  the  representatives  of  the  press 
associations  will  travel  with  the  President  and  the  official  party. 

With  the  approval  of  the  President,  the  Secretary  of  War 
has  set  aside  the  transport  Orizaba  to  carry  duly  accredited 
newspaper  correspondents  to  France.  The  Orizaba  will  leave 
the  Hoboken  dock  at  twelve  o'clock  noon  Sunday,  December  1st. 
All  passengers  will  report  to  General  McManus  at  the  port  of 
embarkation,  Pier  3. 

In  the  matter  of  the  sailing-list  no  discrimination  will  be  made 
or  special  privilege  granted.  All  newspaper  men  duly  accredited 
by  responsible  newspapers  are  entitled  to  passage. 

Passports  have  to  be  vised  by  the  various  consuls  in  New  York. 
Applications  that  have  not  yet  been  made  should  be  filed  at  once 
and  reported  to  me.  Likewise,  applications  that  have  been 
made  but  have  not  yet  been  acted  upon.  The  State  Department 
is  extending  every  aid  in  the  interest  of  expedition,  and  press 
passports  will  be  lifted  out  of  the  regular  routine. 

It  is  requested,  and  hoped,  that  correction  will  be  made  of 

407 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  very  untrue  report  that  any  attempt  will  be  made  to  interfere 
in  any  manner  with  the  free  flow  of  news  from  America  to  Europe, 
or  from  Europe  to  America.  The  whole  effort  of  government, 
from  the  first,  has  been  to  assure  adequate  and  authoritative 
representation  of  the  press  at  the  Peace  Conference  and  to  assist 
news  distribution  in  every  possible  way. 

There  is  no  press  censorship  of  any  kind  in  the  United  States 
to-day,  and  at  the  personal  request  of  the  President  the  French 
and  English  governments  have  lifted  all  censorship  regulations 
bearing  upon  American  press  matters. 

The  widely  circulated  rumor  that  George  Creel,  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  will  have  control  of  official 
publicity  in  connection  with  the  Peace  Conference  is  absolutely 
without  foundation.  There  will  be  no  such  control,  and  the 
situation  itself  precludes  any  such  control.  The  Peace  Confer- 
ence itself  will  undoubtedly  decide  upon  the  manner  of  announ- 
cing its  deliberations  and  decisions,  and  the  right  of  correspondents 
to  free  movement  and  interviews  is,  of  course,  one  that  cannot 
be  abridged  in  any  degree. 

The  Postmaster-General  is  maintaining  a  study  of  the  cables, 
with  a  view  to  aiding  the  press  in  every  possible  way,  and  will 
shortly  make  his  own  statement. 

Mr.  Creel,  who  has  made  all  arrangements  for  the  discontinu- 
ance of  the  domestic  work  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Informa- 
tion, is  proceeding  to  Europe  to  wind  up  the  work  of  the  Foreign 
Section.  He  has  no  connection  whatsoever  with  the  Peace 
Commission. 

The  representatives  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
who  sailed  last  week  did  not  in  any  manner  constitute  an  offi- 
cial Peace  Conference  press  mission.  They  were  stenographers, 
accountants,  film  men,  and  division  heads,  not  one  of  whom  will 
have  connection  with  the  Peace  Conference  or  with  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  Conference's  press  matter.  Their  sole  duties  will  be 
the  completion  of  the  Committee's  foreign  work  and  settlement 
of  contracts  and  business  details  incident  to  the  absolute  cessation 
of  activity. 

The  Departments  of  State  and  War  threw  down  all 
barriers  in  the  matter  of  passports,  the  embarkation  officials 
at  Hoboken  worked  overtime,  and  through  a  dreary  Sun- 
day I  sat  wearily  signing  credentials  asking  foreign  govern- 

408 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

ments  to  show  the  bearers  every  possible  courtesy,  privi- 
lege, consideration,  etc.  Conservative,  radical,  Democratic, 
and  Republican,  all  went  down  into  the  Orizaba  in  the 
order  of  their  application,  and  the  one  joy  that  I  had 
out  of  it  was  to  know  that  the  correspondents  of  re- 
actionary papers  like  the  Sun  and  Tribune  were  to  travel 
for  seven  days  with  Abraham  Cahan  of  the  Vorwdrts,  and 
Reuben  Spink  of  the  Socialist  Call. 

On  December  4th  I  sailed  on  the  George  Washington, 
but  even  the  sea  afforded  no  refuge.  Two  days  after  my 
departure,  a  Paris  despatch  charged  that  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  would  take  control  of  the  Euro- 
pean cables,  "ration"  space  to  the  correspondents;  and 
that  all  official  communications  to  the  press  from  the 
Paris  Conference  would  pass  through  my  hands.  I  was  the 
one  person  with  authority  to  make  such  an  announcement; 
I  was  on  the  sea  and  had  left  behind  me  flat  statements 
that  guaranteed  the  absolute  freedom  of  the  press.  Upon 
arrival  in  Paris,  investigation  disclosed  that  the  despatch 
had  no  base  whatsoever  save  in  the  imagination  of  the  cor- 
respondent that  sent  it.  Yet  Senator  Hiram  Johnson 
and  the  others  of  his  ilk  accepted  the  lie  without  question, 
and  The  Philadelphia  North  American  even  printed  this 
infamous  attack: 

Some  indication  of  the  course  to  be  pursued  was  given  to-day 
when  Senate  anger  again  found  expression  as  the  result  of  the 
cabled  information  from  Paris  that  George  Creel  is  to  decide 
how  much  news  matter  each  newspaper  correspondent  may 
file  for  cable  transmission  each  day,  and  is  to  pass  upon  every 
official  statement  that  is  to  be  given  out  from  the  American 
delegation. 

This  announcement  is  in  direct  conflict  with  the  statement 
made  by  President  Wilson  in  his  speech  on  Monday  that  there 
was  to  be  no  censorship  or  restriction  imposed  by  the  government 
upon  the  information  to  be  sent  from  the  Peace  Conference  to 
this  country,  and  that  in  the  interest  of  publicity  he  had  induced 

409 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  governments  of  Great  Britain  and  France  to  lift  their  cen- 
sorship news. 

It  is  an  absolute  exposure  of  the  falsity  of  the  statement  made 
by  George  Creel  that  he  has  gone  to  France  to  wind  up  the 
affairs  of  the  Public  Information  Committee  and  will  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  preparation  or  transmission  of  information  con- 
cerning the  conferences. 

In  fact,  Congress  and  the  public  have  every  reason  to  feel 
that  both  the  President  and  Creel  made  statements  to  the 
American  public  which  were  deliberately  planned  to  deceive, 
and  the  uncomfortable  inference  suggests  itself  that  since  these 
statements  are  shown  to  have  been  untrue,  no  other  statements 
they  may  issue  can  the  public  accept  with  absolute  confidence 
of  their  reliability. 

Johnson  cried,  "What  a  sad  thing  it  is  that  Creel  should 
ration  the  news  which  is  to  be  received  by  the  American 
people — the  news  concerning  developments  that  may  mean 
the  whole  future  of  our  Republic."  New  of  Indiana  even 
went  into  figures,  stating  that  the  press  allotment  on  the 
cables,  as  fixed  by  me,  would  be  twenty-eight  thousand 
words  a  day,  a  limit  that  he  boldly  branded  as  "ridiculous." 
Even  when  the  report  stood  proved  as  a  lie  and  when  it 
became  indisputably  apparent  that  the  attacks  were  false, 
not  one  word  of  retraction  or  apology  ever  came  from  the 
Senators  or  from  The  North  American  and  such  other 
papers  as  had  spread  the  slanders. 

Another  charge  made  freely  to-day  is  that  "Creel's 
Committee  might  have  done  something  to  provide  for  the 
comfort  and  convenience  of  the  newspaper  workers  in 
Paris  and  so  saved  its  scalp."  Under  this  head  the  prin- 
cipal complaint  is  that  the  correspondents  were  not 
"housed  in  their  own  American  club,  led,  guided,  stimu- 
lated at  every  step  of  the  Conference  proceedings."  To 
make  the  case  more  conclusive,  it  is  stated  that  a  business 
man  of  large  affairs  made  an  offer  to  lease  a  hotel  or  apart- 
ment-house in  Paris  for  the  American  correspondents 

410 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

where  they  would  be  lodged  and  fed,  provided  with  every 
working  convenience,  and  informed  at  regular  intervals 
by  prominent  Americans  and  internationalists  as  to  the 
problems  upon  which  the  new  treaty  would  be  founded. 
This  man,  invariably  anonymous,  was  ready  to  under- 
write such  a  scheme  up  to  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars, 
but  "the  Committee  on  Public  Information  laughed  at 
this  offer  and  promptly  proceeded  to  ignore  it." 

No  such  offer  was  ever  made  to  me  or  to  any  other 
executive  of  the  Committee.  Knowing  the  difficulties 
under  which  the  correspondents  would  labor  in  Paris,  I 
took  the  chance  of  instructing  Mr.  Sisson  to  engage  and 
equip  working  quarters  for  the  American  press,  and  he 
took  the  old  James  Gordon  Bennett  apartments  on  the 
Champs-Elysees  and  fitted  them  up  with  desks  and  type- 
writers. Almost  instantly  despatches  commenced  to  go 
back  to  the  United  States  declaring  that  we  were  squander- 
ing government  money  in  a  secret  attempt  to  control  the 
press,  and,  finally  convinced  that  any  effort  to  help  the 
correspondents  directly  would  be  misinterpreted,  I  gave 
orders  to  surrender  the  lease  and  dismantle  the  place. 

As  evidence  of  my  own  shortcomings  and  the  superior 
propaganda  genius  of  the  French,  many  correspondents 
glowingly  described  "the  remarkable  international  press 
club  which  the  French  government  set  up  in  the  Champs- 
Ely  sees."  This  is  really  humorous.  When  I  saw  that  it 
would  not  be  possible  for  the  American  government  to 
do  anything  of  its  own  initiative,  I  went  to  M.  Tardieu 
and  M.  Aubert,  with  whom  I  had  been  closely  associated 
in  Washington  during  their  service  in  the  French  High 
Commission,  and  the  three  of  us  made  the  plans  for  the 
establishment  of  the  French  press  club  in  the  Hotel  Dufayal. 
On  a  bitter  winter  morning  M.  Aubert  and  I  tramped 
through  the  chilly  palace,  deciding  upon  general  arrange- 
ment and  specific  quarters,  and  it  was  the  Committee  that 

411 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

furnished  a  large  part  of  the  desks  and  typewriters.  It 
was  planned  that  this  should  be  a  home  for  all  correspond- 
ents and  that  the  prominent  men  of  all  nations  would 
be  invited  there  to  talk  over  Peace  Conference  problems 
for  the  information  of  the  writers.  I  might  say  that 
the  failure  of  the  plan  constituted  one  of  the  French 
government's  bitter  disappointments.  The  last  thing 
that  the  correspondents  wanted  was  to  be  guided  and 
instructed  and  stimulated.  What  they  were  after  was 
news,  and  the  Peace  Conference  itself  was  the  one  news 
source. 

Various  correspondents  are  also  ardent  in  this  admira- 
tion of  the  French  for  the  manner  in  which  they  conducted 
visitors  over  the  devastated  areas,  for  "compared  with  it 
the  best  of  our  American  efforts  were  almost  as  nothing." 
During  the  war,  when  it  was  our  business  to  impress  the 
world  with  the  power  of  America,  our  Paris  office  main- 
tained smooth-working  machinery  for  the  exploitation  of 
the  American  effort  in  France.  In  conjunction  with  the 
army,  the  newspaper  men  of  Spain,  Holland,  England, 
Scandinavia,  Italy,  and  all  other  nations,  were  taken  on 
tours  that  covered  the  entire  activities  of  the  A.  E.  F. 
With  the  armistice  this  work  ended  naturally,  and  nothing 
would  have  been  more  improper  and  unwise  than  for  the 
American  government  to  take  correspondents  over  the 
devastated  area  in  competition  with  the  French. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  Committee  was  the 
moving  spirit  behind  most  of  the  trips  on  which  the  cor- 
respondents were  taken.  Not  only  did  we  work  with  the 
French  government  on  such  plans,  but  through  Mr.  Fred- 
erick H.  Wile,  Lord  Northcliffe's  representative,  it  was 
arranged  that  all  the  American  correspondents  should  be 
the  guests  of  the  British  government  during  the  President's 
visit  in  England.  From  the  Italian  government  I  secured 
a  similar  invitation,  along  with  a  special  train  and  an  offer 

412 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

to  take  the  entire  group  of  American  correspondents  over 
the  Italian  battle-front. 

When  the  President  decided  to  spend  Christmas  Day 
at  Chaumont,  it  was  the  Committee  that  arranged  for  a 
special  train  for  the  correspondents  and  it  was  the  Com- 
mittee that  paid  for  it. 

What  with  all  these  arrangements,  and  especially  the 
Italian  trip,  which  had  to  be  planned  in  conjunction  with 
a  grand-opera  tenor  in  uniform,  I  was  compelled  to  stay 
in  Paris  when  the  President  went  to  London,  and  by  way 
of  showing  a  delicate  and  restrained  appreciation  of  my 
efforts,  The  New  York  Sun  correspondent  sent  a  despatch 
from  London  that  I  was  not  with  the  President  because  I 
had  quarreled  with  him  and  that  I  was  making  plans  to 
leave  at  once  for  the  United  States. 

Praise  has  been  given,  and  very  properly,  to  the  help- 
fulness of  Mr.  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  also  to  the  President's 
agreement  that  the  correspondents  should  have  a  daily 
conference  each  morning  with  the  American  members  of 
the  Peace  Commission.  On  the  second  day  after  my  ar- 
rival in  Paris  I  took  up  with  the  President  this  matter  of 
a  daily  conference  and  secured  his  consent  to  it.  It  was 
at  my  request,  joined  in  by  Colonel  House,  that  the  Pres- 
ident signed  the  order  attaching  Mr.  Baker  to  the  Peace 
Commission  to  act  as  its  press  representative.  From  the 
first  I  begged  the  President  to  meet  regularly  with  the 
correspondents  and  it  was  his  sincere  desire  to  do  this, 
and  it  would  have  been  done  but  for  the  back-breaking 
burdens  that  he  bore,  the  demands  that  took  every  second 
of  his  time,  and  the  constantly  changing  situation  that 
made  it  impossible  to  talk  with  any  degree  of  certainty. 

These  things  done,  I  had  the  feeling  that  the  Committee, 
as  far  as  was  properly  in  its  power,  had  discharged  its  full 
duty  in  aiding  the  press  of  America  to  obtain  the  news. 
What  remained  to  be  done  was  to  help  the  correspondents 

413 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

to  transmit  the  news  with  the  greatest  possible  degree  of 
speed.  The  cables  were  abnormally  congested.  Not  only 
was  the  press  of  the  world  assembled  in  Paris,  but  the  war 
had  left  only  four  transatlantic  cables  available  for  use, 
and  as  a  consequence  incredible  delays  developed  unavoid- 
ably. To  meet  the  situation,  Mr.  Walter  S.  Rogers,  direc- 
tor of  the  Committee's  Foreign  Wireless  and  Cable  Service, 
was  placed  unreservedly  at  the  disposal  of  the  correspond- 
ents and  directed  to  find  a  "way  out."  As  a  first  measure 
to  lighten  the  cable  load,  the  Committee  agreed  to  transmit 
to  the  United  States  all  formal  statements,  speeches  of 
the  President,  and  other  like  matter  requiring  textual 
sending,  and  to  make  simultaneous  delivery  in  New  York 
to  the  three  press  associations.  Even  when  the  matter 
had  to  be  sent  by  cable,  two  additional  sendings  were 
saved,  and  when  flashed  by  wireless  the  entire  load  was 
lifted  from  the  cable. 

A  second  step  was  in  the  direction  of  aid  to  individual 
correspondents.  The  navy,  in  charge  of  the  wireless,  was 
forbidden  by  law  to  charge  tolls,  nor  could  it  even  receive 
private  messages;  but  in  view  of  the  importance  of  giving 
the  American  public  all  possible  news  of  the  peace  deliber- 
ations it  was  agreed  that  the  Committee  on  Public  In- 
formation might  undertake  the  delivery  of  the  matter  to 
the  American  press. 

After  many  negotiations  the  French  government  and  the 
United  States  navy  entered  into  an  arrangement  through 
which  the  Committee  was  able  to  offer  thirty-five  hundred 
words  daily  on  the  wireless,  absolutely  free  of  charge,  to 
the  American  correspondents  in  Paris.  The  correspondents 
themselves,  formed  into  an  association,  allotted  the  word- 
age  as  they  saw  fit,  handed  copy  to  the  Committee  in  Paris, 
and  from  our  office  it  went  over  the  American  army  wires 
to  the  French  wireless  station  at  Lyons  and  from  Lyons  to 
the  Committee's  office  in  New  York  for  distribution. 

414 


AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE 

At  no  time  did  the  Foreign  Press  Cable  Service  under- 
take to  deliver  analytical  articles  or  "propaganda  matter" 
to  the  American  press.  The  matter  sent  for  simultaneous 
release  consisted  solely  of  official  statements,  speeches, 
and  announcements,  and  merely  the  bare  text  of  these. 
We  construed  our  service  to  be  the  delivery  of  these  docu- 
ments textually,  leaving  it  to  the  newspapers  to  draw  con- 
clusions or  to  describe  the  events  in  connection  with  the 
issuance  of  such  statements.  Emphasis  should  also  be 
laid  on  the  fact  that  this  division  at  no  time  exercised  any 
censorship  on  any  articles  prepared  by  any  correspondents 
for  American  newspapers. 

The  consummation  of  these  arrangements  marked  the 
limit  of  proper  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Committee.  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Italy  were  the  hosts  of  the  American 
press;  every  battle-front  was  to  be  shown  the  correspond- 
ents; an  incredibly  magnificent  press  club  stood  provided 
for  them;  daily  contacts  with  the  American  peace  com- 
missioners were  being  held;  cable  and  wireless  facilities, 
free  of  charge,  were  at  their  disposal,  and  no  censorship 
stood  in  the  way. 

Future  arrangements  were  entirely  and  absolutely  in 
the  hands  of  the  Peace  Conference  itself.  There  was  no 
other  way.  Nothing  stands  so  clear  as  that  it  would  have 
been  suicidal  for  the  President  to  have  used  a  single  govern- 
ment dollar  or  a  piece  of  government  machinery  for  pub- 
licity purposes  in  connection  with  the  Peace  Conference. 
If  plain  downright  lies  had  the  power  to  stir  the  Repub- 
lican press  and  the  Republican  Senators  into  rage  and 
abuse,  imagine  the  storm  that  would  have  been  aroused 
had  any  of  the  reports  of  press-agenting  been  based  upon 
fact.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  dependence  had  to 
be  placed  upon  the  activities  of  the  Conference  itself  and 
upon  the  spirit  in  which  the  correspondents  reported  and 
interpreted  these  activities. 

415 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

This  spirit  was  bad.  The  Peace  Treaty  failed  because 
the  press  itself  failed  in  its  duty  of  proper  information, 
and  the  press  failed  because  it  interested  itself  only  in  the 
personal  and  obvious,  not  in  the  educational  and  inter- 
pretative. And  the  reason  for  this  misplaced  emphasis 
goes  back  to  the  bitter  fact  that  partizans  made  the  Peace 
Treaty  a  party  question  instead  of  letting  it  shine  out  as 
a  nation's  pledge. 


n 


"AMEKICANIZING"  MITTEL  EUROPA 


fin  HROUGHOUT  these  two  weeks  of  press  arrangements 
JL  the  work  of  dismantling  the  Foreign  Section  was  pro- 
ceeding steadily.  Orders  went  out  to  the  Committee's 
commissioners  in  every  country  to  "close  shop,"  settle 
accounts,  and  make  the  best  possible  disposition  of  fur- 
niture, fixtures,  films,  and  all  other  assets.  The  only 
offices  kept  alive  were  those  in  Paris  and  New  York,  and 
these  were  skeleton  organizations  for  news  distribution. 

It  was  my  deep  desire  to  make  a  clean  sweep,  but  the 
American  Peace  Commission  was  of  the  opinion  that  some 
machinery  should  be  left  to  assure  the  proper  world  dis- 
tribution of  official  policies  and  positions  in  times  of  crisis. 
There  was  also  our  agreement  with  the  American  corre- 
spondents in  the  matter  of  the  wireless  and  cable  accommo- 
dations. Walter  Rogers  and  Herman  Suter,  therefore, 
"stayed  on  the  job"  in  Paris,  handling  the  daily  service 
for  the  press,  and  at  the  disposal  of  the  Peace  Commission 
for  putting  official  statements  into  the  channels  of  world- 
communication. 

With  demobilization  in  full  swing,  but  one  constructive 
task  remained  to  be  discharged.  While  much  of  our  matter 
had  penetrated  Middle  Europe  during  the  war,  it  was  still 
the  case  that  enemy  censorship  had  prevented  any  com- 
plete approach.  What  we  wanted  to  do,  the  thing  that 
we  felt  it  necessary  to  do,  was  to  drive  home,  once  and 
for  all,  the  idealism  of  America  and  the  blood-guilt  of 

417 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Germany.  Poles,  Czechs,  Austrians,  Hungarians,  and 
Jugoslavs  were  crystallizing  into  new  political  shapes,  and 
nothing  seemed  more  desirable  than  that  they  should  have 
the  facts  in  the  case  in  order  that  their  determinations  might 
form  along  lines  acceptable  to  the  new  world. 

In  accordance  with  an  arrangement  made  previously 
with  President  Masaryk  it  was  decided  that  Prague  should 
be  our  headquarters,  and  from  the  Division  of  Military 
Intelligence  we  borrowed  Capt.  Emanuel  Voska,  a  man 
who  fitted  our  plans  as  skin  fits  the  hand.  A  native  of 
Bohemia  and  an  ardent  patriot  from  his  boyhood,  Captain 
Voska  had  been  compelled  to  find  safety  in  exile  when  still 
a  young  man,  and  in  1914  was  the  head  of  a  prosperous 
business.  He  saw  in  the  World  War  the  chance  for  Bo- 
hemian independence,  and,  quitting  everything,  he  began 
the  task  of  turning  the  Bohemian  National  Alliance  into 
a  war  body.  Undoubtedly  he  will  tell  his  own  story  some 
day.  It  must  suffice  at  this  time  to  say  that  it  was  Cap- 
tain Voska,  more  than  any  other  one  man,  who  defeated 
German  intrigue  in  the  United  States  and  worked  the  ex- 
posure of  Dumba  and  von  Bernstorff.  Czechs,  speaking 
German  perfectly,  were  placed  in  Austrian  consulates  and 
in  every  like  office,  so  that  every  move  of  the  plotters  was 
known  to  Captain  Voska  in  its  inception.  At  first  he  worked 
in  connection  with  the  British  Secret  Service,  but  when 
America  entered  the  war  he  put  himself  and  his  organiza- 
tion at  the  disposal  of  the  War  Department  and  joined 
the  Military  Intelligence  with  the  rank  of  captain. 

It  was  this  man  that  we  wanted  to  help  us  now.  As 
his  assistants  Captain  Voska  selected  five  Czechs  from 
the  American  army  and  borrowed  five  Czechoslovak 
legionaries  from  the  French — men  who  spoke  Czech, 
Polish,  Magyar,  German,  and  the  various  tongues  of  Jugo- 
slavia. One  was  a  radio  expert.  It  was  not  only  our  plan 
to  print  selected  publications  in  the  various  tongues,  but 

418 


"AMERICANIZING"  MITTEL  EUROPA 

to  make  arrangements  to  put  the  various  wireless  stations 
in  touch  with  the  wireless  station  at  Lyons. 

On  January  1st  I  left  Paris  for  Rome  with  the  President 
and  was  joined  there  a  few  days  later  by  Mr.  Byoir.  Mr. 
Sisson,  going  by  way  of  Berne,  wound  up  our  affairs  in 
Switzerland  and  reached  Rome  on  January  8th.  By  that 
time  Mr.  Byoir  and  I  had  finished  the  Italian  settlement 
with  Mr.  Hearley  and  the  three  of  us  set  out  that  night  for 
Padua,  where  Captain  Voska  and  his  party  were  waiting 
for  us. 

There  was  no  passenger  service  of  any  kind  between 
Italy  and  Bohemia,  and  Captain  Voska  had  arranged  that 
we  were  to  travel  to  Prague  with  a  troop-train  of  Czecho- 
slovak legionaries.  There  were  about  one  thousand  of 
them — veterans  who  had  seen  fighting  on  many  fronts — 
and  with  their  horses  and  guns  and  baggage  they  filled 
thirty-five  freight-cars.  For  our  own  accommodation  we 
managed  to  secure  a  battered  passenger-coach,  stripped  of 
all  upholstery  and  indescribably  dirty.  To  add  to  con- 
gestion our  party  of  fourteen  was  asked  to  share  this  car 
with  Colonel  Phillippe,  the  French  officer  in  charge  of 
the  legionaries,  also  his  aides,  and  with  the  newly  ap- 
pointed British  charge  d'affaires  who  was  trying  to  reach 
Prague  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

The  journey  to  Prague  from  Padua  took  almost  four  days, 
a  weary  crawl  through  the  devastated  Piave  plain  and 
over  the  Alps,  with  never  a  chance  to  get  the  bitter  cold 
out  of  one's  marrow.  We  took  off  nothing  but  our  hats 
when  we  slept  on  the  narrow  seats,  and  aside  from  hot  coffee, 
made  over  charcoal  braziers,  we  ate  out  of  mail-sacks  that 
we  had  filled  with  dried  apricots,  Italian  bread,  "bully 
beef,"  and  canned  stuff.  Heaven  only  knows  what  would 
have  happened  to  us  but  for  the  blankets  loaned  in  Padua 
by  the  American  Red  Cross!  The  stations  in  Austria  were 
closed  as  we  passed,  owing  to  fear  of  trouble,  and  all  that 

419 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

we  saw  of  the  people  were  sullen  faces  peering  at  us  through 
railings  or  from  the  hills.  They  looked  well  fed  and  fat, 
the  villages  were  whole  and  the  land  unravaged — all  in 
sharp  contrast  to  the  hunger  and  devastation  of  France 
and  Italy.  I  knew,  as  every  one  must  know,  that  the  peace 
of  the  world  depended  upon  just  treatment  of  these  de- 
feated enemies,  but  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  justice 
took  much  of  the  joy  out  of  life. 

The  one  thrill  of  the  dreary  journey  came  to  us  on  the 
night  when  we  reached  the  border  of  what  had  once  been 
the  ancient  kingdom  of  Bohemia  and  which  was  now  the 
boundary-line  of  the  free  Republic  of  Czechoslovakia.  For 
an  hour  the  whole  train  had  hummed  to  a  vast  excitement, 
for  among  the  legionaries  were  many  men  who  had  gone 
into  exile  as  youths,  and  others  who  had  been  fighting  for 
four  years,  out  of  touch  entirely  with  their  homes  and 
people.  No  sooner  had  we  stopped  at  the  little  station 
across  the  border  than  every  legionary  was  off  the  train, 
kissing  the  sacred  soil  that  had  been  won  at  last  from  the 
Austrian.  Officers  and  men  embraced  with  tears  running 
down  their  cheeks,  then  the  entire  thousand  grouped 
reverently  and,  lifting  their  faces  to  the  hills  and  the  stars, 
sang  the  national  hymn  of  Bohemia — a  song  in  a  minor 
key  for  the  most  part,  like  the  songs  of  all  oppressed 
peoples — but  rising  at  the  end  to  a  tremendous  challenge 
that  rang  like  a  trumpet.  And  after  that  a  great  cheering 
for  America,  "the  hope  of  the  world." 

We  reached  Prague  Monday  noon,  January  13th,  and 
a  second  thrill  came  to  us  as  its  patriot  citizens  received 
the  heroes  who  had  helped  to  make  independence  possible. 
A  wonderful  old  city  and  a  still  more  wonderful  people. 
As  we  came  to  see  them  and  hear  them  it  was  easy  to  under- 
stand how  they  had  held  to  their  national  aspirations 
through  five  centuries  of  oppression,  rising  at  last  in  unity 
and  strength.  Not  even  Americans  are  more  in  love  with 

420 


"AMERICANIZING"  MITTEL  EUROPA 

freedom  than  these  Czechoslovaks,  and,  what  is  finest, 
their  patriotism  did  not  disintegrate  with  victory.  They 
massed  behind  the  beloved  Masaryk  as  a  unit,  putting 
country  above  party  and  political  feuds,  and  in  the  Cabinet 
that  worked  as  a  team  there  were  Socialists,  Agrarians, 
and  even  a  jolly  old  Catholic  priest  as  director-general  of 
railroads.  Of  all  the  countries  in  Europe,  Czechoslovakia 
had  courage,  purpose,  and  high  resolve. 

We  saw  President  Masaryk  almost  immediately,  were 
quickly  put  in  touch  with  other  officials,  and  in  twenty- 
four  hours  work  was  under  way.  One  group  went  at  the 
task  of  "tuning  up"  the  government  wireless  station  to 
a  point  where  it  could  receive  our  service  from  Paris,  and 
the  rest  of  us  grappled  with  the  questions  of  paper  and 
printing. 

The  five  pamphlets  intended  for  distribution  were  these: 
How  the  War  Came  to  America,  German  War  Practices 
in  Conquered  Territory,  German  Intrigue  in  the  United 
States,  America's  War  Aims  and  Peace  Terms,  and 
The  German  -  Bolshevik  Conspiracy.  For  each  of  these 
we  had  the  translations  in  Czech,  Polish,  Magyar, 
Croatian,  German,  and  Ukrainian.  This  circulation  was 
of  vital  importance,  in  the  opinion  of  President  Masaryk 
and  his  associates,  for  out  of  the  fifteen  million  inhabi- 
tants of  Czechslovakia  full  three  million  were  Germans 
and  there  were  also  large  numbers  of  Hungarians.  The 
selected  pamphlets  were  meant  to  do  three  things:  first, 
to  drive  home  the  meanings  and  purposes  of  America; 
second,  to  show  the  guilt,  the  cruelty,  and  the  monstrous 
plans  of  Germany;  third,  to  expose  the  German  direction 
of  the  Bolshevik  revolution.  Mr.  Haberman,  head  of  the 
Department  of  Education,  put  his  machinery  at  our  dis- 
posal and  assumed  entire  responsibility  for  the  distribution 
of  the  pamphlets  to  schools,  churches,  the  papers,  and  the 
leaders  of  thought  in  every  community. 

28  421 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

Leaving  Captain  Voska  to  follow  through  the  printing 
arrangements,  Mr.  Sisson,  Mr.  Byoir,  and  I  left  on  Friday 
for  Cracow,  for  Poland,  also  had  a  very  grave  German 
problem  in  Galicia.  In  a  stay  of  two  days  we  managed  to 
put  the  government  wireless  station  in  touch  with  Paris, 
but  the  paper  and  printing  situation  forced  us  to  reach  the 
decision  that  Prague  would  have  to  take  care  of  our  Polish 
publications.  Telegrams  from  Paderewski  urged  me  to 
come  to  Warsaw,  and  a  special  train  was  put  at  our  dis- 
posal, but  as  such  a  trip  was  without  values  other  than 
social  and  sightseeing,  we  were  compelled  to  refuse. 

Leaving  Cracow,  with  committees  still  beseeching  us  to 
go  to  Warsaw,  we  returned  to  Prague  by  way  of  Slovakia. 
We  had  interpreters  with  us,  but  it  was  amazing  always 
in  Czechoslovakia  to  see  how  many  spoke  English.  As  a 
result  of  conferences  usually  held  on  the  train,  complete 
arrangements  were  made  for  the  pamphlet  distribution 
in  Slovakia  and  Moravia. 

Reaching  Prague  at  noon  on  Thursday  we  found  that 
Captain  Voska  had  the  wireless  arrangements  well  under 
way  and  that  the  printing  program  was  going  through 
without  a  hitch.  That  very  afternoon  I  left  for  Budapest, 
taking  one  interpreter  with  me.  Captain  Voska  was  to 
stay  in  Prague  until  he  had  finished  the  work  and  Mr. 
Sisson  and  Mr.  Byoir  were  to  leave  on  Friday  for  Vienna 
to  look  after  the  Austrian  end  of  the  machinery.  It  was 
agreed  that  we  should  meet  in  Trieste  on  Monday  morning, 
an  arrangement  that  meant  hard  traveling. 

We  were  lucky  enough  to  get  a  compartment  on  the  night 
train  to  Vienna,  and  Czabulk,  my  interpreter,  and  I  had 
visions  of  an  uncrowded  night.  At  the  last  moment,  how- 
ever, we  picked  up  Lester  Perrin,  a  young  Detroit  boy 
who  had  wandered  into  Prague  after  his  release  from  the 
German  prison-camps  in  Poland.  The  poor  youngster  was 
without  money,  and  the  certainty  of  his  delay  in  getting 

422 


"AMERICANIZING"  MITTEL  EUROPA 

in  touch  with  the  American  military  authorities  in  Paris 
made  me  decide  to  take  him  with  me.  In  Vienna  we  left 
Perrin  to  wait  for  Sisson  and  Byoir  and  hurried  on  without 
halt.  Where  once  fifteen  express-trains  ran  daily  between 
Vienna  and  Budapest  there  was  now  but  one  a  day,  a 
wretched  collection  of  battered  third-class  cars.  The  very 
highest  official  influence  was  necessary  to  get  us  a  compart- 
ment on  this  train  and  it  took  a  guard  of  soldiers  to  force 
us  into  it  through  the  jam  of  passengers.  Once  in,  we  locked 
the  door  and  gave  ourselves  over  to  happy  contemplation 
of  the  two  long  seats  that  would  permit  us  to  have  a  regular 
"lie-down"  sleep.  The  corridor,  however,  was  jammed 
with  people  and  I  found  it  utterly  impossible  to'  shut 
out  the  consciousness  that  the  women  among  them  were 
facing  a  long,  bitter  night  on  their  feet.  For  a  full  half  an 
hour  my  selfishness  fought  with  my  shame,  but  at  last  I 
told  Czabulk  to  open  the  door  and  announce  that  the  first 
women  to  reach  the  four  seats  could  have  them.  We  drew 
a  Turk,  two  Hungarians,  and  an  Austrian,  and  while  the 
ample  Turkish  lady  took  far  more  than  her  fair  share  of 
room,  she  contributed  a  genial  radiation  that  added  ma- 
terially to  the  comfort  of  the  night.  We  stopped  two  hours 
at  the  Austrian  frontier  while  the  entire  train  was  searched 
for  food-smuggling,  and  there  were  other  stops  of  every 
kind,  so  that  we  did  not  reach  Budapest  until  ten  the  next 
morning. 

The  Hungarian  situation  was  deplorable  to  the  last  de- 
gree. Count  Karolyi  was  in  the  president's  chair,  but  it 
was  plain  to  be  seen  that  he  could  not  last  more  than  a 
couple  of  weeks  unless  the  Allies  decided  upon  some  helpful 
action  in  his  behalf.  It  was  Karolyi  who  had  agreed  to 
the  Franchet  d'Esperey  armistice,  and  it  was  the  provisions 
of  this  armistice  that  were  now  being  violated  daily.  On 
three  sides  the  Czechs,  the  Jugoslavs,  and  the  Serbs  were 
making  steady  encroachments,  while  on  the  fourth  side 

423 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

the  Rumanians  were  sweeping  forward  in  utter  disregard 
of  what  should  have  been  sacred  agreements.  The  food 
situation  was  also  reaching  a  crisis  and  Bela  Kun,  plenti- 
fully supplied  with  Bolshevik  money,  was  preaching  the 
gospel  of  a  new  revolt. 

The  whole  thing  was  tragic  in  the  extreme.  There  was 
little  or  nothing  that  could  be  done,  however.  The  only 
Americans  on  the  ground  were  two  representatives  of  the 
Food  Commission,  while  I  myself  had  neither  the  power 
nor  the  desire  to  interfere  in  the  political  matters  that  were 
the  sole  province  of  the  State  Department.  All  that  I 
could  do  was  to  send  an  instant  report  to  Paris,  outlining 
the  situation,  and  it  was  this  report  that  brought  a  decla- 
ration from  the  Peace  Conference  to  the  effect  that  the 
boundary-lines  laid  down  by  Franchet  d'Esperey  must  be 
respected.  This  helped  tremendously  for  the  moment, 
but  as  nothing  was  done  to  give  force  to  the  declaration, 
things  became  worse  than  before  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
weeks  Karolyi  was  deposed  and  Bela  Kun  rose  to  power. 

I  made  arrangements  for  the  government  wireless  to 
take  our  Paris  service,  but  the  first  survey  of  the  field 
made  me  realize  that  it  was  hopeless  to  attempt  printing 
or  distribution  of  any  kind  in  Budapest.  As  a  consequence, 
I  sent  instructions  to  Prague  to  have  all  the  Magyar  edi- 
tions printed  there. 

Getting  out  of  Budapest  was  even  worse  than  getting 
in.  At  five  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  Czabulk  and  I 
climbed  drearily  into  the  usual  cold,  damp  compartment 
of  a  third-class  train,  and  at  eight  o'clock  that  evening 
reached  Praegerhof,  where  we  were  supposed  to  change  to 
a  through  train  to  Trieste.  Instead  of  that  we  were  trans- 
ferred to  a  local  and  rode  until  one  o'clock  in  a  car  that  had 
pine  boards  in  place  of  windows.  At  Leibach,  under 
Jugoslav  control,  we  had  another  passport  battle  and 
changed  again  to  the  worst  train  of  the  trip.  Not  only 

424 


"AMERICANIZING"  MITTEL  EUROPA 

was  it  without  windows,  but  every  inch  of  upholstering 
had  been  taken  out.  One  explanation  was  that  the  sol- 
diers used  the  plush  for  clothing,  but,  although  I  looked 
hopefully  for  some  such  gleam  of  color,  I  failed  to  discover 
that  any  such  use  had  been  made  of  the  material.  At  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  we  were  thrown  out  at  the  town  of 
Loich  and  found  it  in  the  hands  of  Italians,  at  that  time 
busily  engaged  in  pushing  forward  their  "historical  boun- 
daries." Only  some  petty  officers  were  in  charge  and  the 
fact  that  we  came  from  Budapest  made  us  the  object  of 
instant  suspicion.  For  three  mortal  hours  Czabulk  argued 
in  every  tongue  at  his  command,  but  without  the  slightest 
avail  as  far  as  I  could  see.  The  train  for  Trieste  came 
along  at  seven  and  I  told  Czabulk  to  convey  the  information 
that  we  were  going  on  board  whether  they  liked  it  or  not, 
since  death  itself  was  far  preferable  to  another  hour  in 
such  a  hole.  The  officers  followed  us  to  the  very  steps, 
debating  furiously,  but  in  the  end  let  us  go  our  way  in 
peace.  Again  we  found  ourselves  in  a  car  without  windows 
or  upholstery  and  all  night  a  blizzard  blew  that  bit  through 
blankets  and  overcoats  and  froze  our  very  bones.  We 
reached  Trieste  at  noon,  and  late  that  night  the  rest  of  the 
party  came  in  from  Vienna.  At  eight  the  next  morning 
we  were  on  a  boat  to  Venice,  from  Venice  we  sped  to  Turin, 
and  from  Turin  to  Paris,  reaching  there  the  morning  of 
January  31st. 

A  hard,  driving  trip,  but  without  a  single  neglect  or 
one  unspared  effort  to  mar  the  achievement.  In  Prague 
we  were  printing  the  five  pamphlets  in  Czech,  Polish, 
Magyar,  Croatian,  German,  and  Ukrainian,  with  arrange- 
ments fully  made  for  distribution  to  the  schools,  press, 
organizations,  and  leaders  of  thought  in  Czechoslovakia, 
Galicia,  Saxony,  Austria,  Hungary,  and  certain  parts  of 
Jugoslavia.  The  wireless  stations  at  Cracow,  Prague,  and 
Budapest  were  in  touch  with  Paris.  As  far  as  humanly 

425 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

possible,  we  had  carried  the  message  of  America  to  Mittel 
Europa! 

One  other  thing  we  did!  Immediately  upon  arrival  in 
Paris  we  laid  a  detailed  report  before  the  high  authorities 
of  the  Food  Commission,  and  it  was  this  special  pleading 
that  won  quick  and  effective  relief  for  Czechoslovakia  and 
Poland. 

With  this  satisfactory  completion  of  the  Middle-Europe 
task,  and  with  every  office  closing  with  the  exception  of  the 
cable  and  wireless  service,  the  seat  of  settlement  was  now 
Washington. 


Ill 

CONFUSION  AND  NEGLECT 

IT  is  doubtful  if  in  all  the  annals  of  business,  public  and 
private,  there  is  record  of  anything  more  utterly  un- 
comprehensible  than  the  action  of  Congress  in  destroying 
the  Committee  on  Public  Information  in  the  very  midst 
of  its  orderly  liquidation.  On  June  30,  1919,  every  dollar 
of  our  appropriation,  every  dollar  of  our  earnings,  was 
swept  back  into  the  Treasury,  and  the  Committee  itself 
wiped  out  of  existence,  leaving  no  one  with  authority  to 
sign  a  check,  transfer  a  bank  balance,  employ  a  clerk,  rent 
a  building,  or  with  any  power  whatsoever  to  proceed  with 
the  business  of  settlement.  The  action  was  so  utterly  mad 
that  it  could  not  have  been  anticipated,  and  yet  had  we 
been  able  to  see  into  the  future  there  was  nothing  that  we 
could  have  done  about  it. 

When  I  returned  to  the  United  States  in  March,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Sisson  and  Mr.  Byoir,  it  was  to  find  that 
Mr.  O'Higgins,  the  associate  chairman  left  in  charge,  had 
carried  out  the  demobilization  orders  successfully,  and  that 
each  of  the  domestic  divisions  had  either  ended  its  audit 
or  else  was  completing  it.  The  work  of  settlement  in  the 
Washington  office  was  proceeding  slowly,  owing  to  the  resig- 
nations of  purely  clerical  employees,  but  as  this  was  a  mat- 
ter that  concerned  the  business  management  only,  I  gave 
release  to  all  executives  upon  the  turning  in  of  their  ac- 
counts. I  discharged  myself  on  April  1st,  but  as  a  private 

427 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

citizen  continued  to  assume  full  responsibility  for  the 
settlement,  journeying  to  Washington  week  after  week  at 
my  own  expense,  directing  the  liquidation  personally.  It 
seemed  at  the  time,  as  indeed  it  was,  a  very  simple  proposi- 
tion of  checking  up,  paying  bills,  collecting  moneys  due, 
and  handing  balances  over  to  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Sisson, 
Mr.  Byoir,  and  Mr.  Lee  lived  in  New  York  and  were  at 
all  times  available  for  reference,  and  all  other  division 
heads  stood  ready  to  answer  any  call. 

The  question  of  adequate  clerical  help  became  more 
and  more  a  problem,  however.  The  report  spread  that 
Congress  was  planning  to  "put  the  Committee  out  of 
business"  entirely  on  June  30th,  and  while  I  protested 
that  an  auditing  force  would  be  retained,  I  could  not  give 
any  definite  pledge.  As  a  consequence,  the  business  office 
personnel  dwindled  daily  as  men  and  women  accepted  per- 
manent positions  elsewhere.  All  through  May  and  June 
we  pleaded  with  Congress  for  a  small  appropriation  that 
would  permit  the  Committee  to  wind  up  its  affairs.  The 
Paris  and  New  York  offices  were  not  to  be  closed  until 
June  15th;  there  were  many  foreign  commissioners  yet  to 
report;  and  in  various  banks  reposed  large  balances  wait- 
ing for  audit  and  acceptance.  Nor  was  it  the  case  that  the 
Committee  begged  with  empty  hands.  We  had  already 
turned  more  than  two  million  dollars  into  the  Treasury, 
and  yet  we  still  had  sufficient  funds  on  hand  to  settle  every 
bill  and  meet  every  liquidation  expense.  What  we  asked, 
in  effect,  was  the  right  to  use  a  small  portion  of  our  own 
earnings  for  proper  purposes  of  settlement.  At  the  last 
moment  Congress  refused  flatly,  and  on  June  30th  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information  ceased  to  be. 

Acting  entirely  without  authority,  I  persuaded  E.  H. 
Hobbs,  an  accountant,  and  Miss  Gertrude  Gocheler  to 
stay  on  in  charge  of  the  books,  and  hired  a  night-watchman 
at  my  own  risk.  Then  began  a  dreary  round  of  the  various 

428 


CONFUSION  AND  NEGLECT 

departments  in  search  of  some  one  willing  and  able  to  take 
over  the  Committee's  liquidation.  Under  the  Overman 
Act  the  President  had  the  power  to  assign  this  duty,  but 
the  trouble  was  that  no  department  in  Washington  had 
money  enough  even  for  its  own  purposes  and  all  strenu- 
ously resisted  the  effort  to  foist  a  new  expense  upon  them. 
Once  the  President  went  so  far  as  to  sign  an  executive 
order  turning  the  Committee's  affairs  over  to  the  Treasury 
Department,  but  Secretary  Glass  entered  such  vigorous 
protest  that  the  order  had  to  be  withdrawn. 

Of  the  Committee's  three  buildings,  only  one  was  being 
retained,  and  on  June  30th  notice  of  dispossession  was 
given  by  the  owners.  Army  trucks  were  borrowed,  and  the 
accumulated  records  of  two  years  were  packed  and  sent 
down  to  the  old  Fuel  Administration  building,  where  several 
small  rooms  were  assigned  to  us.  The  whole  proceeding 
was  a  nightmare.  I  had  full  responsibility  without  the 
slightest  shadow  of  authority.  Only  Mr.  Hobbs  and  Miss 
Gocheler  were  on  hand  to  superintend  the  moving,  and  the 
forced  nature  of  our  departure,  together  with  the  absence 
of  clerks  familiar  with  the  records,  made  confusion  un- 
avoidable. Files  and  books  and  papers  were  piled  mis- 
cellaneously by  the  truck  men  and  the  one  effort  for  weeks 
was  to  straighten  out  the  tangle.  Additional  auditors 
could  not  be  employed,  and  as  Hobbs  himself  was  under 
a  heavy  bond,  the  situation  commenced  to  get  on  his 
nerves. 

There  was  no  secret  as  to  my  plight,  but  the  correspond- 
ents, in  the  story  sent  out,  seemed  to  regard  it  as  a  joke 
more  than  anything  else  and  were  of  the  opinion  that 
"Congress  had  the  laugh  on  Creel."  Not  until  August 
21st  did  the  mangled  remains  of  the  Committee  find  a 
resting-place.  On  this  day  the  President  signed  an  order 
that  constituted  the  Council  of  National  Defense  our 
liquidating  agency.  As  a  consequence,  the  books  and 

429 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

papers  of  the  Committee  were  dumped  into  trucks  for  the 
second  time  and  moved  to  the  Council's  own  building. 
Whatever  resemblance  of  orderly  arrangement  remained 
was  entirely  smashed  by  this  last  transfer. 

I  went  immediately  to  Secretary  Baker,  head  of  the 
Council,  and  to  Mr.  Clarkson,  its  director,  and  put  myself, 
every  executive,  and  every  division  head  at  their  disposal. 
Particularly  did  I  urge  the  employment  of  a  competent 
accounting  force  in  order  that  there  might  be  speedy  un- 
tanglement  of  the  surface  confusion  caused  by  two  months 
of  inaction  and  the  cartage  of  the  Committee's  records 
from  place  to  place.  As  carefully  as  might  be,  I  explained 
to  the  new  force  the  nature  of  all  unfinished  business,  and 
asked  to  be  kept  in  constant  touch  with  the  liquidation. 
I  heard  nothing  for  weeks  and  on  various  occasions 
thereafter  I  went  to  Washington  in  an  attempt  to  find 
out  the  causes  of  delay.  I  was  so  absolutely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  Council,  however,  that  I  could  not  run  the  risk  of 
arousing  irritation  by  complaint  or  what  might  be  con- 
ceived to  be  undue  insistence.  The  records  were  mine 
and  the  responsibility  was  mine,  but  I  was  utterly  without 
power  or  authority  in  the  settlement. 

On  October  30th,  out  of  a  clear  sky,  The  New  York  World 
printed  a  long  despatch  from  its  Washington  correspondent 
purporting  to  recite  the  contents  of  a  report  filed  with 
Congress  by  the  Council  of  National  Defense.  The  posi- 
tive statement  was  made  that  this  report  charged  me  with 
"gross  neglect,"  and  there  were  equally  positive  statements 
that  the  Committee  had  cost  $6,600,000,  that  all  of  the  ex- 
ecutives of  the  Committee  had  deserted  on  the  very  day 
of  the  armistice,  that  checks  and  important  papers  littered 
the  floors,  and  that  it  was  virtually  an  impossibility  to 
find  out  where  the  money  had  gone  because  of  the  utter 
confusion  of  my  accounts.  This  story  was  copied  almost 
word  for  word  by  the  other  New  York  dailies  on  the  fol- 

430 


CONFUSION  AND  NEGLECT 

lowing  morning,  and  the  Associated  Press  made  haste  to 
distribute  it  from  coast  to  coast.  Not  one  single  paper  or 
press  association  made  the  slightest  effort  to  see  me  before 
printing  the  story  in  order  to  ascertain  its  truth  or  to  permit 
me  defense  or  explanation.  Before  the  whole  country  I 
and  my  associates  were  held  up  to  public  shame  as  in- 
competents who  had  spent  "a  few  delightful  months  wal- 
lowing in  public  money  and  then  went  away  and  left  the 
whole  mess  to  be  cleaned  up  by  others."  Many  papers 
were  not  content  with  printing  these  glaring  charges,  but 
followed  the  story  up  with  editorial  comment  containing 
speculation  as  to  how  much  money  had  "stuck  to  my 
fingers." 

I  made  instant  answer,  portions  of  which  were  printed 
by  the  more  decent  dailies,  and  then  proceeded  to  Wash- 
ington at  once.  Upon  arrival  I  learned  that  the  Council 
of  National  Defense  had  filed  no  report  with  Congress  and 
that  it  had  made  no  charges  of  "gross  neglect"  against 
me,  or  charges  of  any  kind  whatsoever.  What  had  hap- 
pened was  this:  The  Council  had  been  compelled  to  ask 
an  auditing  appropriation,  and  Senator  Warren,  chairman 
of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Appropriations,  had  requested 
the  Council  to  file  a  memorandum  setting  forth  the  uses 
to  which  the  money  would  be  put.  This  memorandum, 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Senator  Warren,  merely  detailed 
the  confusion  of  the  Committee's  records  as  the  Council 
found  them.  Some  member  of  the  Committee,  more  con- 
cerned with  newspaper  favor  than  with  his  sense  of  honor, 
sneaked  this  letter  out  secretly  to  the  correspondent  of 
The  New  York  World. 

I  read  the  letter  to  Warren  over  very  carefully,  and  while 
it  was  true  that  no  charges  of  any  kind  were  made  against 
me,  it  was  equally  true  that  the  letter  was  an  invitation 
to  misconstruction  in  many  important  particulars.  For 
instance,  the  statement  that  checks  and  important  papers 

431 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

were  "on  the  floor"  might  well  have  been  accompanied 
by  the  explanation  that  they  were  because  Congress  itself 
had  dumped  them  there.  It  would  have  been  more  gen- 
erous and  much  more  true  had  the  Council  pointed  out 
the  dispossession  of  the  Committee  on  July  20th,  the 
forced  dismissal  of  the  working  force,  our  forced  removal 
to  the  old  Fuel  Administration  building,  and  the  second 
removal  to  the  building  of  the  Council  of  National  De- 
fense, the  last  under  the  supervision  of  the  Council's  own 
employees. 

There  was  also  a  statement  that  the  Committee  had 
issued  expense  allowances  "far  in  excess  of  the  $1,000 
maximum  limit  fixed  by  Congress."  I  pointed  out  that 
these  expenditures  were  from  the  President's  fund,  to  which 
the  Congressional  limitation  did  not  apply.  As  a  matter 
of  course,  when  men  were  sent  to  Russia,  to  China,  and 
to  other  far  places,  it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  they 
be  given  a  lump  sum  for  disbursement,  although  vouchers 
were  required  showing  the  expenditure  of  every  dollar. 
The  auditor  confessed  that  he  had  not  been  aware  of 
this  ruling  with  respect  to  the  President's  fund  and  ad- 
mitted the  mistake. 

The  statement  to  which  I  took  most  bitter  exception, 
Jiowever,  was  this: 

It  appears  that  immediately  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice 
practically  all  of  the  officials  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Infor- 
mation threw  up  their  jobs  and  returned  to  private  life,  leaving 
but  a  few  of  the  minor  officials  in  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Committee. 

The  auditor's  answer  was  that  he  thought  that  he 
was  quoting  me.  What  I  had  told  him,  however,  was 
that  the  purely  clerical  employees  of  the  Committee  began 
accepting  other  positions  as  soon  as  the  armistice  was 
signed  and  when  they  saw  that  the  Committee  offered  no 

432 


CONFUSION  AND  NEGLECT 

hope  of  permanent  employment.  As  I  pointed  out  to  him, 
he  had  the  books  before  him  that  proved  conclusively  that 
no  executive  left  until  April  1st  and  that  he  knew  by  my 
own  assurance,  and  by  their  own  offers,  that  every  man  of 
them  had  been  and  was  at  his  disposal. 

There  was  no  disagreement  on  the  statement  of  facts, 
but  when  I  asked  that  these  corrections  should  be  embodied 
in  an  open  letter  there  was  instant  demur.  "They"  knew 
and  "they"  understood  and  "they"  regretted,  and  the  "best 
thing  to  do"  was  to  consider  the  incident  closed.  Any 
attempt  at  correction  would  only  result  in  new  publicity, 
and  owing  to  the  malicious  attitude  of  many  of  the  papers 
the  situation  might  be  made  worse  instead  of  better. 
Also  was  it  not  the  case  that  I  "exaggerated"  the  im- 
portance of  the  happening?  While  it  was  true  that  I  and 
my  associates,  after  two  years  of  thankless  drudgery,  were 
being  shamed  as  incompetents,  deserters,  and  thieves, 
this  was  merely  "part  of  the  political  game,"  and  I  should 
not  "permit  it  to  worry  me." 

What  was  there  to  do  but  wait  for  the  vindication  of 
results!  The  Council  agreed  to  push  the  work  at  top 
speed  and  also  acquiesced  in  my  demand  that  no  bill  of 
any  kind  whatsoever  should  be  paid  without  reference  to 
me  and  to  the  proper  division  head.  It  was  admitted 
that  the  domestic  accounts  were  in  very  good  shape  and 
that  the  chief  trouble  was  with  respect  to  the  foreign  work, 
particularly  the  wireless  and  cable  service  that  continued 
until  June  15th,  just  two  weeks  before  Congress  wiped  the 
Committee  out  of  existence.  Mr.  Rogers  and  Mr.  Bullard 
were  in  Washington  and  came  down  to  give  further  aid 
in  the  foreign  accounts.  Mr.  C.  D.  Lee,  the  Committee's 
business  manager  throughout  its  existence,  also  left  his 
affairs  in  New  York  for  a  Washington  stay,  and  Mr. 
Sisson  and  Mr.  Byoir  were  constantly  in  conference  with  me 
in  the  matter  of  accounts.  The  records  were  straightened 

433 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

out  eventually,  and  as  I  had  known  from  the  first,  the 
seeming  confusion  was  found  to  be  nothing  more  than  the 
displacements  of  moving.  Every  dollar  was  found  to  have 
its  proper  voucher,  and  in  addition,  care  and  competence 
stood  proved  in  the  expenditure  of  every  single  cent. 


APPENDIX 


THE  AMERICAN  NEWSPAPER  PUBLISHERS    ASSOCIATION 

IT  can  be  stated  as  an  indisputable  fact  that  not  once 
in  its  existence  was  the  Committee  on  Public  Informa- 
tion attacked  by  any  one  with  the  slightest  first-hand 
knowledge  of  its  activities.  In  no  case  was  denunciation 
ever  preceded  by  the  least  attempt  at  investigation. 
Speaking  advisedly  and  after  careful  checking,  I  say  that 
every  single  public  charge  against  the  Committee  was 
made  by  a  person  or  persons  who  were  in  absolute  ignorance 
of  what  we  were  doing,  who  made  no  effort  to  find  out, 
and  who  even  after  the  attack  could  not  be  induced  to 
pay  a  visit  of  inspection. 

Perhaps  the  most  illustrative  incident  of  the  kind  was 
the  case  of  one  Hopewell  Rogers,  who,  in  the  closing  hours 
of  the  convention  of  the  American  Newspaper  Publishers' 
Association,  made  a  speech  in  which  he  scored  the  Com- 
mittee as  useless,  branded  me  as  "incompetent  and  dis- 
loyal." It  was  a  cruel  and  cowardly  attack,  for  he  timed 
it  in  such  a  manner  that  I  was  given  no  chance  to  appear 
in  reply,  and  what  gave  it  added  bitterness  was  that 
Rogers,  while  slandering  the  sacrifices  of  hundreds  of  de- 
voted men  and  women,  was  himself  holding  his  peace- 
time job  and  enjoying  his  peace-time  profits.  Putting 
personal  anger  to  one  side,  however,  I  addressed  myself 
to  the  task  of  turning  the  attack  to  account  by  using  it 
as  a  means  of  forcing  an  investigation  that  would  once 

29  437 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

and  for  all  establish  the  Committee's  competency  or  in- 
competency.  How  the  effort  failed  is  set  forth  in  the  fol- 
lowing correspondence: 

April  29,  1918. 
MR.  FRANK  P.  GLASS, 

The  Birmingham  News,  Birmingham,  Alabama. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  GLASS: 

The  following  telegram  was  sent  by  me  on  the  evening  of 
April  25th: 

HOPEWELL  ROGERS, 

American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association, 
Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel,  New  York  City. 

Have  just  read  report  of  your  speech  criticizing  publicity 
policy  of  government.  I  assume  your  absolute  sincerity,  but 
feel  that  no  criticism  can  be  constructive  when  based  only 
upon  hearsay  and  personal  opinion.  In  the  interest  of  larger 
effectiveness  I  respectfully  urge  you  to  come  to  Washington, 
either  with  a  committee  or  your  entire  membership,  for  a 
full  and  frank  discussion  of  these  mutual  problems.  I  pledge 
full  information  as  to  every  activity  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information,  and  will  welcome  advice,  suggestion, 
and  co-operation.  In  view  of  your  criticism  given  publicly 
as  the  head  of  a  great  organization,  I  feel  strongly  that  your 
acceptance  is  compelled  by  fairness  as  well  as  the  national 
interests. 

It  does  not  appear  that  this  telegram  was  communicated 
either  to  the  directors  of  thv  /  Association  or  to  the  delegates, 
nor  have  I  had  any  reply  from  Mr.  Rogers  himself.  I  am  writ- 
ing to  you  as  the  newly  elected  president  of  the  American  News- 
paper Publishers'  Association,  for  the  matters  involved  are  of 
too  great  importance  to  be  dismissed  as  a  mere  convention 
incident. 

When  Mr.  Rogers  accuses  me  of  disloyalty,  I  am  not  greatly 
disturbed,  for  I  feel  that  the  devotions  of  a  lifetime  will  weigh 
against  any  single  reckless,  unsupported  statement  made  in 
prejudice  and  partizanship.  When  Mr.  Rogers  attacks  my 
competency,  however,  the  personal  element  disappears,  for  not 


APPENDIX 

only  does  he  assail  the  entire  educational  work  that  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  is  doing  in  the  United  States,  and  in  every 
other  country  in  the  world,  but  he  impugns  the  motives  and  merits 
of  thousands  of  patriotic  men  and  women  who  have  given  them- 
selves wholeheartedly  and  unselfishly  to  this  branch  of  the 
national  service. 

Three  thousand  historians  are  at  our  call' in  the  preparation 
of  pamphlet  matter;  virtually  every  writer  of  prominence  is 
giving  time  to  the  work  of  the  Committee;  the  Division  of 
Advertising  enlists  the  energies  of  every  great  advertising  expert 
in  the  United  States;  there  are  close  to  fifty  thousand  speakers 
in  the  Four  Minute  Men;  the  war  conferences  of  the  states  are 
under  our  supervision;  men  and  women  of  all  nationalities  go 
from  coast  to  coast  at  our  bidding;  the  famous  artists  of  the 
United  States  are  banded  together  for  the  production  of  our 
posters;  the  motion-picture  industry  has  been  mobilized  and  is 
giving  us  ungrudging  support  without  thought  of  financial 
return;  and  in  every  capital  in  the  world  there  are  men  and 
women  serving  with  courage  and  intelligence. 

I  can  readily  understand  how  the  Germans  might  insist  that 
our  effort  was  worthless,  and  that  these  thousands  were  labor- 
ing vainly  and  even  disloyally,  but  it  is  amazing  indeed  that 
one  who  calls  himself  an  American  should  level  such  a  charge, 
especially  when  he  has  never  taken  the  trouble  to  call  upon  me 
and  knows  absolutely  nothing  of  the  work  of  this  Committee, 
its  aims,  and  its  plans. 

I  insist  that  the  American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association 
is  compelled  by  every  dictate  of  patriotism  to  prove  or  disprove 
the  charges  that  Mr.  Rogers  made  as  its  president.  As  stated 
in  my  telegram,  I  shall  be  glad  to  receive  any  committee,  no 
matter  what  its  size,  welcoming  the  fullest  possible  investigation 
— and  so  confident  am  I  that  I  permit  you,  and  even  urge  you, 
to  compose  it  of  men  who  have  the  idea  that  my  work  could  be 
done  more  effectively. 

I  have  long  felt  the  need  of  an  advisory  committee  made  up 
of  those  truly  representative  of  the  press  of  the  United  States, 
but  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  such  a  selection  is  attended 
with  many  difficulties.  The  American  Newspaper  Publishers' 
Association  is  the  one  great  body  in  the  field,  and  yet  even  this 
does  not  express  the  views  and  desires  of  the  editorial  room, 
with  which  the  government  is  concerned,  but  represents  the 

439 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

business  control.  That  body  of  the  press  which  deals  with  the 
news  itself  is  without  national  organization,  and  any  attempt 
to  select  from  its  vast  personnel  would  involve  an  unfair  dis- 
crimination at  the  very  outset. 

I  beg  you  to  believe  it  is  not  only  an  injustice  that  I  am  seek- 
ing to  have  remedied.  It  is  a  great  and  necessary  work  that  I 
am  trying  to  protect.  If  the  American  Newspaper  Publishers' 
Association  can  help  me  in  any  manner,  or  point  out  to  me 
what  larger  efficiency  can  be  secured,  it  is  its  duty.  I  shall  be 
glad  to  receive  this  committee  at  any  time. 

Sincerely, 

GEORGE  CREEL, 

Chairman. 


May  £,  1918. 
MR.  GEORGE  CREEL,  Chairman, 

Committee  on  Public  Information,  City. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  CREEL: 

Since  the  conference  with  you  at  the  Cosmos  Club  on  the  part 
of  Mr.  McAneny  and  myself,  we  have  been  much  engrossed 
with  another  matter  of  urgent  interest  to  our  Association.  Never- 
theless, we  have  given  your  complaint  and  suggestions  serious 
consideration. 

As  the  successor  of  Mr.  Rogers  in  the  presidency  of  the  Amer- 
ican Newspaper  Publishers'  Association  I  do  not  think  I  have 
any  function  in  replying  to  your  strictures  upon  his  recent 
criticism.  I  do  not  believe  that  Mr.  Rogers  could  have  had  any 
wish  to  imply  that  his  utterances  were  to  be  accepted  as  the 
opinion  of  the  American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association 
rather  than  as  his  OWE  personal  views.  I  may  assure  you, 
however,  that  I  do  not  entertain,  myself,  the  view  that  you  have 
been  disloyal  to  our  country  in  any  of  your  utterances  or  work. 

Nevertheless,  I  am  impressed  with  an  important  lesson  of  the 
incident,  and  that  there  should  be  a  more  thorough  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  the  public  of  your  Committee's  function  and  work. 
I  am  convinced  that  such  a  knowledge  would  be  most  beneficial 
to  the  country  and  especially  to  the  newspapers.  It  is  also 
probable  that  thereby  your  Committee's  power  for  good  would 
be  strengthened. 

In  line  with  this  view  and  with  your  own  urgent  request  I 

440 


APPENDIX 

shall,  therefore,  appoint  a  committee  of  representative  newspaper 
men  connected  with  the  membership  of  our  Association,  to  come 
to  Washington  and  to  give  the  proper  time  to  a  careful  inquiry 
into  the  work  your  Committee  is  doing,  with  the  belief  that  it 
will  find  many  excellent  things  to  commend,  and  with  the  hope 
that  it  may  develop  suggestions  that  will  prove  valuable  both 
to  you  and  to  the  various  official  sources  of  information  which 
you  are  trying  to  co-ordinate. 

You  have  been  unselfish  enough  to  suggest  that  this  committee 
be  made  up  of  some  of  your  severest  critics,  but  it  seems  the 
better  way  to  appoint  a  thoroughly  representative  judicial  body 
of  men,  who  would  not  be  tempted  to  sustain  destructive  criti- 
cism and  who  may  be  constructive  in  their  report. 

Unquestionably  such  a  committee  as  yours  can  be  of  even 
greater  service  to  our  beloved  country  at  this  vital  juncture, 
in  giving  the  departments  of  the  government  a  thoroughly 
acceptable  publicity  and  at  the  same  time  of  a  type  to  which 
the  newspapers  will  respond  with  the  fullest  sympathy.  As 
soon  as  this  committee  is  made  up,  I  will  take  pleasure  in  giving 
you  its  personnel,  in  order  that  an  agreement  may  be  made  as 
to  the  time  for  its  work.  Trusting  this  may  be  satisfactory, 
I  am, 

Sincerely  yours, 

FRANK  P.  GLASS. 


May  4, 1918. 
MR.  FRANK  P.  GLASS, 

The  Raleigh  Hotel,  Washington,  D.  C. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  GLASS: 

I  am  very  happy  to  learn  of  your  decision,  and  I  agree  with 
your  point  of  view  entirely.  Virtually  every  paper  in  the  coun- 
try took  the  view  that  Mr.  Rogers  was  speaking  for  the  American 
Newspaper  Publishers'  Association,  and  nearly  all  of  the  head- 
lines made  the  flat  statement  that  it  was  "the  publishers"  who 
denounced  me.  The  whole  thing  was  so  cruel  and  unfair  that 
it  was  impossible  for  me  at  the  time  to  keep  out  all  feeling. 

Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  let  me  see  you  before  you  announce 
a  committee,  for  I  think  the  appointments  should  be  accompanied 
by  a  letter  defining  its  attitude  and  its  functions  in  line  with  the 

441 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

views  expressed  in  your  letter  of  May  4th.  This  accompanying 
statement  can  be  framed  so  as  to  lift  the  whole  thing  out  of  the 
personal  and  up  to  the  higher  level  of  the  co-operative. 

Sincerely, 

GEORGE  CREEL, 

Chairman. 

It  will  be  seen  by  these  letters  that  I  agreed  to  the 
elimination  of  the  "Rogers  incident,"  instead  of  insisting 
that  he  be  forced  on  the  witness-stand,  and  yet  even  after 
this  concession  I  was  not  able  to  force  the  investigation 
that  was  due  the  Committee  as  a  matter  of  common 
decency.  Mr.  Glass  and  Mr.  McAneny  gave  good  and 
honest  effort  to  bring  it  about,  but  all  the  king's  horses 
could  not  have  dragged  one  of  my  enemies  to  Washington 
for  the  purpose  of  surveying  the  work  of  the  Committee 
and  reporting  upon  it.  They  preferred  their  prejudices  to 
facts,  their  lies  to  truth. 


II 


"SAVAGERY"  vs.  SANITY 


ONE  of  the  chief  bitternesses  against  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  was  that  it  did  not  preach  a 
gospel  of  hate.  It  is  significant  indeed  that  the  attack 
never  proceeded  from  the  fighting  force  itself,  or  from  men 
and  women  actually  and  actively  engaged  in  war-work, 
but  came  invariably  from  "leagues"  and  "societies"  oper- 
ating in  the  name  of  "patriotism."  It  was  not  that  these 
groups  were  bloodthirsty,  or  that  they  did  not  want  to 
be  helpful,  but  simply  that  chauvinism  was  forced  upon 
them  by  the  necessities  of  their  organization.  Being  de- 
pendent for  existence  upon  cash  donations,  it  was  essential 
that  they  "make  a  showing"  in  order  that  contributions 
might  continue  to  be  attracted.  As  they  were  outside  the 
regular  war-machinery,  and  especially  as  they  were  not 
organized  for  fixed  service,  it  was  inevitable  that  these 
"societies"  and  "leagues"  should  turn  to  the  emotions 
as  a  field  of  activity,  and  try  for  an  effect  of  value  by  noise, 
attack,  and  hysteria. 

In  the  first  days  the  Committee  tried  faithfully  to  estab- 
lish working  relations  with  such  organizations,  but  it  soon 
developed  that  they  did  not  want  to  put  their  emotionalism 
in  harness,  but  preferred  to  keep  it  free  for  exhibition 
purposes.  For  a  time  they  filled  the  air  with  all  sorts  of 
sensational  charges  with  regard  to  "spies"  and  "intrigue," 
but  after  one  high  official  was  called  before  a  New  York 

443 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

grand  jury  and  forced  to  admit  sheer  recklessness  of  state- 
ment, they  confined  themselves  to  general  thundering. 
The  following  correspondence  is  submitted  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  method: 

March  27, 1918. 
GEORGE  CREEL,  ESQ., 

Committee  on  Public  Information,  Washington,  D.  C. 
DEAR  MR.  CREEL: 

As  patriotic  citizens  endeavoring  to  support  the  Administra- 
tion and  to  help  win  the  war,  we  now  feel  compelled  to  bring  to 
your  attention  a  feature  of  the  activities  of  the  Committee  on 
Public  Information  which  we  believe  to  be  harmful.  We  pro- 
test that  the  attitude  of  that  Committee  is  so  pacific  that  now 
some  of  its  work  amounts  to  giving  comfort  to  the  enemy. 

As  an  exhibit,  we  cite  herewith  the  letter  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Education,  Dr.  P.  P.  Claxton,  to  Dr.  R.  L. 
Slagle,  president  of  the  University  of  South  Dakota,  published 
by  the  Creel  Committee  on  Public  Information  on  March  19th, 
in  an  Official  Bulletin,  from  which  we  quote  the  following  astound- 
ing statement:  "Germany  may  even  yet  become  one  of  the 
leading  nations  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace  of  the  world." 
We  are  greatly  surprised  that  Mr.  Creel  should  publish  this 
pro-German  letter  in  the  Official  Bulletin. 

We  respectfully  point  out  that  on  the  side  of  our  enemies  the 
present  war  has  no  parallel  in  any  of  the  previous  wars  in  which 
our  country  ever  engaged.  The  rapacity,  the  ferocity,  and  the 
unspeakably  vile  methods  of  the  military  millions  of  Germany 
constitute  a  factor  never  before  met  with  in  warfare  between 
civilized  peoples.  Our  present  enemies  are  in  a  class  by  them- 
selves, and  the  conditions  they  have  created  must  be  met  on  our 
part  by  new  alignments  of  thought  and  action.  We  can  fight 
Christian  enemies  who  fight  honorably  and  fairly,  and  with 
humane  regard  for  the  weak  and  the  defenseless,  and  easily 
become  friends  with  them  after  the  conflict.  This  is  possible 
because  fair-fighting  enemies  do  not  forfeit  respect. 

With  Germany,  however,  we  are  confronted  by  a  totally  differ- 
ent case.  On  account  of  innumerable  brutal  and  debasing  acts, 
the  whole  German  nation  has  forfeited  our  respect;  and  aside 
from  a  very  small  minority,  the  acts  and  the  character  of  Germany 

444 


APPENDIX 

and  the  German  people  will  not  be  forgotten  by  the  American 
people  in  any  less  than  one  hundred  years.  Every  true  history 
of  the  war  will  be  a  history  of  the  crimes  of  Germany. 

Although  the  crimes  of  Germany  in  Europe  have  been  com- 
mitted by  men  in  uniform,  so  far  as  we  know,  no  eye-witness 
observer  of  the  so-called  "German  people"  ever  has  published 
one  statement  that  the  civilians  of  Germany  were  opposed  to 
the  war,  or  that  they  deplored  the  ruthless  methods  of  the  Ger- 
man military  monsters  of  cruelty  and  destruction.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  know  from  eye-witness  testimony  that  "the  German 
people"  have  universally  taken  great  delight  in  the  destruction  of 
the  unarmed  people  of  London  by  air-craft  bombs,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  passengers  of  the  Lusitania  and  hundreds  of  other 
merchant  ships  by  submarines,  and  they  have  silently  acquiesced 
in  the  murder  of  eight  hundred  thousand  Armenian  Christians 
by  the  brutal  Turks. 

It  is  our  conviction  that  the  great  majority  of  the  American 
people  now  regard  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  people  of  Germany 
with  horror  and  aversion.  We  are  quite  sure  that  the  German 
language  now  is  a  hated  language,  and  long  will  remain  so. 
We  believe  that  all  efforts  to  condone  its  use  in  our  schools  will 
be  resented  by  the  American  people,  as  we  ourselves  resent  them. 
We  regard  the  letter  of  Commissioner  Claxton  as  an  error  of 
judgment,  and  decidedly  calculated  to  give  "comfort  to  the 
enemy." 

Furthermore,  we  believe  that  the  Creel  Committee  on  Public 
Information  has  signally  failed  to  put  into  the  hands  of  our 
American  soldiers  and  sailors  any  publication  adequately  telling 
them  in  plain  language  what  they  are  fighting  for,  and  why  they 
should  hate  the  enemy  they  are  expected  to  meet  and  kill.  We 
say  this  because  we  are  informed  that  to-day  many  soldiers  are 
asking  their  officers  why  America  is  in  the  war,  and  we  are  told 
that  those  officers  need  the  information  in  order  to  give  it  out. 
In  speaking  of  captured  American  soldiers  now  in  Germany, 
the  Vossische  Zeitung  newspaper  says: 

"They  don't  seem  to  entertain  any  deep-rooted  hatred  of  Ger- 
many. If  you  ask  them  why  they  are  making  war  on  Germany 
you  will  always  get  the  same  answer:  *  Because  Wilson  says  it 
is  necessary!"3 

It  is  common  knowledge  that  about  three  months  ago  out  of 
about  one  hundred  American  soldiers  in  France  who  were  asked 

445 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

one  by  one,  "Why  are  you  in  the  war?"  the  great  majority  of 
the  answers  showed  an  astounding  lack  of  information  regarding 
Germany,  of  appreciation  of  the  crimes  of  her  troops,  and  of  the 
real  reasons  why  we  are  in  the  war. 

Very  truly  yours, 

THE  AMERICAN  DEFENSE  SOCIETY. 

R.  M.  HURD, 

Chairman,  Board  of  Trustees. 

H.  D.  CRAIG,  HENRY  C.  QUIMBY, 

Secretary.  Chairman,  Executive  Committee. 


April  2, 1918. 
MR.  R.  M.  HURD, 

American  Defense  Society,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
DEAR  SIR  : 

Your  circular  letter,  sent  to  various  officials  of  the  government, 
as  well  as  to  myself,  deals  principally  with  the  Claxton  letter 
which  appeared  in  the  Official  Bulletin  of  March  19th.  I  admit 
to  you  that  I  am  absolutely  opposed  to  many  of  the  points  made 
by  Doctor  Claxton,  and  had  I  seen  the  letter  prior  to  its  publica- 
tion I  would  not  have  consented  to  its  appearance.  It  came 
over  from  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  however,  and  the 
editor  of  the  Bulletin  felt  that  it  was  official  matter  duly  author- 
ized, so  did  not  take  it  up  with  me  as  is  usually  the  case  with 
articles  involving  policies.  I  have  not  made  the  matter  the  sub- 
ject of  any  public  dissent,  for  I  feel  that  these  mistakes  of  judg- 
ment should  be  remedied  through  personal  approach,  and  not 
in  the  columns  of  the  press. 

Your  flat  statement  that  the  Committee  on  Public  Information 
has  signally  failed  in  its  duty  to  acquaint  the  people  in  the  fight- 
ing forces  of  the  United  States  with  the  causes  of  war,  and  the 
true  nature  of  the  foe,  proves  only  that  you  have  not  taken  the 
trouble  to  examine  the  matter  sent  out  by  this  Committee. 
As  to  why  we  fight,  I  am  sending  you,  under  separate  cover,  a 
copy  of  How  the  War  Came  to  America,  The  War  Message  and 
Facts  Behind  It,  The  President's  Flag  Day  Speech  with  Evidence 
of  Germany's  Plans,  together  with  various  other  pamphlets 
bearing  upon  the  same  subject. 

As  evidence  of  the  cruel  and  inhuman  character  of  the  war 

446 


APPENDIX 

methods  of  the  foe,  I  send  you  also  a  copy  of  German  War  Prac- 
tices, Conquest  and  Kultur,  and  other  pamphlets  of  similar  nature. 

Your  quotation  from  the  Vossische  Zeitung  strikes  me  as  a 
trifle  naive,  for  it  is  the  point  of  view  that  a  German  paper  would 
naturally  take,  and  is  in  support  of  the  lies  with  which  they  have 
been  filling  their  people  from  the  beginning.  To  have  the  Amer- 
ican Defense  Society  swallow  their  propaganda  whole  is  indeed 
a  victory  for  the  German  campaign. 

Your  insistence  that  the  great  majority  of  soldiers  in  France 
show  "an  astounding  lack  of  information  regarding  Germany," 
and  "of  appreciation  of  the  crimes  of  her  troops,"  is  somewhat 
amazing  to  me.  For  three  years  the  daily  papers  of  the  United 
States  have  been  filled  with  the  horrors  of  Belgium,  the  shame 
of  the  Serbian  campaign,  the  ravishment  of  northern  France, 
and  the  brutalities  of  the  U-boat  campaign,  and  what  you  ask 
us  to  assume  is  that  the  youth  of  America  have  never  read  these 
papers,  and  are  waiting  for  some  government  pamphlet  to  tell 
them  about  the  Lusitania  and  other  crimes  of  the  Imperial 
German  government. 

It  is  true  that  this  Committee  has  never  preached  any  doc- 
trine of  hate,  for  it  is  not  our  duty  to  deal  in  emotional  appeals, 
but  to  give  the  people  the  facts  from  which  conclusions  may  be 
drawn.  And  nothing  is  more  untrue  than  to  say  that  we  have 
failed  in  this  regard.  Proof  of  this  can  be  found  in  inspection 
of  literature  we  have  issued,  the  articles  we  have  sent  out  for 
publication  in  the  press,  the  speeches  of  Four  Minute  Men,  and 
all  the  other  varied  activities  of  the  Committee. 

I  dispute  flatly  your  assertion  that  after  three  years  of  German 
warfare  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  still  ignorant  of 
German  savagery,  just  as  I  dispute  flatly  your  assumption  that 
the  speeches  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  defining  the 
causes  of  war,  have  not  been  read  by  any  one.  The  people  of 
the  United  States  do  understand,  and  the  proof  of  it  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  mothers  of  the  country  have  given  their  sons  to 
the  Selective  Service  Law  without  question,  that  every  Liberty 
Loan  has  been  oversubscribed,  and  that  no  request  of  govern- 
ment has  ever  lacked  complete  response.  Perhaps  it  is  that 
this  very  indomitableness  of  resolve,  this  iron  determination, 
leaves  no  room  for  the  manifestations  of  surface  passion. 

Very  truly, 

GEORGE  CREEL,  Chairman. 
447 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

THE  NATIONAL  SECURITY  LEAGUE 

September  12,  1918. 
NATIONAL  SECURITY  LEAGUE, 

31  Pine  Street,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
DEAR  SIR: 

Certain  New  York  papers,  under  date  of  September  12th, 
carry  articles  to  the  effect  that  the  National  Security  League 
has  forced  the  suppression  of  a  book,  entitled  2,000  Questions 
and  Answers  About  the  War,  with  the  foreword  by  me,  the  plain 
inference  being  drawn  that  this  "Masterpiece  of  Hun  Propa- 
ganda," as  your  organization  styles  it,  was  being  freely  circulated 
without  criticism  of  any  kind  until  your  own  investigators  took 
patriotic  action. 

I  cannot  forgo  a  public  protest  against  the  singular  dishonesty 
and  even  indecency  of  this  publicity.  The  book,  instead  of  being 
without  responsible  authorship,  bore  the  imprint  of  The  Review 
of  Reviews,  and  so  far  back  as  June  26th  I  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  Dr.  Albert  Shaw: 

June  26, 1918. 
DR.  ALBERT  SHAW, 

Review  of  Reviews,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 
MY  DEAR  DOCTOR  SHAW: 

While  it  is  true  that  I  glanced  through  the  proofs  of  2,000 
Questions  and  Answers  About  the  War,  before  I  wrote  my  foreword, 
it  is  equally  true  that  I  relied  less  upon  my  hasty  reading  than 
upon  my  absolute  faith  in  you. 

The  last  week  or  so  I  have  made  a  more  careful  study  of  the 
book,  and  I  must  confess  to  a  very  definite  disturbance  of  mind. 
The  whole  tone  of  the  book  strikes  me  as  being  50-50,  for  nowhere 
in  it  can  I  find  the  fundamental  truth  that  Germany  was  entirely 
responsible  for  this  war,  and  that  it  is  a  war  of  self-defense  upon 
the  part  of  the  liberal  nations  of  the  world.  In  connection  with 
atrocities,  deportations,  hostages,  use  of  gas,  I  am  also  unable 
to  find  anything  that  is  in  the  nature  of  a  straight-out  condemna- 
tion of  the  Germans. 

I  feel  sure  that  you  yourself  could  not  have  had  much  to  do  with 
the  book,  or  else  the  articles  would  have  had  a  more  intense 
Americanism  and  less  of  the  evasive,  straddling  note.  If  there 
is  a  second  edition,  I  do  wish  that  you  would  take  the  whole 

448 


APPENDIX 

matter  up  with  me,  so  that  this  very  valuable  contribution  to 
war  can  be  given  greater  effectiveness. 

Sincerely, 

GEORGE   CREEL 

Chairman. 

This  letter  was  followed  at  once  by  seven  single-spaced  type- 
written pages,  pointing  out  specific  objections.  Doctor  Shaw 
replied  at  once,  promising  instant  correction  and  fullest  revision. 
He  also  stated  that  the  book  was  based  upon  the  accumulation 
of  material  secured  in  advance  sheets  from  the  well-known 
British  journalist,  the  son  of  the  late  William  T.  Stead,  and  be- 
cause of  its  source  the  editors  had  not  given  it  the  necessary 
searching  scrutiny. 

I  then  took  up  the  matter  with  Mr.  George  H.  Doran,  the 
publisher,  who,  with  his  usual  eager  patriotism,  agreed  that  the 
sale  of  the  book  should  be  stopped  until  its  contents  were  satis- 
factory to  me.  Because  there  was  not  the  slightest  evidence 
of  any  premeditated  pro-Germanism  in  the  matter,  because  the 
good  faith  and  true  Americanism  of  all  the  parties  in  the  contro- 
versy were  so  obvious,  and  because  the  book  itself  had  been 
stopped  and  a  new  edition  under  way,  I  avoided  all  publicity 
in  the  matter  out  of  my  desire  to  work  no  injustice  to  any  one. 

All  these  facts  were  laid  before  Professor  van  Tyne  of  your 
organization.  By  his  careful  suppression  of  them  in  the  story 
that  he  gave  to  the  press,  I  am  led  to  believe  that  his  sense  of 
honor  is  somewhat  subordinated  to  his  weakness  for  a  little 
cheap  notoriety. 

Very  truly, 

GEORGE  CREEL, 

Chairman. 

September  20,  1918. 
MR.  CHARLES  E.  LYDECKER, 

President,  National  Security  League,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 
DEAR  SIR: 

Your  letter  of  the  13th  instant,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
ignores  entirely  the  fundamental  questions  in  controversy. 
Over  his  own  signature,  Dr.  Claude  H.  van  Tyne,  speaking  for 
the  National  Security  League,  made  this  explicit  statement: 

449 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

"No  author's  name  is  given,  so  that  no  one  else  is  respon- 
sible but  the  writer  of  the  introduction. 

"If  Mr.  Creel  indorses  ideas  like  these,  as  it  seems  he  must, 
since  he  heartily  recommends  this  book  in  his  introduction, 
is  he  a  safe  man  to  occupy  the  position  he  does,  so  potent  for 
the  good  or  ill  of  our  cause?" 

At  the  time  when  he  made  this  statement  he  was  fully  informed 
that  the  book,  2,000  Questions  and  Answers  About  the  War,  had 
been  prepared  by  The  Review  of  Reviews,  and  that  Dr.  Albert 
Shaw  was  responsible  for  its  issuance. 

Also,  at  every  point  in  the  publicity  of  Doctor  van  Tyne,  he 
gave  the  inference,  and  permitted  the  deduction,  that  I  had  done 
nothing  whatsoever  in  the  matter  of  suppressing  the  book,  but 
that  his  task  of  suppression  was  undertaken  by  others  more 
vigilant  and  more  patriotic  than  myself. 

At  the  time  that  he  gave  this  unfair  and  misleading  impres- 
sion to  the  public  he  had  been  informed  that  at  my  own  request, 
made  two  months  before,  the  first  limited  edition  of  the  book 
had  been  withdrawn  from  sale;  that  the  new  edition  had  been 
held  up,  and  that  every  force  in  my  power  had  been  devoted  to 
preventing  the  circulation  of  matter  against  which  I  myself 
had  been  the  first  to  protest. 

It  was  because  of  these  two  things,  and  these  two  alone,  that 
I  branded  the  publicity  of  the  National  Security  League  as 
"indecent  and  dishonest,"  and  by  this  statement  I  stand 
unalterably. 

The  New  York  Times,  in  its  issue  of  September  13th,  after 

considering  the  whole  controversy,  concluded  with  this  paragraph : 

"The    National    Security    League,    through    its    publicity 

agent,  E.  L.  Harvey,  said,  when  asked  why  the  explanation 

of  The  Review  of  Reviews  had  not  appeared  at  the  same  time 

with  the  attack  on  the  book,  that  it  was  not  the  business  of 

the  League  to  defend  the  magazine  or  its  publishers.     If  they 

had  any  defense,  he  added,  they  could  make  it  themselves." 

I  say  to  you  \  j;ry  deliberately  that  this  point  of  view,  whether 

that  of  any  employee  or  of  the  organization  itself,  is  in  itself  as 

singularly  dishonest  and  indecent  as  the  original  offense. 

This  whole  matter  is  worthy  to  be  dealt  with  in  some  detail, 
since  it  establishes  quite  clearly  the  fundamental  differences 
between  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  and  the  National 
Security  League. 

450 


APPENDIX 

When  Dr.  Albert  Shaw  first  approached  me  with  regard  to 
a  foreword,  I  glanced  hastily  through  the  proofs  in  order  to  as- 
certain its  nature.  The  purpose  impressed  me  as  important 
and  my  failure  to  give  the  book  any  closer  reading  was  due  to 
these  facts:  my  faith  in  Doctor  Shaw;  knowledge  that  the 
material  came  from  British  sources  exclusively,  and  that  every 
line  of  it  had  passed  through  the  British  censorship.  This  may 
not  be  an  excuse,  but  it  is  an  honest  explanation. 

The  book  was  issued  on  June  20th  in  an  edition  of  five  thousand. 
On  June  26th,  certain  disturbing  points  having  been  called  to 
my  attention  by  my  associates,  I  wrote  Doctor  Shaw,  protesting 
specifically  against  the  50-50  tone  of  the  book  and  its  failure  to 
make  a  straight-out  condemnation  of  the  Germans.  I  followed 
this  up  immediately  by  a  personal  interview  with  Doctor  Shaw, 
in  which  he  gave  his  assurance  that  no  single  other  copy  of  the 
book  would  be  issued  until  it  had  been  changed  to  meet  my  own 
ideas  and  the  ideas  of  the  French  and  the  British.  In  con- 
firmation of  this,  Mr.  George  H.  Doran,  the  publisher,  returned 
every  unsold  book  to  The  Review  of  Reviews. 

I  had  then  two  courses  of  action  open  to  me,  either  to  make 
public  announcement  of  my  position  or  else  to  rest  satisfied 
with  the  instant  and  eager  acquiescence  of  the  publishers  in  the 
work  of  suppression  and  correction. 

To  take  the  first  course  was  to  save  myself  from  attack  at 
the  expense  of  the  men  in  whose  honesty  and  patriotism  I  had 
every  faith.  Like  myself,  Doctor  Shaw  had  accepted  the  source 
as  authoritative;  Mr.  George  H.  Doran,  the  publisher,  is  a  one- 
hundred-per-cent.  American,  and  at  no  point  was  there  the  slight- 
est evidence  of  premeditated  pro-Germanism.  To-day  the  whole 
matter  is  being  rewritten  by  British  and  French  official  authori- 
ties and  by  the  highest  sources  of  American  public  opinion. 

It  is  also  true  that  my  relations  with  the  publishers  of  the 
country  are  very  intimate  and  very  important.  Without  force 
of  law,  and  with  no  larger  authority  than  an  appeal  to  their 
patriotism,  I  have  procured  the  suppression  of  scores  of  books 
that,  while  not  pro-German  in  any  degree,  have  at  the  same 
time  given  false  and  misleading  impressions  of  America's  war 
aims.  All  this  work  has  been  done  without  blare  of  trumpets. 
It  has  been  done  without  discredit  to  honest  publishers,  and  so 
it  was  that  I  resolved  to  adhere  to  this  fixed  policy  and  rested 
content  with  the  virtual  suppression  of  the  book. 

451 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

It  is  with  this  policy  that  the  National  Security  League  seems 
to  be  in  fundamental  disagreement.  Your  emphasis  is  on  the 
destructive  rather  than  on  the  constructive;  more  on  your  own 
identity  and  less  on  justice  and  unity. 

Very  truly, 

GEORGE  CREEL, 

Chairman. 


WHEN  I  "THANKED  GOD" 

WASHINGTON,  April  10, 1918. 
SENATOR  OLLIE  JAMES, 

The  Senate  Office  Building,  City. 
My  DEAR  SENATOR  JAMES: 

I  have  just  received  your  note  asking  for  the  facts  in  connec- 
tion with  the  charge  that  I  "thanked  God"  that  we  were  not 
prepared  when  America  entered  the  war.  I  am  only  too  glad 
to  give  them,  but  trust  that  you  will  not  let  your  generous  feeling 
in  the  matter  lead  you  into  any  open  discussion  on  the  Senate 
floor. 

These  hues  and  cries  are  best  handled  by  being  permitted  to 
die  of  their  own  violence.  Lies  are  only  fanned  to  new  flame 
by  thrashing  at  them.  My  enemies — newspapers  and  partizan 
malignants — do  not  mean  to  be  fair,  and  I  have  found  that  this 
very  unfairness  comes  in  time  to  be  my  best  defense.  It  is  also 
the  case  that  I  am  driven  night  and  day  by  the  demands  of  my 
work,  and  I  have  not  the  time,  even  if  I  had  the  inclination,  to 
engage  in  long,  tedious  debates  or  correspondence  whenever  a 
reporter  or  a  member  of  Congress  tortures  some  act  or  word  of 
mine  into  a  crime. 

The  speech  in  question  was  made  before  the  lecturers  of  the 
Lyceum  and  Chautauqua  Association,  men  and  women  who  go 
from  coast  to  coast  in  the  course  of  the  year,  talking  intimately 
to  thousands.  The  meeting,  in  fact,  was  held  in  Washington 
at  my  reqi&st,  for  I  wanted  these  people  to  gain  the  inspiration 
bred  by  hearing  Cabinet  members,  high  executives,  ambassadors, 
and  all  others  concerned  with  the  direction  of  the  war.  As 
part  of  my  regular  work  I  secured  their  speakers,  and  no  more 
important  list  was  ever  compiled. 

In  opening  the  session  I  told  them  that  they  should  regard 

452 


APPENDIX 

themselves  as  soldiers  called  to  the  colors  in  the  fight  for  public 
opinion,  and  that  wherever  they  went,  wherever  they  spoke,  it 
was  their  duty  to  drive  home  the  justice  of  America's  cause. 
In  the  sane  sense  of  the  word,  these  men  and  women  were  paci- 
fists, meaning  that  they  hated  war.  And  Chautauqua  audiences, 
for  the  most  part,  are  rural  in  their  character,  sharing  little  in 
the  mob  excitements  of  cities,  peace-loving  to  the  last  degree, 
and  holding  deeply  to  the  traditional  prejudice  against  "en- 
tangling alliances." 

What  I  tried  to  do  in  my  speech  was  to  prove  conclusively 
that  the  war  was  a  war  of  self-defense,  and  that  our  free  institu- 
tions were  as  much  attacked,  and  in  as  great  danger,  as  if  the  foot 
of  the  German  was  on  our  very  soil.  And  because  the  question 
of  our  "preparedness"  was,  in  its  essence,  the  moral  ground  upon 
which  we  rested  our  justification  before  the  world,  I  went  into 
it  from  the  very  beginning. 

In  my  remarks,  I  tried  to  point  out  what  seemed  to  me  the 
state  of  mind  of  the  American  people  during  the  first  years  of 
the  European  War.  It  was  not  immediately,  by  any  means, 
that  the  full  horror  of  Germany's  crimes  and  purposes  penetrated 
the  national  consciousness.  Not  at  the  time  of  the  German 
invasion,  or  for  months  afterward,  was  the  question  of  a  pro- 
test by  the  United  States  even  suggested  in  Congress  or  advo- 
cated in  the  press.  The  visit  of  the  Belgian  deputation  in  Septem- 
ber, 1914,  moved  our  sympathies,  but  not  our  resolution. 

As  the  war  progressed,  it  became  increasingly  apparent  that 
the  neutrality  approved  by  the  nation  and  enforced  by  Pres- 
ident Wilson  was  menaced  at  many  points  by  the  refusal  of  the 
Imperial  German  government  to  abide  by  international  law. 
As  our  protest  was  against  the  use  of  force  as  a  means  of  solving 
international  disputes,  our  first  logical  and  consistent  course 
could  have  been  no  other  than  an  honest  appeal  to  the  law  that 
we  were  insisting  should  be  respected. 

President  Wilson,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Washington, 
Adams,  Jefferson,  Lincoln,  and  Grant,  all  of  whom  were  Pres- 
idents during  periods  in  which  belligerents  violated  American 
rights  of  neutrality,  held  to  orderly  procedure,  refusing  to  resort 
to  force  until  every  peaceful  means  of  adjusting  differences  had 
been  exhausted. 

The  notes  to  Germany  were  more  than  diplomatic  exchanges 
designed  to  redress  certain  definite  wrongs.    They  were  affidavits 
30  453 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

V, 

attesting  our  passion  for  peace  and  the  utter  selflessness  of  our 
purposes;  they  were  the  foundation  stones  for  our  present  justi- 
fication; and  because  of  these  notes  it  is  the  case  to-day  that  the 
citizen  confesses  disloyalty  and  treason  who  dares  to  say  that 
war  was  not  forced  upon  America  and  that  it  is  not  a  war  of  self- 
defense  in  behalf  of  free  institutions  and  human  liberty. 

Even  in  Germany  to-day  they  admit  the  justice  of  our  cause 
when  they  debate  the  wisdom  of  their  policy  in  driving  us  into 
the  war.  At  home,  this  historic  and  just  policy  laid  the  founda- 
tions for  unexampled  national  unity  on  the  part  of  our  people 
in  support  of  measures  against  a  power  whose  hideous  purposes 
stood  self-confessed.  It  created  a  national  morale  which  will 
not  only  weather  every  storm,  but  stand  unshaken  when  the 
deeps  of  our  national  and  domestic  life  are  stirred  by  sacrifice 
and  suffering. 

I  stand  absolutely  on  the  sense  of  my  words  when  I  say  that 
it  is  the  glory  of  America,  as  it  is  of  Belgium  and  of  England  and 
France,  that  is  asking  and  expecting  these  sacrifices  to  the  utter- 
most; we  can  say  honestly  to  every  man  in  the  trenches  and  every 
home  in  sorrow  that  we  strove  to  keep  the  peace,  and  that 
these  supremest  offerings  may  be  given  to  a  nation  that  never 
betrayed  itself  or  its  people  by  striving  for  peace  as  a  blind  for 
preparing  for  war. 

What  I  thanked  God  for  was  that  America  could  stand  before 
the  world  with  conscience  clear  of  blood-guilt;  that  to  the 
future  we  could  hold  clear  hands;  that  while  we  pleaded  for  peace 
we  did  not  tug  secretly  at  the  sword;  that  not  until  pleading 
became  dishonor  did  we  put  down  the  pen  and  turn  to  the  busi- 
ness of  war. 

I  shall  always  thank  God  for  this  fact.  I  would  rather  be 
an  American,  killed  in  the  unpreparedness  that  proved  devotion 
to  declared  principles,  than  a  German  living  as  the  result  of 
years  of  lying,  sneaking,  treacherous  preparation  for  a  wolf's 
spring  at  the  throat  of  an  unsuspecting  world.  And  it  is  this 
deep  conviction  of  honor  and  faith  that  will  win  for  us. 

I  can  only  add  in  conclusion  that  the  men  and  women  who 
heard  me  united  in  an  unanimous  vote  of  thanks  for  my  "most 
patriotic  speech." 

Believe  me,  sir, 

Very  gratefully  yours, 

GEORGE  CREEL. 

454 


APPENDIX 

PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  PUBLIC  INFORMATION 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

RED,   WHITE,    AND   BLUE   SERIES 

1.  How  the  War  Came  to  America 5,428,048 

Swedish  edition 67,487 

Polish            "     82,658 

German         "     292,610 

Italian           "    129,860 

Spanish               96,816 

Bohemian     "     121,058 

Portuguese   "    9,375 

2.  National  Service  Handbook 454,699 

3.  The  Battle-line  of  Democracy 94,848 

4.  The  President's  Flag  Day  Address,  with  Evidence 

of  Germany's  Plans 6,813,340 

5.  Conquest  and  Kultur.    Edited  by  WALLACE  NOTE- 

STEIN  and  ELMER  E.  STOLL  (University  of  Min- 
nesota)    1,203,607 

6.  German  War  Practices.    Part  I.     "Treatment  of 

Civilians."  Edited  by  DANA  C.  MUNRO  (Prince- 
ton University),  GEORGE  C.  SELLERY  (Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin),  and  AUGUST  C.  KREY  (Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota) 1,592,801 

7.  War  Cyclopedia.     A  Handbook  for  Ready  Refer- 

ence on  the  Great  War.  Edited  by  FREDERIC  L. 
PAXSON  (JJniversity  of  Wisconsin),  EDWARD  S. 
CORWIN  (Princeton  University),  and  SAMUEL 

B.  HARDING  (Indiana  University) 195,231 

8.  German  Treatment  of  Conquered  Territory.     (Part 

II  of  German  War  Practices.)     Edited  by  DANA 

C.  MUNRO  (Princeton  University),  GEORGE  C. 
SELLERY  (University  of  Wisconsin),  and  AU- 
GUST C.  KREY  (University  of  Minnesota) 720,848 

9.  War,  Labor,  and  Peace:    Some  Recent  Addresses 

and  Writings  of  the  President 584,027 

10.  German  Plots  and  Intrigues.     Edited  by  E.  E. 
SPERRY  of  Syracuse  University  and  W.  M. 

WEST,  formerly  of  Minnesota 127,153 

455 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

WAR   INFORMATION   SERIES 

1.  The  War  Message  and  the  Facts  Behind  It.     Ed- 

ited by  WILLIAM  STERNS  DAVIS  (University 

of    Minnesota) 2,499,903 

2.  The  Nation  in  Arms.     Two  addresses  by  Secre- 

taries LANE  and  BAKER 1,666,231 

3.  The  Government  of  Germany.    By  CHARLES  D. 

HAZEN  (Columbia  University) 1,798,155 

German  edition 20,500 

4.  The  Great  War:    From  Spectator  to  Participant. 

By  ANDREW  C.  MCLAUGHLIN  (University  of 

Chicago) 1,581,903 

5.  A  War  of  Self-defense.    Addresses  by  Secretary 

LANSING  and  Louis  F.  POST,  Assistant  Secre- 
tary of  Labor 721,944 

6.  American  Loyalty.     By    American    Citizens    of 

German  Descent 702,598 

7.  Amerikanische  Burgertreue.     A  German  transla- 

tion of  Number  6 564,787 

8.  American  Interest  in  Popular  Government  Abroad. 

By  E.  B.  GREENE  (University  of  Illinois) 596,533 

9.  Home  Heading  Course  for  Citizen  Soldiers.     Pre- 

pared by  the  War  Department 361,000 

10.  First  Session  of  the  War  Congress.    By  CHARLES 

MERZ 608,950 

11.  The  German  War  Code.    By  G.  W.  SCOTT  (Colum- 

bia University)  and  J.  W.  GARNER  (University 

of  Illinois) 514,452 

12.  American  and  Allied  Ideals.    By  STUART  P.  SHER- 

MAN (University  of  Illinois) 228,986 

13.  German  Militarism  and  Its  German  Critics.     By 

CHARLES  ALTSCHUL 303,600 

German  edition 103,300 

14.  The  War  for  Peace.    By  ARTHUR  D.  COLL,  Secre- 

tary of  the  American  Peace  Society 302,370 

15.  Why  America   Fights   Germany.     By   JOHN   P. 

TATLOCK  (Stanford  University) 725,345 

16.  The  Study  of  the  Great  War.    By  SAMUEL  B. 

HARDING  (Indiana  University) 678,929 

456 


APPENDIX 

17.  The  Activities  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Infor- 

mation            23,800 

18.  Regimental  History  of  the  U.  S.  Regular  Army  (for 

war  correspondents  only) 1,000 

19.  Lieber  and  Schurz:   Two  Loyal  Americans  of  Ger- 

man Birth.     By  E.  B.  GREENE  (University  of 

Illinois) 26,360 

20.  The   German-Bolshevik   Conspiracy.     Documents 

and  report  by  EDGAR  SISSON 137,375 

21.  America's  War  Aims  and  Peace  Terms.     By  CARL 

BECKER  (Cornell  University) 719,315 


LOYALTY  LEAFLETS 
A  series  of  leaflets  of  ordinary  envelope  size 

1.  Friendly  Words  to  the  Foreign  Born.     By  HON. 

JOSEPH  BUFFINGTON,  senior  United  States  Cir- 
cuit Judge  of  the  Third  Circuit.  (Translations 
into  the  principal  foreign  languages.) 570,543 

2.  The  Prussian  System.     By  FREDERIC  C.  WAL- 

COTT,  of  the  United  States  Food  Administration       571,036 

3.  Labor  and  the  War.     President  Wilson's  address 

to  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  Novem- 
ber 12.  1917 509,550 

4.  A  War  Message  to  the  Farmer.    By  PRESIDENT 

WILSON 546,911 

5.  Plain  Issues  of  the  War.     By  ELIHU  ROOT,  ex- 

Secretary  of  State 112,492 

6.  Ways  to  Serve  the  Nation.    A  proclamation  by 

the  President,  April  16,  1917 568,907 

7.  What  Really  Matters.    By  a  well-known  news- 

paper writer 574,502 


PUBLICATIONS   FOR   "THE   FRIENDS   OF  GERMAN  DEMOCRACY" 

(In  German) 

My  London  Mission  (Prince  Lichnowsky) 661,300 

The  Meaning  of  America 10,421 

The  Democratic  Rising  of  the  German  People  in  '4$. . .  20,320 

457 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 

On  Loyalty,  Liberty,  and  Democracy 19,070 

American  Friends  of  German  Democracy 61,500 

Democracy,  the  Heritage  of  All 30,000 

The  Root  of  the  Evil 30,000 

No  Qualified  Americanism 30,100 

German  Militarism  and  Its  German  Critics 1,500 


PUBLICATIONS   FOR   DIVISION   OF   AMERICAN  ALLIANCE  FOR 
LABOR  AND   DEMOCRACY 

Why  Workingmen  Support  the  War 313,535 

Who  Is  Paying  for  This  War 313,082 

German  Socialists  and  the  War 316,005 

To  the  Workers  of  Free  America 323,605 

What  Can  Your  Local  Branch  Do? 15,000 

Labor's  Red,  White,  and  Blue  Book 99,385 

PUBLICATIONS   FOR   FOREIGN   SECTION 

The  Freedom  of  the  World  (Spanish) 102,967 

The  German  Plan  (Spanish) 95,798 

American  Loyalty  (Spanish) 124,229 

The  Meaning  of  the  War 125,100 

The  Lichnowsky  Revelation  (Spanish) 46,850 

Labor  and  the  War  (Spanish) 48,611 

A  Call  to  My  Fatherland  (German) 60,500 

German  Plots  and  Intrigues  (Spanish) 49,750 

German  Plots  and  Intrigues  (Portuguese) 15,000 

America's  War  Aims  (Spanish) 98,000 

MISCELLANEOUS 

National  School  Service 4,251,570 

The  Kaiserite  in  America.    By  HARVEY  J.  O'HiGGiNS  5,550,521 

Germany's  Confession 324,935 

The  German  Whisper.    By  HARVEY  J.  O'HIGGINS.  . .  437,484 

Farmers9  Bulletin 8,000 

Purpose  and  Scope  of  the  Speaking  Division 25,000 

Issues  of  the  War  at  a  Glance 25,000 

For  Freedom  (Serbian  National  Defense) 5,000 

War  Savings  Campaign  Appeals 6,000 

458 


APPENDIX 

War  Publications  Bulletin 13,126,006 

Division  of  Films  Bulletin 121,119 

Selective  Service  Registration  Bulletin 756,700 

Advertising  Bulletin  (for  Registration  Day) 112,000 

"Register"  (Four  Minute  Men) 1,606,350 

Poster.     "Why  Germany  Wants  Peace" 31,000 

Posters.     "Capitol  Building" 26,100 

Posters.     "Independence   Hall" 26,100 

Posters  for  War  Cyclopedia 2,050 

Posters.     "America  Gave  You  All" 7,500 

Map.     "The  Pan-German  Plan" 122,000 

Newspaper,  United  States  Department  of  Labor. . . .  80,000 

Streamers,  Four  Minute  Men 25,000 

Nine  lectures  to  accompany  slides 45,000 

War  Work  of  Women  in  Colleges .'  •       50,000 

Post-cards J  1,687,408 

Official  Bulletin 2,154,809 

46  Bulletins  for  Four  Minute  Men 4,974,000 

26  Bulletins  for  Bureau  of  Cartoons 25,000 

America  in  War  and  Peace  (Ukrainian) 40,000 

A  Message  to  American  Hungarians  (Magyar) 40,000 

Abraham  Lincoln  (Russian) 40,000 


75,099,023 


INDEX 


A 

Ackerman,  Lieut.  F.  E.»  67,  365. 

Adams,  Herbert,  134. 

Adams,  Samuel  Hopkins,  88,  225. 

Altrocchi,  Dr.  Rudolph,  300. 

Altschul,  Charles,  107. 

Anderson,  Louis  M.,  186. 

Andreen,  Gustav,  185. 

Andrews,  Mary  Shipman,  262. 

Antonsen,  Carl,  185. 

Arnold,  Perry,  234,  251,  254. 

Atherton,  Gertrude,  261. 

B 

Bagley,  W.  C.,  112. 

Bagues,  Mme.  Edith,  292,  293. 

Bakeman,  George,  380. 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard,  413. 

Banning,  Kendall,  118. 

Barnes,  H.  Y.,  279,  380. 

Barr,  Gertrude,  300. 

Baruch,  Bernard,  52. 

Beach,  Rex,  225. 

Becker,  Prof.  Carl,  103,  106. 

Beeman,  Marcus  A.,  122. 

Bennington,  Arthur,  300. 

Bergquist,  J.  C.,  185. 

Bernays,  Edward  266. 

Bernstein,  Herman,  278 

Berton,  Claude,  293. 

Bestor,  Arthur  E.,  149,  150,  154,  i55. 

Bjorkman,  Edwin,  184,  185,  230,  265. 

Blair,  William  McCormick,  66.  88,  93. 

Blaisdell,  L.  S.,  370. 

Blankenburg,  Rudolph,  188. 

Blashfield,  E.  H.,  134r 

Bohn,  Dr.  Frank,  153,  191. 

Bohn,  Dr.  William  H.,  153,  188. 

Bonaschi,  Dr.  Albert.  186,  199. 


Bonnifield,  R.,  231. 

Bothwell,  George,  380,  392. 

Bowles,  George,  121. 

Boyle,  Virginia  Frazer,  225. 

Brace,  A.,  293. 

Bricker,  William  R.,  189. 

Broun,  Hey  wood,  81. 

Brown,  Prof.  G.  S.,  371. 

Brown,  L.  Ames,  80,  226. 

Brown,  P.  P.,  231. 

Brown,  William  Adams,  380,  383,  396. 

Brown,  Major  W.  L.,  152. 

Bruere,  Martha  Bensley,  225. 

Brulatour,  Jules  E.,  274. 

Bullard,  Arthur,  19,  70,  100,  102,  248, 

278,   279,   288,   375,   379,   380,   383, 

385,  394,  395,  433. 
Bullen,  P.  S.,  231. 
Bullock,  W.  F.,  231. 
Butler,  Ellis  Parker,  225,  261 
Butman,  Carl  H.,  82. 
Butz,  Otto  C.,  188. 
Byoir,  Carl,  66,  248,  275,  404,  419,  427, 

433. 


Call,  Arthur  D.,  106. 

Carnes,  William,  380. 

Carpio,  Sefior  Manuel,  227. 

Casey,  F.  De  Sales,  134. 

Cassuto,  Aldo,  230. 

Catt,  Mrs.  Carrie  Chapman,  212. 

Ceglinsky,  Nicholas,  199. 

Chadbourne,  Waldmar,  346. 

Chilberg,  J.  E.,  185. 

Child,  Richard  Washburn,  225. 

Christensen,  John  C.,  185. 

Clark,  Miss  Eleanor,  219. 

Clark,  S.  H.,  88. 

Clark,  S.  J.,  231. 

Clark,  Victor,  111 


461 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 


Clarkin,  Franklin,  380. 
Clarkson,  Ralph,  134. 
Clausen,  W.  B.,  253. 
Collins,  James  H.,  225. 
Collins,  John,  253,  372. 
Collins,  Sewall,  346. 
Collins,  Seward  B.,  343. 
Commons,  Prof.  John  R.,  106. 
Connell,  Catherine,  219. 
Connor,  Professor,  111. 
Converse,  Miss  Antonio  Thornton  Jenk- 
ins, 219. 

Cook,  Sir  Theodore,  255. 
Coolidge,  Prof.  A.  C.,  111. 
Cooper,  F.  G.,  134. 
Copeland,  C.  W.,  371. 
Cordner,  E.  Q.,   300. 
Corwin,  Professor,  108. 
Coss,  Dr.  J.  J.,  108. 
Cotillo,  Senator  Salvatore,  300. 
Craig,  H.  D.,  446. 
Crawford,  Arthur,  82. 
Crocker,  Frederico,  368. 
Crossley,  Captain,  346. 
Crow,  Carl,  249,  254,  361. 
Crowder,  General  E.  H.,  195. 
Culbertson,  Henry  C.,  152. 
Cusack,  Thomas,  158. 
Czabulk,  Gustave,  422. 


D'Arcy,  W.  C.,  144,  158. 

Davenport,  Prof.  Eugene,  225. 

Davies,  W.  W.,  231. 

Davis,  Jerome,  377. 

Davis,  Malcolm,  380,  383,  393. 

Davis,  M.  W.,  394,  395. 

Davis,  Prof.  S.  W.,  102. 

Dawson,  William,  368. 

Dayton,  F.  E.,  134. 

de  Bryas,  Countess  Madeleine,  151. 

Decker,  Capt.  Benton  C.,  339,  345,  346. 

de    Courtivron,    Marquise    Crequi    de 

Montfort,  153. 

Deeds,  Col.  Edward  A.,  45,  46,  52. 
Delavaud,  Henri  Collins,  231. 
De  Lima,  Arthur,  309. 
Delmas,  H.,  231. 
De  Mora,  Sefior  I.,  346. 


Dever,  Lem  A.,  380. 
Dilnot,  Frank,  231. 
Dodd,  Professor,  111. 
Dodge,  Philip  L.,  88. 
Doran,  George  H.,  451. 
Doskow,  I.,  134. 
Dowling,  Loretta,  220. 
Durant,  Kenneth,  83,  300. 

E 

Eaton,  Walter  Prichard,  262. 
Eberlin,  Viggo  C.,  199. 
Edwards,  Paul  L.,  332. 
Egan,  Martin,  291. 
Erskine,  Prof.  John,  225. 
Espinosa,  Dr.  M.  K.,  313. 
Evans,  Sid.,  380. 


Falls,  Charles  B.,  134. 
Ferber,  Edna,  262. 
Ferrera,  Dr.  F.,  231. 
Ferretti,  Andrea,  231. 
Fife,  George  B.,  321. 
Fish,  Professor,  111. 
Forbes,  Helen,  219-220. 
Ford,  Guy  Stanton,  66,  86,  101.] 
Fordney,  Representative,  54. 
Forster,  Dr.  William,  189. 
Foster,  Maximilian,  257,  291. 
Franck,  Harry  A.,  284. 
Fraser,  Sir  John  Foster,  231. 
Frisbie,  J.  B.,  316. 
Frost,  Wesley,  153. 


Gallatin,  Albert  E.f  134. 
Gardner,  Frank  S.,  254. 
Garner,  Prof.  J.  W.,  107. 
Garrett,  John  Work,  328,  334. 
Gay,  Senor  Jose  M.,  346. 
Gibbons,  Herbert  Adams,  296,  297. 
Gibson,  Charles  Dana,  134  139.  244. 
Gilbert,  Cass,  134. 
Glaman,  Otto  J.,  380,  393,  396. 
Glass,  Frank  P.,  438. 
Gleason,  Arthur,  262. 


462 


INDEX 


Gocheler,  Gertrude,  428. 
Goldman,  Emma,  241. 
Gorton,  Miss  Elizabeth,  216,  217. 
Grahame,  Leopold,  231. 
Creeling,  Doctor,  191. 
Greene,  Prof.  Evarts  B.,  106-111. 
Greenleaf,  Ray,  134. 
Griffis,  C.  V.,  248,  280,  368. 
Grinndal,  H.  Gude,  198. 
Groszmann,  Doctor,  264 
Grover,  Oliver  D.,  134. 
Gundlach,  E.  T.,  86. 
Gutmann,  James,  108. 

H 

Hackett,  F.  E.,  224. 

Haggerty,  Dennis  J.,  380. 

Hahn,  Kurt,  331. 

Hall,  E.  W.  M.,  231. 

Hall,  Henry  N.,  231. 

Handley,  Mrs.,  280. 

Hangan,  Hauman  G.,  186. 

Hanse,  Jens  C.,  185. 

Hansen,  Sundby,  198. 

Harding,  J.  W.,  231. 

Harding,  Prof.  Samuel,  108-111. 

Harn,  O.  C.,  156,  158. 

Harrell,  David,  346. 

Harris,  Gerrard,  83. 

Hart,  Charles  S.,  120-144,  244,  275. 

Hart,  Wilbur  H.,  279. 

Harvey,  Ellen,  217. 

Haskins,  Frederick,  110. 

Hatada,  Y.,  231. 

Hatrick,  Edgar  B.,  293,  294. 

Hazen,  Prof.  Charles  D.,  107-111. 

Hearley,  John,  299,  419. 

Hecht,  George  J.,  226. 

Hecht,  Harold  E..  129. 

Hellrung,  Axel,  185. 

Helwig,  Capt.  A.  L.,  190. 

Henius,  Max,  185. 

Henschen,  Henry  S.,  185. 

Herman,  W.  J.,  231. 

Herrick,  Robert,  261. 

Hertz,  Henry  L.,  185. 

HJllier,  Frank,  231. 

Hinkovic,  Doctor,  187. 

Hirsimaki,  Charles  H.,  199. 


Hirt,  Dr.  William  H.,  268. 
Hitchcock,  E.  H.,  83. 
Hittinger,  Capt.  Joseph  H.,  142. 
Hoagland,  H.  C.,  277,  301. 
Hobbs,  E.  H.,  428. 
Hoffman,  Dr.  Frederick  L.,  188. 
Hoffman,  Miss  Malvina,  134. 
Hogue,  Miss  Helen  M.,  218. 
Houston,  Herbert  S.,  156-158. 
Hovgaard,  William,  185. 
Howells,  Wm.  Dean,  262. 
Howland,  John  P.,  185. 
Hull,  Professor,  111. 
Kurd,  R.  M.,  446. 
Hurst,  Fannie,  262. 
Hyde,  James  Hazen,  293. 


Ingersoll,  William  H.,  88-93. 
Inman,  Harry  P.,  279. 
Irwin,  Wallace,  82,  225,  262. 
Irwin,  Will,  200,  202,  247. 
Ivanowski,  Sigismund,  186. 


Jacobi,  Dr.  Abraham,  188. 

Jacobsen,  Halvor,  185. 

James,  Major  A.  L.,  Jr.,  287,  293. 

James,  Senator  Ollie,  452. 

Jameson,  Prof.  J.  Franklin,  111. 

Jasberg,  J.  H.,  186. 

Jenison,  Miss  Marguerite,  219. 

Jenkins,  John  Wilbur,  81. 

Johns,  Wm.  H.,  158. 

Johnson,  Professor,  111. 

Jones,  Francis,  134. 

Jones,  Lewis  B.,  158. 

Jury,  Sir  William,  299. 


Kaupas,  Julius,  199. 
Keeley,  James,  284. 
Kellogg,  Dr.  Vernon,  152. 
Kelly,  E.  W.,  231. 
Kennaday,  Paul,  261. 
463 


HOW,  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 


Kerney,"  James  F.,  245,  248,  251,  284, 
.     290-297. 

Kinkaid,  Mrs.  Mary  H.,  212. 
Kitchen,  Miss  Dorothy  Lewis,  214. 
Klein,  Arthur,  224. 
Knecht,  Marcel,  231. 
Knopf,  Dr.  S.  Adolphus,  188 
Knutson,  Representative,  55. 
Koenig,  Prof.  A.  E.,  153. 
Koettgen,  Julius,  188,  189,  199 
Konta,  Alex.,  187. 
Kranz,  Carl,  392. 
Krey,  Prof.  A.  C.,  106. 
Kuhn,  L..  314. 


Langquist,  Andrew,  185. 
Larson,  O.  J.,  186. 
Lauzanne,  S.,  232. 
Lawson,  S.  Levy,  232. 
Lee,  C.  D.,  433. 
Leicht,  Miss  Gretchen,  226. 
Leland,  Professor,  111. 
Levy,  Leon,  232. 
Lewis,  Read,  279,  380. 
Lewis,  Wilmot  A.,  293. 
Lichnowsky,  Prince,  189-312. 
Lieber,  Richard,  189. 
Lindsey,  Judge  Ben  B.,  300. 
Lingelbach,  Professor,  111. 
Livingston,  Prof.  Arthur,  263. 
Lodge,  Senator  H.  C.,  59. 
Loewy,  Captain  S.,  232. 
Low,  A.  Maurice,  232. 
Lund,  Harry  A.,  185. 

Me. 

McAneny,  George,  440. 
McClure,  Frank  W.,  155. 
McConaghy,  W.  J.,  80. 
McCormack,  John,  204,  207. 
McCormick,  Vance,  275. 
McGoodwin,  Preston,  372. 
McGowan,  Miss  Constance  Marguerite, 

216. 

Mclntyre,  Gen.  Frank,  75. 
McLaughlin,  Andrew  C.,  106. 
McReynolds.  Prof.  F.  W.,  223,  224. 


M 

MacCallum,  N.,  232. 

MacFarlane,  Arthur,  226. 

Mack,  Louis  B.,  119. 

Mansfield,  Frank  M.,  293. 

Marion,  Frank  J.,  248,  337,  338,  347. 

Markus,  Alfred,  199. 

Marriott,  Crittenden,  225. 

Martin,  "Mac,"  88. 

Masaryk,  Dr.  Thos.  G.,  186. 

Mason,  Warren,  232. 

Mathie,  Dr.  Karl,  153,  188 

Matson,  Norman,  270. 

Matthews,  Arthur  F.,  134. 

Mattingly,  Archibald,  83. 

Meek,  Thos.  J.,  89. 

Meeker,  Geo.,  124. 

Mellet,  J.  C.,  82. 

Merriam,  Prof.  Charles  E.,  244,  248,  299, 

300. 

Merwin,  Samuel,  225,  262. 
Miller,  Mrs.  Laura,  217. 
Mladineo,  Peter,  199. 
Montenegro,  Ernest,  232. 
Mooney,  Hon.  Daniel,  368. 
Moran,  Prof.  Thos.  F.,  155. 
Morgan,  Edwin  V.,  248,  372. 
Morgenstern,  B.,  377. 
Morris,  Ira  Nelson,  354. 
Morris,  Miss  Mildred,  214. 
Morris,  Ambassador  Roland,  249,  363. 
Morrison,  Martin  A.,  224. 
Moses,  Kingsley,  300. 
Moses,  Miss  Margaret,  214. 
Mundell,  Mrs.  William  A.,  214. 
Munroe,  Prof.  Dana  C.,  106-111. 
Murray,  Robert  H.,  227,  228,  245,  248, 

303,  308,  309. 
Myhrman,  Othelia,  185. 

N 

Navarro,  Prof.  M.  Romero,  341,  346. 

Neal,  Jesse  H.,  158. 

Neble,  Sophus  F.,  185. 

Nelson,  Bertram  G.,  88. 

Nestor,  Byron  M.,  300,  301. 

Newdick,  Edwin,  82. 

Nicholson,  Curtis,  88. 


464 


INDEX 


Nicholson,  Meredith,  225,  262. 

Niebuhr,  Walter,  119. 

Nielsen,  Truels  P.,  185. 

Nolan,  Gen.  Dennis  E.,  287,  293. 

Normile,  Mrs.  Florence,  216. 

Norton,  Charles  Philip,  279. 

Norton,  Eric,  185. 

Norton,  Phil,  380. 

Notestein,  Prof.  Wallace,  106-111. 


O'Higgms,  Harvey,  225,  427. 
Olander,  Victor,  185. 
Olsen,  Harry,  185. 
O'Reilly,  Lieut.  P.  S.,  228,  254. 
Osland,  Berger,  185. 
Owens,  Hamilton,  263. 


Paderewski,  186. 

Paine,  Ralph  D.,  225. 

Palavacini,  Senor  Felix,  227. 

Palmer,  Eric,  248,  354. 

Paxon,  Professor,  108. 

Payne,  Will,  262. 

Peccorini,  Lieut.  Albert,  300. 

Peebles,  Miss  Catherine  H.,  219. 

Pennell,  Joseph,  134,  342. 

Penrose,  Senator  Boise,  36-58. 

Pergler,  Charles,  186. 

Perigord,  Capt.  Paul,  151. 

Pernis,  James  J.  Van,  199. 

Perrin,  Lester,  422. 

Perry,  Paul,  248,  298. 

Peterson,  Charles  A.,  185. 

Pettijohn,  Prof.  J.  J.,  155. 

Pew,  Marlen,  82. 

Plottier,  A.,  232. 

Plowes,  Senor  Zamora,  227. 

Poindexter,  Senator  Miles,  58. 

Polignac,  Marquis  de,  154-293. 

Polonsky,  Joseph,  199. 

Poole,  Ernest,  70-103,  243,  244, 

353. 

Post,  Louis  F.,  107. 
Potter,  C.  J.,  160. 
Pou,  Representative  E.  W.,  61. 
Pousette-Dart,  N.,  134. 


Powell,  J.  B.,  362. 
Pratt,  Llewellyn,  144. 
Preciado,  A.  A.,  248,  372. 


Q 

Quick,  Herbert,  225. 
Quimby,  Henry  C.,  446. 


R 


Raine,  Wm.  MacLeod,  226. 

Randall,  Helen,  214. 

Rankin,  W.  H.,  146,  156,  157. 

Rascovar,  E.,  232. 

Reilly,  Leigh,  80. 

Reilly,  R.  R.,  254. 

Reinsch,  Dr.  Paul,  249-361. 

Renault,  Louis,  296. 

Reuterdahl,  Henry  N.,  134. 

Richards,  Livy,  82. 

Rickey,  Harry  N.,  247,  248,  298. 

Riesenberg,  Henry,  153,  189. 

Riis,  George  Edward,  248,  349. 

Riis,  Jacob,  248. 

Rinehart,  Mary  Roberts,  77,  225. 

Roche,  Josephine,  191,  202. 

Rochester,  E.  S.,  208. 

Rochon,  R.  J.,  254. 

Rogers,  Hopewell,  437. 

Rogers,  W.  A.,  134. 

Rogers,  Walter  S.,  231,  250,  254,  258, 

260,  414,  417,  433. 
Rohe,  Alice,  300. 
Ronconi,  Romeo,  232. 
Root,  Elihu,  106. 

Rose,  Miss  Anna  Maria  Perrott,  220. 
Rosenmeyer,  Doctor,  191. 
Rosenwald,  Julius,  52. 
Rosett,  Dr.  Joshua,  380,  394. 
Rothapfel,  L.  S.,  122. 
Rothman,  A.,  232. 
Rubel,  Lawrence  E.,  118,  129. 
261,    Russell,  Charles  Edward,  153,  154,  248, 

293,  298. 

Russell,  Prof.  William,  380,  394,  395. 
Ryan,  John  D.,  52,  298. 
Ryerson,  Donald,  84,  88,  93. 
Rygg,  A.  M.,  186. 
465 


HOW  WE  ADVERTISED  AMERICA 


Saperston,  Alfred  M.f  226. 

Schafer,  Professor,  111. 

Schauer,  George,  189. 

Schlegel,  Charles  J.,  188. 

Schoolfield,  Miss  Sue,  219. 

Schoonmaker,  Edwin,  380. 

Scott,  Prof.  G.  W.,  107. 

Scott,  John  Reed,  225. 

Searson,  J.  W.,  112. 

Sellery,  Prof.  G.  C.,  106. 

Sevier,  H.  H.,  248,  281.  365. 

Sharp,  Ambassador,  291. 

Shaw,  Dr.  Albert,  448. 

Shaw,  Dr.  Anna  Howard,  212. 

Shepard,  William,  261. 

Sheridan,  Jack,  134. 

Sherman,  Prof.  Stuart,  106. 

Shick,  Miss  Marie,  224. 

Shinn,  Anne  O'Hagan,  262,  270. 

Shotwell,  Prof.  James  J.,  103-111. 

Sigel,  Franz,  187. 

Sihler,  Dr.  Christian,  188. 

Sihler,  Miss  K.  Elizabeth,  188. 

Sisson,  Edgar  G.,  19,  70-80,  103, 
247,  248,  277,  278,  287,  288, 
374,  404,  411,  419,  427,  433. 

Sleicher,  William,  188. 

Smith,  Guy  Croswell,  248,  277,  355 

Smith,  Preston  Morris,  346. 

Smulski,  John,  186. 

Snow,  Dr.  Francis,  263. 

Solari,  Pietro,  230. 

Spargo,  John,  225. 

Sperry,  Prof.  E.  C.,  106. 

Spilman,  Miss  Emily  A.,  224. 

Starr,  E.  L.,  280. 

Steele,  Rufus,  127. 

Stella,  Dr.  Antonio,  186. 

Steward,  George  F.,  332. 

Stoica,  Captain,  186. 

Stone,  Melville  E.,  32. 

Stoll,  Prof.  E.,  106. 

Stryckmans,  Felix  J.,  205. 

Stuart,  Wilmer,  232. 

Stub,  Rev.  J.  A.,  186. 

Sullivan,  Denis,  124. 

Suter,  Herman,  254,  417. 

Suydam,  Henry,  248,  276,  327. 


107, 
353, 


Sweeney,  Charles  P.,  83. 
Swensen,  Lauritz  S.,  185. 
Swensen,  Magnius,  185. 
Swettenham,  Sir  Frederick,  299. 
Szlupas,  Doctor,  187. 


Tarbell,  Ida,  212,  262. 

Tarkington,  Booth,  225,  261,  262,  353. 

Tatlock,  Prof.  John  P.,  107,  131. 

Taylor,  Mrs.  Clara  Sears,  212,  217,  220. 

Taylor,  Graham,  Jr.,  375,  393. 

Thomas,  Llewellyn  R.,  277,  333. 

Thorne,  Van  Buren,  232. 

Tobenkin,  Elias,  263. 

Todd,  Capt.  David  W.,  251. 

Torrisen,  Oscar  M.,  186. 

Tozzi,  Capt.  Piero,  300. 

Train,  H.  Scott,  134. 

Tread  way,  Representative,  54,  61. 

Tuerk,  Lieut.  John,  275,  281,  282. 

Turner,  Prof.  F.  J.,  111. 

Tuttle,  Frank,  265. 

Tvrzicka,  Mrs.  Anna,  199. 

U 
Usher.  Roland  G.,  225. 


Vail,  William  L.,  305. 

Van  Noppen,  Lieut.  Leonard,  332. 

Verner,  S.  P.,  248,  372. 

Vezey,  H.  Curtis,  388. 

Voska,  Capt.  Emanuel,  418. 

W 

Walberg,  Carl,  159,  164 
Walcott,  Fred  C.,  107. 
Walker,  Mrs.  Susan  Hunter,  216. 
Wallen,  Theodore,  254. 
Walling,  Wm.  English,  225. 
Wranger,  Lieut.  Walter,  299,  301. 
Warren,  Waldo,  P.,  86. 
Watson,  Capt.  Mark,  287. 
Webster,  Henry  Kitchell,  261. 
Webster,  H.  T.,  134. 
466 


INDEX 


Wedda,  John,  186. 

Weeks,  George  F.,  811. 

Wells,  Capt.  Chester,  346. 

Welsh,  H.  Devitt,  134. 

West,  W.  M.,  106. 

Wheeler,  Miss  Gertrude  R.,  219-220. 

White,  J.  Andrew,  231. 

White,  William  Allen,  262. 

Whitehead,  Walter,  134. 

Whitehouse,  Mrs.  Norman  de  R.,  229, 

248,  276,  317-326. 

Whitehouse,  Mr.  Norman  de  R.,  230. 
Whitlock,  Brand,  312. 
Wile,  Fred  H.,  412. 
Wiley,  John  C.,  332. 
Williams,  T.  Walter,  232. 
Willing,  J.  Thompson,  134. 
Willoughby,  Charles,  83. 
Wilson,  Admiral,  291. 


Wilson,  E.  F.,  254. 
Wilson,  P.  W.,  232. 
Winters,  Robert,  380. 
Wister,  Owen,  261. 
Wojcieszak,  Miss  Wanda,  199. 
Woods,  Arthur,  247. 
Wooley,  Edward  Mott,  225. 
Woolley,  Clarence,  52. 
Wright,  Mrs.  Helen  S.,  220. 


Youngman,  Elmer,  270. 


Zethelius,  Olaf  P.,  198. 
Zook,  Prof.  George  F.,  132. 
Zorn,  Prof.  Otto  Manthey,  189. 


THE   END