George Creel on the Selling of the War (1920)

Back of the firing-line, back of armies and navies, back of the great supply-depots another 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....
We strove for the maintenance of our own morale and the Allied morale by every process of stimulation: every possible expedient was employed 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 nations 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 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 employ. 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 question 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-w'ill, the will-to-win, of a democracy depends upon the degree to which each one of all the people of that democracy can concentrate and consecrate 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....
. . . 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, coordinated the entire speaking activities of the nation, and assured 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 government departments and patriotic societies. A total of 1.438 drawings was used.
It issued an official daily newspaper. serving every department 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 prohibitive subscription price. subscribing to the amount of 377.6". Ad.
It organized a bureau of information for all persons who sought direction in volunteer war-work, in acquiring knowledge 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 Work 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 pictures. showing our social and industrial life. made our free institutions vivid to foreign peoples....

George Creel was the head of the government's Committee on Public Information during WWI