A Few Minutes for a Change
"Make the world safe for democracy! Hold fast the lines at home!"
The lines that needed to be held in America during the first world war, were those that the "Four- Minute Men" outlined for American citizens. These men volunteered for a career other than their elite own to protect and serve their government. Their job as a Four-Minute Man was to maintain home-front support for the military involved is this war. One hundred, fifty thousand, of these men traveled around their towns preaching about what needed to be said and done to enable a successful war. They strongly advised that the people should not allow anyone to tell stories of the war, and if they did keep a close eye on them because they may even be suspicious. After doing this the "right thing" to do was to send the names and any other information of these disobediant people to Washington. The Four-Minute man were only a piece of an organization called the CPI who's goal was to mobilize and channel "public opinion."
posted by Maureen Lacossiere at 1:27 PM
2 Comments:
Why did these men participate? Were they paid? Forced? Volunteers? What does this say about the popularity of the war?
Why did these speeches work so well what was it about these men or their messages that made them so effective? Who wrote the speeches?
It is interesting how the Four Minute Men could rouse up such optimism and demand for war bonds. Just with the CPI's suggestions for speeches the Four Minute Men were able to sell the war on behalf of these guidelines. I'm curious to see how that would work today.
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