Public Opinion in War Time

In terms of rallying public opinion for the war effort, I felt that this editorial cartoon (The New York Times, September 29, 1918) perfectly depicted and represented what the United States was trying to achieve during the First World War. With the smoke in the distance representing the allied successes, Uncle Sam is shown loading additional artillery shells that represent the war bonds needed to fund the war. With the caption beneath the cartoon stating “One Good Shot Deserves Another” it is clearly asking the citizens of the United States for their help and to continue funding the war effort. The previous Liberty Loans can be seen as spent shells on the ground and Uncle Sam is holding the Fourth Loan in his hand that’s about to be loaded into the cannon. Just as this cartoon explains that the Liberty Loans are being used for a good cause, in the written assignment “Public Opinion in War Time,” the author goes to great lengths to explain that the Committee on Public Information is not trying to seek public opinion through tugging at American’s emotions or preaching messages of hate for them to act, but rather, trying to rally public opinion for the war by explaining the “fundamental necessities that compelled a peace-loving nation to take up arms to protect and preserve our liberties” (Creel, 186). Just as this cartoon is trying to demonstrate that the fight for liberty is an important one, the article’s author explains why “it was soon seen that we had to devise departments that would prepare matter for the rural press, for the religious press, for the labor press, for the magazines and so on…we had to gather together the essayists and the brilliant novelists of the land—it was a proposition of touching up the high lights—to lay before the people the truth” (188). “We want a public opinion that springs truth from the heart and soul—that has its root in the rich soil of truth. And this fight is going to win because it is a fight for the truth, because we have nothing to be ashamed of” (191). As the saying goes, the truth will set you free (with a little help from Uncle Sam’s artillery shells).

The CPI and the Four Minute Men

Charlie Chaplin, hoisted into the air on the arms of Douglas Fairbanks,
on the Treasury building on Wall Street during Third Liberty Loan Campaign in 1918.

The Four Minute Men were volunteering speakers that promoted community engagement for the way, like conserving food, drafting and buying Liberty Bonds. All in all, they gave some one million speeches at schools, churches, clubs and especially movie theaters. It was there they got their name, as they spoke in the four-minute break between film reels. Their speeches and rhetoric techniques were directed by the Committee on Public Information, CPI, through bulletins which provided instruction and inspirational material for speeches. (Brewer, Why America Fights, p 63)

Bulletin No. 39, included in our hand-out with examples of World War I propaganda, is titled Forth Liberty Loan and is one of those instruction manuals for the Four Minute Men. This one was to be used in the fall of 1918, just before the end of World War I in November of that same year.

The CPI must have realized the need for rhetoric instruction because of the fact that these speakers, who were important to the future of the war and the country, were volunteers and not necessarily good speakers. They needed to learn how to most effectively “carry to our audiences decision and action in buying Bonds.”

As guidance, the CPI had divided the so called For Minute Speech into four parts:

1. An opening to grab the attention and interest of the audience.
2. A body to present facts that will appeal to the rationality of the audience.
3. An emotional appeal to stir sentiment and make the audience want to act, want to buy Bonds.
4. An ending that summarizes the speech and appeals to the will of the audience to act, to actually buy Bonds.

The Four Minute Men were then to write their speeches with this outline in mind and fill each part with information and inspiration from the bulletin. The CPI stated crucial points for the speakers to remember, like not saying that America would save the world but that the Allies would or that clear and image-loaded language was to prefer. It also supplied forceful opening lines to catch the audience’s attention, and real-life stories of soldiers taken from official archives, to be used as examples to emotionally appeal to the audience.

What the CPI was trying to do through this publication was to secure the success of the Liberty Bond Campaigns. The agency knew that the more resonant the speakers were and the more unified their speeches, the more bonds would be sold in the end.

Advertising and World War I

When Woodrow Wilson was reelected in 1916 it was mainly because he campaigned to keep the US out of World War I. The public felt like the conflict in Europe was none of their concern and many therefore wanted US to stay out of it. That did not stop the government that eventually entered the war.

According to Stuart Ewen, the propaganda ministry, CPI, was created by the president with George Creel as the director. Creel’s purpose was to convince the public that war was essential and the right thing to do, but also to make the enemy seem as horrible as possible. Creel did not believe that the newspapers were convincing enough to do this alone but that “an extensive fabric of persuasion would have to be knit.” They therefore started to turn to several other forms of communication tools, including advertising.

If advertising could be used to sell products it could also be used to sell “political and social ideas,” many believed. The advertisement division of CPI under the leadership of William H Johns (president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies) therefore spread their message on advertisements and billboards across the country. They also tried to get space in the newspapers and as a result pressured them to supply free advertisement space. (Stuart Ewen)

By mixing words and images loaded with emotion, the adverts awoke sympathy and appealed to people around the country. They constructed a “language of images” created by skilled designers, illustrators and cartoonists.

As we can see in our handout, the Red Cross created an effective campaign together with the CPI, to raise the funds required by the war. Slogans such as “All you need is a heart and a dollar” and “The Greatest Mother in the World” were featured together with illustrations of pleading nurses and Madonna-like figures looking up towards the sky while embracing wounded soldiers. They simultaneously played on sympathy and associated with religious values. The advertisement “The Greatest Mother in the World” also emphasized that she cared about everyone in need, regardless of race and religion, which was an attempt to appeal to groups in society that did not have that much interest in the war.

Other CPI advertisements, some of which are included in our handout, encouraged the public to look out for German spies that could be listening in on their conversations, for soldiers to keep their mouth shut, and for people to report any suspicious activity to the government. They also promoted enlisting in the navy and buying Liberty Bonds. Uncle Sam is perhaps the best known example of advertising for recruitment with the famous slogan; “Uncle Sam Wants You!”

But it was not only the CPI advertisements that used the war; private companies soon realized the power of the patriotic message and began to use it in ads. For example, the advertising for American Hammered Piston Rings, American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the YMCA. They all related to the war in one way or another and emphasized values and sympathy linked with patriotic messages and colors.