In exactly four minutes, American public opinion beginning in 1917 swung towards supporting United States’ involvement in World War I. And in exactly four minutes, a favorable disposition to the war effort on the part of the general public was maintained. The Four-Minute Men they were called.

World War I saw not only the first total mobilization of whole economies, it saw the first total mobilization of national propaganda machines to control information and engender national support for the respective countries involved, a herculean task when one considers the carnage of battles like Verdun. One week after America’s declaration of war in April, 1917, the Committee on Public Information (CPI) was created by a Woodrow Wilson executive order. Headed by newspaper editor, George Creel, the CPI created a robust apparatus to mobilize public opinion. As stated by Creel after the war in a report to Congress, the “Committee on Public Information made the decision that the three great agencies of appeal in the fight for public opinion were: The Written Word, the Spoken Word, and the Motion Picture.”

It was to be the Four-Minute Men who would largely fulfill the spoken word objective. The name itself referred to the speeches, each four minutes in length, and also hearkened back to the patriotic showing of Minute Men during the Revolutionary War. Primarily in movie theaters during intermissions (it took about four minutes to change movie reels), it is estimated this volunteer group of 75,000 speakers made over 750,000 speeches to more than 314 million people. They also made appearances in churches, synagogues, labor union and lodge halls, diffusing various propaganda messages from the big city to the small town.

The speakers, carefully screened to assess their good standing in the community as well as their oratorical skills, were recruited from the locale in which they would be speaking. Though mostly white males, there were also significant numbers of women and ethnic minorities who served. Immigrants at this time, many of them recent arrivals, made up about 17% of the total population of 100 million. Ethnic speakers could address many of these populations in their native tongues. Even school children were recruited. In 1918, over 200,000 schools participated in a competition to promote the Third Liberty Loan drive.

In a time before radio and television, this group was the media outlet. Though the particular messages were crafted by individuals, bulletins would be regularly sent from the central offices suggesting particular themes to touch upon and tactics to increase the effectiveness of the message. Here are a few excerpts from a bulletin dated May 22, 1917:

• Divide your speech carefully into certain divisions, say 15 seconds for final appeal; 45 seconds to describe the bond; 15 seconds for opening words, etc., etc.
• Conceive of your speech as a mosaic made up of five or six hundred words, each one of which has its function.
• Get your friends to criticize you pitilessly.
• Read all the papers every day, to find a new slogan, or a new phraseology, or a new idea to replace something you have in your speech.
• Cut out “Doing your bit.” “Business as usual.” “Your country needs you.” They are flat and no longer have any force or meaning.
• If you come across a new slogan, or a new argument, or a new story, or a new illustration, don’t fail to send it to the Committee. We need your help to make the Four-Minute Men the mightiest force for arousing patriotism in the United States.

One might, if one could peak into a contemporary advertising meeting, see much of the same logic being employed to create effective commercials.

Within the United States, there had been a general aversion to getting involved in this overseas conflict, especially one of such a barbarous nature. Pacifist organizations were active in opposing the war, notably the World Peace Society, Andrew Carnegie’s Endowment for International Peace, and the Women’s Peace Party (later to become the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)) founded by Jane Addams. The pacifist tendencies during America’s period of neutrality can also be seen in Wilson’s own slogan prior to the 1916 election:  “He kept us out of the war.” But with British propaganda doing a great job portraying the Germans as bloodthirsty, murderous Huns and internal organizations like the Four-Minute Men, public support for the war soon swept the nation once war was declared.

There was a popular song, a top-ten hit no less, during the period of neutrality titled “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier.” The fact that after war was declared, the last word in the title was often substituted for “slacker” shows how much public opinion changed. This was due in no small part to the organized efforts of the CPI and the Four-Minute Men, who jumped on ripe opportunities like this to “turn the American people into “one white-hot mass……with fraternity, devotion, courage, and deathless determination.” ”

About the Author: After departing Chicago sometime ago, I somehow ended up on a 15,000 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere southern Colorado teaching ranch kids. To me, every neat little historical factoid, twist, story I come across, usually by stumbling, is that washed and forgotten $20 bill in a pants pocket.

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