The Four Minute Men were a group of volunteers authorized by United States President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

to give four-minute speeches on topics given to them by the

Committee on Public Information The Committee on Public Information (1917–1919), also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States under the Wilson administration created to influence public opinion to support the ...

(CPI). In 1917–1918, over 750,000 speeches were given in 5,200 communities by over 75,000 accomplished orators, reaching about 400 million listeners. The topics dealt with the American war effort in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and were presented during the four minutes between reels changing in movie theaters across the country. The speeches were made to be four minutes so that they could be given at town meetings, restaurants, and other places that had an audience.

History

On April 6, 1917, the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

declared war on Germany. President Wilson was determined to rouse the public. Wilson established the first modern propaganda office, the

(CPI), headed by George Creel. Creel set out to systematically reach every person in the United States multiple times with patriotic information about how the individual could contribute to the war effort. The CPI also worked with the post office to censor seditious counter-propaganda. Creel set up divisions in his new agency to produce and distribute innumerable copies of pamphlets, newspaper releases, magazine advertisements, films, school campaigns, and the speeches of the Four Minute Men. The CPI created colorful posters that appeared in every store window, catching the attention of the passersby for a few seconds. Movie theaters were widely attended, and the CPI trained thousands of volunteer speakers to make patriotic appeals during the four-minute breaks needed to change reels. They also spoke at churches, lodges, fraternal organizations, labor unions, and even logging camps. 111-SC-16569 - NARA - 55193236

CPI Director George Creel boasted that in 18 months his 75,000 volunteers delivered over 7.5 million four-minute orations to over 300 million listeners, in a nation of 103 million people. The speakers attended training sessions through local universities, and were given pamphlets and speaking tips on a wide variety of topics, such as buying Liberty Bonds, registering for the draft, rationing food, recruiting unskilled workers for munitions jobs, and supporting Red Cross programs. Ethnic groups were reached in their languages.

Purpose

With many millions of

German Americans German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

Irish Americans Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

and

Scandinavian Americans Nordic and Scandinavian Americans are Americans of Scandinavian and/or Nordic ancestry, including Danish Americans (estimate: 1,453,897), Faroese Americans, Finnish Americans (estimate: 653,222), Greenlandic Americans, Icelandic Americans ...

in the United States, and poor rural Southerners with strong isolationist feelings, there was a strong need for a

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

campaign to stir support for the war. This effort had many unique challenges to meet to address the existing

political climate The political climate is the aggregate mood and opinions of a political society at a particular time. It is generally used to describe when the state of mood and opinion is changing or unstable. The phrase has origins from both ancient Greece and ...

. Wilson needed to speak directly to the fragmented and spread out audience in the United States. He had to address the country's self-perception to generate support for the war. The Four Minute Men provided an answer to these challenges. In addition, the Four Minute Men urged citizens to purchase Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps.

Addressing challenges

The Four Minute Men idea became a useful tool in the propaganda campaign because it addressed a specific rhetorical situation. One of the challenges of the effort was the fragmented audiences of the United States. Many different heritages were represented in the country, and President Wilson needed their support for the war. To address each group's specific needs, the director of the Four Minute Men, William McCormick Blair, delegated the duty of speaking to local men. Well known and respected community figures often volunteered for the Four Minute Men program. This gave the speeches a local voice. The Four Minute Men were given general topics and talking points to follow and rotated between theaters to help the speeches seem fresh, instead of generic propaganda. The speeches usually depicted Woodrow Wilson as a larger-than-life character and the Germans as less-than-human Huns.

Organization

The Four Minute Men were a division of the Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel. The Committee on Public Information appointed William McCormick Blair as director of the Four Minute Men. Blair appointed state chairmen of the Four Minute Men, who then would appoint a city or community chairman. Each of these appointments needed to be approved in Washington. The local chairman would then appoint a number of speakers to cover the theaters in the city or community for which he is responsible.

Notable Four Minute Men

Charles Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered ...

, a famous comedian *

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckler film, swashbu ...

* Louis Webster Gerhardt, attorney, Hazelton, Pennsylvania *

Alfred Gilbert Sir Alfred Gilbert (12 August 18544 November 1934) was an English sculpture, sculptor. He was born in London and studied sculpture under Joseph Boehm, Matthew Noble, Édouard Lantéri and Pierre-Jules Cavelier. His first work of importance wa ...

, an inventor, athlete, magician, toy-maker and businessman * Lambert Estes Gwinn, Four Minute Man from Covington, Tennessee * William S. Hart * Benjamin Newhall Johnson, Four Minute Man from

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest List of municipalities in Massachusetts, municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line ...

* Albert Dutton MacDade, Pennsylvania State Senator and Judge

Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas In Pennsylvania, the courts of common pleas are the trial courts of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania (the state court system). The courts of common pleas are the trial courts of general jurisdiction in the state. The name derives fr ...

( Delaware County) * DeForest H. Perkins, School Superintendent and future Grand Dragon of the Maine Ku Klux Klan *

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

* Augustus Post, automotive pioneer, founder of

American Automobile Association American Automobile Association (AAA) is a federation of motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a privately held not-for-profit national member association and service organization with over 60 million members in the United States and Cana ...

, champion balloonist and early aviator * Phebe Temperance Sutliff, president, Rockford College * Ellwood J. Turner, Pennsylvania State Representative from Delaware County (1925–1948), 119th Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (1939–1941) * Otto J. Zahn, a Southern California Four Minute Man * John Rustgard

References

;Bibliography *Cornebise, Alfred E. ''War as Advertised: the Four Minute Men and America's crusade, 1917-1918''. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984. *Cornwell, Elmer E. Jr. "Wilson, Creel, and the Presidency." ''The Public Opinion Quarterly'', Vol 23, No. 2, pages 189–202. ISSN 0033-362X *Creel, George. "Propaganda and Morale". ''The American Journal of Sociology'', Vol. 47, No. 3. (Nov., 1941), pages 340–351. ISSN 0002-9602 *Creel, George. ''How We Advertised America: The First Telling of the Amazing Story of the Committee on Public Information That Carried the Gospel of Americanism to Every Corner of the Globe Corner'' (1920) *Larson, Cedric, and James R. Mock. "The Lost Files of the Creel Committee". ''The Public Opinion Quarterly'', Vol. 3, No. 1. (Jan., 1939), pages 5–29. ISSN 0033-362X *Larson, Cedric, and James R. Mock. "The Four-Minute Men." ''The Quarterly Journal of Speech'': 97–112. ISSN 0033-5630 * Mastrangelo, Lisa. "World War I, public intellectuals, and the Four Minute Men: Convergent ideals of public speaking and civic participation." ''Rhetoric & Public Affairs'' 12#4 (2009): 607–633. *Oukrop, Carol. "The Four Minute Men Became National Network During World War I." ''Journalism Quarterly'': 632–637. ISSN 0196-3031 * Vaughn, Stephen L. ''Holding Fast the Inner Lines: Democracy, Nationalism, and the Committee on Public Information'' (2nd ed. 2011), a standard scholarly history

Primary sources

* Committee on public information, ''Complete Report of the Committee on Public Information: 1917, 1918, 1919'' (1920
online free
{{Authority control