The Activities of the Committee on Public Information
A 32-page Government Printing Office pamphlet in the War Information Series, February 1918, in which the Committee on Public Information reports on its first nine months.
What it is
A 32-page Government Printing Office pamphlet in the War Information Series, February 1918, in which the Committee on Public Information reports on its first nine months. It opens with Wilson's executive order of April 14, 1917 creating the committee, his note of approval, and George Creel's letter of January 7, 1918 asking to publish the report. Creel's figures: 30,000 newspapers supplied, 18,000,000 pamphlets in seven languages, 15,000 Four Minute Men, $30,000,000 in expected free ad space, all run by 250 paid staff. Then come the voluntary press censorship and its 18 requests, and a page on each division with its director, output, paid staff and spending: News, Civic and Educational Cooperation, Syndicate Features, Foreign Language Newspapers, the Official Bulletin, Women's War Work, Four Minute Men, Public Speaking, Pictures, Films, Pictorial Publicity, Advertising, the foreign services, and leaflets dropped by plane. Disbursement tables close it.
Why read it now
The format is the lesson: one page per unit, each naming its head, what it produced, how many paid staff it has and what it spent. A marketing department could use the same layout for a board report today. The operating model also holds: a small paid core of 250 people directing thousands of volunteer writers, artists and speakers, with separate services for rural papers, the foreign-language press and women's pages. That is audience segmentation plus partner distribution, which campaigns still run through creators and agencies. What has dated: every measure is output, copies printed and speakers enrolled, with no evidence of effect; current practice asks what changed in belief or behavior. Creel's promise of open, truthful publicity also sits next to a censorship regime, and historians judge the committee's campaigns as propaganda that fed hostility toward German Americans. Use: when you report a campaign, give each team's lead, output and cost on one page as this does, then add the outcome line it left out.
Passages worth keeping
It has only 250 paid employees, but it directs and coordinates the patriotic work of 5,000 volunteer writers and artists and 20,000 public speakers.
اللجنة تدير أعدادًا كبيرة من المتطوعين بفريق مدفوع صغير؛ القوة في التنسيق لا في حجم الفريق.
Always do I try to find out what the Germans are doing, and then I don't do it.
يعرّف كريل أسلوبه بالتضاد مع خصمه: يدرس ما يفعله الألمان ثم يتجنبه.
We do not argue or exhort or censure, but confine all activities to a plain, straightforward presentation of our aims, our purposes, and our ideals.
يقول كريل إن اللجنة لا تجادل ولا تعظ ولا تلوم، بل تعرض أهدافها كما هي؛ وهو وصف لم تلتزم به حملات اللجنة كلها.
The committee believes that public support is a matter of public understanding
تأييد الناس يأتي من فهمهم، فكلما عرفوا أكثر زاد دعمهم.
The Four Minute Men of the average town are the leading patriotic citizens of the community.
الخطباء المتطوعون في كل مدينة هم وجهاؤها، فتصل الرسالة من شخص يعرفه الجمهور ويثق به.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.