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The 'Committee on Public Information', also known as the 'CPI' and the 'Creel Committee', was intended to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American intervention in World War I. It was established under President Woodrow Wilson as an independent agency by Executive order 2594, April 13, 1917. The committee consisted of George Creel (Chairman) and Secretaries of State (Robert Lansing), War (Lindley M. Garrison), and the Navy (Josephus Daniels) as ''ex officio'' members.

Contents

Purpose

Quotations

Notes

External link

Purpose

The purpose of the CPI was to influence American public opinion toward supporting U.S. intervention in World War I via a vigorous propaganda campaign. Among those who participated in it were Wilson advisers Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, the latter of whom had remarked that "the essence of democratic society" was the "engineering of consent", by which propaganda was the necessary method for democracies to promote and garner support for policy. Many have commented that the CPI laid the groundwork for the public relations (PR) industry.
The CPI at first used material that was based on fact, but spun it to present an upbeat picture of the American war effort. Very quickly, however, the CPI began churning out raw propaganda picturing Germans as evil monsters. Hollywood movie makers joined in on the propaganda by making movies such as ''The Claws of the Hun'', ''The Prussian Cur'', ''To Hell With The Kaiser'', and ''The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin''. These titles illustrated the message the CPI tried to convey.
This raw propaganda included complete fabrications, such as images and stories of German soldiers killing babies and hoisting them on bayonets. Fabricating stories about attrocities towards babies would again be used to sway sentiment in the follow-up to the Gulf War.
CPI pamphlets were created and warned citizens to be on the lookout for German spies. Dozens of "patriotic organizations," with names like the American Protective League and the American Defense Society, sprang up. These groups spied, tapped telephones, and opened mail in an effort to ferret out "spies and traitors." The targets of these groups was anyone who called for peace, questioned the Allies' progress, or criticized the government's policies. They were particularly hard on German Americans, some of whom lost their jobs, and were publicly humiliated by being forced to kiss the American flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or buy war bonds.
The committee used newsprint, radio, telegraph, cable and movies to broadcast its message. There was a volunteer services corps, called the Four-minute men whose 75,000 members spoke around the country. The Four-minute men worked in 5,200 communities and gave 755,190 speeches. Information War American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control since 9-11, , Nancy, Snow, Seven Stories Press, 2003, ISBN 1-58322-557-9 p. 52 During its lifetime, the organization had over twenty bureaus and divisions, with commissioner's offices in nine foreign countries. Image Makers: Advertising, Public Relations, and the Ethos of Advocacy, , Robert, Jackall, University of Chicago Press, 2003, ISBN 0-226-38917-0 p. 14 In addition to the ''Four-minute men'' both a Films Division and a News Division were established to help get out the war message. What was missing, Creel saw, was a way to reach those Americans who might not read newspapers, attend meetings or watch movies. For this task, Creel created the 'Division of Pictorial Publicity'^[1].
Charles Dana Gibson was America's most popular illustrator - and an ardent supporter of the war. When Creel asked him to assemble a group of artists to help design posters for the government, Gibson was more than eager to help. Famous illustrators such as James Montgomery Flagg, Joseph Pennell and N. C. Wyeth were brought together to produce some of World War I's most lasting images.
Committee work was curtailed after July 1, 1918. Domestic activities stopped after the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. Foreign operations ended June 30, 1919. The CPI was abolished by executive order 3154 on August 21, 1919.

Quotations

Creel urged Wilson to create a government agency to coordinate:

Notes

1.

External link

★ Records of the Committee on Public Information