Four Minute Men

The Four Minute Men will live in history as the most unique and one of the most effective agencies developed during the war for the stimulation of public opinion and the promotion of unity. The following letter, written by the President of the United States, may be cited as one of many deserved tributes from the heads of Government :

The White House, Washington, Novem'ber 29, 1918. To all the Four Minute Men of the Committee on Public Information:

I have read with real interest tlie repoi't of your activities, and I wish to express my sincere appreciation of tlie value to the Government of your effective and inspiring efforts. It is a remarkable record of patriotic accomplishment that an organization of 75,000 speakers should have carried on so extensive a work at a cost to the Government of little more than $100,000 for the 18-month period — less than $1 yearly on an individual basis. Each member of your organization, in receiving honorable discharge from the service, may justly feel a glow of proper pride in the part that he has played in holding fast the inner lines. May I say that I, personally, have always taken the deepest and most sympathetic interest in your work, and have noted, from time to time, the excellent results you have procured for the various departments of the Government. Now that this work has come to its conclusion and the name of the Four Minute Men (which I venture to hope will not be used henceforth by any similar organization) has become a part of the history of the great war, I would not willingly omit my heartfelt testimony to its great value to the country, and indeed to civilization as a whole, during our period of national trial and triumph. I shall always keep in memory the patriotic cooperation and assistance accorded me throughout this period and shall remain deeply and sincerely grateful to all who, like yourselves, have aided so nobly in the achievement of our aims. Cordinally and sincerely, yours,

WooDROw Wilson.

From first to last, fully 75,000 speakers were used. The number of speeches made were 755,190 and a fair estimate of audiences makes it certain that a total of 314,454,514 people were addressed.

The idea of the Four Minute Men was originated by Mr. Donald Ryerson, of Chicago, who made the first Four Minute speech in a Chicago theater. Two days after the formation of the Committee on Public Information, Mr. Ryerson came to Mr. Creel, in Washington, who saw instantly the possibilities of the plan and straightway proceeded to put it upon a national basis under Government supervision. Under the original arrangement this statement of policy was issued :

The , Four Minute Men is a. specialized publicity service giving four-minute talks by local volunteers, introduced by a standard introduction slide furnished by the Government, in the intermission at motion-picture theaters in accordance with a single standard plan throughout the country.

At this time the following form of slide was adopted :

0 MINUTE MEN 0 (Copyright, 1917. Trade-mark.)

(Insert name of speaker.)

will speak four minutes on a subject of national importance. He speaks under the authority of

The Committee on Public Information.

Geokge Ceeel, Chairman, Washington, D. C.

This same bulletin went on to define that all topics are of national importance connected with the war plans of the Government and are assigned by the department at Washington. Each campaign is of a stated length and is inaugurated by the delivery to the chairmen (1) of campaign instructiofis to themselves and (2) of a brief with a typical four-minute talk approved and released by the Committee on Public Information to be distributed to the speakers. The talks are prepared by the individual speaker on the basis of the policy* points of emphasis, lines of argument, and general information contained in this bulletin on each subject. The aim is to preserve individuality and forcefulness of expression and yet confine the message absolutely to the four-minute limit and within the policy limits of the bulletin in order that the character of the original message formulated in Washington may not be lost in transmission through the speaker.

The speakers in every case received their authority and appointment from the chairmen of the local branches of the organization, who, in turn, were appointed through the State chairman or direct from headquarters at Washington. Each local chairman was registered at once in Washington.

The original method of organizing a local branch was as follows: The written indorsement of three prominent citizens— bankers, professional, or business men — written on their own stationery in a prescribed official form was required for the nomination of a local chairman. These indorsements were forwarded to headquarters in Washington, together with the proper form of application for authority to form a local branch with the privilege of representing the Government, in which application the number of speakers available was stated, in order that material might be forwarded promptly in case the application was approved.

Early in June, 1917, Mr. Ryerson, who had previously received a commission in the United States Navy and had secured two months' furlough in order to establish the organization, resigned from the Four Minute Men in order to enter tho training school at Annapolis.

William McCormick Blair, of Chicago, became national director on June 16, and the work of organizing progressed swiftly. Mr. Blair appointed State chairmen immediately in a number of States, while the rest of the country was organized through the State councils of defense by writing directly to the governors of the various States, outlining the plan of organization and urging them to nominate State directors and to incorporate it in the work of their respective State councils.

The National Advisory Council was formed about this time, Mr. William H. TngersoU, of New York, becoming the first member. Prof. S. H. Clark and Samuel Hopkins Adams subsequently became members of the council, which in the fall of 1918 was greatly increased in membership.

The following is a complete list of bulletins issued from the original inception of the organization to the date of its official demobilization on December 24, 1918 :

Four Minute Men Bulletins, 1911-18. Bulletin No. Period. 1,2... 3,4... 5,6... 8,9,10 7A.... Universal Service by Selective Draft . First Liberty Loan Red Cross Organization Food Conservation Why We Are Fighting The Nation in Arms The Importance of Speed What Our Enemy Really Is Unmasking German Propaganda Onward to Victory Second Liberty Loan Food Pledge MaLutaining Morals and Morale Carrying the Message War Savings Stamps The Shipbuilder Eyes for the Navy , The Danger to Democracy Lincoln's Gettysburg Address The Income Tax Farm and Garden President WUson's Letter to Theaters Third Liberty Loan Organization Second Red Cross Campaign Danger to America Second War Savings Campaign The Meaning of America

Mobilizing America's Man Power. . . . Where Did You Get Your Facts? ....

Certificates to Theater Members Register Four Minute Singing Fourth Liberty Loan Food Program for 1919 Fire Prevention United War Work Campaign Red Cross Home Service What Have We Won? Red Cross Christmas Roll Call A Tribute to the Allies

May 12-21, 1917. May 22-June 15, 1917. June 18-25, 1917.

July 1-14, 1917. July 23-Aug. 5, 1917. Aug. 6-26, 1917. Aug. 19-26, 1917. Aug. 27-Sept. 23, 1917. Aug. 27-Sept. 23, 1917 (supplementarytopic). Sept. 24-Oct. 27, 1917. Oct. 8-28, 1917. Oct. 29-Nov. 4, 1917. Nov. 12-25, 1917. Nov. 26-Dec. 22, 1917. Jan. 2-19, 1918. Jan. 28-Feb. 9, 1918. Feb. 11-16, 1918. Feb. 18-Mar. 10, 1918. Feb. 12, 1918. Mar. 11-16, 1918. Mar. 25-30, 1918. Mar. 31-Apr. 5, 1918. Apr. 6-May 4, 1918. (Republished Apr. 23, 1918.) May 13-25, 1918. May 27-June 12, 1918. June 24-28, 1918. June 29-Julv 27, 1918. July 29- Aug. 17, 1918. Aug. 26-Sept. 7, 1918. Sept. 9-14, 1918. Sept. 5-12, 1918. For general use. Sept. 28-Oct. 19, 1918. Changed to Dec. 1-7; finally canceled.. Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 1918. Nov. 3-18, 1918. Dec. 7, 1918. Dec. 8-14, 1918. Dec. 15-23, 1918. Dec. 24, 1918.

These bulletins were issued to the field workers and to associated individuals and official organizations in the following^^ quantities :

EEPOKT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INl'OKMATION. Statement of literature issued to tJie field. state.

Alabama Alaska: Chairmen Lodges Arizona Arkansas California Canal Zone Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia. . Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey Sept. 1917. 370 560 300 305 425 165 100 370 5 275 620 685 540

340 100 200 100 875 550 355 120 400 90 50 120 580

Mar. 31, 1918. 675 540 1,815 2,335 1,890 2,275 1,945 1,280 1,135 1,250 2,120 1,275 2,880 2, 875 1,395 Nov. 1, 1918. 2,806 447 68 1,241 2,630 927 1,252 125 2,155 677 50 689 7,668 1,936 3,140 3,093 1,376 733 1,221

898 1,225 1,879 2,027 3, 280 4,203 1,163 2,622

400 2,197 State. Nevada New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Porto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia "Washington West Virginia "Wisconsin "Wyoming Colleges San Francisco speakers Current list

New Hampshiregrange Maryland grange. . Vermont speakers . Connecticut grange Vermont grange. . .

Total. Sept. 15, 1917. ,180 380 450 100 835 50 100 180 235 775 455 15,675 Mar. 31, 1918. 225 255 4,280 725 1,450 2,170 1,375 760 6,530 15 270 540 470 405 1,245 1,384 780 1,610 436 58, 390 Nov. 1, 1918. 5,784 1,151 1,875 3,007 1,424 9,057 1,474 1,600 ■ 482 2,100 2,l25 1,425 1,956 4,536 97, 340

Aoproximate number of bulletins required on Nov. 23, 1918, 101,000.

Army Bulletins

At the request of the War Department bulletins similar to those published for the use of Four Minute Men were produced by national headquarters to be used by company commanders in many cantonments throughout the country in preparing short talks to their men on the causes and issues of the war.

The following campaigns of the kind were conducted to the complete satisfaction of the War Department as expressed in its official report on the subject:

1. Why We Are Fighting. January 2, 1918.

2. Insurance for Soldiers and Sailors. February 1, 1918.

3. Back of the Trenches. April 6, 1918.

Early in August the scope of the work was extended to reach other audiences besides those in motion-picture theaters. A church department of the Four Minute Men was organized in many of the local branches to present four-minute speeches in churches, synagogues, and Sunday schools. The first church department was organized in New York City.

Other Meetings

National arrangements had already been made to have speakers appear at the meetings of lodges, fraternal organizations, and labor unions and this work progressed swiftly. In most cases these speakers were selected from the membership of the organizations to whom they spoke.

Under the authority of State lecturers of granges, four-minute messages based upon the official bulletins were given also at all meetings of the granges- in many States.

The work was next extended to reach the lumber camps of the country, some 500 organizations being formed in such communities. The work was also extended to cover Indian reservations.

women's divisions.

About this time some of the States, acting under authority from headquarters, organized women's divisions to bring the messages of the Government to audiences at matinee performances in the motion-picture theaters, and to 'the memj bers of women's clubs, and other similar organizations.

Junior Four Minute Men

The Junior Four Minute Men movement commenced with a Junior War-Savings Stamps bulletin published for the State of Minnesota. Eesults were such that in March, 1918, a Junior War-Savings Stamps campaign was held for the rest of the country. Over a million and a half copies of the bulletin published for this campaign were sent out through the various State war-savings stamps committees, which distributed them to the schools.

The general plan was for the teacher to explain the subject, using the bulletin as a textbook, and the children then wrote their speeches and submitted them to the teacher or principal. The best were selected and delivered as speeches or were read. In a few cases extemporaneous talks were given.

There were many different ways of conducting these contests. Sometimes they were considered as a regular part of the school work and were held in the classroom with no outsiders present, but more often they were made special events, the entire school, together with parents and other visitors, being present.

Both boys and girls were eligible and the winners were given an official certificate from the Government, commissioning them as Four Minute speakers upon the specified topic of the contest.

Following the war savings stamps contest came the third Liberty loan contest of April 6 to May 4, 1917. A million copies of this bulletin were published and were sent directly to the schools from the stencils of the United States Bureau of Education in Washington. About 200,000 schools in all parts of the country were reached in this way. The same plan of distribution was used for the junior fourth Liberty loan contest and for the junior Eed Cross Christmas roll call, and these two bulletins were published in connection with the School Service Bulletin which was then going out from the committee twice monthly to all schools on this list.

Theater Members

On September 9 a special bulletin (No. 36) was published, governing the presentation of certificates to the proper representatives of the motion-picture theaters in recognition of the patriotic service of granting to the Four Minute Men the exclusive priAdlege of speaking to their audiences, creating them theater members of the organization.

Four-minute Singing

Prior to Mr. Blair's leaving, another innovation had been inaugurated in the decision to add four-minute singing to the work of the division. A bulletin (No. 38) of specially prepared songs was published on September 10 for general use, and instructions were issued to the chairmen to appoint song leaders to encourage the audiences of the motion-picture theaters in community singing.

College Four Minute Men

In September also college Four Minute Men were organized, under instructors acting as chairmen, to study the regular Four Minute Men bulletins and practice speaking upon the subjects thereof, each student being required to deliver at least one four-minute speech to the student body during the semester in addition to securing satisfactory credits, in order to qualify as a Four Minute Man. This work was organized in 163 colleges.

Junior Bulletins

A further development of the original field was the introduction of four-minute speaking contests in schools to decide which of the pupils were worthy to become Junior Four Minute Men on specific topics presented in bulletins similar to those used by the senior speakers.

This work was conducted on a national scale and was participated in by many millions of American school children in connection with each of the following four campaigns:

Junior Four Minute Men Contests

1. War Savings Contest. March 11, 1918.

2. Third Liberty Loan Contest.^ April 6-May 4, 1918.

3. Fourth Liberty Loan Contest. September 28-October 19, 1918.

4. Eed Cross Christmas Eoll Call. December 2-20, 1918.

News Bulletins

To keep the thousands of separate organizations in touch with each other and with developments of the actual application of the work, six News Bulletins were published at intervals of about three months.

Publicity

In addition to the messages brought to the people by means of the spoken word, the Four Minute Men secured for the Government pul lictify \v«itih at least three- (piartors of a Hiilliou dollars.

Articles containing the pith of each bulletin were sent out from headquarters and released through local chairmen and publicity managers in thousands of communities for use in the local papers.

The average number of press clippings received at headquarters from a single clipping bureau, covering only the larger newspapers of the country, was 873 a month, or more than 15,000 during the 18-month life of the organization.

These clippings averaged certainly not less than 60 lines each, totaling 900,000 lines, which at a low rate for this type of publicity, if purchased, would have cost $225,000.

Hundreds of newspapers mailed to headquarters from the smaller towns indicate that much Targer space was consistently devoted to the Government messages in these places, while during the ban on public meetings due to the influenza epidemic newspapers in all parts of the country devoted sufficient space to carry daily four-minute messages prepared for them by members of the organization.

It is extremely conservative to estimate the total value of all this publicity at $750,000.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS,

Exact reports, covering approximately one-half of the full activities of the organization, give a total of 505,190 speeches made to audiences totaling 202,454,514 people. This total does not cover the six campaigns from October 27, 1918, to the closing date of December 24, nor does it include the first campaigns from May 22 to October 27, 1917. At a very reasonable estimate, these first campaigns added 40,- 000,000 to the total audience reached and not less than 70,000 to the number of speeches delivered, while the final six campaigns added certainly not less than 72,000,000 to the total audience and 180,000 to the number of speeches. Adding these conservative estimates to the above incomplete reports, the following results are shown:

Number of speeches given 755, 190

Total audience 314,454,514

A very reasonable allowance for the considerable number of communities from which incomplete or no reports were received justifies an estimate of final totals of a million speeches heard by four hundred million individuals during the 18-month life of the organization — an average of about 28,000 speeches, reaching more than 11,000,000 people, during each of the 36 distinct campaigns covered by the 46 bulletins.

Costs. Official Expenditt.tees

The amounts expended from presidential and congressional appropriations on behalf of the Four Minute Men from the commencement of the work in 1917 to the date of disbanding in December, 1918, were as follows :

July, 1917- June, 1918. July-Dec, 1918. Totals. S24,033.04 29,107.08 7, 300. 68 4,942.09 5,856.90 .?18, 711.96 7,344.82 $42, 745. 00 Printing 36,451.88 Slides 7, 300. 68 Traveling 1,000.00 3,258.55 5, 942. 09 General 9 115.45 Total 71,239.77 30,315.33 101,555.10

(July to December, 1918, figures partly estimated, as business division is unable to give figures after September 30, 1918. Old fiscal year figures subject to change, as bills are still coming in.)

Conteibuted Expenditures

In addition to the foregoing, large sums have been expended from July, 1917, to December, 1918, from private sources and public subscriptions in the maintenance of the offices of State directors and local chairmen, and by the individual speakers in their travels to and from places of speaking and in their incidental expenses. These expenses have been recorded exactly wherever possible, and in other cases have been estimated very carefully from accurate data.

Actual expenses of State director's offices $177, 090

Expenses of local chairmen's offices ; estimated at $10 monthly for the known average number of chairmen

(.4,422 averaged over the entire 18-month period) 795,960

Expenses of individual speakers, averaging 10 speakers to the chairman and allowing for each speaker $2 monthly for all traveling and incidental expenses 1, 591, 920

Total of contributed expenses 2, 564, 970

Thus the estimated amounts expended from voluntary contributions were more than 25 times the expenditures from the official appropriations.

Summary

It is impossible to set an adequate monetary valuation upon services contributed so graciously and so patriotically as were those of all the Four Minute Men, the motion-picture theaters, newspapers, churches, granges, lodges, labor unions, and other agencies which have furthered this work. The following attempt is made merely with a view to visualizing in some concrete and tangible form the material value of this work in relation to the actual cost thereof to the Government.

It would not be reasonable to set a lower valuation than $4 on the delivery of a four-minute speech, requiring the most painstaking and exact preparation and unusual skill in condensation and forcefulness of delivery. Indeed, this sum is ridiculously small, but because of its numerical appropriateness let it be taken as a basis of valuation, in addition, of course, to the actual expenses of the speakers.

Not with any suggestion of undervaluing the inestimable cooperation of the theaters and other places in which speeches were delivered, but rather, with a view to the most thorough conservatism, we will estimate a " rental value " for the delivery of each speech at one-half the speakers' rate.

The expenses of the various offices and individuals on the number of speeches, and also on the value of publicity generously contributed by the press, have been recorded above. A summary of all these items gives the following estimated valuation :

Official expenditures (headquarters) $101,555.10

Contributed expenditures -— 2, 564, 970. 00

One million speeches at $4 each 4, 000, 000. 00

" Rent " of theaters, etc., to deliver above 2, 000, 000. 00

Speeches (331) of traveling spealiers 8,275.00

Publicity contributed by press 750, 000. 00

Grand total - 9, 424, 800. 10

Thus it appears that the investment of a sum of little more than $100,000 in this war-emergency agency has procured for the Government services and patriotic contributions to a conservatively estimated total of nearly 95 times as much.

In the fall of 1918 Mr. Blair entered an officers' training camp, and his place was taken by Mr. William H. IngersoU, a member of the Advisory Council since 1917.