Foreign Press Bureau

At the outset it was seen that wireless and the cables, even used to the utmost, could not meet our foreign needs. It was not enough to give the world the daily news of America's war effort, our military progress, and the official declarations and expositions with respect to our war aims and determinations. There were lies of long standing that had to be met and defeated — lies that attacked America as " dollar mad,'' that maligned' our free institutions, that denied our liberty and our justice. What was needed were short articles descriptive of our development as a Nation and a people; our social and industrial progress, our schools, our laws, our treatment of workers, women- and children ; a mail service, in fact, that could be taken by our foreign representatives, translated, rewritten if necessary, and pushed into the foreign press to the largest possible extent. ' Mr. Ernest Poole, the author, one of the first men to volunteer his whole services to the committee, was given charge of this new undertaking, and, with the assistance of Mr. Paul Kennaday, he gathered about him a volunteer staff of the most brilliant men and women writers ever assembled in one group for a common service.

One feature that would have justified the work had it stood alone was a series of weekly letters by such well-known authors as Owen Wister, Booth Tarkington, Gertrude Atherton, William Shepherd, Edward Plungerford, Ellis Parker Butler, Henry Kitchell Webster, Will Payne, Mary Shipman Andrews, Anne O'Hagan Shinn, Walter Prichard Eaton, and Ernest Poole. Other distinguished writers in constant service were William Dean Howells, Ida Tarbell, Wallace Irwin, Meredith Nicholson, Fannie Hurst, Edna Ferber, Samuel Merwin, and William Allen White.

In describing war aims and national activities, we took material from several hundred daily newspapers and weekly and monthly magazines from all sections of the United States, giving all shades of opinion. Included in these were a large number of trade journals and special magazines covering the fields of finance, agriculture, labor, education, religion, medicine, etc. We also drew largely from State and Federal Government bulletins and reports, and reports of private organizations.

This part of our service was based on statements of the President, of the Secretary of State and of other Government officials, and the spoken and written comment from newspapers and magazines, also from prominent citizens and organizations throughout the country.

About one-half of our service consisted of news and feature articles, Government bulletins, etc., describing the activities of the Army and Navy — war preparations of all kinds, the recruiting of volunteers, the method and operation of the selective draft, the work in the cantonments, the going of our troops to France, and the many increasing activities there. Also the making of munitions, the building of ships, the vast work of the United States Navy, and the rapidly deepening spirit all over the United States of unity and determination in the prosecution of the war.

In addition we dealt with various fields of activities, such as agriculture and food conservation, industry and finance, labor, education, religion and medicine, in relation to the work of the war and the growth of our democracy. These articles were a means of reaching a wider public abroad — for owing to the lack of paper the foreign newspapers were greatly diminished in size, and although a large amount of our material did succeed in gaining a place in their columns, we felt it urgent to go further, and by sending many special articles and getting them published in the special journals and magazines of each country we gradually widened our circle of readers. Following are brief reports of the work in each of these special fields :

Food^ fuel^ and textiles. — In this field our aim was to emphasize the position of the United States as the greatest source of the world's reserve supplies of food, fuel, and textiles, and to show this country's determination to keep the allied fighting forces and civilian populations provided with the necessities of life. We emphasized throughout the patriotism, self-sacrifice, and good will toward allied nations among the people of the United States as expressed in food and fuel production and conservation. especially written for us by well-known bankers and economists in this country.

Labor. — In this field it was our purpose to describe the warm support of the war by the labor elements in this coun try. We used largely the reports and statements of Government bodies dealing with labor, as Avell as those of the American Federation of Labor and various State and municipal bodies belonging to the federation. We ran statements of prominent labor leaders, and published articles describing labor activities in shipyards and other centers where w^ar work was carried on. We gave the workers' and the employers' side, and showed the new relations and mutual understandings betW'Cen employer and employed, w^hich in many places were built up during the work of the war.

Religion. — In this field we showed the churches of all denominations rallying to the support of the war. We made it a special point to answ^er in Catholic countries abroad the German false allegations that in this country the Catholic church was being persecuted by the Government and was hostile to the war. We ran statements by prominent men both in the Catholic and Protestant churches, and also by leaders of the Jewish religion. We described war activities of the churches, and ran largely extracts from sermons setting forth the ideals and war aims of this Nation.

Department of medicine. — In this field we described both in popular and in more technical articles the activities of the medical profession in the war. We used largely the reports and statements from the Surgeon General's Office, also from the Red Cross, and from many non- Government bodies having to do not only with strictly military work, but also with the public health. In these ways we showed various advances in medicine and surgery in this country during the w^ar, and also in the general movement of safeguarding and promoting public health as an essential part of our evergrowing democracy.

Womeri's activities. — In this field we described the countless varied activities of women in support of the war. We also described the changing status of women as a result of the war, laying stress on the success with which they replaced men in industries.

^fecial countries. — Also on the staff, or connected with the division as volunteer helpers from outside, were men with a special knowledge of England, France, Italy, Eussia, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Serbia, Spain, and Latin American countries. It was their work to write or edit supplementary material of special interest to each country.

Our editor here for Italy could write colloquial Italian and had a good working knowledge of the principal newspapers in Italy. He wrote for such papers special news letters, which were sent by mail or cable, describing activities of Italians in this country, their support of the war, etc.; also editorial opinion here as it concerned our relations with Italy and the part that country played in the war ; messages from administration officials here on Italian operations and comment from United States public men on Italian problems and events; also statements by various well-known Italians who visited this country during the war. The various official missions from Italy were in constant touch with this office; we supplemented the official programs arranged by other organizations, bringing the visitors into touch with people they desired to meet, getting publicity for them in various ways, and furnishing them with special material for use after their return to Europe. In this connection we instituted the plan for having a ship christened the Piave and for making the event an occasion for the exchange of official and popular expressions of esteem between the Governments of Italy and of the United States.

More or less along these lines special articles were also sent to England, France, and Spain in large numbers, being written or edited either here or by volunteer helpers from outside. Similar work was done for Russia whenever that was possible, meeting Bolshevist and German statements against us by articles describing true conditions in this country, our democracy at home and our purpose in the war, as well as the widespread friendliness here at first toward the Russian revolution and the willingness to support any effort which gave, in our opinion, hope of a real and lasting practical democracy there.

For Austria and Germany articles were obtained from prominent German- Americans here loyal to this country and making an appeal to the people of Germany and Austria to throw off their old rulers and begin to reestablish themselves in the good opinion of the Avorld. Such articles made it plain that the warfare conducted by the German and Austrian Governments had made these countries hated, not only by native Americans but by those of German birth. In this connection we also ran various articles exposing German methods of propaganda.

For the Scandinavian countries and Holland Mr. Poole's service worked in close cooperation with Mr. Bjorkman. As a result it soon became impossible to pick up a Scandinavian publication of any kind without finding references to America, indicating an eager desire to understand what this country stands for and what it intends to do hereafter.

It was through Sweden, among others, that some of our material directed to the Germans was sent after the signing of the armistice. We received from our representative there the following comment on this material.

The appeal of Dr. Groszmann to his fellow countrymen in Germany was the best piece of propaganda work that has come over from the United States, in my opinion. Why can not we have more of the same kind of stuf¥? It was translated into Danish by us and distributed to the new.spapers. It was very long, but in a week that was crowded with the most important news that has yet taken place ; the Dagens Nybeder used It in full on two successive days.

- The newspapers and magazines of the various countries were furnished with photographs, cuts, or mats, as their mechanical equipment demanded. In addition about 750 wooden easels were made, each carrying 12 pictures. These easels were distributed by the resident commissioners and the pictures were changed weekly.

The distribution of pamphlets was made by mail or direct delivery. Important utterances of the President and documents prepared in each country with a view to answering local questions were printed locally in numbers running from five to thirty thousand. These were distributed through selected mediums obtained by cooperation with American, British, French, and Italian commercial and government organizations in each country.

The American reading rooms opened by resident commissioners received their supplies from the Foreign Press Bureau. Lectures made in the different countries by nationals of those countries were also based on material furnished by the bureaus. Data regarding the United States, including standard magazines, books, and periodicals, were furnished to public and private bodies. Schools and public libraries were furnished with American news]iapers and periodicals and in some cases particularly desirable books relating to public questions.

The Foreign Press Bureau, in conjunction with the Export Division, devoted itself to the preparation of particular pamphlet and news material for South America. It furnished the headquarters in the different countries with posters from all the branches of the Government devoted to war work and aided the bureaus in forwarding campaigns for war savings stamps, Liberty loan, and Red Cross, and other activities in each of their territories. It arranged for the publication in all- magazines in the United States having foreign circulation, for such articles and editorials indicating our attitude toward world questions, h „ Pictorial service. — This service grew up in response to increased demands from our agents in foreign countries. It provided each week photographs, cuts, and mats to illustrate our articles, photographs to the number of 1,500 per week for display upon easels in shop windows, and some 60,000 large news pictorials to be placed in the many thousands of shop windows in foreign countries which were available for our use. To a large extent, space in these windows was secured for the committee's representatives by the cooperation of American exporters through their agents abroad, especially in Latin- American countries. The pictorial service also distributed widely the Avar posters of this country and millions of picture post-cards showing forth our war activities. The window hangers were sent out in sets of six each week with captions in various languages, such as English, French, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch. l!Fnimprinted display sheets were sent to Russia, China, Japan, Korea, some parts of India, etc. For the Oriental countries a special version was printed, with a wide margin on the right hand side, thus allowing the space necessary for imprinting the languages of the country receiving them. With all unimprinted material either English printed samples or English captions were inclosed. The output was divided as follows :

Photographs (specially captioned) : Average weekly shipment 1, 500 Countries receivings 35

Out and mat service (captions pasted on cuts and mats) : Average weekly shipment — -

Cuts (coarse screen) 179 Cuts (fine screen) 54 Mats 307 Countries receiving — Cuts (coarse screen) 16 Cuts (fine screen) 11 Mats 10

Window display hangers (this covered service both for foreign agents and for export work, 42 per cent was charged to export) :

Weekly shipment (60,000 prints) — Subjects per week 6 Languages 9

Specially unimprinted (for Russia, China, Japan) 2

Countries receiving 52

The countries receiving photographs, mats, cuts, and window hangers, and the number of such received in each case is shown in the following table :

Weekly distribution of pictorial material. Countries. Photos. Cuts. Mats. Windowdisplay sets of 6. Africa Argentina SO 50 40 300 277 200 Australasia Brazil Canada Canary Islands Chile 50 40 50 35 300 200 China, Peking

China, Shanghai Colombia Cook Islands Costa Rica Cuba Denmark Dominican Republic England

50 50 35 25

3 12 France French Indo-China

Greece Guam British Guiana Haiti Holland Honduras India British East Indies Weekly distribution of pictorial material — Continued.

Countries. Photos. Cuts. Mats. Window display sets of 6. British West Indies Italy 60 40 12 6 1,050 Japan Malta '. 1,000 Newfoundland 30 25 40 30 100 35 25 35 30 30 20 Nicaragua Norway Panama 10 30 15 20 12 10 Peru Philippines 1,730 Porto Rico Portugal Russia:

Salvador Santo D omingo Samoa Scotland Spain Society Islands Sweden

45 35 20 15 6 10 12 3 Switzerland United States i 1,500 Cisneros Total 1,361 11,536 ' For export houses.

Export service. — Through various organizations of United States exporters to foreign countries we established a special service beginning with Latin America and finally taldng in the entire world. Our articles were printed regularly in several large export journals, together with our photographs. From our articles we also made, in various languages, brief inserts telling of war aims and activities, to be inclosed with business catalogues and also to be sent in tens of thousands of letters sent out Aveekly from the United States. In addition, window displays were arranged with the pictorial service as mentioned above. By this meatus 6SD o 1 llie" 'I oi S|,« correspondents of American manufacturers and exporters were used for the display of our illustrated news pictorials. In obtaining distribution means, the confidential lists of all the great sociological, ethical, religious, and commercial interests were used.

Besides the accredited commissioners, the Bureau of Latin American Affairs sent pamphlet and news material, pictures, cuts, mats, and the pictorial news service to a large number of volunteer distributors throughout Mexico and Central and South America.

Thus the Committee on Public Information was conducting throughout the world a telegraphic, wireless, cable, and mail news service of a most thorough character to practically every newspaper and periodical. It developed every medium possible for the distribution of literature and the display of motion and still photographs and pictorial matter. It became better known in foreign countries as an official information medium of the United States Government than it is known in the United States. Its news was gladly accepted y''^^J^ everywhere, and the entire attitude of the press and public '" toward this organization as the official mouthpiece of the United States Government was most sympathetic and kind. Extent of w^e.— The press material of the Poole bureau, beginning with a weekly service of about 30,000 words and ^ running as high as 80,000 in English and 20,000 in Spanish, was sent regularly to IT foreign commissioners of the committee, to 22 diplomatic and consular representatives in countries where there weue no committee commissioners, to 10 United States citizens abroad cooperating as agents of the committee, to the British ministry of labor, and to 18 accredited correspondents in this country of foreign newspapers. Close touch was maintained with all these commissioners and ag'ents through letters sent out regularly once a I wee]^ and through frequent cables. Advised through such correspondence of the openings in each country for articles along various lines, the service to each country became more and more specialized as the work continued. We were thus enabled, also, to serve as a clearing house for methods of publicity that had been tried with success in each country, as the distribution of quantities of small American flags, buttons carrying the flags of the United States and those of our Allies, maps of Europe for window exhibition showing the location of the American forces on the western front, sets of American band music, American newspapers, magazines, and books for the equipment of small reading rooms in connection Avith our foreign offices.

The extent to which our press material was printed in foreign newspapers and magazines week after week was remarkable, testifying at once to the new interest of the world in things American and to the ability with which this office was able to meet this demand w^ith newspaper and magazine material prepared by a corps of experienced writers on our staff and by a large number of volunteers who generously and repeatedly responded to our appeals for articles on special subjects.

Reports coming to this office showed that in Spain and in parts of South America up to 90 per cent of our material was actually used.

In Eussia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and China, much less of quv press material actually found its way into print. This was due in part to the time required for the delivering of mails to these distant parts and to the irregularity of mail service. But in Australia and New Zealand our material, as it was sent to newspapers had the noticeable effect, it was reported to us, of supplying editors with the basis for favorable editorial comment and for a number of articles on this country's part in the war. The photographs and the window hangers were extensively used in China and Eussia. In the Philippines they were distributed weekly from our headquarters in Manila to over 700 towns. Upon request we also sent to China for exhibits in schools 15 complete sets of photographs of 53 of the universities and colleges of the United States.

Europe was, of course, our primary and our most important field and here the committee had, in most of thb principal countries, its own offices and the machinery for making the best use of what was sent from this bureau. In England our material was used extensively. We, not only secured a large amount of space in the London and other big dailies but our material appeared regularly throughout Scotland and Ireland and in hundreds of the smaller English papers due to arrangements made for syndicating by our representatives and to the splendid cooperation of the British Government. We also furnished numerous special articles each week to class publications.

The illustrated weekly, the Field, maintained an American department of from three to four pages a week made up entirely of our press material and photogi'aphs furnished by US, and from these pages the English press copied extensively. One of our articles, Booth Tarkington's " American facts and German propaganda." was carried in the Field, was then copied by other papers, was sent in pamphlet form from our London office to some 50,000 individuals, and was then published and distributed in an edition of 850,000 copies by the British ministry of information. The Tarkington pamphlet was also used in several other connections.

Throughout Spain several hundred windows were put at our disposal by American houses for the exhibition of our photographs and reprints. These exhibitions attracted much attention, the report of our representative on one typical case being that " a big store in Barcelona is filled with propaganda material and it is crowded all day long." The Spanish press carried more and more of our material as the war progressed and as American troops were rushed to the European battle front. Toward the end we received a report, reading :

We are simply loading the Spajiish papers with your material, and they are printing such a raft of it that others think we are spending millions in subsidizing — but not a cent have I spent. You are supplying the right kind of ammunition and I am shooting it.

Switzerland: Switzerland was an important point, both because of its influence on neutral opinion and because of the leakage into Germany and Austria of Swiss publications. From our representative there we received reports from which the following are taken : -

We are highly successful in placing your material * * * We can use practically all you send us * * * Many of these articles have appeared in not one paper but in a hundred or more. Those of which, for instance, have been taken by the Mittel Presse have been printed widely. In addition to this, we found many paragraphs which we have sent out with our daily service. * * * A number of your articles were translated and sent to all the papers, and they have used them in whole or in part. Weekly financial, trade, and agriculture letters are of great value.

Italy : From Italj^ came reports that more than half of our service was being used. Our representative there wrote :

We find practically all of your special service is useful for this purpose. Much of this service can be distributed by the Italian Press Association and so will find space in scores of Italian journals. To Italy, in addition to our material sent to all countries we sent 10 short articles a week on United States farming and country life for use by the Italian provincial press. All these articles were used regularly.

Russia : In the case of Russia we supplemented our material with especially prepared articles on education, municipal government, political organization, child welfare, district nursing, etc. This our agent in Archangel reported was " splendid material for Russian work," and much of it w^as circulated in bulletins issued in Russian from the committee oifice there.

ISfirit of the worh. — In concluding this report tribute should be paid to all those who worked in this bureau with Mr. Poole. Many worked as volunteers and others for salaries lower than those they had hitherto received. All showed a devotion to the work, a willingness to stay late, or give up holidays in time of emergency here, and in general a readiness to serve in every possible way. without which the success achieved would have been impossible.