The War Expositions

THE accidental quality that marked so many of our ideas was never more apparent than in the United States Government War Expositions that came to be one of the principal activities of the Committee on Public Information. These exhibitions, that had all the attraction of a circus and all the seriousness of a sermon, were given in twenty-one cities, were seen by more than 10,000,000 people, and earned a total income of $1,438,004.

In the spring of 1917, when the Committee was just getting under way, the representatives of the state fairs came to us and asked for a war exhibit. We took the matter up with the army and the navy and received assurance that the proper material would be provided. Unfortunately, however, the promise was lost sight of in the rush of more important things, and the Committee, as usual, received the full blame for the failure. In the early months of 1918 we entered into new communication with the state fairs and expositions, this time assuming full responsibility for the preparation of an exhibit. Capt. Joseph H. Hittinger was borrowed from the War Department, and co-operative arrangements were made with the departments of War, Navy, Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, and the Food Administration. From the army and the navy we secured guns of all kinds, hand-grenades, gas-masks, depth-bombs, mines, and hundreds of other things calculated to show the people how their money was being spent. The other departments joined in with exhibits of their own, all going to make up three carloads of material. Thirty-five state fairs and expositions were reached throughout the summer, soldiers and sailors accompanying exhibits and acting as lecturers.

In June, 1918, the Committee on Public Information was called before the Committee on Appropriations of the House to tell why it wanted money and to explain what it meant to do with the money. When I came to the item of the state fair exhibits, and explained the general idea of carrying the facts of war to the people of the United States, there was not only a very notable lack of enthusiasm, but even a distinct disposition to regard the idea as somewhat stupid and quite unnecessary. Here, for instance, is an excerpt from the printed report of the hearing:

THE CHAIRMAN. The question I am going to ask you does not express any opinion, but I am making the inquiry in order that you may express an opinion: What have you to say as to whether the fact that the mobilizing of men from nearly every family in the land of itself brings the war so directly home and in such a vital way as to make unnecessary this military propaganda work in order to interest the people in the war?

MB. CREEL. There are two sides to that. In the first place, the son in the service gives direct interest instantly, but that interest may be of a nature so tinged with anxiety that it lends itself to every rumor and every apprehension, and it is our duty to work for enthusiasm and against depression. That is important not only for the family, but for the boy who is fighting at the front. We know that every letter that is written to a soldier in a pessimistic tone tends to make him a poor soldier, and it is just as much the business of war to keep the home happy and ardent as it is to maintain courage on the firing-line.

We know from the experience of cantonments that the civilian morale is highest near those cantonments where the general in command has displayed his men most prominently, giving frequent drills at exhibitions, visiting near-by cities, and where he has made the most effective arrangements to bring the fathers and mothers to the cantonments to see the boys in action, to see how they are treated, to see how they look, and what they are doing. That is the way we feel, and I think that practically every member of the military establishment will tell you that it is of military value. The General Staff, as you know, is continually placing emphasis upon what they term "morale."

The sum eventually allowed us for War Expositions was five thousand dollars. A few days after this virtual rebuff, I was visited by Mr. W. C. D'Arcy, Mr. Llewellyn Pratt, and others, who explained that the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World would hold their annual convention in San Francisco, July 4th. WThat they wanted was a collection of war trophies in order to give the gathering a patriotic note. Going to the War Department, then to the English, French, and Italian Commissions, and finally to the Canadians, we collected every possible trophy and hurried them out to San Francisco. It was not much of an exhibition, even when viewed by the most enthusiastic eye, but the advertising clubs put themselves wholeheartedly behind the project and drove it through to success. Los Angeles then asked for the collection and we sent it there, doing even better with it than in San Francisco. Although the admission charge was small, in neither place did we lose money, a fact that gave us courage to disregard the smallness of the capital allowed us by Congress.

Making decision to go into the work on a huge scale, we turned the exposition idea over to Mr. Charles S. Hart of the Division of Films, who straightway gathered a staff of exhibit experts about him. Under the new plan we collected every possible trophy brought to this country either by the War Department or by the Allies, and to these we added everything that the army and navy could give that would let the people see the machinery of war. The Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, the American Library Association, the War Camp Community Service, the Red Cross, and every other voluntary agency were also induced to prepare exhibits, all making up a great tram of cars equal in volume to a transcontinental circus.

Going into Chicago, we boldly took the Lake front and proceeded to erect buildings and dig the trenches. Mr. Samuel Insull, Chicago's dynamic public figure, was induced to lend his powerful aid, and he swung every one of the civic associations into line. W. H. Rankin, the advertising expert, joined in the executive direction and attended to the publicity. Having committed ourselves to the hazard, no expense was spared, and on the day that the United States Government War Exposition opened our commitments were well over two hundred thousand dollars, a radical advance indeed over the five thousand dollars allowed by Congress, and one that meant disaster if our conclusions were wrong.

The gates opened in a downpour of rain and the first day's attendance was appallingly small. When the news reached Washington over the long-distance telephone, a more heart-sick group of people could not have been imagined. The sun came out, however, and in the two weeks that followed more than two million people visited the exposition, the average daily attendance being in excess of that of the World's Fair. When the books were balanced it was seen that we had paid every cent of expense and cleared for the government the sum of $318,000.

There was interest as well as inspiration in the exposition. Along the great stretches of promenade were distributed the trophies captured from the enemy by soldiers of the United States and the Allies — great thirty-fivethousand-pound guns taken in hand-to-hand struggle, battered remnants of U-boats that sent women and children to their death, reservoirs for poison-gas, German 'planes brought down as they hovered over villages and hospitals, helmets, gas-masks — all the paraphernalia of war. Our army and navy put on view all the varied manufactures that would permit people to grasp the extent of America's preparation, and from the Allies came types of their war material. In the booths that stretched in endless line all the various war organizations pictured the life of the soldier and the sailor, and showed what they were doing in the way of assistance and encouragement.

Through the generous co-operation of the army and the navy, a remarkable sham battle was staged every afternoon, and this daily spectacle of men going over the top to the rattle of rifles and machine-guns, and the roar of the navy ordnance, aroused the assembled thousands to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Pleading military necessity, the army and the navy refused to lend us men after the Chicago Exposition, with the result that the sham battles had to be discontinued as one of our features. Even so, the tour continued with remarkable results. The following table, showing the cities visited and income received, should serve as an ample vindication of the Committee's decision:

San Francisco $ 54,274 80 Los Angeles 65,375 75 Chicago 583,731 24 Cleveland 167,355 51 Waco 16,904 70 Pittsburgh 147,804 16 Kansas City 28,646 20 Cincinnati 66,541 20 Buffalo 60,354 27 St. Louis 23,570 40 New Orleans 14,439 20 Toledo 50,003 02 Detroit 63,470 74 Houston $22,684 05 Milwaukee 49,372 02 St. Paul (small exhibit) 9,065 34 Jackson (small exhibit) 5,169 29 Little Rock (small exhibit) 2,458 72 Oklahoma (small exhibit) 4,664 71 Great Falls (small exhibit) 996 07 Waterloo (small exhibit) 1,122 85 Total income, expositions $1,438,004 24

Its financial success did not result from a high admission price, but was due to the appeal of the exposition itself. On the Pacific coast tickets were sold for 50 cents and were redeemable at the gate for a 25-cent War Saving Stamp in addition to an admission ticket. This plan was followed for the purpose of creating the War Saving Stamp habit in that territory. In Chicago and the other cities the tickets were sold in advance for 25 cents, children £J^ cents.