---
title: The Speaking Division
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/14-the-speaking-division/
description: The Speaking Division, from How We Advertised America by George Creel.
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-interwar.jpg)

[Library](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/) · Book · [How We Advertised America](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/)

# The Speaking Division

This text

- **Work:** [How We Advertised America](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/)
- **Author:** George Creel
- **Published:** 1920

Full details

- **Rights:** Published in the United States in 1920, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States; the Internet Archive lists the scan as not in copyright. Creel died in 1953, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years.

Chapters

1. [Dedicatory](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/01-dedicatory/)
2. [Foreword](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/02-foreword/)
3. Part I: The Domestic Section
4. [The “Second Lines”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/03-the-second-lines/)
5. [The “Censorship” Bugbear](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/04-the-censorship-bugbear/)
6. [The “Fourth of July Fake”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/05-the-fourth-of-july-fake/)
7. [The Committee’s “Aircraft Lies”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/06-the-committee-s-aircraft-lies/)
8. [Relations with Congress](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/07-relations-with-congress/)
9. [The Division of News](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/08-the-division-of-news/)
10. [The Four Minute Men](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/09-the-four-minute-men/)
11. [The Fight for the Mind of Mankind](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/10-the-fight-for-the-mind-of-mankind/)
12. [The Battle of the Films](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/11-the-battle-of-the-films/)
13. [The “Battle of the Fences”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/12-the-battle-of-the-fences/)
14. [The War Expositions](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/13-the-war-expositions/)
15. [The Speaking Division](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/14-the-speaking-division/)
16. [The Advertising Division](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/15-the-advertising-division/)
17. [The “Americanizers”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/16-the-americanizers/)
18. [Work among the Foreign-Born](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/17-work-among-the-foreign-born/)
19. [A Wonderful Fourth of July](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/18-a-wonderful-fourth-of-july/)
20. [The “Official Bulletin”](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/19-the-official-bulletin/)
21. [Division of Women’s War-Work](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/20-division-of-women-s-war-work/)
22. [Other Divisions](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/21-other-divisions/)
23. [Showing America to the Foreign Press](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/22-showing-america-to-the-foreign-press/)
24. Part II: The Foreign Section
25. [The Fight in Foreign Countries](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/23-the-fight-in-foreign-countries/)
26. [America’s World News Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/24-america-s-world-news-service/)
27. [The Foreign Mail Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/25-the-foreign-mail-service/)
28. [Fighting with Films](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/26-fighting-with-films/)
29. [Breaking through the Enemy Censorship](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/27-breaking-through-the-enemy-censorship/)
30. [France, England, and Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/28-france-england-and-italy/)
31. [The Work in Mexico](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/29-the-work-in-mexico/)
32. [The Work in Switzerland](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/30-the-work-in-switzerland/)
33. [The Work in Holland](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/31-the-work-in-holland/)
34. [The Work in Spain](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/32-the-work-in-spain/)
35. [The Work in Scandinavia](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/33-the-work-in-scandinavia/)
36. [The Work in the Orient](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/34-the-work-in-the-orient/)
37. [The Work in South America](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/35-the-work-in-south-america/)
38. [The Russian Campaign](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/36-the-russian-campaign/)
39. Part III: Demobilization
40. [After the Armistice](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/37-after-the-armistice/)
41. [“Americanizing” Mittel Europa](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/38-americanizing-mittel-europa/)
42. [Confusion and Neglect](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/39-confusion-and-neglect/)
43. Appendix
44. [The American Newspaper Publishers’ Association](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/40-the-american-newspaper-publishers-association/)
45. [“Savagery” vs. Sanity](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/41-savagery-vs-sanity/)
46. [Publications of the Committee on Public Information in the United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/42-publications-of-the-committee-on-public-informat/)

[← The War Expositions](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/13-the-war-expositions/) [The Advertising Division →](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/15-the-advertising-division/)

**Content note:** Quotes wartime anti-German language, including "Hun", and period terms for racial and national groups. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

THE United States, in the first months of the war, was an oratorical bedlam. More than a dozen national speakers' bureaus were being conducted by government departments and by associations which were seeking to promote the national interest. Scores of state speaking campaigns were being inaugurated under the auspices of Councils of Defense and other organizations. All these were competing for speakers, duplicating each other's activities, and failing to co-ordinate their efforts in an effective and comprehensive campaign. Nothing was more apparent than the need of some central clearing-house in Washington through which these various organizations, working for a great common purpose, but each with its special message, could be brought into touch with the affairs and facilities of other departments, and given the inspiration and information which came from the vital national interests involved.

In consideration of these needs, the Speaking Division of the Committee on Public Information was created September 25, 1917, the idea receiving the approval of the President in the following letter:

MY DEAR MR. CREEL:

I heartily approve of the suggestion you have made that through your Committee some effort be made to co-ordinate the work of the various bureaus, departments, and agencies interested in presenting from the platform various phases of the national task. With the co-operation of the departments, the Food Administration, the Council of National Defense, and the Committee on Public Information, it would seem possible to enlist the many state and private organizations who have put the nation's cause above every other issue and stand ready to participate in a speaking campaign that shall give to the people that fullness of information which will enable and inspire each citizen to play intelligently his part in the greatest and most vital struggle ever undertaken by self-governing nations.

Your suggestion of Mr. Arthur E. Bestor, president of Chautauqua Institution, to direct this work is excellent. You are fortunate to be able to enlist one who has been so intimately connected with a great American educational institution devoted to popular instruction without prejudice or partizanship.^ Cordially and sincerely yours,

WOODROW WILSON.

Certain general policies were followed from the very beginning with such modifications as from time to time became necessary. It was not the purpose of the division to attempt to combine the speakers' bureaus of the several departments or private organizations, nor to assume any responsibility for supervision over them, but rather to establish a bureau to co-ordinate their efforts where they related to common aims or activities. It was the purpose to seek co-operation among these speakers' bureaus by agreement and consultation; to offer a national clearing-house for speaking campaigns; to avoid duplication of effort and overlapping of territory; to supply speakers with usable information from government departments; to concentrate the attention of speakers during special periods upon different national needs; and to foster in all speakers a sense of the unity of the national purpose. There was never an attempt to control and supervise the speaking of the country — the problem was simply one of co-operation and co-ordination.

Through the medium of bulletins, conferences, and cor-

11 149 respondence, a direct relationship was maintained with every government department, patriotic society, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, and similar associations, and by this means a machinery was created by which national speakers could be routed at short notice, with a certainty of large audiences.

It was in direct line with his work, though seemingly outside of it, that Mr. Bestor went from state to state in the interests of better organization. His first trips were concerned almost entirely with the State Councils of Defense, and, it was in consequence of these meetings that the great series of war conferences was held. Our idea was that the facts and necessities of war must be carried not only to every home in the cities and towns, but to hamlets and the most remote farm-houses as well.

Forty-five war conferences were held in thirty-seven states, and, in addition, local conferences were called in various sections. These official gatherings brought together all the effective war-workers in the state, usually occupied two days, and in addition to the general meetings addressed by the speakers sent out by the division there were sectional conferences held by federal and state officials who were carrying on war-work. These war conferences were oftentimes the greatest gatherings held within the states during the war. They had a profound effect upon public opinion and upon the efficient organization of state war-work. Usually the state-wide conferences were followed by county and town conferences of the same character.

A card catalogue of over ten thousand speakers and makers of public opinion was eventually gathered, and a select list of three hundred effective speakers. Whenever a request was made for an individual address, a list was prepared of those available for such service. This resulted in many appointments being made by organizations direct with speakers recommended by the division.

It became more and more the practice, however, for the division to assume entire charge of all tours. When some distinguished speaker volunteered his services for a week or a month, or even longer, it was the obvious dictate of common sense that his time and value should not be wasted. A steady and practical sequence of engagements had to be arranged, and this called for the central control and direction that only the Speaking Division was in a position to give.

In co-operation with the British War Mission, engagements were made for Sir Frederick E. Smith, the British Attorney-General; Sir Walter Lawrence, Sir George Adam Smith, Gen. H. D. Swinton, Col. A. C. Murray, Maj. Ian Hay Beith, Lieut. Hector MacQuarrie, Hon. Harald Smith, Maj. Robert Massie, and Maj. Laughlin McLean Watt. All were successes except Sir Frederick Smith, who proved only irritating and offensive.

Lieutenant MacQuarrie was a peculiarly effective speaker, giving ninety-three addresses in four months in nine states, everywhere arousing enthusiasm. Hon. Crawford Vaughan, ex-Premier of South Australia, a noted labor leader, was brought across the continent by the division, spoke at several of the war conferences, and gave in all twenty-two addresses under the auspices of the division until he became connected with the United States Shipping Board.

The French High Commission permitted us to make engagements for M. Maurice Casenave and M. Edouard de Billy, and placed at our disposal Countess Madeleine de Bryas, Captain Paul Perigord, and Lieutenant Wierzbicki for national tours. Of all those who spoke in America during the war, native or foreign, Captain Perigord, the warrior-priest, must be given first rank. This is not to be taken as disparagement of the others, for Captain Perigord was virtually in a class by himself. French by birth, the outbreak of the war found him a priest in St. Paul, serving in the Catholic University. Returning at once to his native land, he went into the ranks as a private, fought in battle after battle, and at Verdun won his commission, leading the charge of a few heroes when every officer had been killed. Blessed with a voice like an organ note, he was more than a great speaker; he seemed inspired. For seven months he went about the country, making 152 speeches in all, many of them to audiences that numbered thousands, only quitting when sheer exhaustion brought him to a sick-bed from which he liked not to have arisen.

Countess de Bryas was second only to Captain Perigord, for in addition to brains and real oratorical ability she had youth and beauty. Accompanied by her sister, the Countess Jacqueline, she toured America from Atlantic to Pacific, from North to South, speaking in cities and villages, before social and commercial organizations, in factories and churches, driving home the message of France, and making Americans realize America. She was peculiarly effective in factories, for her simplicity and sincerity went straight to the hearts of workers, and her proudest possession was a collection of grimy gloves made unwearable by the toil-stained hands of the hundreds who crowded around her at the close of every meeting. As in the case of Captain Perigord, Countess de Bryas broke under the strain imposed upon her, but, recovering after an illness of weeks, resumed her tour and carried it through to the agreed conclusion.

The Speaking Division also handled the engagements of the following officials of our own government:

Dr. Vernon Kellogg, Maj. W. L. Brown, Dr. Henry J. Waters, and Dr. Henry C. Culbertson, of the Food Administration; and Dr. Anna Shaw and Miss Ida Tarbell, of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense.

Hon. Wesley Frost, former consul at Queenstown, and the official reporter of eighty-one submarine sinkings, created profound sensation in his transcontinental tours, and from September to February gave sixty-three addresses in twenty-nine states for the Speaking Division.

Charles Edward Russell, a member of the President's Commission to Russia, who was particularly effective before labor audiences, gave fifty-eight addresses from October to February in all parts of the country. Congressman Albert Johnson, just back from the front, delivered nineteen addresses in nine states from December to February.

In co-operation with the Friends of German Democracy, Mr. Henry Riesenburg made twenty-seven addresses in nineteen states; Dr. Frank Bohn, nine addresses in three states; Dr. William H. Bohn, twenty-six addresses in three states; Dr. Karl Mathie, eighteen addresses in two states; and Prof. A. E. Koenig, nine addresses.

Some of the best features of the work were not the product of plan, but sprang entirely from lucky accident. One evening, at a dinner given by the French High Commission, Marquis Crequi Montfort de Courtivron asked me, in his precise English, if I knew where Richmond was. I gave him the necessary information and casually asked him why he wanted to know. He answered that his wife was a daughter of Prince Camille de Polignac, who had fought through the Civil War under the flag of the Confederacy, rising to the rank of general. On his death-bed in France the year before, General Prince de Polignac had asked his daughter to return his sword to the state of Virginia, and it was this sacred commission that the Marquis desired to discharge.

Here, as if made to order, was a splendid opportunity to reach the entire South with the message of France. Not only did the Marquise de Courtivron bear the sword of her father, but her husband was a distinguished French officer, and in the United States also was her cousin, the Marquis de Polignac, who had married an American woman, Mrs. James Eustace, of New York, only a short time before.

Getting in communication with the governor of Virginia, Mr. Bestor gained an official invitation for the party, and the governors of other Southern states, informed of the visit, begged that the itinerary might be extended to take in their capitals. By way of offsetting the titles in case of any such prejudice, we added Mr. Charles Edward Russell to the party, that distinguished Socialist, who was also one of the greatest speakers that ever addressed a patriotic audience. The trip, commencing in Richmond and ending in New Orleans, was a whirlwind of enthusiasm, and did as much as any one thing to drive home the facts of war.

Another feature was the American tour of Capt. Roald Amundsen, in many respects the most powerful individual in Scandinavia. We persuaded Captain Amundsen to go to the American lines in France for a visit of inspection, and then we managed to bring him to the United States, sending him to every part of the country where Scandinavian peoples were gathered in any quantity.

Inasmuch as the division had relations with state Councils of Defense in practically all the states and with various organizations like the Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, and others that had ready-made audiences, the division came more and more to be the organization to handle tours for patriotic purposes which were other than merely speaking tours. The French Blue Devils, for instance, were routed under the auspices of the division, and the 344 Belgian soldiers returning from Russia were brought across the continent by the division. The fifty American soldiers sent by General Pershing to aid in the Third Liberty Loan were, at the conclusion of that loan, routed by the division for one month and heard in practically all of the states.

Mr. Bestor's experience as president of the Chautauqua Institution, as well as his force and ability, was the principal factor in driving the work of the Speaking Division to complete success. Poor Bestor! No grand-opera impresario ever had greater difficulties, for many of our orators had all the temperament of a prima donna and had to be humored to a point where homicide appealed as necessary and justifiable. And the booking of an organization like the Blue Devils or Pershing's Veterans required as much work as the routing of a score of theatrical companies. Prof. J. J. Pettijohn, director of the extension division of Indiana University and head of the Indiana State Speakers' Bureau, became associate director of the division on May 6, 1918, and from June was in active charge in the absence of Mr. Bestor, until the consolidation of the division with the Four Minute Men, when he became the associate director of that division. His wide experience in popular education and his ability as an organizer were of great value to the division in the last months of its separate organization.

Prof. Thomas F. Moran of Purdue University was loaned to the division by that institution for service from January to April, and performed brilliant service in the editing of the bulletins and in addresses before the Southern war conferences and individual addresses before many audiences. Mr. W. Frank McClure, publicity director of the Redpath Bureau, Chicago, was another who rendered useful and devoted service.

[← The War Expositions](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/13-the-war-expositions/) [The Advertising Division →](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/15-the-advertising-division/)

How We Advertised America, George Creel. Published in the United States in 1920, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States; the Internet Archive lists the scan as not in copyright. Creel died in 1953, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years. [Provenance and rights](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/creel-how-we-advertised-america-1920/).