After the Armistice

THE Peace Treaty has been attacked from many sides as a "failure in advertising." I agree. There can be no question that the Paris proceedings have never been placed before the people of the United States with any degree of clearness or in such manner as to put public opinion in possession of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

When it is charged, however, that the failure is the fault of the Committee on Public Information because we did not conduct a "vigorous campaign," I disagree absolutely and unalterably. Nothing would have been more instantly attacked, and justly attacked, than the use of governmental machinery and public funds for any such purpose. Bad as conditions are to-day, they would be infinitely worse had the President attempted to support his cause by "press-agenting" with the people's money. As for the Committee on Public Information, its duties ceased automatically when fighting ceased.

Within twenty-four hours from the signing of the armistice orders were issued for the immediate cessation of every domestic activity of the Committee on Public Information. Many of the divisions had a continuing value, but I had the deep conviction that the Committee was a war organization only, and that it was without proper place in the national life in time of peace. War is a simple fact, with victory as its one objective. Peace is far from simple, and has as many objectives as there are parties and political aims and prejudices. No matter how honest its intent or pure its purpose, a Committee on Public Information operating in peace-times would be caught inevitably in the net of controversy, affording the highly improper spectacle of a government organization using public moneys to advance the contentions of one side or the other. The President was in thorough agreement with me and the order for domestic demobilization had his explicit approval.

On November 14th announcement was made of the discontinuance of the volunteer censorship agreement.

On November 15th a formal statement was issued to the effect that all press censorship in connection with cables and mails had been discontinued.

The question that next arose was in connection with publicity arrangements for the Peace Conference in Paris. There was a general assumption that the government would exercise certain authorities and controls, and that I would act as administrative agent. It was against this assumption that I entered immediate and vigorous protest, taking the matter straight to the President. What I insisted upon was the government's immediate and complete surrender of every supervisory function as far as news was concerned and the restoration to the press of every power, liberty, and independence. This course, in my opinion, was dictated by common sense as well as by propriety. The Republican papers, as a matter of course, were insistent that the Administration should abandon all publicity effort, but it was also the case that the press, as a whole, was flatly in favor of the step. From every quarter came the demand for full release from restraint, suggestion, or "interference" of any kind. There was also Congress to be considered.

The League of Nations was the chief issue to be fought out in the Peace Conference and the Republican majority in the Senate was already serving notice that it would be regarded as a controversial and political question. Any attempt at government supervision, regardless of its honesty and helpfulness, was sure to be seized upon by the Republican Senators and by the Republican press as an effort of the Administration to "muzzle the press" and to give the people no other information than that favorable to the President's cause.

What I urged was the lifting of every barrier, full permission and aid for every American newspaper man desiring to go to Paris, open sessions of the Peace Conference, and instant demand upon England and France that American news should be exempted from censorship of any kind.

The President stated that he stood unqualifiedly for open sessions, authorized the announcement that all passport regulations would be lifted in the case of accredited newspaper men, and in the course of a few days informed me that the governments of France and England had acceded to his request that the despatches of American correspondents should not be subjected to censorship. These facts were duly given to the press, and all was "quiet along the Potomac."

With Peace Conference publicity disposed of presumably, and with the domestic activities of the Committee in process of settlement, there then remained only the Foreign Section with its representatives in every capital, its intricate machinery, and with hundreds of thousands of dollars involved in the adjustment of assets and liabilities. Paris was the one logical center for this demobilization and the President believed that the importance of this liquidation required my personal attention. At the same time, with his usual kindliness of thought, he asked me to be his guest on the George Washington if I could make my plans coincide with his sailing date. This, then, was why I went to Paris, and how I happened to be on the George Washington. The wisdom of my course in taking a stand against "salesmanship" was soon demonstrated in conclusive fashion.

To assist in the heavy detail of checking the books of the European offices, in paying bills, selling assets, and collecting money due, I sent an advance delegation to Paris, consisting of Mr. Edgar G. Sisson, director of the Foreign Section; his associate, Mr. Carl Byoir; and a force of accountants and stenographers. The New York World, on the alleged authority of some member of the party whose name was not given, announced that these purely clerical employees constituted "The United States Official Press Mission to the Peace Conference."

At almost the same time the Postmaster-General announced the taking over of the cables, an action as remote as the moon from my authority and duties. Straightway the inevitable Senate group — Reed, Watson, Hiram Johnson, Sherman, and New — started off with their fullmouthed baying, and the press, with equal recklessness and enthusiasm, joined in the hue and cry. The President, Mr. Burleson, and I were in a deep and dark conspiracy to gag, stifle, muzzle, and throttle. With the cables in our clutches, mine was to be the task of censorship in Paris, my autocratic whim would decide what news of the Peace Conference should reach the people of the United States, and my "interpretations" would be forced upon suffering correspondents.

As a matter of course, no Senator made the slightest effort to ascertain the facts, the press carried their f ulminations with glaring head-lines, and editors thundered against the hapless stenographers composing "The United States Official Press Mission" and denounced my "iniquitous pact" with Mr. Burleson. The following statement was issued on November 21st in an effort to stem the tide of absurdity and falsehood:

With respect to my charged connection with the cables and cable censorship, there is no such connection, nor will there be any.

On November 14th announcement was made by the Committee on Public Information of the discontinuance of the volunteer censorship agreement under which the press of the United States has operated with the government.

On November 15th a formal statement was issued to the effect that all press censorship in connection with cables and mails would be discontinued forthwith.

There is, therefore, no press censorship of any kind existing in the United States to-day. No plan of resumption has been suggested or even contemplated.

The whole domestic machinery of the Committee on Public Information is being dismantled and will cease operation by December 15th at the very latest. As for my work in Europe, and that of the Committee on Public Information, it will have absolutely no connection whatsoever with the control of the cables, any form of censorship, or any supervision over the press.

The charge that I will have control of all publicity in connection with the Peace Commission has no base in fact. The policy decided upon is that there shall be no selection or discrimination in the matter of the representation of the press either in the matter of passports or in foreign arrangements. Any responsible newspaper man is entitled to go and equally entitled to fair and impartial treatment abroad.

These men, on the ground and with every right and chance to observe, estimate, and interview, will write as they please and with their usual independence. As for press arrangements, conveniences, and privileges, these matters will necessarily be governed in large degree by the desires of the authorities of the country in which the Peace Conference is held.

The one proper effort of the Committee on Public Information will be to open every means of communication to the press of America without dictation, without supervision, and with no other desire than to facilitate in every manner the fullest and freest flow of news. 27 405 This statement clarified the atmosphere in some degree, but attack continued from many quarters, and as late as November 29th Mr. Roosevelt, in public print, accepted the story that my stenographers and accountants were "The United States Official Press Mission to the Peace Conference," added that these men and women had been sent by the President himself, and asserted that the whole purpose was the determination of the President to "make the news sent out from the Peace Conference to ourselves, our allies, and our enemies what they desire to have told from their own standpoint, and nothing more."

On November 23d, or thereabouts, a committee of the Washington correspondents came to me to learn my plans for "handling them." It was an amazing situation that had more humor in it than irritation. Before me were the very men who had been most insistent that "Creel must take his hands off," that there must be "no interference with correspondents," and as a consequence of their clamor I had issued a public statement binding myself to avoid even an appearance of supervision.

It developed, however, that none of them had taken the trouble to engage passage or to apply for passports, and that unless authoritative help came quickly they stood small chance of getting to France in time. At the request of these correspondents, and acting entirely in a personal capacity, I went to the President and begged him to let the newspaper group travel with him on the George Washington. He pointed out that there was no way by which any fair discrimination could be made, and that if one correspondent were given the privilege, the same invitation would necessarily have to be extended to every other correspondent in the United States. He explained further that the accommodations on the George Washington were not unlimited, as every one seemed to suppose, and that the inclusion of the Peace Commission, the scores of experts attached to the commission, the State Department group, etc., had already brought about a condition of congestion. With the full approval of the correspondents I then devoted my efforts to placing the representatives of the Associated Press, United Press, and the International News Service on the George Washington, and these three men were asked by the President as his guests. This done, I took up with the War Department the question of securing a transport for the use of such correspondents as desired to go to France. The Orizaba happened to be the one boat available, and while it was not a Cunarder, it was a good seaworthy boat, and at the time there was no quarrel with it whatsoever, only a great thanksgiving that a ship of any kind had been secured. These activities on my part, undertaken entirely at the request of the correspondents themselves, aroused a new outcry in the Senate, and even in some of the newspapers that I was trying to serve, and on November 27th the following statement was issued:

It has been arranged that the representatives of the press associations will travel with the President and the official party.

With the approval of the President, the Secretary of War has set aside the transport Orizaba to carry duly accredited newspaper correspondents to France. The Orizaba will leave the Hoboken dock at twelve o'clock noon Sunday, December 1st. All passengers will report to General McManus at the port of embarkation, Pier 3.

In the matter of the sailing-list no discrimination will be made or special privilege granted. All newspaper men duly accredited by responsible newspapers are entitled to passage.

Passports have to be vised by the various consuls in New York. Applications that have not yet been made should be filed at once and reported to me. Likewise, applications that have been made but have not yet been acted upon. The State Department is extending every aid in the interest of expedition, and press passports will be lifted out of the regular routine.

It is requested, and hoped, that correction will be made of the very untrue report that any attempt will be made to interfere in any manner with the free flow of news from America to Europe, or from Europe to America. The whole effort of government, from the first, has been to assure adequate and authoritative representation of the press at the Peace Conference and to assist news distribution in every possible way.

There is no press censorship of any kind in the United States to-day, and at the personal request of the President the French and English governments have lifted all censorship regulations bearing upon American press matters.

The widely circulated rumor that George Creel, chairman of the Committee on Public Information, will have control of official publicity in connection with the Peace Conference is absolutely without foundation. There will be no such control, and the situation itself precludes any such control. The Peace Conference itself will undoubtedly decide upon the manner of announcing its deliberations and decisions, and the right of correspondents to free movement and interviews is, of course, one that cannot be abridged in any degree.

The Postmaster-General is maintaining a study of the cables, with a view to aiding the press in every possible way, and will shortly make his own statement.

Mr. Creel, who has made all arrangements for the discontinuance of the domestic work of the Committee on Public Information, is proceeding to Europe to wind up the work of the Foreign Section. He has no connection whatsoever with the Peace Commission.

The representatives of the Committee on Public Information who sailed last week did not in any manner constitute an official Peace Conference press mission. They were stenographers, accountants, film men, and division heads, not one of whom will have connection with the Peace Conference or with the preparation of the Conference's press matter. Their sole duties will be the completion of the Committee's foreign work and settlement of contracts and business details incident to the absolute cessation of activity.

The Departments of State and War threw down all barriers in the matter of passports, the embarkation officials at Hoboken worked overtime, and through a dreary Sunday I sat wearily signing credentials asking foreign governments to show the bearers every possible courtesy, privilege, consideration, etc. Conservative, radical, Democratic, and Republican, all went down into the Orizaba in the order of their application, and the one joy that I had out of it was to know that the correspondents of reactionary papers like the Sun and Tribune were to travel for seven days with Abraham Cahan of the Vorwdrts, and Reuben Spink of the Socialist Call.

On December 4th I sailed on the George Washington, but even the sea afforded no refuge. Two days after my departure, a Paris despatch charged that the Committee on Public Information would take control of the European cables, "ration" space to the correspondents; and that all official communications to the press from the Paris Conference would pass through my hands. I was the one person with authority to make such an announcement; I was on the sea and had left behind me flat statements that guaranteed the absolute freedom of the press. Upon arrival in Paris, investigation disclosed that the despatch had no base whatsoever save in the imagination of the correspondent that sent it. Yet Senator Hiram Johnson and the others of his ilk accepted the lie without question, and The Philadelphia North American even printed this infamous attack:

Some indication of the course to be pursued was given to-day when Senate anger again found expression as the result of the cabled information from Paris that George Creel is to decide how much news matter each newspaper correspondent may file for cable transmission each day, and is to pass upon every official statement that is to be given out from the American delegation.

This announcement is in direct conflict with the statement made by President Wilson in his speech on Monday that there was to be no censorship or restriction imposed by the government upon the information to be sent from the Peace Conference to this country, and that in the interest of publicity he had induced the governments of Great Britain and France to lift their censorship news.

It is an absolute exposure of the falsity of the statement made by George Creel that he has gone to France to wind up the affairs of the Public Information Committee and will have nothing to do with preparation or transmission of information concerning the conferences.

In fact, Congress and the public have every reason to feel that both the President and Creel made statements to the American public which were deliberately planned to deceive, and the uncomfortable inference suggests itself that since these statements are shown to have been untrue, no other statements they may issue can the public accept with absolute confidence of their reliability.

Johnson cried, "What a sad thing it is that Creel should ration the news which is to be received by the American people — the news concerning developments that may mean the whole future of our Republic." New of Indiana even went into figures, stating that the press allotment on the cables, as fixed by me, would be twenty-eight thousand words a day, a limit that he boldly branded as "ridiculous." Even when the report stood proved as a lie and when it became indisputably apparent that the attacks were false, not one word of retraction or apology ever came from the Senators or from The North American and such other papers as had spread the slanders.

Another charge made freely to-day is that "Creel's Committee might have done something to provide for the comfort and convenience of the newspaper workers in Paris and so saved its scalp." Under this head the principal complaint is that the correspondents were not "housed in their own American club, led, guided, stimulated at every step of the Conference proceedings." To make the case more conclusive, it is stated that a business man of large affairs made an offer to lease a hotel or apartment-house in Paris for the American correspondents where they would be lodged and fed, provided with every working convenience, and informed at regular intervals by prominent Americans and internationalists as to the problems upon which the new treaty would be founded. This man, invariably anonymous, was ready to underwrite such a scheme up to a quarter of a million dollars, but "the Committee on Public Information laughed at this offer and promptly proceeded to ignore it."

No such offer was ever made to me or to any other executive of the Committee. Knowing the difficulties under which the correspondents would labor in Paris, I took the chance of instructing Mr. Sisson to engage and equip working quarters for the American press, and he took the old James Gordon Bennett apartments on the Champs-Elysees and fitted them up with desks and typewriters. Almost instantly despatches commenced to go back to the United States declaring that we were squandering government money in a secret attempt to control the press, and, finally convinced that any effort to help the correspondents directly would be misinterpreted, I gave orders to surrender the lease and dismantle the place.

As evidence of my own shortcomings and the superior propaganda genius of the French, many correspondents glowingly described "the remarkable international press club which the French government set up in the Champs- Ely sees." This is really humorous. When I saw that it would not be possible for the American government to do anything of its own initiative, I went to M. Tardieu and M. Aubert, with whom I had been closely associated in Washington during their service in the French High Commission, and the three of us made the plans for the establishment of the French press club in the Hotel Dufayal. On a bitter winter morning M. Aubert and I tramped through the chilly palace, deciding upon general arrangement and specific quarters, and it was the Committee that furnished a large part of the desks and typewriters. It was planned that this should be a home for all correspondents and that the prominent men of all nations would be invited there to talk over Peace Conference problems for the information of the writers. I might say that the failure of the plan constituted one of the French government's bitter disappointments. The last thing that the correspondents wanted was to be guided and instructed and stimulated. What they were after was news, and the Peace Conference itself was the one news source.

Various correspondents are also ardent in this admiration of the French for the manner in which they conducted visitors over the devastated areas, for "compared with it the best of our American efforts were almost as nothing." During the war, when it was our business to impress the world with the power of America, our Paris office maintained smooth-working machinery for the exploitation of the American effort in France. In conjunction with the army, the newspaper men of Spain, Holland, England, Scandinavia, Italy, and all other nations, were taken on tours that covered the entire activities of the A. E. F. With the armistice this work ended naturally, and nothing would have been more improper and unwise than for the American government to take correspondents over the devastated area in competition with the French.

As a matter of fact, however, the Committee was the moving spirit behind most of the trips on which the correspondents were taken. Not only did we work with the French government on such plans, but through Mr. Frederick H. Wile, Lord Northcliffe's representative, it was arranged that all the American correspondents should be the guests of the British government during the President's visit in England. From the Italian government I secured a similar invitation, along with a special train and an offer to take the entire group of American correspondents over the Italian battle-front.

When the President decided to spend Christmas Day at Chaumont, it was the Committee that arranged for a special train for the correspondents and it was the Committee that paid for it.

What with all these arrangements, and especially the Italian trip, which had to be planned in conjunction with a grand-opera tenor in uniform, I was compelled to stay in Paris when the President went to London, and by way of showing a delicate and restrained appreciation of my efforts, The New York Sun correspondent sent a despatch from London that I was not with the President because I had quarreled with him and that I was making plans to leave at once for the United States.

Praise has been given, and very properly, to the helpfulness of Mr. Ray Stannard Baker, also to the President's agreement that the correspondents should have a daily conference each morning with the American members of the Peace Commission. On the second day after my arrival in Paris I took up with the President this matter of a daily conference and secured his consent to it. It was at my request, joined in by Colonel House, that the President signed the order attaching Mr. Baker to the Peace Commission to act as its press representative. From the first I begged the President to meet regularly with the correspondents and it was his sincere desire to do this, and it would have been done but for the back-breaking burdens that he bore, the demands that took every second of his time, and the constantly changing situation that made it impossible to talk with any degree of certainty.

These things done, I had the feeling that the Committee, as far as was properly in its power, had discharged its full duty in aiding the press of America to obtain the news. What remained to be done was to help the correspondents to transmit the news with the greatest possible degree of speed. The cables were abnormally congested. Not only was the press of the world assembled in Paris, but the war had left only four transatlantic cables available for use, and as a consequence incredible delays developed unavoidably. To meet the situation, Mr. Walter S. Rogers, director of the Committee's Foreign Wireless and Cable Service, was placed unreservedly at the disposal of the correspondents and directed to find a "way out." As a first measure to lighten the cable load, the Committee agreed to transmit to the United States all formal statements, speeches of the President, and other like matter requiring textual sending, and to make simultaneous delivery in New York to the three press associations. Even when the matter had to be sent by cable, two additional sendings were saved, and when flashed by wireless the entire load was lifted from the cable.

A second step was in the direction of aid to individual correspondents. The navy, in charge of the wireless, was forbidden by law to charge tolls, nor could it even receive private messages; but in view of the importance of giving the American public all possible news of the peace deliberations it was agreed that the Committee on Public Information might undertake the delivery of the matter to the American press.

After many negotiations the French government and the United States navy entered into an arrangement through which the Committee was able to offer thirty-five hundred words daily on the wireless, absolutely free of charge, to the American correspondents in Paris. The correspondents themselves, formed into an association, allotted the wordage as they saw fit, handed copy to the Committee in Paris, and from our office it went over the American army wires to the French wireless station at Lyons and from Lyons to the Committee's office in New York for distribution. At no time did the Foreign Press Cable Service undertake to deliver analytical articles or "propaganda matter" to the American press. The matter sent for simultaneous release consisted solely of official statements, speeches, and announcements, and merely the bare text of these. We construed our service to be the delivery of these documents textually, leaving it to the newspapers to draw conclusions or to describe the events in connection with the issuance of such statements. Emphasis should also be laid on the fact that this division at no time exercised any censorship on any articles prepared by any correspondents for American newspapers.

The consummation of these arrangements marked the limit of proper effort on the part of the Committee. England, France, and Italy were the hosts of the American press; every battle-front was to be shown the correspondents; an incredibly magnificent press club stood provided for them; daily contacts with the American peace commissioners were being held; cable and wireless facilities, free of charge, were at their disposal, and no censorship stood in the way.

Future arrangements were entirely and absolutely in the hands of the Peace Conference itself. There was no other way. Nothing stands so clear as that it would have been suicidal for the President to have used a single government dollar or a piece of government machinery for publicity purposes in connection with the Peace Conference. If plain downright lies had the power to stir the Republican press and the Republican Senators into rage and abuse, imagine the storm that would have been aroused had any of the reports of press-agenting been based upon fact. In the very nature of the case, dependence had to be placed upon the activities of the Conference itself and upon the spirit in which the correspondents reported and interpreted these activities.

This spirit was bad. The Peace Treaty failed because the press itself failed in its duty of proper information, and the press failed because it interested itself only in the personal and obvious, not in the educational and interpretative. And the reason for this misplaced emphasis goes back to the bitter fact that partizans made the Peace Treaty a party question instead of letting it shine out as a nation's pledge.