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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
The primary objective of a political propaganda campaign is to establish an attitude of mind, a climate of opinion. When such a campaign is successful, the point of view which it has created acts as a censor or interpreter of news. The anti-German attitude displayed by the American press between 1914 and 1917 was the result of such a campaign. It was not accidental, and it was not the result of guilt resting exclusively upon Germany.
1 Wireless censorship went into effect on August 1, 1914. SirBrownrigg, Douglas, Indiscretions of the Naval Censor (London, 1920)Google Scholar. There are reasons for believing that cable messages were censored on August 1.
2 Breckinridge Long Papers, Library of Congress.
3 Dearle, N. B., Dictionary of Official War-Time Organizations (London, 1928), p. 310Google Scholar.
4 He was replaced by Sir Frank Swettenham, and the latter, in turn, by Sir Edward Cook.
5 Lord Riddell's War Diary, 1914–1918 (London, 1933), p. 116Google Scholar.
6 “From September, the New York Times, Tribune, and World (and other papers) regularly bought the advance proofs of the London Chronicle, Morning Post, and Daily Telegraph, using the material in their own news columns and syndicating it throughout the United States.” Millis, Walter, The Road to War; America, 1914–1917 (Boston, 1935)Google Scholar.
7 This was Major E. D. Swinton. He did his work from September 14, 1914, to July 15, 1915. Riddell, op. cit., p. 17.
8 Neville Lytton had general charge of them on the British front.
9 Report of the propaganda ministry for the use of the British cabinet (May 25, 1916). This propaganda ministry is better known as Wellington House. The reports usually were two or three weeks later than the dates of letters or of the newspapers which were included in the reports. They bore the partially correct title of The American Press Résumé.
10 Palmer, Frederick, With My Own Eyes (New York, 1934), p. 332Google Scholar.
11 One of their organizations obtained the names of the friends of important people and then mailed to these friends propaganda as though it were from the individual Englishmen. “By this means very many important communities—philosophical, educational, religious, scientific, philanthropic, artistic, legal, medical, commercial, industrial, agricultural, engineering, mining, banking, athletic, etc. … have been reached.” Report of the Central Committee for National Patriotic Organizations, p. 18.
12 The official news department of the Foreign Office “placed itself at the disposal of the American press representatives …, studied their needs, endeavored to procure … their satisfaction.” The Times History of the War (London, 1920), Vol. 21, p. 101Google Scholar.
13 “There were Saturdays at Wickham-Steed's where newspaper men, officers, and diplomats … used to meet.” President Masaryk Tells His Story (London, 1935), p. 251f.Google Scholar
14 Brownrigg, op. cit., p. 125.
15 Beaverbrook, Lord, Politicians and the Press (London, 1927), p. 12Google Scholar.
16 SirParker, Gilbert, “The United States and the War,” Harper's Monthly Magazine (March, 1918), p. 522Google Scholar.
17 Report of October 11, 1916.
18 The “corpse factory” story man wrote: “It does not much matter what happens in neutral countries, except America, and there we are already served by the correspondents here and by our American visitors.” Charteris, John, At G. H. Q. (London, 1931), p. 167Google Scholar.
19 The British propagandists noted the pull of economics in their report of January 7, 1916. “From the beginning of the present war, prices in Wall Street have risen regularly in response to any military successes of the Allies and fallen with equal regularity when the Central Powers achieved successes.”
20 Report of May 31, 1916. Italics mine. Less than a year before this, Lansing remarked: “You can have no idea of the pressure which is being brought to bear on this government from various elements in this country in regard to our foreign relations.” August 17, 1915, Lansing Papers, Library of Congress. The policy advocated in the British report may have had something to do with the reaction of the Secretary of State.
21 Report of January 3, 1917.
22 Report of October 18, 1916.
23 Report of November 1, 1916.
24 Report of September 13, 1916.
25 Report of November 8, 1916.
26 Report of June 27, 1917. Similar comments appeared at earlier dates.
27 Special supplement to the report of January 28, 1916.
28 Report of May 25, 1916.
29 Some Hearst papers continued to obtain news as a result of their A.P. franchises. For the methods of obtaining news by the others, see International News Service v. Associated Press, 245 Fed. 244.
30 The report of January 28, 1916, states: “I find it [the Middle West] just a little more neutral than … the East.” As to the Far West, it states: “California is much the same as the rest of the United States. This California sentiment is an asset of considerable value to the cause which has so overwhelmingly and conclusively won it.” “I should deplore any external attempts to make it more pro-Ally than it is.” This last statement is from the supplement of January 28, 1916.
31 Report of March 7, 1917.
32 Report of March 10, 1916.
33 Report of May 23, 1917. The report of April 18, 1917, states: There is “no enthusiasm except in a few Eastern papers.” See also the report of May 2, 1917. On April 25, it is remarked: “The entry of the United States into the war would seem, to judge from the press, to have been nowhere more welcome than in the financial districts of New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. In London, British bankers received from their American friends and correspondents numerous cables expressing satisfaction at the new situation. These cables were all of the same nature, full of relief as well as satisfaction that the United States found themselves about to fight side by side with the nations with whom their financial relations were already so intimate.”
