The Four Minute Men

Question: Do you think the Four Minute Men and the Bureau of Cartoons changed American opinion about World War I? Answer: The Four Minute Men was a volunteering group which was authorized by President of US Woodrow Wilson for giving speeches. These speeches were characterized to be having a time limit of only four minutes on a predefined subject. The subject usually was decided by the Committee on Public Information and mostly was related to the efforts of American army men in the First World War. All across the country, in various movie theatres it took four minutes to change reels of movie sequences. This was the time when such speeches were presented to the world. (Mock, 1918) I do agree that Four Minute Men and the Bureau of Cartoons have changed the opinion of the country about the First World War. Volunteers who spoke these speeches were known as Four Minute Men. Just using one or two slides they conveyed the entire message. Such programs played a crucial part in developing the opinion of the countrymen towards the war. (Gilber, 1917) It is the same time when the Bureau of Cartoons started taking animations seriously. Prior to the war these comics were considered to be a childish endeavor. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor people began expressing anguish through cartoon illustrations. For various training and instructional practices also the US government started using the Bureau. (Scott, 2011) References: James, R .M. (1918). Four-Minute Speech, https://www.chs.bismarckschools.org Gilbert, W. (1917). Four Minute Men, gfhistory.org Scott, A. (2011). Comics and Conflict, ecommons.luc.edu