The Creel Committee

The Committee on Public Information.

In March 1917, when United States entry into the war seemed inevitable (the declaration came one month later), rumors circulated in Washington that military leaders were again advocating censorship of the press. Beginning in June 1916 President Woodrow Wilson's attorney general, Thomas Gregory, had pushed for measures to punish members of the press found guilty of espionage and strictly limit freedom of the press and of speech. He tried again in February 1917, but on each occasion Congress balked. The administration tried again following the declaration of war and found the mood in Congress much more receptive. Newspaperman, muckraker, and Wilson adviser George Creel sent the president a memo urging a voluntary agreement with the press to control information rather than the institution of formal censorship. Wilson agreed and created the Committee on Public Information (CPI), with Creel as its...

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