One of the CPI’s popular programs was the Four-Minute Men, a group of 75,000 volunteers, men and women, who delivered speeches at movie theaters, concerts, parades, labor halls, and other public venues. Their speeches were carefully written by the CPI to encourage public support on topics ranging from food conservation to enlistment. Below is one of the poems read by Four-Minute Men.

My boy must never bring disgrace to his immortal sires—

At Valley Forge and Lexington they kindled freedom’s fires,

John’s father died at Gettysburg, mine fell at Chancellorsville;

While John himself was with the boys who charged up San Juan Hill.

And John, if he was living now, would surely say with me,

“No son of ours shall e’er disgrace our grand old family tree

By turning out a slacker when his country needs his aid.”

It is not of such timber that America was made.

I’d rather you had died at birth or not been born at all,

Than know that I had raised a son who cannot hear the call

That freedom has sent round the world, its previous rights to save—

This call is meant for you, my boy, and I would have you brave;

And though my heart is breaking, boy, I bid you do your part,

And show the world no son of mine is cursed with craven heart;

And if, perchance, you ne’er return, my later days to cheer,

And I have only memories of my brave boy, so dear,

I’d rather have it so, my boy, and know you bravely died

Than have a living coward sit supinely by my side.

To save the world from sin, my boy, God gave his only son—

He’s asking for My boy, to-day, and may His will be done.

Source: Reprinted in Alfred Cornbise, War As Advertised: The Four Minute Men and America’s Crusade, 1917–1918 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984), http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4970.