George Creel,  As Secretary Baker points out, the war was not
fought in France alone. Back of the firing-line, back of armies
and navies, back of the great supply-depots, another struggle
waged with the same intensity and with almost equal significance
attaching to its victories and defeats. It was the fight for the
minds of men, for the "conquest of their convictions," and the
battle-line ran through every home in every country. It was in
this recognition of Public Opinion as a major force that the
Great War differed most essentially from all previous conflicts.
The trial of strength was not only between massed bodies of
armed men, but between opposed ideals, and moral verdicts took
on all the value of military decisions. Other wars went no
deeper than the physical aspects, but German Kultur raised
issues that had to be fought out in the hearts and minds of
people as well as on the actual firing-line. The approval of the
world meant the steady flow of inspiration into the trenches; it
meant the strengthened