Propaganda in the United States.Propaganda in the United States.—It has been charged that though a large number of American newspapers were controlled in England through Lord Northcliffe, a joint commission of English, French and Belgian propagandists was deemed necessary early in the war to create public sentiment in the United States in favor of intervention on the side of the European Allies through the process of “retaining” a number of prominent speakers as attorneys and employing a staff of well-known writers, novelists and poets to arouse us from our state of neutrality. A similar policy was followed in other countries, and in the course of an interview with Vicente Blasco Ibanez, the Spanish novelist, author of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (in which the Germans are pictured in most repellent color), the New York “Times” of October 18, 1919, printed the following significant paragraph:Ibanez said the actual writing of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” was done in four months in time spared from his official work of writing a weekly chronicle of the warand directing the Allied propaganda as an agent of the French Government.This frank statement will tend to cause “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” which was hailed as “the greatest novel of the war” by the literary critics on the newspapers, and many persons ignorant of the design concealed within the pages of the novel, to appear in a somewhat different light from that inspired by a belief in the untainted integrity of the author.The English propaganda bureau for the United States, located in New York, was in charge of Louis Tracy, an English novelist. In an interview with Tracy, published in the New York “Evening Sun” of November 10, 1919, the author exposes frankly the methods pursued by himself and staff in fostering the British cause by attacks on the German and Irish element in the United States and in furthering libels of the enemy through the medium of the American press. Incidentally he is quoted as follows:The great part of my work, of course, was the press. We began that during the first winter of the war, and it covered every phase of magazine and newspaper publication.... We had at our disposal the services of writers and scholars who made it possible for us to find out, at any particular moment or crisis, special information for articles about any event, place or person.... The growth of the work of the British Bureau of Information may be estimated by the fact that the working force grew from a mere nine at the time of Mr. Balfour’s installation of the office to fifty-four at the end of the war.For the entire two years of our participation in the war, and for a period long antedating that event, the American people were under the hypnosis of a propaganda conducted with serpent tongues and poisoned pens by alien agents, spitting and hissing venom in the interest of England and France. Mr. Tracy tells us that other means employed were “war posters which went all over the countryand which are still going.”The British Bureau of Information was the headquarters of “writers, journalists and authors, dramatists and poets, who turned over to us special articles or descriptions or pieces of art, to be relayed to the periodicals.” And he adds: “There was also, perhaps most in the public eye, the almost endless chain of English men and women who came over during the war to speak under the auspices of the British Government upon different aspects of the war. These did not include the speakers and writers who came over here upon their own initiative and for pecuniary benefit. We were not responsible for them. Butwe did look after andmade arrangements for all the speakers who were sent over by the Government. And they were legion!”These, in the estimation of Tracy, were as much a part of the militant forces as the actual fighters, for he says: “No war in the history of mankind has been fought with so many aids from the army of intelligence, with so many pens and typewriters and cartooning pencils conscripted in the same army with the line man, the tank and the bird man.”Need we be surprised that the last bulwark of resistance to this insidious propaganda was swept away? How the British Bureau of Information must have laughed in its sleeve and rejoiced when the fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of the 17,000 American boys of German descent who bled in France were treated as criminal aliens in their own country under the spell of the British propaganda?The French propaganda bureau was busy in a similar manner. “The Dial” of February 8, 1919, has this to say:By 1916 the simple installation in the rear of the Quai d’Orsay Ministry had evolved into the famous Maison de la Presse, which occupied, with its many bureaus, a large six-story building on the Rue Francois Premier. This was one of the busiest hives of wartime Paris.There the promising novelist, the art critic, the publicist, or the well-recommended “belle chanteuse,” as well as the more vulgar film operator and press agent, found directions and material support for patriotic activities in the “propagande.” From the Maison de la Presse were dispatched to every neutral and entente nation select “missions.”The chief focus of all this Allied propaganda was the United States, especially Washington and New York, though itinerant propagandists in every variety have covered every section of the country. By this time the English propaganda, also, was in full blast, under the blunt leadership of Lord Northcliffe, with a Minister at home—in the person of Lord Beaverbrook—all to itself. In those days Fifth Avenue became a multi-colored parade of Allied propaganda. One could scarcely dine without meeting a fair propagandist or distinguished Frenchman or titled Englishman (titles in war being chiefly for American consumption!), or enter a theatre without suffering some secret or overt stimulation from the propaganda, etc.Chief of the French propagandists was Andre Cheradame, who, when President Wilson at one time during the peace confab threatened to bolt the conference, rose to the boldness of proposing to start a conspiracy against him in his own country. According to the Paris “Le Populaire,” early in 1919:Cheradame, who was received and treated in a very friendly way by Woodrow Wilson, moved that “highly paid propagandists be sent at once to the United States to get in touch with President Wilson’s opponents, in particular with those who are membersof the Senate, as the Constitution of the United States gives that body power to veto any treaty signed by the President.”To this extent had the success of anti-German propaganda in our country encouraged the agents of the French government! In the New York “Evening Post” of March 3, 1919, David Lawrence, the regular correspondent of that paper, then sojourning in Paris, speaks of “propaganda bureaus, known to the public of America, however, as ‘bureaus of education’ or ‘committees on public information,’ are conducted by most of the Allied governments in different parts of the world.” He points out that in Paris the method largely followed was that of bestowing social attention and decorations “on American civilians to make them support all sorts of causes.”The Vienna correspondent of the “Germania,” Berlin, writing the latter part of June, 1919, refers to “the utterances of a French general staff officer, who asserts that every intelligent person in France knows that Germany did not desire the war. Germany could not have wished anything better for herself than the preservation of peace, but France was obliged to make propaganda for her own cause, and it had served the purpose of gaining the accession of the Americans.”While English and French propaganda was thus conducted openly in the American press, a Committee of the United States Senate headed by Overman, was filling the newspapers with alarming accounts of German propaganda—conducted before the United States declared war on the Imperial German Government, the net result being a report of glittering generalities accusing everybody indiscriminately and convicting no one.To what extent our own novelists, musical critics, film producers and “belles chanteuse” were tainted, it is not intended to discuss in this place. That some of our writers were hard put to find cause for describing the German people as Huns, a menace to civilization and a blot on humanity, is evidenced by a remarkable letter written to the New York “Times” by Gertrude Atherton, one of the most outspoken enemies of Germany, in the issue of July 6, 1915 (p. 8, cols. 7 and 8). Not to print it were an unpardonable omission, as it constitutes an indictment of German civilization which none should miss reading. She writes:During the seven years that I lived in Munich, I learned to like Germany better than any State in Europe. I liked and admired the German people; I never suffered from an act of rudeness, and I was never cheated of a penny. I was not even taxed until a year before I left, because I made no money out of the country and turned in a considerable amount in the course of a year. When my maid went to the Rathaus to pay my taxes (moderate enough), the official apologized, saying that he had disliked to send me a bill, but the increasing cost of the armycompelled the country to raise money in every way possible. This was in 1908. The only disagreeable German I met was my landlord, and as we always dodged each other in the house or turned an abrupt corner to avoid encounter on the street, we steered clear of friction. And he was the only landlord I had.I left Munich with the greatest regret, and up to the moment of the declaration of war I continued to like Germany better than any country in the world except my own.The reason I left was significant. I spent, as a rule, seven or eight months in Munich, then a similar period in the United States, unless I traveled. I always returned to my apartment with such joy that when I arrived at night I did not go to bed lest I forget in sleep how overjoyed I was to get back to that stately and picturesque city, so prodigal with every form of artistic and aesthetic gratification.But that was the trouble. For as long a time after my return as it took to write the book I had in mind I worked with the stored American energy I had within me; then for months in spite of good resolutions, and some self-anathema I did nothing. What was the use?The beautiful German city, so full of artistic delight, was made to live in, not to work in. The entire absence of poverty in that city of half a million inhabitants alone gave it an air of illusions, gave one the sense of being the guest of a hospitable monarch who only asked to provide a banquet for all that could appreciate. I look back upon Munich as the romance of my life, the only place on this globe that came near to satisfying every want of my nature.And that is the reason why, in a sort of panic, I abruptly pulled up stakes and left for good and all. It is not in the true American idea to be content; it means running to seed, a weakening of the will and the vital force. If I remained too long in that lovely land—so admirably governed that I could not have lost myself, or my cat, had I possessed one—I should in no long course yield utterly to a certain resentfully admitted tendency to dream and drift and live for pure beauty; finally desert my country with the comfortable reflection: Why all this bustle, this desire to excel, to keep in the front rank, to find pleasure in individual work, when so many artistic achievements are ready-made for all to enjoy without effort? For—here is the point—an American, the American of to-day—accustomed to high speed, constant energy, nervous tenseness, the uncertainty, and the fight, cannot cultivate the leisurely German method, the almost scientific and unpersonal spirit that informs every profession and branch of art. It is our own way or none for us Americans.Therefore, loving Germany as I did, and with only the most enchanting memories of her, if I had not immediately permitted the American spirit to assert itself last August and taken a hostile and definite stand against the German idea (which includes, by the way, the permanent subjection of women), I should have been a traitor, for I know out of the menace I felt to my own future, as bound up with an assured development under insidious influences, what the future of my country, whichstands for the only true progress in the world today, and a far higher ideal of mortal happiness than the most benevolent paternalism can bestow, had in store for it, with Germany victorious, and America (always profoundly moved by success, owing to her very practicality) disturbed, but compelled to admire.The Germans living here, destitute as their race seems to be of psychology, when it comes to judging other races, must know all this; so I say that they are traitors if they have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. If they have not, and dream of returning one day to the fatherland, then I have nothing to say, for there is no better motto for any man than: “My country, right or wrong.”The process of reasoning here plainly is: Germany is such a well-governed, well-behaved, well-groomed, honest, beautiful, seductive country that if I do not side with her enemies I shall fall completely under her spell, and therefore, having left such a model country, every German who comes to the United States to live must be a traitor to America. Ingenious reasoning!
Propaganda in the United States.—It has been charged that though a large number of American newspapers were controlled in England through Lord Northcliffe, a joint commission of English, French and Belgian propagandists was deemed necessary early in the war to create public sentiment in the United States in favor of intervention on the side of the European Allies through the process of “retaining” a number of prominent speakers as attorneys and employing a staff of well-known writers, novelists and poets to arouse us from our state of neutrality. A similar policy was followed in other countries, and in the course of an interview with Vicente Blasco Ibanez, the Spanish novelist, author of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (in which the Germans are pictured in most repellent color), the New York “Times” of October 18, 1919, printed the following significant paragraph:
Ibanez said the actual writing of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” was done in four months in time spared from his official work of writing a weekly chronicle of the warand directing the Allied propaganda as an agent of the French Government.
This frank statement will tend to cause “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” which was hailed as “the greatest novel of the war” by the literary critics on the newspapers, and many persons ignorant of the design concealed within the pages of the novel, to appear in a somewhat different light from that inspired by a belief in the untainted integrity of the author.
The English propaganda bureau for the United States, located in New York, was in charge of Louis Tracy, an English novelist. In an interview with Tracy, published in the New York “Evening Sun” of November 10, 1919, the author exposes frankly the methods pursued by himself and staff in fostering the British cause by attacks on the German and Irish element in the United States and in furthering libels of the enemy through the medium of the American press. Incidentally he is quoted as follows:
The great part of my work, of course, was the press. We began that during the first winter of the war, and it covered every phase of magazine and newspaper publication.... We had at our disposal the services of writers and scholars who made it possible for us to find out, at any particular moment or crisis, special information for articles about any event, place or person.... The growth of the work of the British Bureau of Information may be estimated by the fact that the working force grew from a mere nine at the time of Mr. Balfour’s installation of the office to fifty-four at the end of the war.
For the entire two years of our participation in the war, and for a period long antedating that event, the American people were under the hypnosis of a propaganda conducted with serpent tongues and poisoned pens by alien agents, spitting and hissing venom in the interest of England and France. Mr. Tracy tells us that other means employed were “war posters which went all over the countryand which are still going.”
The British Bureau of Information was the headquarters of “writers, journalists and authors, dramatists and poets, who turned over to us special articles or descriptions or pieces of art, to be relayed to the periodicals.” And he adds: “There was also, perhaps most in the public eye, the almost endless chain of English men and women who came over during the war to speak under the auspices of the British Government upon different aspects of the war. These did not include the speakers and writers who came over here upon their own initiative and for pecuniary benefit. We were not responsible for them. Butwe did look after andmade arrangements for all the speakers who were sent over by the Government. And they were legion!”
These, in the estimation of Tracy, were as much a part of the militant forces as the actual fighters, for he says: “No war in the history of mankind has been fought with so many aids from the army of intelligence, with so many pens and typewriters and cartooning pencils conscripted in the same army with the line man, the tank and the bird man.”
Need we be surprised that the last bulwark of resistance to this insidious propaganda was swept away? How the British Bureau of Information must have laughed in its sleeve and rejoiced when the fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of the 17,000 American boys of German descent who bled in France were treated as criminal aliens in their own country under the spell of the British propaganda?
The French propaganda bureau was busy in a similar manner. “The Dial” of February 8, 1919, has this to say:
By 1916 the simple installation in the rear of the Quai d’Orsay Ministry had evolved into the famous Maison de la Presse, which occupied, with its many bureaus, a large six-story building on the Rue Francois Premier. This was one of the busiest hives of wartime Paris.There the promising novelist, the art critic, the publicist, or the well-recommended “belle chanteuse,” as well as the more vulgar film operator and press agent, found directions and material support for patriotic activities in the “propagande.” From the Maison de la Presse were dispatched to every neutral and entente nation select “missions.”The chief focus of all this Allied propaganda was the United States, especially Washington and New York, though itinerant propagandists in every variety have covered every section of the country. By this time the English propaganda, also, was in full blast, under the blunt leadership of Lord Northcliffe, with a Minister at home—in the person of Lord Beaverbrook—all to itself. In those days Fifth Avenue became a multi-colored parade of Allied propaganda. One could scarcely dine without meeting a fair propagandist or distinguished Frenchman or titled Englishman (titles in war being chiefly for American consumption!), or enter a theatre without suffering some secret or overt stimulation from the propaganda, etc.
Chief of the French propagandists was Andre Cheradame, who, when President Wilson at one time during the peace confab threatened to bolt the conference, rose to the boldness of proposing to start a conspiracy against him in his own country. According to the Paris “Le Populaire,” early in 1919:
Cheradame, who was received and treated in a very friendly way by Woodrow Wilson, moved that “highly paid propagandists be sent at once to the United States to get in touch with President Wilson’s opponents, in particular with those who are membersof the Senate, as the Constitution of the United States gives that body power to veto any treaty signed by the President.”
To this extent had the success of anti-German propaganda in our country encouraged the agents of the French government! In the New York “Evening Post” of March 3, 1919, David Lawrence, the regular correspondent of that paper, then sojourning in Paris, speaks of “propaganda bureaus, known to the public of America, however, as ‘bureaus of education’ or ‘committees on public information,’ are conducted by most of the Allied governments in different parts of the world.” He points out that in Paris the method largely followed was that of bestowing social attention and decorations “on American civilians to make them support all sorts of causes.”
The Vienna correspondent of the “Germania,” Berlin, writing the latter part of June, 1919, refers to “the utterances of a French general staff officer, who asserts that every intelligent person in France knows that Germany did not desire the war. Germany could not have wished anything better for herself than the preservation of peace, but France was obliged to make propaganda for her own cause, and it had served the purpose of gaining the accession of the Americans.”
While English and French propaganda was thus conducted openly in the American press, a Committee of the United States Senate headed by Overman, was filling the newspapers with alarming accounts of German propaganda—conducted before the United States declared war on the Imperial German Government, the net result being a report of glittering generalities accusing everybody indiscriminately and convicting no one.
To what extent our own novelists, musical critics, film producers and “belles chanteuse” were tainted, it is not intended to discuss in this place. That some of our writers were hard put to find cause for describing the German people as Huns, a menace to civilization and a blot on humanity, is evidenced by a remarkable letter written to the New York “Times” by Gertrude Atherton, one of the most outspoken enemies of Germany, in the issue of July 6, 1915 (p. 8, cols. 7 and 8). Not to print it were an unpardonable omission, as it constitutes an indictment of German civilization which none should miss reading. She writes:
During the seven years that I lived in Munich, I learned to like Germany better than any State in Europe. I liked and admired the German people; I never suffered from an act of rudeness, and I was never cheated of a penny. I was not even taxed until a year before I left, because I made no money out of the country and turned in a considerable amount in the course of a year. When my maid went to the Rathaus to pay my taxes (moderate enough), the official apologized, saying that he had disliked to send me a bill, but the increasing cost of the armycompelled the country to raise money in every way possible. This was in 1908. The only disagreeable German I met was my landlord, and as we always dodged each other in the house or turned an abrupt corner to avoid encounter on the street, we steered clear of friction. And he was the only landlord I had.I left Munich with the greatest regret, and up to the moment of the declaration of war I continued to like Germany better than any country in the world except my own.The reason I left was significant. I spent, as a rule, seven or eight months in Munich, then a similar period in the United States, unless I traveled. I always returned to my apartment with such joy that when I arrived at night I did not go to bed lest I forget in sleep how overjoyed I was to get back to that stately and picturesque city, so prodigal with every form of artistic and aesthetic gratification.But that was the trouble. For as long a time after my return as it took to write the book I had in mind I worked with the stored American energy I had within me; then for months in spite of good resolutions, and some self-anathema I did nothing. What was the use?The beautiful German city, so full of artistic delight, was made to live in, not to work in. The entire absence of poverty in that city of half a million inhabitants alone gave it an air of illusions, gave one the sense of being the guest of a hospitable monarch who only asked to provide a banquet for all that could appreciate. I look back upon Munich as the romance of my life, the only place on this globe that came near to satisfying every want of my nature.And that is the reason why, in a sort of panic, I abruptly pulled up stakes and left for good and all. It is not in the true American idea to be content; it means running to seed, a weakening of the will and the vital force. If I remained too long in that lovely land—so admirably governed that I could not have lost myself, or my cat, had I possessed one—I should in no long course yield utterly to a certain resentfully admitted tendency to dream and drift and live for pure beauty; finally desert my country with the comfortable reflection: Why all this bustle, this desire to excel, to keep in the front rank, to find pleasure in individual work, when so many artistic achievements are ready-made for all to enjoy without effort? For—here is the point—an American, the American of to-day—accustomed to high speed, constant energy, nervous tenseness, the uncertainty, and the fight, cannot cultivate the leisurely German method, the almost scientific and unpersonal spirit that informs every profession and branch of art. It is our own way or none for us Americans.Therefore, loving Germany as I did, and with only the most enchanting memories of her, if I had not immediately permitted the American spirit to assert itself last August and taken a hostile and definite stand against the German idea (which includes, by the way, the permanent subjection of women), I should have been a traitor, for I know out of the menace I felt to my own future, as bound up with an assured development under insidious influences, what the future of my country, whichstands for the only true progress in the world today, and a far higher ideal of mortal happiness than the most benevolent paternalism can bestow, had in store for it, with Germany victorious, and America (always profoundly moved by success, owing to her very practicality) disturbed, but compelled to admire.The Germans living here, destitute as their race seems to be of psychology, when it comes to judging other races, must know all this; so I say that they are traitors if they have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. If they have not, and dream of returning one day to the fatherland, then I have nothing to say, for there is no better motto for any man than: “My country, right or wrong.”
During the seven years that I lived in Munich, I learned to like Germany better than any State in Europe. I liked and admired the German people; I never suffered from an act of rudeness, and I was never cheated of a penny. I was not even taxed until a year before I left, because I made no money out of the country and turned in a considerable amount in the course of a year. When my maid went to the Rathaus to pay my taxes (moderate enough), the official apologized, saying that he had disliked to send me a bill, but the increasing cost of the armycompelled the country to raise money in every way possible. This was in 1908. The only disagreeable German I met was my landlord, and as we always dodged each other in the house or turned an abrupt corner to avoid encounter on the street, we steered clear of friction. And he was the only landlord I had.
I left Munich with the greatest regret, and up to the moment of the declaration of war I continued to like Germany better than any country in the world except my own.
The reason I left was significant. I spent, as a rule, seven or eight months in Munich, then a similar period in the United States, unless I traveled. I always returned to my apartment with such joy that when I arrived at night I did not go to bed lest I forget in sleep how overjoyed I was to get back to that stately and picturesque city, so prodigal with every form of artistic and aesthetic gratification.
But that was the trouble. For as long a time after my return as it took to write the book I had in mind I worked with the stored American energy I had within me; then for months in spite of good resolutions, and some self-anathema I did nothing. What was the use?
The beautiful German city, so full of artistic delight, was made to live in, not to work in. The entire absence of poverty in that city of half a million inhabitants alone gave it an air of illusions, gave one the sense of being the guest of a hospitable monarch who only asked to provide a banquet for all that could appreciate. I look back upon Munich as the romance of my life, the only place on this globe that came near to satisfying every want of my nature.
And that is the reason why, in a sort of panic, I abruptly pulled up stakes and left for good and all. It is not in the true American idea to be content; it means running to seed, a weakening of the will and the vital force. If I remained too long in that lovely land—so admirably governed that I could not have lost myself, or my cat, had I possessed one—I should in no long course yield utterly to a certain resentfully admitted tendency to dream and drift and live for pure beauty; finally desert my country with the comfortable reflection: Why all this bustle, this desire to excel, to keep in the front rank, to find pleasure in individual work, when so many artistic achievements are ready-made for all to enjoy without effort? For—here is the point—an American, the American of to-day—accustomed to high speed, constant energy, nervous tenseness, the uncertainty, and the fight, cannot cultivate the leisurely German method, the almost scientific and unpersonal spirit that informs every profession and branch of art. It is our own way or none for us Americans.
Therefore, loving Germany as I did, and with only the most enchanting memories of her, if I had not immediately permitted the American spirit to assert itself last August and taken a hostile and definite stand against the German idea (which includes, by the way, the permanent subjection of women), I should have been a traitor, for I know out of the menace I felt to my own future, as bound up with an assured development under insidious influences, what the future of my country, whichstands for the only true progress in the world today, and a far higher ideal of mortal happiness than the most benevolent paternalism can bestow, had in store for it, with Germany victorious, and America (always profoundly moved by success, owing to her very practicality) disturbed, but compelled to admire.
The Germans living here, destitute as their race seems to be of psychology, when it comes to judging other races, must know all this; so I say that they are traitors if they have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. If they have not, and dream of returning one day to the fatherland, then I have nothing to say, for there is no better motto for any man than: “My country, right or wrong.”
The process of reasoning here plainly is: Germany is such a well-governed, well-behaved, well-groomed, honest, beautiful, seductive country that if I do not side with her enemies I shall fall completely under her spell, and therefore, having left such a model country, every German who comes to the United States to live must be a traitor to America. Ingenious reasoning!
Pitcher, Molly.Pitcher, Molly.—Not only was Barbara Fritchie of German descent, as shown elsewhere, but so also was the famous “Molly Pitcher” of Revolutionary fame, whose story is known to every American patriot as the woman who brought water to the fighting men in the battle line in a large pitcher, to which she owed her name in history. Her maiden name was Marie Ludwig, and she was born of good Palatine stock October 13, 1754, in New Jersey. Her husband was John Hays, a gunner, who was wounded at the battle of Monmouth. There being no man available, Molly took his place and served the cannon so efficiently, loading and firing with such dexterity, that after the battle Washington appointed her to the rank of sergeant with a sergeant’s pay.
Pitcher, Molly.—Not only was Barbara Fritchie of German descent, as shown elsewhere, but so also was the famous “Molly Pitcher” of Revolutionary fame, whose story is known to every American patriot as the woman who brought water to the fighting men in the battle line in a large pitcher, to which she owed her name in history. Her maiden name was Marie Ludwig, and she was born of good Palatine stock October 13, 1754, in New Jersey. Her husband was John Hays, a gunner, who was wounded at the battle of Monmouth. There being no man available, Molly took his place and served the cannon so efficiently, loading and firing with such dexterity, that after the battle Washington appointed her to the rank of sergeant with a sergeant’s pay.
Press Attacks in Congress.Press Attacks in Congress.—Representative Calloway quoted in the Congressional Record of February 9, 1917:Mr. Chairman, under unanimous consent, I insert in the Record at this point a statement showing the newspaper combination, which explains their activity in this matter, just discussed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Moore):“In March, 1915, the J. P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding and powder interests and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the United States.“These 12 men worked the problem out by selecting 179 newspapers, and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those necessaryfor the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished to each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.“This contract is in existence at the present time, and it accounts for the news columns of the daily press of the country being filled with all sorts of preparedness arguments and misrepresentations as to the present condition of the United States army and navy and the possibility and probability of the United States being attacked by foreign foes.“This policy also includes the suppression of everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served. The effectiveness of this scheme has been conclusively demonstrated by the character of stuff carried in the daily press throughout the country since March, 1915. They have resorted to anything necessary, to commercialize public sentiment and sandbag the National Congress into making extravagant and wasteful appropriations for the army and navy under the false pretense that it was necessary. Their stock argument is that it is ‘patriotism.’ They are playing on every prejudice and passion of the American people.”
Press Attacks in Congress.—Representative Calloway quoted in the Congressional Record of February 9, 1917:
Mr. Chairman, under unanimous consent, I insert in the Record at this point a statement showing the newspaper combination, which explains their activity in this matter, just discussed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Moore):
“In March, 1915, the J. P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding and powder interests and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the United States.
“These 12 men worked the problem out by selecting 179 newspapers, and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those necessaryfor the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished to each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.
“This contract is in existence at the present time, and it accounts for the news columns of the daily press of the country being filled with all sorts of preparedness arguments and misrepresentations as to the present condition of the United States army and navy and the possibility and probability of the United States being attacked by foreign foes.
“This policy also includes the suppression of everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served. The effectiveness of this scheme has been conclusively demonstrated by the character of stuff carried in the daily press throughout the country since March, 1915. They have resorted to anything necessary, to commercialize public sentiment and sandbag the National Congress into making extravagant and wasteful appropriations for the army and navy under the false pretense that it was necessary. Their stock argument is that it is ‘patriotism.’ They are playing on every prejudice and passion of the American people.”
Pathfinders.Pathfinders.—In reply to the question, “Who are the twelve greatest Americans of German descent?” the following were named by a small committee who conferred upon the matter:Franz Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown and author of the first protest against slavery on American soil.Conrad Weiser, “the first who combined the activity of a pioneer with the outlook of a statesman.”—Benson J. Lossing.Governor Jacob Leisler, acting governor of New York, the first martyr to the cause of American independence.Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, founder of the Lutheran Church in America and father of General Muhlenberg and of the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.John Peter Zenger, founder of the freedom of the press in America.David Rittenhouse, America’s first great scientist.General Frederick von Steuben, the drillmaster of the American Revolutionary army, who received the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.John Jacob Astor, the pioneer and pathfinder in American industrial enterprise.Carl Schurz, Union general, diplomat, United States Senator and Cabinet officer; founder of the Civil Service.Francis Lieber, politician, encyclopedist, college professor, who first codified the laws of war for the United States government.Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the typesetting machine.Charles P. Steinmetz, one of the world’s greatest electricians.
Pathfinders.—In reply to the question, “Who are the twelve greatest Americans of German descent?” the following were named by a small committee who conferred upon the matter:
Franz Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown and author of the first protest against slavery on American soil.
Conrad Weiser, “the first who combined the activity of a pioneer with the outlook of a statesman.”—Benson J. Lossing.
Governor Jacob Leisler, acting governor of New York, the first martyr to the cause of American independence.
Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, founder of the Lutheran Church in America and father of General Muhlenberg and of the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.
John Peter Zenger, founder of the freedom of the press in America.
David Rittenhouse, America’s first great scientist.
General Frederick von Steuben, the drillmaster of the American Revolutionary army, who received the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
John Jacob Astor, the pioneer and pathfinder in American industrial enterprise.
Carl Schurz, Union general, diplomat, United States Senator and Cabinet officer; founder of the Civil Service.
Francis Lieber, politician, encyclopedist, college professor, who first codified the laws of war for the United States government.
Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the typesetting machine.
Charles P. Steinmetz, one of the world’s greatest electricians.
Poison Gas.Poison Gas.—That the Germans were not the first to use poison gas in warfare, that the practice originated with the English, and that the French used gases in the world war before the Germans, was well known to thousands in a position to inform others, but no denial of this falsehood has ever been made. The first recorded use of poison gas in modern times was in connection with the bombardment of Colenso by the English during the Boer War. The fact is testified to by General von der Golz in a book describing the English military operations against the Boers, which he witnessed as German military attache, and is verified in a number of accounts of the war against the South African republics. The guns used against Colenso to discharge the gas and kill the defenders by asphyxiation were brought from the British dreadnought, “Terrible.” It was a typical English invention. At first there was no thought of using gas in land warfare. It was designed to be discharged by a shell which should penetrate the armor-plate of an enemy vessel. A poisoned gas-shell exploding inside of another vessel was expected to kill everybody under deck. When it was found impossible to effect the surrender of Colenso, the guns were used there for the first time in field operations, as stated. These facts are further corroborated by Mr. George A. Schreiner, Associated Press correspondent during the recent war, author of “The Iron Ration,” and a participant in the defense of Colenso, who to this day is feeling the effect of the gas.The charge that the Germans were the first to use gas bombs and the attempt to represent their employment of such bombs as acts of barbarism was ridiculed by Gustav Hervé, the editor of the Paris “La Guerre Sociale,” in these words: “There is a bit of hypocrisy in this show of indignation against the use of asphyxiating gas. Have we forgotten the incredible stories that were told about the effects of turpinite when in August the Germans were marching toward Paris and the craziest stories were in general circulation? People in fits of ecstacy told others about the murderous effect of the asphyxiating bombs of the celebrated inventor. ‘Why, my dear sir, 70,000 Germans were simply stricken down; whole regiments were destroyed by asphyxiation.’ I remember very distinctly. No one protested. As long as we believed in the marvel of Turpin’s asphyxiating powder, Turpinwas hailed as a hero. Then why this absurd cry, this hypocritical attempt to condemn the Germans for inventing a powder, that in comparison with the turpinite we called to our aid in the hour of our greatest distress, appears to be as gentle as the holy St. John. Instead of blaming the Germans for utilizing asphyxiating gases, we might better blame ourselves for permitting the enemy to outdo us in inventive genius.”General Amos A. Fries, head of the Chemical Service of the American Expeditionary Forces, quoted in the February, 1919, issue of “Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering,” described the use of poison gas as “the most humane method of fighting.” Only 30 per cent. of American casualties and 5 per cent. of the deaths were due to gas. He held that the situation was similar to that when gunpowder was first utilized, a practice “universally frowned upon as unfair and unsportsmanlike, yet it endured.” In a similar vein General Sibert testified before a Senate Committee in June, 1919.
Poison Gas.—That the Germans were not the first to use poison gas in warfare, that the practice originated with the English, and that the French used gases in the world war before the Germans, was well known to thousands in a position to inform others, but no denial of this falsehood has ever been made. The first recorded use of poison gas in modern times was in connection with the bombardment of Colenso by the English during the Boer War. The fact is testified to by General von der Golz in a book describing the English military operations against the Boers, which he witnessed as German military attache, and is verified in a number of accounts of the war against the South African republics. The guns used against Colenso to discharge the gas and kill the defenders by asphyxiation were brought from the British dreadnought, “Terrible.” It was a typical English invention. At first there was no thought of using gas in land warfare. It was designed to be discharged by a shell which should penetrate the armor-plate of an enemy vessel. A poisoned gas-shell exploding inside of another vessel was expected to kill everybody under deck. When it was found impossible to effect the surrender of Colenso, the guns were used there for the first time in field operations, as stated. These facts are further corroborated by Mr. George A. Schreiner, Associated Press correspondent during the recent war, author of “The Iron Ration,” and a participant in the defense of Colenso, who to this day is feeling the effect of the gas.
The charge that the Germans were the first to use gas bombs and the attempt to represent their employment of such bombs as acts of barbarism was ridiculed by Gustav Hervé, the editor of the Paris “La Guerre Sociale,” in these words: “There is a bit of hypocrisy in this show of indignation against the use of asphyxiating gas. Have we forgotten the incredible stories that were told about the effects of turpinite when in August the Germans were marching toward Paris and the craziest stories were in general circulation? People in fits of ecstacy told others about the murderous effect of the asphyxiating bombs of the celebrated inventor. ‘Why, my dear sir, 70,000 Germans were simply stricken down; whole regiments were destroyed by asphyxiation.’ I remember very distinctly. No one protested. As long as we believed in the marvel of Turpin’s asphyxiating powder, Turpinwas hailed as a hero. Then why this absurd cry, this hypocritical attempt to condemn the Germans for inventing a powder, that in comparison with the turpinite we called to our aid in the hour of our greatest distress, appears to be as gentle as the holy St. John. Instead of blaming the Germans for utilizing asphyxiating gases, we might better blame ourselves for permitting the enemy to outdo us in inventive genius.”
General Amos A. Fries, head of the Chemical Service of the American Expeditionary Forces, quoted in the February, 1919, issue of “Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering,” described the use of poison gas as “the most humane method of fighting.” Only 30 per cent. of American casualties and 5 per cent. of the deaths were due to gas. He held that the situation was similar to that when gunpowder was first utilized, a practice “universally frowned upon as unfair and unsportsmanlike, yet it endured.” In a similar vein General Sibert testified before a Senate Committee in June, 1919.
Penn, William.Penn, William.—Founder of Pennsylvania, under whose jurisdiction the first Pennsylvania German settlements were effected. His mother was a Dutch woman, Margaret Jasper, of Rotterdam. Dutch was Penn’s native tongue, as well as English. He was a scholar versed in Dutch law, history and religion. He preached in Dutch and won thousands of converts and settlers, inviting them to his Christian Commonwealth. (Dr. William Elliot Griffis.) Oswald Seidensticker (“Bilder aus der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte,” Steiger, New York, p. 82) writes:“For more than a century Germantown remained true to its name, a German town. William Penn in 1683 preached there, in Tunes Kunder’s house in the German language, and General Washington in 1793 attended German service in the Reformed Church.”
Penn, William.—Founder of Pennsylvania, under whose jurisdiction the first Pennsylvania German settlements were effected. His mother was a Dutch woman, Margaret Jasper, of Rotterdam. Dutch was Penn’s native tongue, as well as English. He was a scholar versed in Dutch law, history and religion. He preached in Dutch and won thousands of converts and settlers, inviting them to his Christian Commonwealth. (Dr. William Elliot Griffis.) Oswald Seidensticker (“Bilder aus der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte,” Steiger, New York, p. 82) writes:
“For more than a century Germantown remained true to its name, a German town. William Penn in 1683 preached there, in Tunes Kunder’s house in the German language, and General Washington in 1793 attended German service in the Reformed Church.”
Pilgrim Society.Pilgrim Society.—A powerful organization in New York City, nominally for the promotion of the sentiment of brotherhood among Englishmen and Americans, but in reality to promote a secret movement to unite the United States with “the Mother Country,” England, as advocated by Andrew Carnegie, the late Whitelaw Reid, and, as provided for in the secret will of Cecil Rhodes. Among its prominent members are the British Ambassador, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas W. Lamont, partner of Morgan; John Revelstoke Rathom, British-born editor of the Providence “Journal;” Adolph Ochs, owner of the New York “Times;” Ogden Mills Reid, President New York “Tribune,” and brother-in-law of the first Equerry to the King of England; James M. Beck and numerous other Wall Street corporation lawyers, and the underwriters of the Anglo-French war loan of $500,000,000 and Russian ruble loan.
Pilgrim Society.—A powerful organization in New York City, nominally for the promotion of the sentiment of brotherhood among Englishmen and Americans, but in reality to promote a secret movement to unite the United States with “the Mother Country,” England, as advocated by Andrew Carnegie, the late Whitelaw Reid, and, as provided for in the secret will of Cecil Rhodes. Among its prominent members are the British Ambassador, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas W. Lamont, partner of Morgan; John Revelstoke Rathom, British-born editor of the Providence “Journal;” Adolph Ochs, owner of the New York “Times;” Ogden Mills Reid, President New York “Tribune,” and brother-in-law of the first Equerry to the King of England; James M. Beck and numerous other Wall Street corporation lawyers, and the underwriters of the Anglo-French war loan of $500,000,000 and Russian ruble loan.
Quitman, Johan Anton.Quitman, Johan Anton.—One of the most prominent and daring soldiers of the Mexican War; son of Friedrich Anton Quitman, a Lutheran minister at Rhinebeck-on-Hudson. Born 1798, took part in the war for the independence of Texas from Mexico, and in 1846 was made brigadier general. Fought with the greatest distinction at Monterey; first at the head of his command to reach the marketplace of the hotly-contested city and raised the American flag on the church steeple. Was in command of the land batteries in 1847, and in conjunction with the American fleet bombarded Vera Cruz into surrender. Distinguished himself at Cerro Gordo, was brevetted Major General and voted a sword by Congress. On September 13, at the head of his troops, stormed Chapultepec, the old fortress of Montezuma, which was considered impregnable by the Mexicans, and on the following day opened the attack on Mexico City, which he entered September 15. Gen. Scott, as a mark of appreciation, appointed Quitman governor of the city, in which capacity he served until peace was restored. He was later elected governor of Mississippi and elected to Congress by large majorities from 1855 to 1858, the year of his death. General Quitman had an eventful career, beginning as a teacher of German at Mount Airy College, Pennsylvania. He studied law and began to practice at Chillicothe, Ohio. Proceeding to Natchez, Miss., he became Chancellor of the Supreme Court, member of the Senate, in the State Legislature, then its president, participating in the Texas War for Independence, visited Germany and France, and on his return was appointed to the Federal bench. His father was born in Cleve, Rhenish Prussia, and was a brilliant scholar, high in the councils of the Lutheran church.
Quitman, Johan Anton.—One of the most prominent and daring soldiers of the Mexican War; son of Friedrich Anton Quitman, a Lutheran minister at Rhinebeck-on-Hudson. Born 1798, took part in the war for the independence of Texas from Mexico, and in 1846 was made brigadier general. Fought with the greatest distinction at Monterey; first at the head of his command to reach the marketplace of the hotly-contested city and raised the American flag on the church steeple. Was in command of the land batteries in 1847, and in conjunction with the American fleet bombarded Vera Cruz into surrender. Distinguished himself at Cerro Gordo, was brevetted Major General and voted a sword by Congress. On September 13, at the head of his troops, stormed Chapultepec, the old fortress of Montezuma, which was considered impregnable by the Mexicans, and on the following day opened the attack on Mexico City, which he entered September 15. Gen. Scott, as a mark of appreciation, appointed Quitman governor of the city, in which capacity he served until peace was restored. He was later elected governor of Mississippi and elected to Congress by large majorities from 1855 to 1858, the year of his death. General Quitman had an eventful career, beginning as a teacher of German at Mount Airy College, Pennsylvania. He studied law and began to practice at Chillicothe, Ohio. Proceeding to Natchez, Miss., he became Chancellor of the Supreme Court, member of the Senate, in the State Legislature, then its president, participating in the Texas War for Independence, visited Germany and France, and on his return was appointed to the Federal bench. His father was born in Cleve, Rhenish Prussia, and was a brilliant scholar, high in the councils of the Lutheran church.
Representation in Congress, 1779-1912.Representation in Congress, 1779-1912.—Table compiled of the membership of Congress from 1779 to and including the 62nd Congress:Total number of members ofSenate and House from the1st to the 62nd Congress7,500Total number of members ofSenate and House of foreign birth,1st to 62nd Congress302Distributed as follows:Ireland114England47Germany42Scotland37Canada23France8Austria5West Indies4Norway4Sweden3Wales4Holland2Switzerland2Bermuda Islands2Denmark1Brazil1Azore Islands1Madeira Islands1Spanish Florida1302
Representation in Congress, 1779-1912.—Table compiled of the membership of Congress from 1779 to and including the 62nd Congress:
Total number of members ofSenate and House from the1st to the 62nd Congress7,500Total number of members ofSenate and House of foreign birth,1st to 62nd Congress302Distributed as follows:Ireland114England47Germany42Scotland37Canada23France8Austria5West Indies4Norway4Sweden3Wales4Holland2Switzerland2Bermuda Islands2Denmark1Brazil1Azore Islands1Madeira Islands1Spanish Florida1302