GERMAN PLOTS AND PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA
The pages of Germany’s militaristic history are black with many
shameful deeds and plots. Those pages upon which are written the
intrigues against the peace of America and against the lives and
properties of American citizens during the period between the
declaration of war in 1914 and the armistice ending the war, while not
so bloody as those relating to the atrocities in Belgium and Northern
France are still revolting to civilized mankind.
Germany not only paid for the murder of passengers on ships where its
infernal machines were placed, not only conspired for the destruction
of munition plants and factories of many kinds, not only sought to
embroil the United States, then neutral, in a war with Mexico and
Japan, but it committed also the crime of murderous hypocrisy by
conspiring to do these wrongs under the cloak of friendship for this
country.
It was in December of 1915 that the German Government sent to the
United States for general publication in American newspapers this
statement:
The German Government has naturally never knowingly accepted the
support of any person, group of persons, society or organization
seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the United States by
illegal acts, by counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by
any means whatever that could offend the American people in the pride
of their own authority.
The answer to this imperial lie came from the President of the United
States, when, in his address to Congress, April 2, 1917, urging a
declaration of war on Germany, he characterized the German spy system
and its frightful fruits in the following language:
“One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian
autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very
outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities,
and even our offices of government, with spies, and set criminal
intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our
peace within and without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed it
is now evident that its spies were here even before the war began; and
it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proved in our
courts of justice, that the intrigues which have more than once come
perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries
of the country have been carried on at the instigation, with the
support, and even under the personal direction of official agents of
the Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the United
States.”
[Illustration: WOMEN AT WORK THAT MEN MIGHT FIGHT
The women of the world took up quickly almost every masculine task
in industry to release their menfolk for the firing line. They were
especially valuable in the munitions factories of England, as shown
above. The women in the foreground are testing shell cases for size,
while those in the background work the lathes.]
Austria co-operated with Germany in a feeble way in these plots and
propaganda, but the master plotter was Count Johann von Bernstorff,
Germany’s Ambassador. The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Constantin
Theodor Dumba, Captain Franz von Papen, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, Dr.
Heinrich F. Albert, and Wolf von Igel, all of whom were attached to the
German embassy, were associates in the intrigues. Franz von Rintelen
operated independently and received his funds and instructions directly
from Berlin.
One of the earliest methods of creating disorder in American munition
plants and other industrial establishments engaged in war work was
through labor disturbances. With that end in view a general German
employment bureau was established in August, 1915, in New York City.
It had branches in Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
Chicago and Cincinnati. These cities at that time were the centers of
industries engaged in furnishing munitions and war supplies to the
Entente allies. Concerning this enterprise Ambassador Dumba writing to
Baron Burian, Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, said:
A private German employment office has been established which
provides employment for persons who have voluntarily given up their
places, and it is already working well. We shall also join in and the
widest support is assured us.
The duties of men sent from the German employment offices into munition
plants may be gathered from the following frank circular issued on
November 2, 1914, by the German General Headquarters and reprinted in
the _Freie Zeitung_, of Berne.
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS TO THE MILITARY REPRESENTATIVE ON THE RUSSIAN
AND FRENCH FRONTS, AS WELL AS IN ITALY AND NORWAY
In all branch establishments of German banking houses in Sweden,
Norway, Switzerland, China and the United States, special military
accounts have been opened for special war necessities. Main
headquarters authorizes you to use these credits to an unlimited
extent for the purpose of destroying factories, workshops, camps, and
the most important centers of military and civil supply belonging to
the enemy. In addition to the incitement of labor troubles, measures
must be taken for the damaging of engines and machinery plants, the
destruction of vessels carrying war material to enemy countries,
the burning of stocks of raw materials and finished goods, and the
depriving of large industrial centers of electric power, fuel and
food. Special agents, who will be placed at your disposal, will
supply you with the necessary means for effecting explosions and
fires, as well as with a list of people in the country under your
supervision who are willing to undertake the task of destruction.
(Signed) DR. E. FISCHER.
Shortly after the establishment of the German employment bureau,
Ambassador Dumba sent the following communication to the Austrian
Foreign Office:
It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months,
if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem
and the Middle West, which, in the opinion of the German military
attaché, is of importance and amply outweighs the comparatively small
expenditure of money involved.
Concerning the operations of the arson and murder squad organized by
von Bernstorff, Dumba and their associates, it is only necessary to
turn to the records of the criminal courts of the United States and
Canada. Take for example the case against Albert Kaltschmidt, living
in Detroit, Michigan. The United States grand jury sitting in Detroit
indicted Kaltschmidt and his fellow conspirators upon the following
counts:
“To blow up the factory of the Peabody’s Company, Limited, at
Walkerville, Ontario, ... engaged in manufacturing uniforms, clothing
and military supplies....
“To blow up the building known as the Windsor Armories of the City of
Windsor....
“To blow up and destroy other plants and buildings in said Dominion
of Canada, which were used for the manufacture of munitions of war,
clothing and uniforms.
“To blow up and destroy the great railroad bridges of the Canadian
Pacific Railroad at Nipigon....
“To employ and send into said Dominion of Canada spies to obtain
military information.”
Besides the acts enumerated in the indictment it was proved upon trial
that Kaltschmidt and his gang planned to blow up the Detroit Screw
Works where shrapnel was being manufactured, and to destroy the St.
Clair tunnel, connecting Canada with the United States. Both of these
plans failed. Associated with Kaltschmidt in these plots were Captain
von Papen, Baron Kurt von Reiswitz, German consul-general in Chicago;
Charles F. Respa, Richard Herman, and William M. Jarasch, the latter
two German reservists. Testifying in the case Jarasch, a bartender,
said: “Jacobsen (an aide) told me that munition factories in Canada
were to be blown up. Before I left for Detroit, Jacobsen and I went to
the consulate. We saw the consul and he shook hands with me and wished
me success.”
Charles F. Respa in his testimony made the following revelations in
response to questions by the government’s representatives:
_Q._ How long had you been employed before he (Kaltschmidt) told you
that he wanted you to blow up some of these factories? _A._ About three
weeks.
_Q._ Did Kaltschmidt at the time speak of any particular place that he
wanted you to blow up? _A._ The particular place was the Armory.
_Q._ Did he mention the Peabody Building at that time? _A._ Not
particularly--he was more after the bridges and the armories and wanted
those places blown up that made ammunition and military clothing.
_Q._ The explosion at the armories was to be timed so that it would
occur when the soldiers were asleep there? _A._ Yes--he did not mention
that he wanted to kill soldiers.
_Q._ Did he say that if the dynamite in the suitcase exploded it would
kill the soldiers? _A._ I do not remember that he said so, but he must
have known it.
_Q._ Did you take both grips? _A._ Yes.
_Q._ Where did you set the first grip? _A._ By the Peabody plant (blown
up on June 20, 1915).
_Q._ Where did you put the other suitcase? _A._ Then I walked down the
Walkerville road to the Armories at Windsor, and carried the suitcase.
_Q._ When you got to the Armories did you know where to place it? _A._
I had my instructions.
_Q._ From Kaltschmidt? _A._ Yes.
_Q._ Did you place this suitcase containing the dynamite bomb at the
armory in a proper place to explode and do any damage? _A._ Yes.
_Q._ Was it properly connected so that the cap would explode and
strike the dynamite? _A._ I fixed it so that it would not.
_Q._ Did you deliberately fix this bomb that you took to the Armories
so that it would not explode? _A._ Yes.
_Q._ Why did you do that? _A._ I knew that the suitcase contained
thirty sticks of dynamite and if exploded would blow up the Armories
and all the ammunition and kill every man in it.
It is interesting to note in this connection that Kaltschmidt was
sentenced to four years in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas,
and to pay a fine of $20,000. Horn’s sentence was eighteen months in
the Atlanta penitentiary and a fine of $1,000.
Attempts were also made to close by explosions the tunnels through
which the Canadian Pacific Railroad passes under the Selkirk Mountains
in British Columbia. The German General Staff in this instance operated
through Franz Bopp, the German consul-general in San Francisco, and
Lieutenant von Brincken. J. H. van Koolbergen was hired to do this
work. Concerning the negotiations, van Koolbergen made this statement:
“Not knowing what he wanted I went to see him. He was very pleasant
and told me that he was an officer in the German army and at present
working in the secret service of the German Empire under Mr. Franz
Bopp, the Imperial German consul.
“I went to the consulate and met Franz Bopp and then saw von Brincken
in another room. He asked me if I would do something for him in Canada
and I answered him, ‘Sure, I will do something, even blow up bridges,
if there is money in it.’ And he said, ‘You are the man; if that is so,
you can make good money.’
“Von Brincken told me that they were willing to send me up to Canada to
blow up one of the bridges on the Canadian Pacific Railroad or one of
the tunnels. I asked him what was in it and he said he would talk it
over with the German consul, Bopp.
“I had accepted von Brincken’s proposition to go to Canada and he
offered me $500 to defray my expenses. On different occasions, in his
room, von Brincken showed me maps and information about Canada, and
pointed out to me where he wanted the act to be done. This was to be
between Revelstoke and Vancouver on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and
I was to get $3,000 in case of a successful blowing up of a military
bridge or tunnel.”
Van Koolbergen only made a pretended effort to blow up the tunnel. He
did furnish the evidence, however, which served to send Bopp and his
associates to the penitentiary.
Even more sensational was the plot against the international bridge
upon which the Grand Trunk Railway crosses the border between the
United States and Canada at Vanceboro, Me.
Werner Horn was a German reserve lieutenant. Von Papen delivered to him
a flat order to blow up the bridge and he gave him $700 for the purpose
of perpetrating the outrage. Horn was partially successful. At his
trial in Boston in June, 1917, he made the following confession:
“I admit and state that the facts set forth in the indictments as to
the conveyance of explosives on certain passenger trains from New York
to Boston and from Boston to Vanceboro, in the State of Maine, are
true. I did, as therein alleged, receive an explosive and conveyed the
same from the city of New York to Boston, thence by common carrier from
Boston to Vanceboro, Maine. On or about the night of February 1, 1915,
I took said explosive in a suitcase in which I was conveying it and
carried the same across the bridge at Vanceboro to the Canadian side,
and there, about 1.10 in the morning of February 2, 1915, I caused said
explosive to be exploded near or against the abutments of the bridge on
the Canadian side, with intent to destroy the abutment and cripple the
bridge so that the same could not be used for the passage of trains.”
Bribery of congressmen was intended by Franz von Rintelen, operating
directly in touch with the German Foreign Office in Berlin. Count von
Bernstorff, Germany’s Ambassador at Washington, sent the following
telegram to Berlin in connection with his plan:
I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 in order, as on former
occasions, to influence Congress through the organization you know
of, which can perhaps prevent war. I am beginning in the meantime to
act accordingly. In the above circumstances, a public official German
declaration in favor of Ireland is highly desirable, in order to gain
the support of the Irish influence here.
That it was Rintelen’s purpose to use large sums of money for the
purpose of bribing congressmen was stated positively by George
Plochman, treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust Company, where Rintelen
kept his deposits.
Rintelen was the main figure on this side of the water in the fantastic
plot to have Mexico and Japan declare war upon the United States.
During the trial of Rintelen in New York City in May, 1917, it was
testified “that he came to the United States in order to embroil it
with Mexico and Japan if necessary; that he was doing all he could and
was going to do all he could to embroil this country with Mexico; that
he believed that if the United States had a war with Mexico it would
stop the shipment of ammunition to Europe; that he believed it would
be only a matter of time until we were involved with Japan.”
Rintelen also said that “General Huerta was going to return to Mexico
and start a revolution there which would cause the United States to
intervene and so make it impossible to ship munitions to Europe.
Intervention,” he said, “was one of his trump cards.”
Mexico was the happy hunting-ground for pro-German plotters, and the
German Ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt, was the leader
in all the intrigues. The culmination of Germany’s effort against
America on this continent came on January 19, 1917, when Dr. Alfred
Zimmerman, head of the German Foreign Office, sent the following cable
to Ambassador von Eckhardt:
On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare
unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to
keep neutral the United States of America.
If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the
following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and
together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and
it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in
New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for
settlement. You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico
of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain
that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States, and
suggest that the President of Mexico, on his own initiative, should
communicate with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this plan; at
the same time, offer to mediate between Germany and Japan.
Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the
employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel
England to make peace in a few months.
ZIMMERMAN.
This was almost three months before the United States entered the
war. As an example of German blindness and diplomatic folly it stands
unrivaled in the annals of the German Foreign Office.
Plots against shipping were the deadliest in which the German
conspirators engaged. Death and destruction followed in their wake. In
direct connection of von Bernstorff and his tools with these outrages
the following testimony by an American secret service man employed by
Wolf von Igel is interesting. It refers to an appointment with Captain
von Kleist, superintendent of Scheele’s bomb factory in Hoboken, N. J.
“We sat down and we spoke for about three hours. I asked him the
different things that he did, and said if he wanted an interview with
Mr. von Igel, my boss, he would have to tell everything. So he told
me that von Papen gave Dr. Scheele, the partner of von Kleist in this
factory, a check for $10,000 to start this bomb factory. He told me
that he, Mr. von Kleist, and Dr. Scheele and a man by the name of
Becker on the Friedrich der Grosse were making the bombs, and that
Captain Wolpert, Captain Bode and Captain Steinberg, had charge of
putting these bombs on the ships; they put these bombs in cases and
shipped them as merchandise on these steamers, and they would go away
on the trip and the bombs would go off after the ship was out four or
five days, causing a fire and causing the cargo to go up in flames. He
also told me that they have made quite a number of these bombs; that
thirty of them were given to a party by the name of O’Leary, and that
he took them down to New Orleans where he had charge of putting them
on ships down there, this fellow O’Leary.”
About four hundred bombs were made under von Igel’s direction;
explosions and fires were caused by them on thirty-three ships sailing
from New York harbor alone.
Four of the bombs were found at Marseilles on a vessel which sailed
from Brooklyn in May, 1915. The evidence collected in the case led to
the indictment of the following men for feloniously transporting on the
steamship Kirk Oswald a bomb or bombs filled with chemicals designed
to cause incendiary fires: Rintelen, Wolpert, Bode, Schmidt, Becker,
Garbade, Praedel, Paradies, von Kleist, Schimmel, Scheele, Steinberg
and others. The last three named fled from justice, Scheele being
supplied with $1,000 for that purpose by Wolf von Igel. He eluded the
Federal authorities until April, 1918, when he was found hiding in Cuba
under the protection of German secret service agents. All the others
except Schmidt were found guilty and sentenced, on February 5, 1918,
to imprisonment for eighteen months and payment of a fine of $2,000
each. It was proved during the trial that Rintelen had hired Schimmel,
a German lawyer, to see that bombs were placed on ships.
Schmidt, von Kleist, Becker, Garbade, Praedel and Paradies had already
been tried for conspiracy to make bombs for concealment on ocean-going
vessels, with the purpose of setting the same on fire. All were found
guilty, and on April 6, 1917, von Kleist and Schmidt were sentenced to
two years’ imprisonment and a fine of $500 each.
Robert Fay, a former officer in the German army, who came to the United
States in April, 1915, endeavored to prevent the traffic in munitions
by sinking the laden ships at sea. In recounting the circumstances of
his arrival here to the chief of the United States secret service, Fay
said:
[Illustration: _Photos from International Film Service._
THE GERMAN CHANCELLORS
On the right is Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg who is held responsible
in large measure for bringing on the war. On the left is Prince
Maximilian of Baden, the Kaiser’s camouflage chancellor who was
appointed in a vain attempt to fool the American people into thinking
that a democratic government had been set up in Germany.]
“... I had in the neighborhood of $4,000.... This money came from a
man who sent me over ... (named) Jonnersen. The understanding was that
it might be worth while to stop the shipment of artillery munitions
from this country.... I imagined Jonnersen to be in the (German) secret
service.”
After stating that he saw von Papen and Boy-Ed, and that neither would
have anything to do with him, apparently because they were suspicious
of his identity and feared a trap, Fay continued:
“I did not want to return (to Germany) without having carried out
my intention, that is, the destruction of ships carrying munitions.
I proceeded with my experiments and tried to get hold of as much
explosive matter as in any way possible....”
Fay and two confederates were arrested in a lonely spot near Grantwood,
New Jersey, while testing an explosive. During his examination at
police headquarters in Weehawken immediately after the arrest he was
questioned as follows:
_Q._ That large machine you have downstairs, what is that?
_A._ That is a patent of mine. It is a new way of getting a time
fuse....
_Q._ Did you know where Scholz (Fay’s brother-in-law) had this machine
made?
_A._ In different machine shops....
_Q._ What material is it you wanted (from Daeche, an accomplice)?
_A._ Trinitrotoluol (T. N. T.)....
_Q._ How much did the machinery cost?
_A._ Roughly speaking, $150 or $200....
_Q._ What would be the cost of making one and filling it with
explosives?
_A._ About $250 each.... If they had given me money enough I should
simply have been able to block the shipping entirely.
_Q._ Do you mean you could have destroyed every ship that left the
harbor by means of those bombs?
_A._ I would have been able to stop so many that the authorities would
not have dared (to send out any ships).
It was proved during Fay’s trial that his bomb was a practical device,
and that its forty pounds of explosive would sink any ship to which it
was attached.
Fay and his accomplices, Scholz and Daeche, were convicted of
conspiracy to attach explosive bombs to the rudders of vessels, with
the intention of wrecking the same when at sea, and were sentenced, on
May 9, 1916, to terms of eight, four and two years respectively, in the
federal penitentiary at Atlanta. Dr. Herbert Kienzle and Max Breitung,
who assisted Fay in procuring explosives, were indicted on the same
charge. Both were interned.
Another plan for disabling ships was suggested by a man who remained
for some time unknown. He called one day at the German Military
Information Bureau, maintained at 60 Wall Street by Captain von Papen,
of the German embassy, and there gave the following outline of his plan:
“I intend to cause serious damage to vessels of the Allies leaving
ports of the United States by placing bombs, which I am making myself,
on board. These bombs resemble ordinary lumps of coal and I am planning
to have them concealed in the coal to be laden on steamers of the
Allies. I have already discussed this plan with ... at ... and he
thinks favorably of my idea. I have been engaged on similar work in ...
after the outbreak of the war, together with Mr. von ...”
The German secret service report from which the above excerpt is
taken states that the maker of the bomb was paid by check No. 146 for
$150 drawn on the Riggs National Bank of Washington. A photographic
copy of this check shows that it was payable to Paul Koenig, of the
Hamburg-American Line and was signed by Captain von Papen. On the
counterfoil is written this memorandum, “For F. J. Busse.”
Busse confessed later that he had discussed with Captain von Papen at
the German Club in New York City the plan of damaging the boilers of
munition ships with bombs which resembled lumps of coal.
Free access to Allied ships laden with supplies for Vladivostok would
have been invaluable to the conspirators, and in order to obtain it
Charles C. Crowley, a detective employed by Consul-General Bopp,
resorted to the extraordinary scheme revealed in the following letter
to Madam Bakhmeteff, wife of the Russian Ambassador to the United
States:
MME. J. BAKHMETEFF, _care Imperial Russian Embassy, Newport, R. I._:
DEAR MADAM:--By direction of the Imperial Russian Consul-General
of San Francisco, I beg to submit the following on behalf of
several fruit-growers of the State of California. As it is the
wish of certain growers to contribute several tons of dried fruit
to the Russian Red Cross they desire to have arrangements made to
facilitate the transportation of this fruit from Tacoma, Washington,
to Vladivostok, and as we are advised that steamships are regularly
plying between Tacoma and Vladivostok upon which government supplies
are shipped we would like to have arrangements made that these
fruits as they might arrive would be regularly consigned to these
steamers and forwarded. It would be necessary, therefore, that an
understanding be had with the agents of these steamship lines at
Tacoma that immediate shipments be made via whatever steamers might
be sailing.
It is the desire of the donors that there be no delay in the
shipments as delays would lessen the benefits intended to those for
whom the fruit was provided....
Respectfully yours,
C. C. CROWLEY.
The statements of Louis J. Smith and van Koolbergen, combined with a
mass of other evidence consisting in part of letters and telegrams,
caused the grand jury to indict Consul-General Bopp, his staff and
his hired agents, for conspiracy to undertake a military enterprise
against Canada. Among the purposes of this enterprise specified in the
indictment was the following:
“To blow up and destroy with their cargoes and crews any and all
vessels belonging to Great Britain, France, Japan or Russia found
within the limits of Canada, which were laden with horses, munitions of
war, or articles of commerce in course of transportation to the above
countries....”
The following descriptions have been made by the United States
Government of the tools of von Bernstorff in German plots:
Paul Koenig, the head of the Hamburg-American secret service, who was
active in passport frauds, who induced Gustave Stahl to perjure himself
and declare the Lusitania armed, and who plotted the destruction of the
Welland Canal. In his work as a spy he passed under thirteen aliases in
this country and Canada.
Captains Boy-Ed, von Papen, von Rintelen, Tauscher, and von Igel were
all directly connected with the German Government itself. There is now
in the possession of the United States Government a check made out to
Koenig and signed by von Papen, identified by number in a secret report
of the German Bureau of Investigation as being used to procure $150
for the payment of a bomb-maker, who was to plant explosives disguised
as coal in the bunkers of the merchant vessels clearing from the port
of New York. Boy-Ed, Dr. Bunz, the German ex-minister to Mexico, the
German consul at San Francisco, and officials of the Hamburg-American
and North German Lloyd steamship lines evaded customs regulations and
coaled and victualed German raiders at sea. Von Papen and von Igel
supervised the making of the incendiary bombs on the Friedrich der
Grosse, then in New York Harbor, and stowed them away on outgoing
ships. Von Rintelen financed Labor’s National Peace Council, which
tried to corrupt legislators and labor leaders.
Among the other tools of the German plotters were David Lamar and Henry
Martin, who, in the pay of Captain von Rintelen, organized and managed
the so-called Labor’s National Peace Council, which sought to bring
about strikes, an embargo on munitions, and a boycott of the banks
which subscribed to the Anglo-French loan. A check for $5,000 to J. F.
J. Archibald for propaganda work, and a receipt from Edwin Emerson,
the war correspondent, for $1,000 traveling expenses were among the
documents found in Wolf von Igel’s possession.
[Illustration: © _Press Illustrating Service._
KAISER WILLIAM II OF GERMANY
Posterity will regard him as more responsible than any other human
being for the sacrifice of millions of lives in the great war, as
a ruler who might have been beneficent and wise, but attempted to
destroy the liberties of mankind and to raise on their ruins an odious
despotism. To forgive him and to forget his terrible transgressions
would be to condone them.]
Others who bore English names were persuaded to take leading places in
similar organizations which concealed their origin and real purpose.
The American Embargo Conference arose out of the ashes of Labor’s
Peace Council, and its president was American, though the funds were
not. Others tampered with were journalists who lent themselves to the
German propaganda and who went so far as to serve as couriers between
the Teutonic embassies in Washington and the governments in Berlin
and Vienna. A check of $5,000 was discovered which Count von Bernstorff
had sent to Marcus Braun, editor of _Fair Play_. And a letter was
discovered which George Sylvester Vierick, editor of the _Fatherland_,
sent to Privy Councilor Albert, the German agent, arranging for a
monthly subsidy of $1,750, to be delivered to him through the hands
of intermediaries--women whose names he abbreviates “to prevent any
possible inquiry.” There is a record of $3,000 paid through the German
embassy to finance the lecture tour of Miss Ray Beveridge, an American
artist, who was further to be supplied with German war pictures.
The German propagandists also directed their efforts to poisoning
the minds of the people through the circulation of lies concerning
affairs in France and at home. Here are some of the rumors circulated
throughout the country that were nailed as falsehoods:
It was said that the national registration of women by the Food
Administration was to find out how much money each had in the bank,
how much of this was owed, and everything about each registrant’s
personal affairs.
That the millions collected from the public for the Red Cross went into
the pockets of thieves, and that the soldiers and sailors got none of
it, nor any of its benefits.
That base hospital units had been annihilated while en route overseas.
That leading members of other hospital units had been executed as spies
by the American Government.
That canned goods put up by the housewives were to be seized by the
government and appropriated to the use of the army and navy.
That soldiers in training were being instructed to put out the eyes of
every German captured.
That all of the “plums” at the officers’ training camps fell to Roman
Catholics. The plums went to Protestants when the propagandist talked
to a Catholic.
That the registration of women was held so that girls would be enticed
into the cities where white slaves were made of them.
That the battleship Pennsylvania had been destroyed with everyone on
board by a German submarine.
That more than seventy-five per cent of the American soldiers in France
had been infected with venereal diseases.
That intoxicants were given freely to American soldiers in Y. M. C. A.
and Knights of Columbus huts in France.
But the lies and the plots failed to make any impression on the morale
of American citizenry. In fact, America from the moment war was
declared against Germany until the time an armistice was declared,
seemed to care for nothing but results. Charges of graft made with
bitter invective in Congress created scarcely more than a ripple. The
harder the pro-German plotters worked for the destruction of property
and the incitement to labor disturbances, the closer became the
protective network of Americanism against these anti-war influences.
After half a dozen German lies had been casually passed from mouth
to mouth as rumors, the American people came to look upon other
mischievous propaganda in its true light. Patriotic newspapers in
every community exposed the false reports and citizens everywhere were
on their guard against the misstatements. It was noticeable that the
propaganda was intensified just previous to and during the several
Liberty Loan campaigns. Proof that the American spirit rises superior
to anti-American influences is furnished by the glorious records of
these Liberty Loans. Every one was over-subscribed despite the severest
handicaps confronted by any nation.