The Washington herald., 1914-11-08

hardly less NlrulenI form OF
mental disorder. Thousands OF
perfectly innocent persons have been
watched, Inconvenience, thrown into Jail
and deported If all accounts be true.
hundreds have been executed. Doubtless
many spies have been trailed down and
handled in accordance to the laws of war,
but Just as certain a far greater number
Of harmless persons have been mis-
treated.
The spy mania is especially virulent
among the patriots who are forced to
stay at home. Unable, like their neigh
bors. to go to the front and fight for their
country, they show their loyalty to which
soever monarch they live under by spy
ing on their fellow men and women and
by denounCing them at the least provoca-
ton.
Women have been particularly active
in unCOveriLg suspected agents OF for
eign governments. With an ardOr worthy
of the knitting furies of the Reign OF
Terror, many hitherto peacefully disposed
French. English and German women have
spent all their spare time. which seemed
to be plentiful, in dogging the footsteps
of inOffensive neighbOrs, in reporting sus-
picious cases to the authorities and in
going out of their way to collect 'evi-
dence"
From London. Berlin. Paris especially.
come stories of spies arrested by the hun
dreds. 1t is ridiculous to believe that
inimical governments would employ
agents on such wholesale plans or that
they would burden themselves with
agents of the type to be detected so
easily.
The espionage systems OF the Old
World powers are extensive, it is true.
Even in times of peace many agents were
detected, arrested and punished. 1t used
to be said that it was a dull day in Ber-
lin judicial circles when at least one spy
was not sentenced. Likewise in Vienna,
Budapest, St. Petersburg and the other
big cities, arrests were always numerous
before the war broke out.
But if in Berlin arrests only averaged
one a day in times of peace. it is non
sense to ask us to believe that now, when
all Europe is at war and the lot of the
spy is instant death, these agents would
be so careless as to allow themselves to
be caught by scores.
London is spy mad, Berlin is spy mad,
Paris is spy mad. When reports begin to
trickle in from the other big cities now
absolutely cut off from communication
with the outside world, stories will be
told of arrests in Vienna, Budapest, st.
Petersburg (or Petrograd, as 1t now pre-
fers to be called.) The dual monarchy
always has been a prolific ground for the
activities of spies. Each of the score of
nationalities spied on each other, and
Russia, Germany and the other powers
spied on them all. And now the spyites
are spying on everybody.
These spyites, as they have come to be
called, are most perniciously active, just
now, in London, Paris and Berlin, judg-
ing from the accounts which arrive in
roundabout ways.
The poor artists are in despair. To be
caught with pencil, pad and paper is as
good as applying for a nights lodging in
the police station. The camera iends for
once are checkmated. The British war
Office for the protection of the people
themselves, issued an official order ''sug-
gesting" that camera owners confine their
activities to views to be taken in their
own yards. A man or woman with for