The Washington herald., 1914-09-20
Blanes Foreign Press Agents
For disappearing Germany

To the Editor of The Washington Her
aid: Among the most unfortunate OF
the troubles that beset US at the present
time is the fact that the 100000 people
In this country of German birth, and the
many hundreds Of thousands of Austrian
Hungarian birth. and the millions upon
millions Of descendants of people born in
those countries, now resident in the Uni
ted States, have a very strong and we'll
defined feeling that. in this crisis that
faces the countries dear to them either
as the lands OF their birth or dear to
them simply on account Of the fact that
their forefathers were born there, the
American press, as whole. has abso-
lutely failed to lay before the people OF
this country the true situation. l. as
one born in Boston. educated in this
country, living in Boston until within
three years. all my life, understood that
the failure has not been-On the part Of
most of the papers-due to premeditation,
or TO any desire not to be, fair to all
concerned.
An Unprecedented Situation.
The American business. professional,
and workingmen have been within very
short time confronted with a situation
such as never has existed before in the
history of the world. They saw at one
civilized world temporarily practically
destroyed; they saw as result Of this
war the reserves of the New York banks
showing a tremendous deficit; they saw,
as a result Of this war. the New York
Clearing house issuing millions of dol
lars IN clearinghouse certificates: they
saw, as a result of this war. the United
States Treasury Department issuing
hundreds of millions Of dollars under
q aFO ~ Nka. pfFh- rsaEaI IaT n
act: they saw the carrying trade Of the
world so broken down that they were
unable to ship our commodities abroad
and be paid for what they shipped; they
saw the New York Stock Exchange
closed and the abolition of any free and
open market for the sale of securities;
they saw that the Paris BOurse, as re-
suit OF the war, practically suspended its
operations. and that its members refused
to settle their obligations in due course;
they saw moratoriums declared in foreign
countries. so that Americans who were
owed money abroad were not able. If
necessary. to enforce collection Of their
| claims by due process OF law.
Now the average American, in the past,
has known little about world politics and
has cared less and when all these things
happened he turned at once to his news
paper to find out what the reason was.
| mentally failed him in supplying the
true facts. This was not due in the
main to the wish of the American news
papers to deceive their readers, but was
due to the fact that the great banking
interests of this country are so closely al
lied with England and with France, and
their interests are so much more closely
identified with these countries than with
Germany, that every eort has been made
to misrepresent the situation in order to
endeavor to secure the sympathy of the
American public for the Russian, French
and English cause
A Mythical Kaiser.
Starting out with the intention "a
| blacken the fair name of the entire Ger
man race. the Russian, French and Eng
lish press agents found that they had
rather overdone the thing, and that the
| intelligence Of the American people was
being too heavily taxed to stand the
strain OF 50 many false reports that
would have.P IL true. led them to believe
that the law-abiding, orderly. peaceful
and civilized German nation had degen-
Grated to q point where 1t might well be
compared to the Communists Of Paris
/ the cossacks or the most savage OF
American Indian tribes. Then they gave
| the situation another whirl. and there
was created for the benefit of the Amer
ican public and for It's consumption only,
mythical Kaiser, Mephistopheles, who
was represented as stalking around Ger
many clanking his sabre and rattling
his spurs, and driving. absolutely against