Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-03
EARLY WAR DAYS
HOAX AND jokes
The Myths" Which Were Taken
for Gospel Truth When
the Great War Broke
Out

THE censor is to be blamed, no doubt.
i When the greatest cstaclysm OF his
tory broke out the censor stepped in and
said, You must not tell the truth" Had
the truth been available there would have
been no need to lie What actually took
place In the first days of the great war
was too terrible too wonderful to need
embellishment. But with the truth YER
| boten" by a system more autocratic than
that Of the milltarist the fakes began to
come.
With the truth or falsehood Of the
causes Of the war and of the atrocities
which did or did not accompany the open.
Ing months, this article has nothing to
do. The simple reason is that the truth
is still not known. But other things
which were not known In August and
September Of 1914 are clear now. And
what the world thought and believed then
Is funny today. It ought to be warning
to military experts. It probably will be
nothing of tho sort.
First there was the heroic resistance
OF Belgium. OF its herolsm there is no
doubt. It is not the sort of thing about
which those who sit In easy.chairs and
know not the smell of burning households
nor the sight of stricken men and women
are privileged to jest But It's effective.
ness was woefully overrated and military
experts, with this or that qualification to
give them authority spoke of the Today
battle for the fortress of Llege. which was
lying devastated far behind the German
advance when those very words were
written. Belgium has saved France"
was watchword precisely at the time
when France was retreating, carefully
but inevitably, far in her own land
The River Sambre in Belgium, and the
River Somme, in France. sounded SUM-
ciently alike to be confused. For many
days the French war reports spoke briefly
of fighting on the Sambre. Suddenly the
name Somme was substituted and the
terrified world realized that Germany had
thrown her armies into the heart of
France while they were supposed to be
in Belgium.
Then came the greatest day of all.
Simeon Strunsky has referred to It as
that glorious afternoon, seven columns
WIDE" when Won Kluck apologized to
Joffre, begged to be allowed to retreat
safe to Germany under promise never to
invade France again. The head-writer
on New York paper must have choked
With emotion when he wrote those seven
column lines. He must have choked with
| different emotion when the news came
that Won Kluck, though thrown back
lad Joined the other German armies on
he Aisne.
Five days after the war broke out there
the greatest naval battle of all
history. A generous correspondent gave
Germany 10 superdreadnaughts. and
hen, with little care of the consequences,
With no attention even to the amount Of
White space which would be wasted on
t. sank every single one of them.
And then the most momentous fake OF
H. n fake which like some others merely
nticipated the truth. That is, the Rus
ians who passed through Scotland to
DIN their allies on the western front.
he amount of eyewitness STUFF which
anne to this country on this incredible
tory is astonishing. Scots In the high.
lnds or thereabouts and fishermen on the
'reton Coast saw the Cossacks. OBJ
ervers near London saw the closed cars
nose who spoke with them and received
reply in barbaric language And by
Il that is singular, in spite of all these
counts, the Russians never got there.
was an outrage against the credibility
nd honor OF the universe, but 1t couldn't
3 helped More than year later Rus
an troops landed in thousands. and with
omp and circumstance. at Marseilles.
The first French soldier killed In the
ar was named Peugeot. The report .
lme over that the great aviator of the
Ime name had fallen. Before the war
as well started Garros had engaged two
eppelins and brought them down. Garroa
mself laughed at this story In his apart
ent in Paris. Fritz Kreisler was killed
fore he was wounded. Max Linder read
10 report. OF his own death in Paris.
he Crown Prince was killed II times.
no Kaiser appeared incognlto in Paris.
ne Kaiser ordered his dinner stimuli
neously in Warsaw and in Paris and In
.lais. Won Kluck committed suicide.
French general was shot as a traitor
It'll Joffre told exactly with what regi-
ent he was stationed.
Among the fakes which were not fakes
ould be mentioned some OF the news
per stories. The great taxieab army
Gallieni was not $4,000 strong, but
obably 5000, for there were only 1000
auffeurs left in Paris when Manoury
IS in need OF men. That was exagger-
ION, II also came true In the motor
Tense OF Verdun year and more later.
I'd the famous story OF the battle OF
res, which endeared America to Eng
I'd because an American wrote II ana
We much-far too much-eredit TO the
glishmen, was written from informa-
n gained In London bars. But 1t did
purport to be an eyewitness account
its spirit, II not all its facts. was true.
9 military strategy exposed FOR daily
ding in American papers was not fax
:. Every word Of 1t was reasoning
m premises which no one could guar
Lee Even today, when we are prob
in he F,ofdaf o. the s-raak "A Itt,a a-4.,.