Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1917-11-21
PRO-GERMAN LIES
SPREAD OVER LAND
PEOPLE DECEIVED AND ALARMED
PN GRoTEsoUE STORIES
WITHOUT BASIS.
RED CROSS MUCH ANNOYED
Lies Told for Purpose of Stopping the
Making of uppies-Other Wretch
ed Falsehoods Concerning Loss of
life in american Forces.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK.

! by EDWARD q. CLAHk.
WashingtOn.-In the war depart
ment, in the Red Cross headquarters,
and in virtually all the other branches
OF the government there continues to
De unrest because of the continuance
! of the vicious stories which are put
out by pro-German agents to deceive
the people of the United States, to
make fathers and mothers anxious and
TO hurt the cause of the country fight
ing for democracy against the most
| persistent and insistent autocracy that
the world has known since medieval
Ism passed into modernism in history.
There is no apology to be made
when it is said that the belief is
! strong in Washington that not only
| alien enemies of Uncle Sans domain
but some native-bOrn citizens, the one
group for one purpose and the other
| group for another, still deliberately
IRE spreading tales intended to injure
this free land and to benefit the land
of military autOcracy
Washington authorities still are en-
| gagged IN an attempt to run down the
spies which infest the country and
| those who, while not being spies in
the strict sense, are doing what they
can to divide this land against itself.
| Things have reached a pass when soft
words cannot be used. One of the
worst features of the whole thing is
the apparent ease with which the liars
seem to be able to make many of the
| people believe their fantastic stories.
Outrageous Lies About Red Cross.
Again within a week the Red Cross
authorities have been compelled to
| issue denials of stories so grotesque
as seemingly to bear refutation on
their faces, and yet which have been
| accepted as true in many parts of the
| United States to the hindering in
many places and to the actual stop
ping in other places of work for our
soldiers and sailors in the field and on
| the sea.
Some Americans in the districts
! where the tales most widely are
spread do not believe them in full and
have sense enough TO make inquiries
at headquarters concerning their truth
or their falsehood Hundreds of in
quiries have come in concerning the
tales bearing on the work of the Red
Cross and with them are hundreds of
inquiries concerning stories which
have been spread and which con-
tinue to be spread of great losses
of life among the american troops.
Sometime ago a story was spread
throughout the United States that the
Red Cross had enough surgical dress
ihgs and bandages of various kinds
to meet every possible requirement of
war which might go to any length.
Women stopped working The story
was a pro-German lie in its inception
and in it's spreading. The Red Cross
still needs bandages and surgical dress
ings. and everything else which il has
asked the noble women of the country
to help to make.
Another story bearing on the Red
selling to soldiers and sailors at large
profit prices the knitted garments
which women were making. This
story was no sooner denied in the
quarters from which it emanated than
1t appeared in other places in the
United States. The women must knit
and continue to knit, for the product
of their hands will be needed by the
men who are defending the flag. The
Red Cross is not selling these things.
Lies About Loss of Life.
In several of the great cities enemy
agents have been driving fathers and
mothers of soldiers into a state of
terror by stories to the effect that
every American soldier who has en-
barked to France has lost his life at
sea. The war department is doing
what it can to offset these lies. 1t has
promised time and again to make pub
lie at once every casualty which may
be suffered by the American army or
the American navy.
President Rests in Midst of Work.
President Wilson is trying TO rest in
the midst of work. 1t is said that he
knows how to 90 1t. The president
gets his recreation before a great many
Deople have had their breakfast. 1t
does not follow that because congress
mas adjourned this city is in any way a
restful place. War is on and every
body connected with the government
from president down to office boy has
to work.
Early every day, in fact at times be-
fore the sun gets its first daily peep
at the Potomac the president of the
United States is off for the golf links.
He plays no favorites so far as the
various country clubs are concerned.
He goes first to one and then to an
other, and completes the round in
about a weeks time. BY half past
eight o'clock, or by nine at the latest,
he is pack at the White House to take
up the multitudinous affairs which In
a time like this beset the head of gov
eminent.
The White House today Outwardly
does not look like workshop but in