The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-11
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

No. I am not suffering with spy fever,
 but neither am I hoodwinked by those
 who seek to minimize the need of keep
 ing one's eyes and ears open to see or
 hear the efforts of the secret German agents who are abroad in the land.
 As one of the -Four Minute Men," am pledged this month to speak, whenever
 opportunity presents itself, on Why We Are at War With Germany" and there 1 fore I am posting myself as best l can 1 in order to deliver a message which will stir our people to the need of being thor oughly awake to the danger which con | fronts America, unless Prussianism is de- ] stroyed from the face of >the earth. l spoke Sunday night at Sylacauga to the Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians in union service
 I, of course, get the matter sent out by my own government, but from the be- ginning of the war I have been on the mailing list of Sir Gilbert Parker, the great novelist, who is at the head of the publicity department of the English goy- ernment. I was not surprised when he had nervous breakdown, for quite awhile after he took over the work, every pack age coytaining papers, pamphlets. maga- zines or books was accompanied by a letter signed in ink by his own hand. It was only after the hugeness of his job tasked his strength beyond tho strain ing point that he permitted his conmuni- cations to be signed with & rubber stamp.
 
 do not pretend to have any inside in- Americas entrance into the war I haze had opportunity to come into pleasant personal relations with men like Secre- taries Baker, Lane and Houston; with Generals Wood, Duval and Rafferty, and numbers of other military men of high rank; with Admiral Fletcher, Commander Clark and other naval officers; with the members of the Italian commission, and particularly, with Senor Marconi; with William Sloane, the head of the Army Young Mems Christian association work, and with MT. Davison, the head of the Red Cross campaign; not to mention any number of statesmen, officials, editors, 
 this to show that while I do not speak with authority, yet I have tried to get in touch with those who were doing things in big way.
 Having lived and studied abroad for years I have some first hand knowledge of the battlefields, and know the charac- teristics of many of the nations engaged in the death struggle. For more than . quarter of a century I have been a close student of European history, and spe- cially interested in what is known as the eastern question, the nightmare that is ever before the statesman of the old world, During that time l have been in- tensely interested in foreign politics, do- ing my best to keep up with the shifting parties through newspapers, magazines. have endeavored to acquaint myself with the literary output of Europe,
 Having been urged by some who are awake to the peril of the underground German campaign to write more often by way of warning in this column, to those not already sensible of the danger, have set forth the above to make 1t known that what shall write is not born of the moment, but comes after years Of ar- duous study. I make no claim whatever for originality, but will try and put in capsule form the things which l have thought out for myself, or found in the course of my reading, or in talks with men in authority. Please bear in mind that I do not set myself up as knowing 1t all but I am honestly striving to do my bit in awakening public sentiment I am sure that the average man in the street, or in his office. store. shop, or farm Is unaware just how Germany has sowed down by press intrigues its dam nable propaganda not merely in Russia, Scandinavia, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, China, Greece, India, South Amer ica, but here in the United States. News papers for years in most of these coun- tries were subventioned often with hardly any pretense of secrecy, while at the Methodist conference at Dothan had the pleasure of rooming with T. D. Sanford, the district attorney, with headquarters at Montgomery. Tn spite of my knowl- edge of the brazen faced attempts of Germany to poison the minds of our peo- ple l was surprised at some things ne told me In confidence that were attempted evan here in Alabama.
 therefore want to put every one of my \ readers on notice to be on the watch-out 1 for any information that ought to be turned over to the department of jus
 tice The peril of underground German l ism in America is no trumped-up affair 1 to frighten the tinid with, but it is q very serious menace and the quicker this ] Is realized the sooner will we be able to l put a stop to those who seek to aid the 1 enemy.. The preaching of Germany s
 manifest destiny both publicly and pri- vately, has been the pious duty of the
 German abroad for generations. Every | capital had it's German center and every 1 town its missionaries of ''Kutur." but, l thank God, we are beginning to learn, 1 and it's my. mission to show that those l engaged in spreading the light of ''Kul-
 tur'' are but sowing the darkness of de- | spair.
 l It has. of course. long been notorious "that German agents with the connivance of. if not under the direction of the Ger I man embassy, had been at work foment-