The Monticellonian., 1917-11-16
PRO-GERMAN LIES
 SPREAD OVER LAND
PEOPLE DECEIVED AND ALARMED BY GROTESQuE STORIES
 WITHOUT BASIS.
RED CROSS MUCH ANNOYED
Lies Told for Purpose of Stopping the Making of SuppIies-other Wretch ed Falsehoods Concerning Loss of Life In American Forces.
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.
 Washington.-In the war depart ment, in the Red Cross headquarters, and in virtually all the other branches of the government there continues to be 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 1t is said that the belief is strong In Washington that not only alien enemies of Uncle Sam's domain. but some native-born citizens, the one group for one purpose and the other group for another. still deliberately are spreading tales intended to injure 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- tnue to be spread of great losses of life among the American troops.
 Sometime ago story was spread throughout the United States that the Red Cross had enough surgical dress ings and bandages of various kinds to meet every possible requirement of war which might go to any length. Women stopped working. The story was pro-German lie In its inception and in its spreading. The Red Cross still needs bandages and surgical dress ings. and everything else which 1t has asked the noble women of the country to help to make.
 Another story bearing on the Red Cross was to the effect that 1t was 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 it 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.
 Ia several of the great cities enemy agents have been driving fathers and mothers of soldiers into state of terror by stories to the effect that every American soldier who has en- parked to France has lost his life at sea. The war department is doing what 1t can to offset these lies. It 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. It is said that he hIlOWS lON io dO It. lut gets his recreation before great many people have had their breakfast. It does not follow that because congress has adjourned this city Is in any way q 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 1 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 weeks time. By half past eight o'clock. or by nine at the latest. he is back at the White House to take up the multitudinous affairs which in time like this beset the head of gov ernment.
 The White House today outwardly does not look like workshop but in- wardly 1t is q whirl. All the gates but one have been closed and this one