Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1917-12-22


volunteer mentioned in the letter
must have taken in along with his
daily bread
Germany has TWO colossal tasks in
the field of propaganda One. in
which she has nearly succeeded, was
to destroy Russia from within. The
other was to keep America from
drawing close to England. In this
she has not yet succeeded As an
/ expression of personal opinion, based
on considerable journalistic exper-
fence and fairly large opportunity
for observation, let me say that she
/ Will not succeed But the pro-
paganda already has great momen-
tum, 1t has been spread 50 widely
through repetition by innocent, I'M
| thinking tongues, that it is some
thing of force among us, and there
fore must be met.
There are many ways of meeting it
One way, of course, is repression In
some degree this counter force un-
doubtedly has to be used. But re-
preston after all, is not altogether
palatable among Americans, This
best weapon, | believe, is a counter
propaganda of the widest kind. 1t has
"a Il ua1 10 Of hDf
can any of us WELD A propaganda
in which frankness and, so far as
possible, good humor predominant
Where, as unfortunately is the case
among the more extremely Prussian.
commandments, who have surren-
dered their thinking faculty to the
bombast of the Hohenzollerns and the
myth of Prussian invincibility, frank
explanation and good-humored ridi-
Guile would be misinterpreted as
weakness, we must not shrink from
forcible expression of our convictions.
For the mere victim of the propa-
ganda, like the conscious propaganda
ist himself, must be distinctly given
to understand that there is such
thing as American national character
Most of the German propaganda, and
therein, of course. has lain its in
efficiency has been based on the
assumption that the American pub
lie is jellyfish.
For ourselves, we probably need
only bear in mind the fact that these
subtle attacks on England spring
from the desire to help Germany
triumph at whatever ultimate cost
to the United States. And as the
persons among us who are most ac-
tive in instigating these attacks are
invariably the ones who talk so
vehemently of their "Americanism, " .
it is well also to keep in mind the
that any man who shouts his "Ameri- /
canism" automatically thereby
throws himself under suspicion. And .
the man who says, as a certain num-
Der of our German-Americans un-
do, 81 am for America
and American alone" means simply
that he is actively working for Ger
many but that he naturally wishes,
by lip service, to keep out of Jail.
Along with these, of course, go
those others who so voicferously
raise the issue of free speech"
Every sensible and thoughtful Ameri-
can believes from the bottom of his
heart in free speech, But any
American who is sensible emergency
when. he sees one And that the
present emergency is one that may
for a time silence even our most de-
termined habitual takers and our
most insistent cyclists, he accepts as
a simple fact He is extremely I'M
likely to admit that the basic idea
Of freedom of speech shall be per
overthrow, but he is none
the less likely, quite sensibly, to shut
certain persons up for the time
Better forego few privileges now
than surrender all our privileges
later to an extremely unsympathetic
enemy.
The only Reasonable way to arrive
at a fair judgment Of these rather
fellow citizens Of ours is to
study their motives insofar as these
appear.
For myself, when man says 81
am for America and America only"
Or, like our Lutheran pastor, "Ameri-
oanism consists in looking out for I
No. l." or 81 don't think we ought to
pull England's chestnuts out of the
fire" or America is not in danger"
)r "The draft law is unconstitution-
al" or 1--WE ought to keep our boys at .
home;' or This is not our war; or
like. the free speechers of the more
extreme Socialist and anarchist
groups), Let the Germans come in
here if they want to! What can they
lo?" or when one bTeathes darkly of
he hideous deeds of the British in
Egypt, in India, in Ireland, in Africa