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

grouped under the general head o.
indirect propaganda.
Here is part of a letter from the
pastor OF a German Lutheran church
addressed to well-known news
paper writer, who frequently eX-
presses in print his belief that Ger.
many should be defeated 1t may be
added parenthetically that this
writer has received many threatening
communications. This in America
because an American journalist ex-
| presses himself in terms of patrio-
! tisml
The letter states that the writer
Is American born of German descent
His father, he intimates, fought in
our civil war. "At present" he
says, Il am boarding a volunteer be-
cause he has not yet been put in
camp. His pay goes for car fares,
etc, and we are supporting him. /
would oppose an embargo of Ameri-
can foodstuffs if it were proposed. |
pay the war difference when it al
most means privation. My Grand
Army spirit in which | was brought
up has been communicated to the
young people with whom | come in
contact, and in our church there are
IL young men who did not wait for
conscription
But
Attention is called to this But"
But | have no romantic ideas
about No. 10 Downing street, London,
England That is the perfdious AL
3ion not only of history but down to
the Jamison raid and the Panama
anal | wish we could fire
both Germany and England out of
Mexico and South America before
hey oVerreach us right before our
lose Americanism consists
n looking out for No / ~ I
10 hope we will some time come to a
3elf-respecting nationalism. When
We submitted to indignities these past
Jew years, as we did Che is clearly
thinking of indignities inflicted by
the British )-indignities which
would almost make Captain Lawrence
get out of his grave in Trinity church
ard longed for the old Fourth-of-
July spirit And people who sub
nit in that way have always forti-
led Englishmen in their government
nstilled idea that all other nations
ire inferior The main idea
If your editorial is that England has
hanged lately. She has not
Small nations have Jared as we'll in
! he hands of England as it suited her
selfish purpose to let them thrive.
[ hope that after the war is over, the
American press will resume a one
time sturdy, self-respecting American
ism This thing of being
ready to fight Germany but distrust-
ing the foreign office of England is
IN entirely sincere thing with those
Who study history, past and present ~
This letter is quoted at length be-
'ause it is a nearly perfect example
If indirect propaganda. 1t may be
rs the writer insists, sincere. The
essence of successful propaganda is
hat the poisonous phrases shall be
planted in innocent minds and passed |
IN by word of mouth. What this |
pastor of German descent has to say
IS simply the familiar attack on Eng
and. He doubtless feels this preiu- /.
lice strongly within his own breast, |
because he is in some considerable |.
measure reacting to the was as a Ger
nan. It is as good as certain how
2yer, from the very phrases he en-
)loys, that his prejudice has been /.
given activity and point to the talk
jf his German-American friends and |.
possibly also by the familiar under
tone of propaganda in the German
American press.
No American citizen wishes to be |
accused of treason or to admit the |
possibility to himself. If he chance |
% have German blood in his veins |
md German thought and tradition .
n his mental background he is now
passing through period of deep suf- /
'ering He can motif he be honest, |
Us so many are-even in his thoughts |
axe stand against the United
States now that she has entered the /
var against Germany. On the other
land he can not desire the defeat of |
Germany. The temptation is there
ore, great to particularly to
his intense American
SIN, using the word and the emotion
t connotes in his mind as a balance
against bitter, too active desire that |
england be defeated.
Now as the defeat of England can
hardly be brought about without .
jome measure of victory for Germany,
his state of mind appears to carry