New-York tribune., 1918-07-25
Open Wells

in many banks by Count Won Bernstortf
any case, it could be easily replenished,
for there is plenty of German wealth in
the country, much of it beyond the reach
of the Custodian of Enemy Property
Nor has the German propaganda van
shed into thin and loyal air. The few
German agents that have been interned
can hardly count. The ramitications of
the thought poisoning system are known
to have been deep and wonderfully COM
plicated.
The elements are still here-the
means, the instruments and the' will to
use them. Are they being used?
Most people would comfortably believe
that German propaganda has been pretty
we'll suppressed. The German-language
press has conspicuously cleaned up.
Much of it has shut up The espionage
and sedition acts are energetically en-
forced, with but very few instances of
immunity, and those instances are be-
having under scrutiny. Moreover, you
are assured, people have learned too
many of the arts and subtleties. 1t is
dangerous on any pretext to slander an
ally, to raise the yellow peril, to advo-
cate a German peace, to call it a Wall
Street war or to bring contempt upon
the symbols of the great cause. Sedition,
every one believes, has been very great
ly abated. Take the case of the paper
the Kaiser owned, The Euenlng Mail.
1t had to support the war with both
hands in order not to be found out Does
this not prove that the German propa-
gandist has been effectively silenced?
Nothing may be proved negatively. 1t
is true that the German propaganda, as
such, is much less audible than it was;
but it may be for that very reason more
dangerous than before. We think it is
The voice of the enemy now is so COM
mingled with that Of the intellectual
Bolsheviki at one end of the scale and
that of the irreconcilabe malcontents
ut the other that you cannot isolate it
at ALL
All American Bolsheviki are not pro-
German; but all pro-Germans are Boil
shevlst. Under the vagueness of this
voluntarily accepted designation now are
gathered together pacifists, objectors,
liberals, Socialists, internatonalists, an
archists, intellectual demagogues. ps
thetic democrats and pro- Germans. in
eXtricably In confusion there is
refuge.
Never had we such kind and degree of
confusion in this country before. One does
not know whether to be alarmed, dis
gusted or amused. Sinister things are
said in the most unexpected places. Peo
pie talk of "the social revolution" as
IT 1T were an election to take place. To
some it seems hardly more than that. To
others it is an affair of highly sanguinarv
possibilities. One never knows for sure
what is meant. And one never knows
where one will meet Bolshevist next.
One sees that the newspapers and
periodicals which no longer dare to be
openly disloyal are all moved as bv one
impulse to talk of the revolution which
shall end the reign of dollar autoc-
racy in the United States and put the
people in possession of what is Fright
fully theirs" meaning all the sources of
production and means to wealth
Only in the last few weeks new
impulse appears to have been impaired
to the vortex of incoherent Bolshevist
thought. 1t is hardly possible to doubt
that the idea of revolution is being ac-
lively propago ed by all the forces of
alienism and disloyalty. 1t is obvious at
the same time that what we may call the
social-mindedness or the anti-capitaism
of the government-of certain influential
members of the government-is begin
ming to receive wicked exploitation.
For there are Bolshevists in the govern
ment who boast of it and who talk of
revolution. meaning something peaceful
and political, of course, but using never
theless the ultimate terms. The Bolshe-