Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-23
HOW GERMANY
CONTROLS PRESS
By Monopolizing Advertising
Kaiser Is Able TO Manipu.
late Newspapers

Paris, Jan. 2S.-The writer so
Wen known under the pen name of
hysls mas contributed a series of ar
Iloles 10 LHomme Libre containing
some very remarkable revelations on
the subject of Greman manipulation
OF the press in different European
countries. His first article Is headed
Worse than Bolo" and Lysis goes
on to Justify this statement and to
explain his meaning. In order to in
nuence the press, he says, one may
puy newspapers; but besides the
enormous cost of this procedure
there is also the difficulty of keep
ing the name of the purchaser Sc
cret' while as soon as the name be-
comes known, If it is that of a some
what suspicious character, the cred
IL OF the newspaper is gone Ger
many adopts much more practic-
al and certain plan, and this is to
monopollze the advertisements, or in
othef words to capture all the ad-
Nertlslng and to conc entrate it in the
hands of one firm. In order to do
thls the agency begins by giving sep
arate advertisements to the news
paper, and then offers to make n
contract to supply its fourth page
IN way which saves the news
paper all further trouble, while the
agency becomes its principal custo-
mer and the source of its takings-
cannot the rest be easily imagined? l.?
asks Lysis.
Thls German enterprise exists. he
declares; it is being carried on in
france, in full war time, under the
! nose of the Government. of the law
ofhcers and the police. In Berlin 1T
is called Haasenstein and Vogler, but
IN Paris its name is the Societe Euro
"a nh fnft IL
extraordinary, says Lysis, there are
even more remarka BILE facts to fol-
low. Haasenstein and Vogler of Ber-
I'm is vast advertising agency
winch concentrates the distribution
OF advertisements in its own hands,
and II 1t did this in Germany only
he would have nothing to saw about
II, declares Lysis; for he is not one
or those people who object to the
Germans arranging their own affairs,
he only asks that his fellow coun-
trymen may do the same. GERMANY
however, is an exporting country
ana IT is feature common to all
Germanic enterprise that once it is
successful it must proceed to the ex-
ploitation of neighboring and, as i'll
considers, inferior peoples. Haasen-
stem ana Nogier acts as follows: It'll
is not enough for the firm to eXer-
else monopoly in Germany, it must
conquer in Switzerland, Italy, and
France; 1T also has designs on
america and England. This is all so
well known that it is mentioned in
an article by NJ. fAbbe Wetterle
who remarks that great advertising
agencies like Haasenstein and Voger
have covered the world with n net
work OF advertisements, and it can
easily be seen how well adapted auch
flrm is to become the agent of its
government, to get information for
1t and to influence opinion in for
eign countries in the desired direc-
ton.
Lysis goes on to say that he pro-
poses to describe the activities of
Haasenstein and Vogler in Italy,
and he begins by stating that the
German agency controlled the ade
vertising of SO Italian newspapers
before the war, while even more
startling is the fact that even now.
in full war time, it has the monop-
Oily OF the advertising in 81 italian
newspapers. The pressure exercised
by the agency of I1aasenstein and
Nogler on the Italian newspapers was
so great that NJ. Jean Ajaibert. writ
ing from Italy, said to the Nouvelle
Revue OF February /, 1917, that.
Here as elsewhere Germany has
taken her precautions. During 40
years of friendship her agents had
naturally found their way into edi-
tcr's rooms and into printing houses.
They employed, however more GER
tam means and they had monopo-
lized the advertising by means of the
so-called Swiss agency of Haasen-
stein and Vogler, which had been
working vigorously since the begin
ming of the war. The big newspa-
pers had been able to resist this and
to hold their own, but certain num-
Der had been faced with the alter
natives of shutting down or giving
way, or, in other words, printing
ing the game of the Central En-
pires. The agency of Haasenstein
and Vogler gave out or refused ad- |
vertisements, or in other words their
livelihood, to the poorer news |
papers"