New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-02-03
German Crusade to
Defame and Belittle
Am erica S Effort
Among the rench
Should Be Met
Counter Publicity Organiza-
ton Needed There, for, Un-
checked, Enemy's Scheme
Promises to Weaken
Morale, as 1t Did in Italy

lVlO1dl DIS kC D1Q IN lCalV
[NOTE-Caspar Whitney, trove1-
Ter, ac'-iter, explorer and one of the
best kmoa0m avar correspondents IN
the aoorld, avas member of the
Hoouer Commission for Relief IN
Belgium until the United States
acent to acar aoith Germany. In De-
cember last he joined the staff of
The Tribune aid aUcnt to France as
general correspondent. He was so
affected By conditions there that on
has oWn initiative he returned to
bring the American people an un-
censored message that would not
a0ait. This is the fifth of several
articles. The purpose of printing
them is threefold. Light Is curative.
Truth is compelling. The mind of q
great democracy requires to be
moued.-The Tribune.1
BY Caspar Whitney
lCoWright. 1915. by Tho Tribune Association New
York Tribunc)]
1HERE are four kinds of gas
which the Boche use (have in
"A troduced) in their hellish war
fare to repel and to kill, in an agony
Of suffocation, troops they have been
unable to overcome in fair fighting.
The gas that makes the eyes smart
and weep so copiously as to temporarily
impair their use.
The gas that especially attacks and
burns the tender parts of the body
under the arms and in the crotch.
The gas that shrivels mucous men,
branes and wholly blinds the victim
for ninety hours.
The gas that is projected in a ball
envelope, which drops without noise
and opens without explosion to release
its odorless but fatal fumes
And there is tifth--wily, deadly and
equally difficult to escapc-the gas of
German propaganda.
The first four are employed in front
of the lines, the fifth in and behind the
lines. And the toll of the fifth exceeds.
venture to say, that of the other four
combined
With the German propaganda in
America-paciistic, and absolving from
evil thought or evil deed Germans from
German atrocious acts in Belgium.
France, Poland, Serbia--we are
familiar.
Ot the German propaganda in Ger
many-with it's bitter slander of Enq-
land. It's affected contempt of America.
its glorifcation of Hun soldiers and
their favor in the eyes of God-the
Kaiser keeps us informed.
A German propaganda in France.
however, against America in France.
among the country folk and even among
United States soldiers will be news 7
fancy to the average of US in America
Lying Crusade Extends
To the Little Towns
Yet in the course of my truth seek
ing in France constantly ran into
such one, and perhaps one illustra-
ton, the experience of resident
friend, will be helpful in understand
ing something of its character and Of
its effect.
His housemaid had been for a little
holiday at her Britanny home and had
returned but few days previous to
our meeting, tingling with a vivid tale
of the rapacous designs of the English
never to leave Calais, of conspiracy
between the Germans and the Ameri-
cans to divide the trade of France.
handing over to Japan the lions share
of certain novelty manufactures in or
der that, for Germany's benefit, there
might be beginning of an alienation
of Japan from England, and, for Amer
ica's. peace of mind, a soothing of ia
pans ruffled feelings apropos Of the
irritating "gentlemen's agreement"
practically forced upon her reluctant
officials, and the restrictions upon her
free entrance into general American
life.
Such in substance is the free transla-
tion of the long and agitating story
this simple woman brought back from
village so small one would expect it
beyond even the thought of foreign
propaganda of any description.
But for ways that are dark and
channels that are devious and count
less, German propaganda is in a class
by itself.
A review of one incident of German
propaganda in Italy and the results will
be informing and serve, I hope, also as
warning to US. Among the Italian