The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1918-06-06
hospitals to be treated for venereal
diseases. The hospital admission rate


diseases. The hospital admission rate
for venereal diseases in those camps
has since been low as GA per LOCO,
and the rate for the men in our cX-
peditionary forces in France has been
as low as 44.2 per 1000. That is to
say, the statistics of the surgeon
generals office show that our soldiers
in France have been almost 10 times
as free from the effects of immoral
ity as the same sort of men were
when they were first drafted into the
army. Physical training and strict
military discipline have improved the
health of the troops in this respect as
in all others.
These ISLANDERS upon the nurses and
upon the troops are typical of the
work of the German general staff. 1t
has been their policy in their cam
paigns of propaganda to circulate in
an enemy country the falsehoods that
most appeal to that country's preju-
dices. America, in its ignorance of all
France outside of the tourist haunts
of Paris, is easily imposed upon with
stories of French vice. The German
lpropagandist knows that. He is plan
ming to take advantage of it for his
own purposes. He is making a drive
upon the sentiments and emotions of
the American women just as he first
attacked the susceptibilities of the
Italian women behind the lines in pre-
pairing the way for the Italian de-
feat How well he is succeeding in
America is shown by a passage in
that appeal for a protest to President
Wilson which was printed in the re-
ligious press.
1t pointed out: "Throughout this
country a feeling Of bitterness dan
gerous in the extreme is arising and
gazing with menacing eyes toward
France. The mothers who have rear
ed sons strong and clean, and who
have given them with glad, aching
lhearts-women who have loved
France and glorifed in her-are
muttering that our boys are wanted
for the profits of their debauchery
and not to take their deaths in
strength and cleanliness" Such
mothers are the victims of German
falsehood. So is the writer who thus
described them and protested against
the "debauchery" of their soldier sons.
The reports of immoral conditions in
France and the campaigns of protest
against those conditions are equally
the work of German agents, assisted
by the prejudiced credulity of their
American victims.
Mr.. Citizen, the committee on pub
lie information wishes to warn you
against these snares. There will be
more of them. In Italy anonymous
letters were sent to the soldiers from
their homes accusing their wives. of
infidelity. Our military censorship
such tactics among our men, but sim
liar impostures will doubtless be at
tempted. Already forged letters pre-
tending to be from soldiers in France
have been found in the lobbies of New
York theaters, as if accidentally drop
ped there by the recipients The let
ters are always in the angular hand
writing of persons accustomed to US
ing German script. So far they have
contained little but alarming false
hoods about the alleged slaughter of
American regiments.
Sandering the British
In order to set us against our Brit
| ish allies, several sorts of "whisper-
! ing propaganda" are being used
There is the story that American SOL
diers are reeling around the streets
Of London, drunk. 1t has been dis
proved. There is the charge that while
we are stinting ourselves to save
grain the English are using it to
make whiskey-a although we are saw
ing and shipping chiefly wheat, which
is little used in distilling, and the
fighters from England show that the
English liquor traffic has been de-
creased by the war almost as much
as ours. And there is the report that
millions of British soldiers are held
in England while the allies are "do-
ing their fighting for them"-a false
hood that is sufficiently discounted by
the fact that the British empire has
100000 men in the field and half
million in her fleet; that of the Brit
ish troops in France 70 per cent are
English, 8 per cent Scotch, 6 per cent
Irish, and 16 per cent Canadians, Aus