The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-02-27
GERMANY'S FAvORITE LIE.
BY Ralph Henry Barbour of The vigi
lantes,

, II this war could have been won By
/, lying, the allies would now be beaten tS
their knees and America in chains. If tht
German general staff used arms and mer
half as successfully as it uses its secret
agent, the Avenue de rOpera, Paris
would to-day be Hindenburgstrasse The
German shells cannot reach across the
Atlantic. but the German lies can and
do, and ever since the war began German
propaganda has been making breaches in
our defenses. The enemy suits the lie
to the occasion.
We have endured all sorts Some few
have been captured and shot at sunrise,
but most are still at large, working mis-
chief in their own subtle, secret ways.
| They vary in Importance, those lies. They
run the gamut from our old friend The
| United States Has No Quarrel with Ger
many down to the little sneaking Our
| Boys. Starving in Cantonments And ev-
cry lie has its day. There's regular
mode as to German propaganda, and,
looking back when the war is done. we
shall discern that each season of the
struggle was represented by its own par.
ticular style in lies. But there is one lie,
the great grandfather OF them all, that
has never, since its first appearance, been
off duty 1t is, think the general stats
favorite.
| refer to that SCARED but still indom-
table old veteran, Avail Street War
1t is, perhaps, the most puerile of Ger
many's frst-lne lies, but certainly the
hardest worked. II has never had day
off since it marched to the front. and lust
10 o..fi L., Il
is, of course, to divide public opinion in
this country and TO foster dissension be
tween employer and employed. And its
every success, no matter how slight, de-
lays the prosecution of the war.
II never had leg TO stand on, but in
some miraculous way il still endures A
schoolboy could eifectualiy dispose of i.
without any trouble, but perhaps merely
because it is beneath contempt, it has
been allowed to 90 on its silly, sneaking |
way. A Wall Street War; Yes, if Wall |
street arranged the sinking of the Lusi. |
tania, caused the rape of Belgium and |
wrote the Zimmerman letter A war |
begun by capital Certainly, if you will |
credit capital with being so unselfsh as
to renounce the rich profits it was gar
nering.
Germany's propagandlsts weep croco-
die tears for the laboring man. But the
Iaboring man himself is far too busy to
DO any shifting. Since the war began he
has been enthroned a practical dictator.
He receives wages that. in spite of in
,reased cost of living, affecting rich and
poor alike. place him in position of
he scarcely dreamed of before
He sees many of his most utopian Wis
ons. government ownership of railroads.
government control of public utilities
md the like. made concrete as by the
wave of a magic wand. He knows that
he influence of the war. on the future
II this and all other countries, viii be all
n his favor.
This war il neither a rich mans war
lor poor mans war, neither a war of ,
apital nor a war of labor. 1t is war Of /,
he American people for liberty and all
he things they hold dear And il is a
var that is being fought by rich and :
,oor. capitalist and laborer. side BY side, !
nd that viii continue to be so fought
ntil it Is ended in the only way IL can
. allowed to end; and this in spite of
,erlnan arms and German propaganda. /
ind in spite. too, of the old and bat c
cred. but still active, Avail Street a
Var lie 4 jokes a joke. but really b
omeone ought TO put that out Of its
iiseryi