Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1918-07-18
THE POISON GAS RBIGADE.
Continued from First, Page

whose boy s>as gone TO the lront now
tarrible conditions are in the camps /.
and trenches; he will prophesy to the
business man the commercial depres-
sion and financial loss that the war
will mean if it continues; he will
praise the religious devotee for being
a conscientious objector" and will af-
firm sympathetic conviction about
tho horrors of sending American boys
to kill their German brothers.
ne must De careful TO say nothing
tn.I you can clcse against nm. he
must always la &c read OF naard the
statement that he drops apparently
Ill good faith. He must never be him.
self the final source of any rumor
that he puts into circulation. There
are many ways to throw you off the
track of suspicion. A favorite mode
of concealment is membership in
club, league, society or even church
organization where the pro-German
poison can be spread secretly while
the rules or doct. mes of the associa-
ton are spread openly. Even religion
| has been thus defiled-a so-called
religious body of more than a million
members through the United States
was recently convicted of publishing
and scattering broadcast literature
against the war in the guise of tracts
and sermons.
The job Of these talk mongsrs is
only to start an ugly rumor in the
neighborhood- will do the rest.
Merely to repeat something depress-
ling or disquieting about the war is all
you need do to satisfy the German Sc
Icrat agents. Your intention may not
be that of traitor, but your action
will be. Let US mention a recent
lease. Somebody told somebody else
of hearing how one of our boys in
camp was ill and unable to write
home; mouth after mouth repeated
the tale, which grew with repetition.
By the time it reached the mother Of
the boy, he was at the point of death,
had been shamefully neglected by the
camp doctors, all the sanitary condi-
tions were frightful, and every boy
stayed in camp at the risk of his life!
The boy chosen to suffer fictitious
death was one of the healthiest in the
community, was very widely known,
his father being one of the leading
men of the city and having host Of
friends. The rumor was lie made
out of whole Cloth; but while it was
being passed around the minds of
large numbers of people were bein.
tnconsciously prejudiced against the
army training camp, whereas the CT
fetal denial from headquarters reach
ed only few who listened to the tale.
The dealers in poison gossip mag
Nifty small unfavorable occurrence
until it resembles cloud of evil COW
,ering the sky. It became noised
abroad that soldier in camp had em-
bezzled large amount of money and
eloped with an officers wife, prin-
cipally because the temptations in
camp were too strong for a young
man. The truth was that he had lost
little money during mild game
of gambling, had secretly borrowed Il
few dollars in the expectation of re-
turning the money out of his next pay,
and was caught in the borrowing pro-
cess. A German spy will take a
trivial misdemeanor of an American
soldier, or a slight case of neglect by
an army officer, and in a few momen.s
have cardinal crime and fearful
tragedy made out of it for the Use
of the Poison Gas Brigade.
The tongue is still mightier thar
the sword. A group of propagandists
broke down the spirit of the Italian
army and made General Cadorna lose
$4,000 men in a single German drive
Another group kept Greece from com.
ing to the help of the Allies wher
such action might have turned the is
sue OF the war. Another groun broke
down the Russian army, bribed tn,
rulers of the country, and paved tn.
way for German possession of tn.
land To win the war, the Kaiser ha.
only to get enough Americans talking
thinking and feeling wrong about it
Hence the great military value to tn
Kaiser of the Poison Gas Brigade.
tDnNnC on rrrrY,