The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-20
By the Associated Press

Washington, December 19.-Propaganda machinery set up by the German govern ment in Berlin and throughout the world to spread Germanic ideas, and the meth
 were described today to the Senate in
 were discredited today to the Senate in gestigating committee by Alfred l..
 Becker. deputy attorney general of New
 York. The witness also told of his in-
 vestigation for the French government of the success of Bolo Pasha, executed
 as a French traitor, in getting sl,6S3000
 of German money in this country for purchase of the Paris Journal. but added
 that since apparently the Paris Journal did not change it's attitude of loyalty
 toward France. the transaction was a
 pure swindle" of the German govern ment.
 MT Becker read documents gathered partly by the British secret service showing that the German foreign office and other government departments at Berlin maintained elaborate systems both before and after the European war began to influence thought all over the world. working mainly through the press. Branches of German banks and commer- cial houses co-operated in a vast cohesive orga nization to promote friendly reia- tions toward Germany. Journalists, col lege professors, bankers, business men and commercial consular attaches-many of them being citizens of the country in which they worked-were employed, MT,
 Becker said Usually the propaganda was nsidious, with an attempt to con ceal it's real nature ose purpose,
 As early as 1909, said MT. Becker,
 George Won Skal. a former German re serve officer and later auditor of ac- counts of New York city, was told on visit to Berlin by a representative of the foreign offices press bureau, that he would be valuable in case of future war to keep in touch with the press Tn the United States There was no evi- dence, however, that he acted in this | capacity after the United States entered l the war the witness said
 l TRIES TO BUY NEWS AGENCY | The German government in May 1914, | three months before the war opened, | tried in vain to buy the Ottoman Iele- graphic News agency, with headquarters in Bagdad to spread German propa sanda The publication of German edition of Current Literature, a maga- zine of which George Sylvester Viereck in the United States. and his father, Louis ylereek in Berlin. were promoters, was mentioned by the witness, together with the Germanic Museum at Harvard and the movements to exchange proIes- sors with American universities as Ger
 man propaganda moves.
 One example of enemy propaganda, said MT. Becker, consisted of the sys- tematic effort in 1917 to spread through out the world the idea that Germany was on the verge of internal revolt and that the Kaiser would soon be over thrown The fact that these reports were disseminated encouraged by the chief German government censor was convincing evidence that efforts Tor pro paganda, intended to tparalyze the pros ecution of the war in MT. Beckers opin- ion. He said these reports had been sent out from Germany by George T. Odeli' lcorrespondent of the New York Eve | hing Mail, after the United States en' tered the war, and were circulated widely by the Mcclure Newspaper syndi- cate described as subsidiary Of the Mail
 Senator Reed who is not member of the committee, interrupted to asR whether similar articles had been pub lished by other newspapers then anc even down to the present, and that de- velopments had borne them out. MT Becker said this was true, but insisted | that the reports were inspired by the German foreign office late in 1917. WORKING ON SOUTH AMERICA | MT Becker said the Transocean News | Agency maintained wireless service l intended to influence mainly Soutf American peoples, while the German South American institute and the Ger man news service for Portugal ant l Spain subsidized by the government | had similar functions.
 1 MT. Becker told the committee tha enemy propaganda in the United States was disclosed incidentally during hi: | investigation of the activities of Bolt | Pasha in promoting the financing O. | the Paris Journal and in what was de scribed as an attempt to form a news alliance between the Journal and Will | liam Randolph Hearst's newspapers. 1 The witness told of an unsuccessful effort by Bolo in conferences with E l c. Grace of the Bethlehem Steel cor. poration to get the company to pur- chase the Journal, but addedA that ht
 believed this move was ''entirely cam
 ouflage, intended to cover \up the req | purpose of his visit to the United States"
 1 Former German Ambassador VoI Bernstorff assented so readily to Bolo's proposal that the German government advanced the money to purchase the Journal, the witness said, that the New York investigators proceeded on tn, l theory that MT. Hearst might have ar ranged the purchase before Bolo came l to the United States On this point however, MT. Becker said
 q do not say today that I consider 1 this theory in any way established The witness yaid there was no evi