The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-09-27
LIES OF THE Hun
IN EVERY CORNER
Imperial Germany Spares No
Community in U. S.
PLANTING SEEDS OF KULTUR
DastardIy Assault Is Under the Diree-
ton of General Staff and Has
Been Prepared With the Ut
most Care.
Rv HARVEY o,HIGcINs.

BY HARVEY o'HIGGINs,
| Associate Chairman, Committee on Pub
| lie Information, Washington, D. c.
| (This is the first of three articles by
| Mr. O'IIiggins dealing with the propa-
ganda of the enemy in our country
Mr.. Citizen, you are now on the
firing line.
Imperial Germany is not merely at
lacking on the western front. She is
attacking in every community in the
United States.
Her assault is under the direction of
the German general staff. 1t has been
prepared as carefully as the strategy
and tactics of military drive. AS in
Russia and in Italy, so here also a
campaign of German propaganda-a
gas attack of poisonous lies and ru-
mors and false reports-has been
launched successfully and is now I'M
der way.
The collapse of Russia was not a
victory for German arms. 1t was
triumph of German propaganda.
America is now the strongest enemy
that Germany has. A weakening of
our public morale is as necessary to
German success as the weakening of
Russia was. And the attempt to
weaken us has already developed two
| main lines of movement. The first
aims to destroy our unity Of action
with our allies by setting us against
the French, the British and the jap
anese. The second proposes to destroy
! our domestic unity by encouraging
! among us every sort Of class dissen-
sion, religious difference, racial preju-
dice and political quarrel.
SIandering the French.
| The officials of the Red Cross report
that many loyal mothers are refusing
to let their daughters volunteer as
J nurses in France because of rumors
of immoral conditions in the hospitals
there. A detailed story has been cir
culated to the effect that 200 Red
Cross nurses have recently been re-
turned on a transport from abroad and
secretly removed to maternity hos
pitfalls here as patients. There is not
a word of truth in the story. 1t has
been Investigated by federal grand
jury in New York city and found to
be false. German sympathizers caught
circulating it have been interned. The
nurses in service in our hospitals in
France have the same discipline and
protection that they have here-and
need it as little. The story has been
invented to hamper the work Of the
Red Cross and to prejudice us against
our French allies.
A similar aim is evident in the re-
ports of drunkenness and immortality
among eur forces at the front. These
charges, most circumstantially made,
were even taken up by the national
leaders of our prohibition societies and
purity leagues, and an appeal was
sent out to the readers of the religious
press asking them to protest to Presi-
dent Wilson. The number of these
protests showed the success Of the
| SANDER.
AS matter of fact, no liquor ration
is served to our troops either here or
abroad. No army canteen sells alco-
holic liquors. BY General Pershing's
orders, cur soldiers in France are for
hidden "either to buy or to accept as
| gifts from the Inhabitants" any "alco-
holic beverages other than light wine
or beer" AS there is little beer sold
in France, General Pershing reports:
"NIen who drink are thus limited to
the light native wine used by all
French people. Even this is discour-
aged among our troops in every pos
sible way. hope to secure the CO.
operation of the French government
to prevent the sale Of all liquors and
wines to our troops. Personally, I
favor prohibition in the army, but it
is impracticable and inadvisable to
Issue orders that cannot be enforced
without the cooperation of the French
government"
SIandering Cur Soldiers.
The charge Of drunkenness among
our eXpeditionary forces is pro-
| German lie designed to alarm the
mothers and fathers of the boys who
have gone to France. The stories of
! immortality consequent upon drunken
ness are equally caSeleSS.
| When the recruits for the National
army were first assembled in cur can
| tonments, the medical examiners sent
as many as 400 out of every 1000 men
to the hospitals to be treated for We
nereal diseases. The hospital a1;nis-
sion rate for venereal diseases in those
camps has since been as low as 64.4
per 1000, and the rate for the men
in our expeditionary forces in France
has been as low as 44.2 per 1000.
| That is to say, the statistics of the
| surgeon generals oftice show that cur
soldiers in France have been almost
ten times as free from the effects of
| immortality as the same sort of men
were when they were first drafted
These ISLANDERS upon the nurses and
upon the troops are typical of the
work of the German general staff. It
Il