Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-12-23
With Other Editors
On Subsidized Newspapers.

vi OUDSIOIZGU newspapers.
In all the maze of testimony brought out at Wash
ington in the investigation of the German propa-
ganda movement nothing was more striking than the
testimony of Count Johann Won Bernstorff, former
German sentiment in America through the medium
of subsidized newspapers could never be anything
else but complete failure because substituting news
papers were impossible here.
Easily the most able agent that Germany had in
America and of the cleverest men in the Ger
diplomatic corps Bernstorff himself threw away
millions of German money this experiment be
fore he learned its futility There can be no such
thing as subsidized press in this country as there
Bernstorff wrote to the home government. 1T al
ways ends by every utterance being attributed to
me"
The 1ayman does not appreciate the heEculean
movement undertaken by the German imperial gov
eminent to fill American papers with German propa-
ganda. Tons Of this stuff reached newspaper offices
and sped rapidly to the wastebasket although in
the beginning editors especially suspicious
that the hand of the German government was back
Of it This literature merely was of no interest to
anyone and was discarded
1t this inability to secure free advertising
space that led to the second step in the newspaper
campaign One or two newspapers were purchased
outright and Immediately they became vaueless be-
cause they interested nobody but those who were al
ready followers Of Prussia. Subsidies were paid to
weekly organs most racial, to extoI Germany Again
the money wasted because the readers of these
papers were already pro-German. venaI newspaper
writers hired but Immediately became worthless
though it did not know they had been bribed The
same men who were taking German pay proclaimed
loudly against the American press that was "subsi-
died by the allies" but their vaporngs wasted
as the newspapers that could be induced to take
Germanys side were giving the news, which is what
their readers wanted.
Count Bernstorfrs complaint was a tribute to
American newspapers but II was even greater trib-
ute to American newspaper readers. By expending
enough millions Germany might have assembled a
chain Of newspapers that the owners were anxious
to get rid Of especially since the hand of the German
government would have been concealed in making
the purchase. The stumbling block Count Bern
storff found was that such papers would be merely
a dead loss after they had been purchased. Ameri-
cans Bernsorff bluntiy told superiors were too
intelligent be mIsed by newspapers that printed
palpably coored literature under the guise OF news
Such newspapers would be dun and readers wouldn't
buy them. and obviously newspapers that have no
circulation influence nobody
Count Bernstorff was right in complaining that
newspapers edited by the government or by am
particular business. political or other interest are
well enough in the old world but get nowhere in
America The American newspaper couldn't be sub
sdized If it wanted te be. It's readers would know
in week that il bought and would drop it for
a Iee nhhiinauon-=FoHH Telegram
4.