Mexico Missouri message., 1918-10-31
German Agent Is Using His Whis-
pering Propaganda.
PROOF IS NEVER SUBMITTED
centers Efforts on Religious, Racial,
Agricultural, Commercial and Such
Topics as Are Likely to
Cause Friction.
RTom the Committee on Public Informa-
ton, Washington, d. C.)
BY HARVEY. o'HIGGINs.

CihiS is the second OF three articles by
Mr.. O'Higgins dealing with the propa-
ganda Of the enemy in our country)
In previous article we have noted
how the German agents in this coun-
try are using their whispering propa-
ganda" to set us against the French,
the British and the Japanese by cir
culating among us all sorts of ISLANDERS
and i'll reports against these allies. In
the campaign to promote domestic dis
unity the pro-German rumor-mOnger
has been even buster. He is working
here exactly as he worked in Italy,
upon religious prejudices. He has
spread the report that the Masonic
orders have protested to the govern
ment against the Knights of Columbus
being permitted to build recreation
huts in the camps. No such protest
was ever made. He has circulated
stories that Catholic nuns were refused
permission to do Red Cross work un-
less they wore Red Cross uniforms,
and that Catholic soldiers-and Jewish
| soldiers-were being Disseminated
against by Red Cross officials. All
such stories are outright inventions.
At the same time he passes around
every kind of rumor of Catholic dis
loyalty, such as the famous one that
President Wilson's secretary, a Cath
olic, had been executed for treason.
He has filled the mails with printed
copies. of an alleged "bloody oath of
the Knights of Columbus" giving it
on the pretended authority of the Con-
gressional Record. 1t was printed in
the Record because 1t was read into a
debate before the house of repre-
sentatives on an election protest, in
order that it might be denounced as a
forgery and a libel upon Catholic
candidate. A pro-German agent has
been caught distributing copies of this
''bloody oath" in New Jersey and sent
to prison for it.
How the Kaiser Poses.
In Spain and the Catholic countries
of South America the kaiser poses as
''the champion of Catholic Bavaria and
Catholic Austria against Protestant
England, infidel France, and social
istic Italy, the enemy of the Vatican"
He does not preserve that pose in
Catholic Belgium or Catholic Poland.
And in America the kaiserite uses
this very claim of the kaiser to arouse
enmity against the Catholics, just as
in Italy the German agent used it in
an unsuccessful attempt to seduce the
Italian Catholics, and now in Amer
lea accuses the Italian Catholics of
having succumbed to the seduction.
AS matter of fact, the Catholic chap
lains in the italian army were among
the first to discover this propaganda
among the soldiers, reported it to the
officers, and combated it diligently.
Various persons and publications
hat made living out of sectarian
animosities before the war are uncon-
sciously doing the work of the enemy
by assisting the spread of anti-Cath-
olic and anti-Protestant slanders
They can only be stopped by an appeal
to public reprobation. They are rep
resenting the trouble in Ireland as
purely a religious trouble, and the
opposition to conscriptiOn in Quebec
as the same sort of thing. Even Rud
yard Kipling recently fell into the
trap and denounced the pope and the
kaiser and the neutrals in one
breath. Such denunciations overlool
the fact that Cardinal Mercier, the
Catholic prelate of Belgium, has beer
the most effective popular opponent OF
the kaiser that Europe has produced
This is war of nations, not of creeds
Prussia is as Protestant a nation al
| &c, nA Dol
as Catholic as Austria. Anyone whit
raises the religious question in Amer
ica today is acting as German
agent, whether he knows it or not, a
truly as if he were blowing up mum
ton plants. All loyal citizens shOult
discourage him.
Aggravating Our Race Problems.
E Among the negroes the German prop
a ngandist first began work in the Soutl
e and failed. He has been more sue
q cessful in the middle West, where tn
0 presence of large loyal German popU
\ lation gives him better cover. He
promising the negroes that the kaise
will give them social equality with tn
, whites. An agent, recently captured
!. New York, was offering the negroe
, "Black republic" under Germa
a protection, and he was denounced I
: the authorities by the negroes then
y selves. Another was spreading report
n of determinations against negro so
J. diers in the camps, reporting that tn
i negroes were being trained as ''shOc
: troops" to be sacrificed in the froI
n lines, and even circulating story thi
e the German military authorities hu
d ordered all negro prisoners kille
e Thus far this sort of German effort
g aggravate race problem has been q
d absurd failure. Its only danger is thi
', 1t may lead to charges of disloyal'
l. against our colored citizens and sli
= picion of them which is not justiiie
o To allow the German intrigue
a. arouse q prejudice against the neg
n would aid the enemy as much as If