Williston graphic., 1918-09-19

printed from the Congressional Rec.
ord, Sixty-second Congress, Third
Session, Vol. 49, Part 4, PIP. S216-17
February Is, 1913" And it does in
deed appear in the Congressional
Record for that date, but only be.
cause it was produced in an election
contest and denounced before Cong.
ress as an abominable forgery by
the candidate against whom it was
circulated.
An agent caught passing around
printed copies of this "oath" in New
Jersey has been arrested and impris-
oned, but the circulation Of it, thru
the mails, anonymously, still contin-
ues. 1t is German propaganda.
1t is German propaganda of the
sort that is being used in all the AL
lied countries by German agents who
seek to arouse any sort of religious
dissension in order to divide people
united in opposition to Germany
Among American Protestants they
circulate tales of Roman Catholic
treachery, such as the amazing run!or
that President Wilson's secretary had
been shot for treason.
Among the Roman Catholics they
pass out accounts of discrimination
against Roman Catholic soldiers by
Red Cross officials, Of protests by Ma
sonic orders against allowing the
Knights of Columbus to build recrea-
tion huts in the camps, or prosecutions
of Roman Catholics by the British
French and Italian governments.
They use similar stories among the
American Jews. These falsehoods
report names and dates and places
most convincingly, and they are given
credence in the gossip of sewing cir
cles and afternoon teas.
Fabrications of the same SORT are
used to antagonize capital and labor
the negroes and the whites, thes Pro
hibitionists and their opponents, and
both sides of any political quarrel OF
class difference where domestic enmi-
ties can be aggravated to the point
of lessening effective cooperation
against the common foe. Such stories
gain insidiousness from t'l. fact that
their purpose is not plain. They have
no German color to betray them. Some
of them, like the story of The 100000
coftins shipped to France, some to be
publicly repeated by very distlnguish,
ed critics of the war. Some. like the
reports Of drunkenness and disease
among our expeditionary forces, gair
the authority of national organizations
of reform. They begin as malicious
lies, progress as gossip, and end as
authoritative charges so widely be-
lieved that authority itself can hard
ly discredit them.
There is still another kind of Ger
man falsehood. Here are two ex-
amples of it: Last winter the women
of some New England States gather
ed great quantities of Cancelled postage
stamps, on the understanding that the
Government wished these saved for
the dye they contained. The women
in one town rented shop on the
main street, collected used envelopes
by the hundredweight and soaked
the stamps from them. They had
spent months of earnest effort and
stored up an incredible number of
stamps before they learned that their
work was useless.
In the South another such report
led to the collecting of an equal mum.
ber of chicken gizzards, from which
the Government was to extract q
rare and valuable drug. Both such
reports were in the nature of German
practical jokes, but they succeeded in
wasting great deal of patriotic work
and they resulted in annoyance and
Encouragement.
1t is evident, in these cases, that an
inquiry directed to the authorities in
Washington would prevent much evil.
1t would not only catch the enemy lie,
but it would probably catch the enemy
liar. 1t would make the circulation
of his stories difficult and their in
vention dangerous-to him instead of
to the nation. Loyal women, instead
of asking one another about reports
of official scandals and discouraging
gossip and rumors of dissension and
ISLANDERS upon sects and classes, should
write to some such bureau as the
Committee on Public Information to
ask the truth Of the report. If it
were a friend who was being SLAM
dered you would consult the friend.
If it is your country that is being slan-
dered give your country the same op-
portunity to defend itself.