The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-03-15

4 ing propaganda are being used
I There Is the story that American SOL
diers are reeling around the streets Of
/ London, drunk. 1t has been disproved.
There is the charge that while we are
stinting ourselves to save grain the
English are using it to make whisky
although we are saving and shipping
chiefly wheat, which is little used in
distilling, and the figures from Eng
land show that the English liquor
traffic has been decreased by the war
almost as much as ours. And there Is
| the report that millions of British SOL
diers are held in England while the
allies are doing their fighting for
them"--a falsehood that is sufficiently
discounted by the fact that the British
empire has 100000 men in the field
and a half million in her fleet; that
of the British troops in France 20 per
cent are English, s per cent Scotch, 6
| per cent Irish, and TO per cent Cana
dams Australians, etc.; and that the
casualties among these troops have
been rs per cent English. 10 per cent
Scotch, 6 per cent Irish, and per
cent Canadian, Australian ETC.
The German mischief-makers who
first supplied arms for the revolt in
Ulster against home rule, and subse-
quently shipped arms for the revolt of
the home rulerS-these same promot-
ers Of disunity are now furnishing
the Irish in America with any story,
any argument, any SANDER that can
arouse anti-English prejudice among
us. On the Pacific coast, in the same
way, they are rafting the dry bones Of
the yellow peril. The average organ
of publicity that was pro-German be-
fore our declaration Of war; no mat
ter how pro-American it now pretends
to be, almost invariably uses the anti
British and the anti-Japanese appeals.
And Just as the Zimmerman note tried
to unite Mexico and Japan against us,
so the enemy of our unity alternates
denunciations of the yellow peril with
appeals for a declaration of war
against Mexico.
Should Be on Guard,
The German sympathiZer who tells
you the story of how discharged
Japanese servant boosted that the
japanese would soon Gown America"
Invariably couples it with a lying ac-
count of how all Washington is saying
that "the next war will be with Great
Britain about the Panama canal" On
the Italian front, before the successful
German drive, counterfeits of Milan
newspapers were circulated, contain
ing accounts of how bread riots had
been suppressed in north Italian towns
| by British soldiers imported for that
purpose, after Italian troops had re-
fused to fire upon their own people.
All over Italy the argument was used
that the nation was merely pulling
lgnglands chestnuts out of the fire."
The same argument is now doing duty
here, in spite of the fact that the
United States only went to war in
sRAf-defense after we had endured
- hetktf1 6t-TNFGLiititi UulIuSG anu LIS
| Justice and exhausted every means Of
| peaceful appeal.
| Many of the agents of this sort Of
propaganda in America, both publish
ers and "whisperers," are protected
| by their American citizenship and by
| the traditional freedom of speech
which our laws permit. The govern
ment has no power to reach them.
They are often the innocent victims of
| gui1tier minds. 1t is only possible to
warn the public of the infection which
they spread, and to mark them as
Carriers" of that German propa-
ganda bacillus which completely ener-
waited the strength of Russia and SO
nearly broke down the italian power
of self-defense.