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

"Aen who drink are thus limitedHt
the light native wine used by al
French people. Even this is disc6n'
aged among our troops in every poI
sible way. hope to secure the q
operation of the French governmd
to prevent the sale of all liquors
wines to our troops. Personality
favor prohibition in the army, buff
is impracticable and inadvisable X
issue orders that cannot be enfor h
without the cooperation Of the Freye
government"
Slandering Our Soldiers.
The charge of drunkenness AMIN,
our expeditionary forces is jB
German lie designed to alarm III
mothers and fathers of the boys 1ut
have gone to France. The storiesDI
immortality consequent upon drunk n
ness are equall.v baseless.
When the recruits for the NatioH!l
army We're first assembled in our III
comments, the medical examiners sNhl
as many as 400 out of every 1000 Ihr
to the hospitals to be treated for&
nereal diseases. The hospital adnis
sion rate for venereal diseases in t8sf
camps has since been as low as H.4
per 1000, and the rate for the lei
in our expeditionary forces in Fra0ce
has been as low as 44.2 per DO
That is to say, the statistics of fhe
surgeon generals Office show that Hui
soldiers in France have been almost
ten times as free from the effectsBl
immortality as the same sort of lter
were when they were first drafted
These SANDERS upon the nurses hi
upon the troops are typical of @le
work Of the German general staff. 4 I
has been their policy in their cbn
paigns of propaganda to circulateNir
an enemy country the falsehoods Mai
most appeal to that country's pr4u
dices. America, in its ignorance offall
France, outside of the tourist halhts
Of Paris, is easily imposed upon 4hsl
stories of French vice. The Gerrtan
propaganda knows that He is plh
ming to take advantage of it for hs
own purposes. He is making a dine
upon the sentiments and emotionsAot
American women just as he at firstht
tackled the susceptibilities of the Isll
ian women behind the lines in prelAr
ing the way for the Italian def8t
How well he is succeeding in America
is shown by q passage in that apIsaI
for protest to President Wilbr
which was printed in the religious
press.
1t pointed out: Throughout shis
country q feeling Of bitterness an
gerous in the extreme is arising Snd
gazing with menacing eyes towlrd
France. The mothers who have re&ed
sons strong and clean, and who lave
given them with glad, aching heare-
women who have loved France knL
glorified her-are now muttering khat
our boys are wanted for the profiS Of
their debauchery and not to take heiI
deaths in strength and cleanliness
Such mothers are the victims laE@T
German falsehood. 50 rs the Nfissl
who thus described them and pro
tested against the "debauchery" Of
their soldier sons. The reports Of i'm
moral conditions in France and Thu
campaigns Of protest against thost
conditions are equally the work Of
German agents, assisted by the preju
diced credulity Of their American vic
tins.
Mr.. Citizen, the committee on pub
lie information wishes to warn vol
against these snares. There will bt
more of them. In italy anonymous
letters were sent to the soldiers from
their homes accusing their wives of in
fidelity. Our military censorship pre-
vents such tactics among our men, bu
similar impostures will doubtless b.
attempted. Already forged letter:
pretending to be from soldiers II
France have been found in the lobbie;
of New York theaters, as if acci
dentally dropped there by the recipi
ents. The letters are always in tn,
angular handwriting of persons accus
toned to using German script. So fal
they have contained little but alarmn:
falsehoods about the alleged slaughte
Of American regiments.
SIandering the British.
In order to set US against our Brit
lsh allies, several sorts of whisper