The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-31
AMERICAN
 PROPAGANDA
Chairman of Committee on Public Information Re- views the Committees $ War Work in Foreign Countries.

 tion, says in Everybody's:
 Flight German prisoners out of every ten captured by the Americans had our stuff in their pockets. and reports united in declaring the litera- ture well thumbed.' The first proof of effectiveness was | an order issued by the German Gen eral Staff establishing death as a pen alty for all those seen picking up our ', matter or found with it in their pos ! session. And even before this. Aus 1 tria-Hungary had given orders to shoot or imprison all soldiers or cit1- zens guilty of the abominable crime of reading printed lies" against the government. Getting the truth into Germany and Austria Hungary was as hard a battle as any fought in France. A censor ship cunningly conceived and Tigidly enforced not only guarded the iron tiers, but crushed every internal at tempt to speak or write honestly. Sol diers and civilians were drugged with lies about "Germany's defensive wal" the "cruel purposes" of the enemy, the collapse of the Allies, the utter inability of America to train or trans port troops and the near approach of a tremendous victory that would mean world mastery.
 Truth Rained From Sky.
 The most obvious method of distr1- iGbution was by airplanes, of course, and over firing-lines and cities the sky rained pamphlets that told the truth in short, sharp sentences.
 The French introduced a rife gren- ade that carried pamphlets, and a 75 eheu that carried four or five miles. The British developed a six-inch gun that carried 10 or 12 miles and scat tered several thousand leaflets from each shell. The Italians used rockets for close work on the front, each rocket carrying 70 or 50 leaflets.
 To reach father behind the lines. all the fronts used paper balloons filled with coal-gas They would remain in the air a minimum of 20 hours, so as 10 make g. trip of 600 miles in 9 35 mile wind Fabri2 balloons carrying 1T or IS pounds of leaflets, were em- pIoyed, but with all the balloons the uncertainty of the wind made the work haphazard.
 The paper used in the leaflets was chemically treated, so that they would not spoil if they lay out in the rain.
 
 Central Powers was comparati lively simple. The chief problem, in fact, the only real problem, was to gain en- trance. But the fight for the favor of the neutral countries was far more difficult, for there were delicate ques- @'rns of neutrality, the danger of do-
 saying the wrong thing and, ,oNe all amazing ignorances about ehe United States, and the abnormal pre1udtces that had grown out of these tgnorances.
 Movies Most Effective Aid.
 Next to cables and wireless, the film played the most important pa t an our educational effort. From every source we gathered pictutres showing American cities, our social progress, our industrial life and our adventures in humanity and aItruism. The Sig nal Corps furnished us not only with film "shot" in France, but with a running record of domestic activities in cantonments, training schools, av- tation fields and in the Navy
 By an arrangement with the War Trade Board. exporters were given a license only upon condition that the films should not be shown in any house that exhibited German film and as a result German propaganda pictures were soon driven from the field in many countries.
 In the Allied nations, the initial showing of our films was always ''the" event, high officials of the gov ernment attending formally; but oui most Slittering success, I think, was in The Hague, where the police had do stop one performance of "Ameri- cas- Answer" owing to the great pro-German demonstrations that il aroused"
 Women Did Their Bit.
 Mrs. Robert H. Murray, head of the work in Mexico, introduced a rathel novel experiment in the shape O classes in English. These classes, tel a week, drew an average attendance of about 500 young men, and the in struction gave splendid opportunity tt lpreach the history aims and ideals O America.
 One of the things that had the mos effect upon Spanish opinion was tn sending of Spanish editors to inspec and report upon the American effor in France. We also pursued the sam course with the press of Switzerland Holland and Scandinavia There wa
 
 tral journalists, returning to their owl countries, did not write columns eX pressing amazement and admiration. Russia was a hard fight to lose l seemed for q while that we snoul surely win, and to this very day be lieTe that the people were with Il then and are with us now But tn political control of Lenine and Trot sky abolished the freedom of the pres ment against us.
 Switzerland was notable victory and the credit must go to Mrs. Nor man de R. Nhitehouse, in charge froI bitter first to happy last.
 It proved rare understanding of pee pie and their prejudiceS, it near technical knowledge of every mediui of appeal, and, above all, it shove translation of devotion into terms ( energy and actual drudgery. MT Whitehouses job was to put Americ across in Switzerland just as she ha put equal suffrage across in Ne York
 We knew that she was doing wei by our study of the Swiss papers, an we knew that she was winning whe She German press commenced to a tack her and the work with hysteric Ahterness.
 The foreign born and those of fo
 Ign descent played no small part sar educational effort.
 U. S. Italians Suffered Defense,