The Washington herald., 1920-05-09
GERMANCSEEK
NEWS CONTROL
Group Of Industrial Mag
|. nets Aim to Subsidize
Powerful Newspapers.
BUILD PRESS SERVICE
Syndicate Aims to Spread
Propaganda to South
American Countries.
BUILD PRESS SERVICE
(wsshington HeraId-PubIic Ledger
service. Special Cable DisPatcho
ny 8. D. CoNGER.

N"42uIuktOn esshp
service. Special Cable DisPatchJ
ny 8. D. CoNGER.
Berlin, May s.-Plans to acquire
control OF the German press and
mould public opinion along lfnes
desired by the big influential mag
mates, who before the war formed
a syndicate to purchase influential
newspapers, distribute adver&sing
and finance q news agency, have
been taken up again under the
leadership Of Hugo SHINES, the
multimillionaire ironmaster OF
Western Germany. The purchase OF
the German General Gazette by
SHINES, which was announced to-
day, adds another newspaper to the
big string Of papers in Berlin and
other important provincial centers.
owned by the big manufacturing In
terests.
1t also gives them control Of the
organ to which the government is
contractually pledged 10 give q pref
erential position in publishing ofi-
cial announcements. The Gazette Is
no longer as thoroughly official as
under the old regime and former
name of North German General Ga
zette, when its editorial articles
were prepared in the foreign office
and other MINISTRIES, but II still
operates under q contract drafted
NV Otto Hamman, who for years, as
the press adviser to the Chancellor
and the foreign ONCE. directed Ger
man propaganda at home ana
abroad and played a role more I'M
portant than many ministers.
Publishes OmciaI Gazette.
1t has, in addition, built up since
the revolution, about the best for
eign news service of any Berlin
paper and publishes in its plant the
'official Gazette" in which laws and
Official regulations are promulgated.
SHINES and his colleagues re-
Gently purchased publishing plant
where several Berlin newspapers
are printed and he has just bought
the Munich-Augsburg Gazette, one
of the leading liberal organs In
southern Germany. Select editors
dictate the policies of many other
which the SHINES group acquired
before and during the war. Such
organs were colloquially styled the
"Armorplate press" from one Of the
principal products of the iron in
dustry and from the warlike direc-
ton of their foreign policies. They
now are hostile to the existing lib
eraI Socialist regime, hence an ex-
tension Of the "armorplate" chain
is recognized as a district blow to
the present government.
Forms Advertising Agency.
The ambitious plans of the mag
mates of so-called heavy industry
were revealed during the war when
1t became known that, in adSstion
to purchasing papers, they had
formed a big advertising agency to
pass out we'll paid advertisements to
foreign and domestic newspapers
which the liberal press declared
were being used as an indirect sub
sidy to influence newspaper policies.
They also established a corporation
with a big capital to run a wireless
and cable news service to and from
Germany and prospective fields of
German exploitation in South
America and the Near and Far East.
The German debacle in the war
was also a debacle to these ambi-
tious propaganda plans in Asia and
South America and a definite check
to design to establish a similar
foothold in the United States which
certain features of operation of the
German wireless service during the
war seemed to indicate.
Copyright, 1920. by Public Ledger Col