, 1923-06-10
THE LATEST GERMAN
u


Ruhr there has been a great influx
into this country of German leaf
lets, b~roadsides and pamphlets. TIC
call these publication propaganda
would be to dignity them too much.
Propaganda implies a certain plausi-
Utility of statement, an approach to
art in presentation, and some glim'
merings of knowledge of the state
: of mind of the persons addressed.
But these recent German efforts to
Influence the "good-natured but
imisinformed American" as he is
called in one of the latest issues
; from the German press, are SO
crude, so bungling, Sc m~isdirected,
as in themselves to discredit the in
telligence of the authors of these
precious writings and of those who
export them to the United States.
eve are asked, for example, to
consider the terrible case of "The
PREPARATION Profiteers." The refer.
ence is to the valuation placed by
the Preparations Commission on
German payments in material
Thus, according to this impartial
and truthful German estimate, the
value of the steamships delivered
up was really 5,916,000,00o gold
marks. But the Preparations com
mission valued them at only 49,
100000 gold marks-a clean steal
for the profiteers of o. than five
billions. A little further arraying
of Figures that do not lie" is all
that is necessary to show that Ger
many has already paid far more
than the total fixed by the allies
two years ago.
1t is in its approach to the Amer
lean people that this leaflet stands
out above all others of its kind for
sublime ignorance of how to do it.
Setting out with the avowed aim
of counteracting French propa-
ganda in the United States, the
Rdroit question is asked in the head
line, Would You Eat a Live Frog?"
If not, the demand is made why
any one should swallow statements
coming from France. This is Ger
man wit at its best, and German
~acuteness in understanding foreign
ers raised to its highest power. II
was probably considered in Berlin
extremely clever, just the thing to
get under the skin of Americans.
But if the German officials had
taken the trouble to inquire of wan.
dering German-American Socialists
at the Hamburg international con
gress, they could have learned what
n horrible miscalculation of Ameri-
can sentiment, and of the way to
approach it, they were making.
This particular publication is
double barreled, one charge being
fired in the direction of England.
Great Britain is told of her "fatal
error" in allowing the French to
go into the Ruhr and to proceed
with the whole ambitious policy OF
France, which is now militarist and
imperialist in the extreme. A ia
nous German scholar and publicist
DIR. Oswald Spengler, is brought
forward to give evidence regarding
the true goals toward which the
French are pressing. He has dis
covered hat there is ga direct stra.
tegic line" leading from Pari,
through Prague and Belgrade dowr
to the mouth of the Danube. This
line is already "plastered with
French military commissions
whose real design is to control the
route to India. France also desires
to make use Of the North Sea a O
basis of operations against Eng
land" and is likewise plotting t.
tally herself with Moscow" will
the certain result of dominating
central Europe and securing TO
herself an open path to Asia Minoi
and TO India.
Furthermore in her world-wid