The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-09-26
ALIEN PROPAGANDA

! VIM. NJ. Shearer and the American
ship building companies which en-
ployed him, if, as is charged, Shearer
went to Geneva to interfere with a
program of international disarma-
ment in behalf of business concerns
which hope to profit by the construc-
ton of additional warships. There
is reason to believe that the influence
eXerted by Shearer at Geneva and
elsewhere has been greatly exagger-
ated, however, and that he was but
a small drop in the bucket of propa-
| ganda at the Geneva conference and
( in the discussion of the questions Of
national defense and naval parity.
! There is also reason to believe that
Shearer's propaganda, however selfish
in its origin, is far less menacing to
the country than the vast volume of
propaganda, Of both foreign and do
nestle origin, with which this coun-
try has been flooded during the last
few years in a highly financed and
heavily organized effort to break
down resistance in the United States
to efforts Of alien inspiration to sacri-
fee Just American interests to foreign
desires. This, after all, is the sort Of
propaganda which Americans need
most to worry about, for it is carried
on with a cleverness and on a scale
which has attained results Of the
most important significance.
Geneva, it is true, was hot-bed of
propaganda. For propaganda is a
weapon which European diplomats
and European commercial interests
well know how to employ, and Ameri-
cans are babes n-arms in the art Of
influencing public opinion by conceal
ed and indirect methods, as compared
with them. But no amount of propa-
ganda could conceal the fact that the
Geneva conference failed for one rea-
son, and one reason only, namely that
the representatives of Great Britain
would not concede parity as intended
at the Washington Arms conference,
and the American representatives
were too sincerely devoted to the in
terests of their own country to sac
rifice the program to which this coun-
try was committed. International i'll
will is certainly no more the cause of
the American desire to secure the
naval parity agreed on at the Wash
ington conference, than of the Brit
ish big navy advocates determination
to avoid it.
An effort has been made to make
it appear that because some ship
building companies may have engaged
in propaganda, based on selfish mo-
tives, in behalf of a ship building pro-
gram, the sentiment in this country in
behalf of national as against interna-
tional interests is of sOrded origin.
We have had no more outspoken prop
agandists in behalf of an adequate
navy than Grover Cleveland and The
odore Roosevelt. Surely no one will
argue that they We're working un-
der the instigation of ship-building
interests. On the other hand a thor
ough investigation would show that
propaganda against national interests
heavily organized and financed is one
of the most powerful political agen-
cies operating in this country. We
even permit the expenditure of mil
lions of dollars in this country in the
, propaganda and organization, direct
ed from Moscow, of armed insurrec-
ton against the government OF the
United States, until it is beginning
to result in bloodshed throughout the
nation SO long as the enemies of
American safety and prosperity are
permitted to pour out millions in be-
half of national injury and destruc-
ton, surely the friends of American
institutions, of American economic
independence, of American freedom
from the control of selfish foreign
commercial and revolutionary propa-
ganda should be permitted in a land
of free speech to have their say with
out imputations against their hon
esty and patriotism.
A few years ago an inquiry into
propaganda in favor of subsidy fol
the American merchant marine was
launched in Congress. At the same
= time propaganda against the govern
. mental fostering of our merchant ma
5 rine was so successfully carried out
} that the measure was defeated. Wher
g the World War came on our lack OF
e ships cost the American people bill
= ions Of dollars, creating an annual ma
tional interest charge many times the
e amount proposed as a subsidy. Only
5 one important fact was developed in
e that inquiry, and that was that Brit
S ish and German shipping interests
0 were paying a large salary to a
t Washington representative of great
t news gathering association which fur
= nished American newspapers with
= information from the State, War and