Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-01
15O,OOO,OOO Political Robots

personally conducted tours, not only
for ordinary visitors. but especially
for foreign newspaper men. Foreign
correspondents may go where they
please in Italy-if they are not on
the black list-but If they want to re-
turn they must be careful about what
they write. And in these days Of
fverish military activity almost any
interesting piece of information can
be construed as "endangering the safe
ty of the state" thereby making the
writer liable to charges Of espionage.
For several years there has been
heard repeatedly the charge that
American correspondents, particularly,
disseminate false news" Some Of
the news contained in their dispatches
may have been untrue, but in every
instance it has been the source that
was to blame. European politicians
and diplomats-and some statesmen
are not above deliberately planting
false information where unsuspecting
newspaper men are likely to find 1t.
Deliberate False News.
But while the dispatches Of Ameri-
can correspondents may unintention-
ally convey false information to Amer
lean readers, it is nothing compared
with the deliberately false news that
is constantly being given to European
readers in Germany, Italy, Russia
and to a certain extent in so-called
free countries. 1t may be justifiable
for the Nazi and Fascist newspapers TO
color American news so as to enable
their rulers to bask in reflected glory.
Italians have been led to believe that
many Of Roosevelt's political reforms
were borrowed from Mussolini. They
are now being told that Washington's
neutrality policy means that America
is pro- Italian or Ethiopian in
respect to Mussolini's African inter-
lude. During the recent meeting OF
the Third Internationale the COMM
term, Communist delegates from all
over the world were led to believe that
Bolshevism was ION its way" in the
United States. The allegation must
have been serious, because the State
Department has seen fit to protest en-
ergetically. The coloring OF news dis
patches from the United States by the
Goebbels propaganda ministry, as
mentioned before, Is too well known
to need illustration.
To make the story complete 1t Is
necessary to cite few memberships"
in non dictatorial nations. In the
gold bloc-France, Switzerland and
Holland particularly-the anti-infia-
zionist press has seldom had a good
word to say for the present American
administration. The newspapers pic
ture inflation-or devaluation OF the
dollar-as a miserable failure; the
N. R. A. was damned from the be-
ginning and when its constitutionality
was challenged the anti-Roosevelts In
Europe land there are more OF them
there than there are in the United
States went their way rejoicing. The
reason for criticizing the New Deal
in the gold bloc countries Is obvious.
II devaluation proves a panacea for
economic ills in America 1t Is hard
for European gold bloc governments
to argue against it while the de-
preston deepenS in France, Switzer-
land and Holland. II American work
ers get higher wages and shorter
hours European laborers are going
TO demand the same thing.
Switzerland, additionally liberal In
dealing with the press. apparently has
been contaminated by the proximity
of the dominated German and Italian
newspapers. The Swiss have become
very touchy over what foreign cor
respondents send out. Robert Dell,
famous writer for the Manchester
Guardian, lives under the sword OF
Democeles, with official warning
served upon him that he mustn't
criticize Swiss institutions or the ad-
ministration of the government. Most
foreign correspondents stationed at
Geneva deliberately refrain from
writing Swiss news. except in so far
as it touches League matters. The
Swiss, too, have their difficulties with
the Nazis. Most Swiss newspapers
have been banned from circulating
in Germany. particularly those pub
lished in the German language. In
retaliation Berne has forbidden many
May newspapers to enter Switzerland.
For the censor ridden Germans the
newspapers of Austria, Czechoslovakla
and Switzerland and the clandestine
sheets published outside Of Maitland
have been their only sources Of re-
liable information on what IS going
on inside Germany, as well as in
the outside world.
Read Foreign Papers.
So determined are the Nazis and
Fascists that not single citizen shall
know things that might shake their
faith in Hitler and Mussolini that they
scrutinize carefully all newspapers and
periodicals which enter their coun-
tries. When the inoffensive New York
Times is banned from Italy and half
the British newspapers get on the
German and Fascist blacklist condi-
lions must be bad.
Austria, under the Schusschnigg-
Stahremberg regime has Joined the
completely censored group. But as
Austria is surrounded by hostile states,
with the exception of its Italian FROM
tier, the clandestine press has no trou-
BILE in flooding the country with oppo-
sition literature, originating in Brno,
Czechoslovakia, Munich, Switzerland,
Hungary and Yugoslavia.
Republican Spain, which deposed
Alfonso partly because he insisted
upon censorship, has had a relapse.