Evening star., 1941-09-27

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thing to think
mcLsmors. about, because
the liar is vital cog in the modern
war machine. He plays role every
bit as important as that Of the COM
bat soldier. His weapons include the
l4-inch Misrepresentation and the
50-millimeter fabrication, and he
turns them on foe and countryman
alike. With the same ammunition
deceit-he aims to build up the
morale of his friend and destroy
that of his enemy.
One has only to read the war nees
to realize the key position held by
the liar. His work is on the front
page as often as the weather re-
port. 1t is mistake to believe that
liars are born, not made. Nature
just doesn't deal out such masters
of the fim-ham and the fraud as
Goebbels, Gayda. the unknown an
pronounceable who is handling the
official releases for the Russians
and the smooth, unwrinkled old tie
BOY who dishes out more of the same
for the British.
Those boys came up the hard way
They worked the bush league for
many year before making the ma
jors and a chance to hand out lies
on the biggest story of all time. It
stands to reason that they did. A
fellow Just doesn't lie on that scale
offhand You have to have prac-
tice, and lots of it. to let fly with a
whopper that involves a nation. sor
two or three million men or whole
damn Atlantic fleet.
I don't like the buns. but right
now I think the Germans have the
best liars, The fellow they have in
| charge of lies in Russia must have
graduated magma cum laude at
Goebbels' school and taken a mas
ter's degree at Ribbentrop's univer-
/ sity. AS liar he is not only brushed
| with genius. he is tarred and feath-
cred with 1t. Up to now he has an
/ nounced the capture by the Nazis of
! exactly II more Russians mot count
ing Harry Hopkins or that minus
I @ son of Joe Stain than the cen
] sus says are in the whole country.
have working against him isn't anv
slouch. All he needs is a clear dav
and a pair of cheap binoculars to
make him swear he saw a million or
two Nazis surrounded and taken
prisoner That's pretty good lying.
Given time, and this country can
come up with a batch of liars able
to hold their own in any company.
There is lot of natural talent
around that needs only expert guild
ance and a little incentive to de-
velop it into top-f1ight material
In time Of emergency, country
naturally would turn to politics for
its first batch of draftee prevari-
Gators. There is something about
politics that brings out the best in
men who have any gift at all for
twisting the truth. I don't have to
tell you that in Washington, right
now, there is more than one public
servant who has proved his ability
to say one thing mean another and
finally do still another. That Is
what is known as triple threat
liar, and they are very valuable In
crisis. Thank goodness, we have lots
Of them. Just as many as any other
country as a matter Of fact. 1t
makes E fellow feel better to know
that his country can rally, II nee
essary, just as many distorters and
finaglers of the truth as any of its
enemies.
Just to be on the safe side. think
we could do worse than start school
for liars. Begin now to ready men
capable of giving the OF truth the
heave-ho. We may need men who
can look at battleship with a hole
the size of a barn in it and with
straight face report that it wasn't
touched by the enemy or who can
read IA polls showing that the Ma
ton is against war and then say
that 90 per cent of the citizenry is
clamoring for armed action. Novice
liars aren't up to that sort of thing
They are likely to report that the
battleship is shot the hell out Of, or
that public opinion is against con-
f1ict. And that sort of thing won't
do in a crisis.
Truth is beauty all right. Just as
Keats said it was, but he wasn't
writing for a propaganda ministry,
Distributed by McNsusht Syndicate. Incl