Evening star., 1942-04-26

Few topics arouse sharper condemns-
ton from President Roosevelt or Vice
President Wallace than misstatements Of
facts. slurs on our Allies or nl-timed
public statements which can be used by
Axis propagandists In painting q dis
torted picture OF this country in an at
tempt to show our friends and enemies
that the United States is not united in
the war effort.
The President recently denounced as
sixth columnists' the persons who wit
tingly or unwittingly spread the poison
OF the fifth columnists," and in his
radio report TO the Nation on February
% he asserted that almost every Axis
broadcast directly quotes Americans. who
by speech or In the press make damnable
misstatements" such as the unfounded
rumors of allegedly suppressed losses at
Pearl Harbor
And the Vice President, who is usually
soft-spoken. recently blasted at Chair
man Dies OF the House Committee on
Un-American Activities for having made
public q letter, without consultation with
Mr. Wallace, that IS employees of the
Board Of Economic Warfare were or had
been sympathetic to Communism.
I'VE are at war" Mr. Wallace said,
"and the doubts and angers which this
and similar statements OF Mr Dies tend
10 arouse in the public mind might as
well come from Goebbels himself as far
as their practical effect is concerned. AS
q matter fact. the effect on our morale
would be less damaging If Mr. Dies we're
on the Hitler payroll"
Dies Charges Broadcast.
AS was to be expected, the Dies
charges we're quickly broadcast to Latin
America, Asia and occupied Europe by
the Axis propagandists in Berlin, Rome,
Toxic and Vichy.
For many months the Federal Com
munications Commissions monitoring
service has made recording and trans
lations of Axis broadcasts. Transcripts
and digests of these propaganda pro-
grams are distributed to various Govern
ment agencies closely identified with the
war program, such as the White House,
the State Department. Army and Navy
intelligence, the Co-ordinator of Infor-
nation, the ONCE of Facts and Figures,
the ONCE of Censorship and the Depart
ment of Justice.
A review of these transcripts proves
that administration fear over the effect
Of Axis propaganda is well founded. The
Germans fix the Tire" the other Axis
broadcasters take. Truth, of course, is
no consideration, but the propaganda lis
just that much stronger when American
public officials and newspapers can be
directly quoted
Before Pearl Harbor and our entrance
into the war against Germany and Italy,
the Axis propaganda exploited the state
ments of American nti-interventionists
and isolationists Today they pick up
small items Of disunity and irresponsible
slurs on our Allies in an effort to show
that large part of the American people
are not behind the war effort.
Typical Statements.
Chronologically arranged are a num-
Der of typical statements broadcast by
the Axis propagandists:
Italy to Latin America, December IL,
i9Al-"The America First Committee is
purported to have enjoyed the sympathy
of most Americans and to have been
dissolved by order of the President"
Germany to Laen America, January
27-"The name 'NaZi' which North
American propagandists for so long have
been applying to all those Ibero-Ameri-
can and United States patriots who de-
fend national interests may some day
become a distinction. AS you know.
President Roosevelt labeled as Nazis'
men like Senator Wheeler and Col. Lind
bergh, whose patriotism and honor no
one can doubt"
italy to North America, February 4-
thousands of letters from university
students all over the United States re-
iterated the fact that if obliged to fight
they would do so with bitterness and
undying resentment against those who
forced the evil upon them, One Harvard
graduate is said to have put 1t. We
are particularly instructed not 10 be
swept off our feet by false patriotism
like our fathers , well. we haven't
been most of us have looked under
the bed for propaganda