Part 6 (2/2)
”The attempt was made to fly kites over the trenches and drop leaflets from traveling containers that were run up the kite-wire, but this method could be used only on fronts where aeroplanes were not active, because the wires were a menace to the planes. The paper used in the leaflets was chemically treated so that they would not spoil if they lay out in the rain.
”An American invention that gave promise of supplanting all others was a balloon that carried a tin container holding about ten thousand pamphlets. A clock attachment governed the climb of the balloon, it had a sailing range of from six to eight hundred miles, and the mechanism could be set in such a manner as to have the pamphlets dropped in a bunch or one at a time at regular intervals, the whole business blowing up conclusively with the descent of the last printed 'bullet'.”
Similar methods were used against Austria-Hungary, writes Mr. Creel, and did much to shatter their feelings of allegiance to Germany. A proof of the effectiveness of the propaganda came when an order from the German General Staff was found, ”establis.h.i.+ng death as a penalty for all those seen picking up our matter or found with it in their possession.
Austria-Hungary had earlier given orders to shoot or imprison all soldiers or citizens guilty of the abominable crime of reading 'printed lies' against the government.”
Indirectly, too, the Germans were subjected to Allied propaganda throughout the war. In one matter the German Government's att.i.tude was more democratic and ethically defensible than the att.i.tude of its enemies. It is discouraging to the abstract moralist to find that this worked out to the detriment of those adopting the more admirable course.
Of all belligerent countries, Germany was the only one that permitted the free circulation and sale within its borders of the enemy press.
Leading French and English editors were able with much difficulty to secure copies of some German papers, and occasionally the large press a.s.sociations and some of the leading newspapers in America were permitted to see a few ancient copies, but nowhere could they be had by the private citizen, nor even read with safety in public places by those ent.i.tled to have them. There was never a time in Berlin, from the first declaration of war to the armistice, when the leading American, French, English, Italian and Russian papers could not be bought openly at a dozen newsstands or hotels, and the same was true generally throughout Germany.
The well-disciplined Germans at first rejected as lies all reports in these papers differing from the official German versions of the same happenings. Many kept this att.i.tude to the last, but even these began after a while, in common with the less st.u.r.dy believers, to be morally shaken by the c.u.mulative evidence of the worldwide unpopularity of the Germans and to be dismayed by the tone of the enemy toward everything that they had heretofore held holy. The average German stoically endured for a long time to be called ”Hun,” but, in homely phrase, it got on his nerves after a while. The wild atrocity stories also played their part.
All intelligent readers of history know that tremendous exaggerations of such reports have always accompanied all wars. Before the present war the a.s.sociated Press, the world's greatest newsgathering agency, barred war-atrocity stories from its reports because experience had demonstrated that these were often--perhaps generally--untrue and almost always exaggerated. When the enemy press converted the German army's _Kadaververwertungs-Anstalt_ (Carca.s.s Utilization Factory) into a Corpse Utilization Factory (_Leichenverwertungs-Anstalt_) and declared that bodies of fallen German soldiers were being rendered out for the fat, the Germans were at first indignant and angry. This feeling changed to one of consternation and eventual depression when they learned from the enemy newspapers that the story was universally believed. In the course of the long war, the constant repet.i.tion of atrocity reports, both true and false, had a c.u.mulative depressive effect which seriously shook the morale of all but the st.u.r.diest of the people and was one of the factors inducing the general feeling of hopelessness that made the final _debacle_ so complete. That everybody knew some of the reports to be true was an aggravation of their effect. A great part, perhaps, indeed, the greater part of all Germans condemned bitterly the Belgian deportations, just as the best minds of the nation condemned the new _Schrecklichkeit_ of the U-boat warfare, but they were helpless so long as their government was under the iron thumb of the military caste, and their helplessness increased their despair when they saw the opinion of the world embittered against their nation.
There is plenty of German testimony to show how effective this enemy propaganda was. Siegfried Heckscher, Reichstag member and chief of the publicity department of the Hamburg-America Line, writing at the end of September, pointed out the need of a German propaganda ministry to counteract the attacks being made on Germany by the propaganda work under the direction of Lord Northcliffe.
”The German practice of silence in the face of all the p.r.o.nouncements of enemy statesmen cannot be borne any longer,” said Herr Heckscher.
”Anybody who watches the effect of the Northcliffe propaganda in foreign countries and in Germany can have only one opinion--that this silence is equivalent to a failure of German statesmans.h.i.+p.
”With masterly skill every single speech of the English leaders is adapted not only to its effect in England, but also to its influence on public opinion among the neutrals and also, and especially, in Germany.
* * * * Hundreds of thousands of Germans, reading a p.r.o.nouncement by the President of the United States, ask themselves bitterly what the German Government will say. Thus there is formed a cloud of discontent and dark doubt, which, thanks to this Northcliffe propaganda, spreads itself more and more over the German people. * * * *
”We try to protect our country from enemy espionage and from the work of agents and scoundrels, but with open eyes we leave it defenseless while a stream of poisonous speeches is poured over its people.
”It will not, of course, do for enemy p.r.o.nouncements of importance to be withheld from our people, but it is as necessary for our people as their daily bread that the Anglo-Franco-American influence should be met by the German view, and that the justice and greatness of the German cause and of the German idea should be brought into the clear, full light of day. Nor is defense sufficient. We must also aggressively champion our cause in the forum of the civilized world.
”I repeat what I have said for years, that Reuter and the English news propaganda are mightier than the English fleet and more dangerous than the English army.”
The _Kolnische Volkszeitung_ echoed the demand for a propaganda ministry. It wrote:
”As our good name has been stolen from us and made despicable throughout the world, one of our peace demands must be that our enemies publicly and officially confess that they have circulated nothing but lies and slanders. * * * The greatest need of the moment is a campaign of enlightenment, organized by all the competent authorities, to hammer into German heads that, if further sacrifices and efforts are required of us, it is not the caprice of a few dozen people in Germany nor German obstinacy, but the enemy's impulse to destroy, that imposes them on people at home and at the front.”
CHAPTER VII.
Germany Requests an Armistice.
Dr. Michaelis, unequal to his task, laid down the Imperial Chancellors.h.i.+p. His successor was Count Hertling, Minister-President of Bavaria. The decision to appoint this man Imperial Chancellor may have been influenced largely by a desire to strengthen the bonds between Prussia and the next largest German state. It is possible also that Hertling's intimate relations with the Papal Court were taken into consideration, but the choice was a striking commentary on the dearth of good chancellors.h.i.+p material in Germany. Count Hertling's age alone unfitted him to bear the terrible burdens of this post, for he was well along in the seventies, and not strong physically. He had distinguished himself as an educator and as a writer on certain topics, especially Roman Catholic Church history, and had a record of honorable and faithful service as a member of the Bavarian Government. In his role as statesman he had exhibited perhaps a little more than average ability, but never those qualities which the responsible head of a great state should possess.
A monarchist by birth and conviction, Count Hertling was particularly unfitted for the chancellors.h.i.+p at a time when the nation-wide demand for democratic reforms of government was increasing in strength every moment. In a.s.suming his post he declared that he was fully cognizant of the strength and justice of the demand for an increased share of partic.i.p.ation by the people in the government, and he pledged himself to use his best efforts to see that this demand was met. There is no reason to doubt the honesty of his intentions, but it was too much to expect that an aged Conservative of the old school should so easily shake off old notions or even realize adequately what the great ma.s.s of the people meant when they cried out for a change of system. Probably no man could have carried out the task confronting the Chancellor; that Count Hertling would fail was inevitable.
The empire was honeycombed with sedition when the military reverses of the summer began. These reverses, disastrous enough in themselves, were greatly magnified by faint-hearted or malicious rumor. The military commander in the Marches (Brandenburg) issued a decree on September 9th providing for a year's imprisonment or a fine of 1,500 marks for persons spreading false rumors. The decree applied not only to rumors of defeats, but also to reports exaggerating the enemy's strength, casting doubts on the ability of the German armies to withstand the attack or bringing in question the soundness of the empire's economic situation.
Reports of serious dissensions in Austria-Hungary came at the same time to add to the general depression. The Vienna _Arbeiterzeitung_ said:
”In questions regarding food we are compelled to negotiate with Hungary as if we were negotiating with a foreign power. The harvest is the best since the war began, but the Hungarians are ruthlessly starving the Austrians, although there is plenty for us all.”
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