politics." A legislature that must not talk politics! It should be tagged and exhibited as a finished product of militarism. Reports of speeches in the Reichstag are mutilated by the censor so that their true character is effaced, and the people may not learn exactly what is said in their imperial parliament. Yet one of the provisions of the constitution (when it is not suspended) is that correct reports of the Reichstag meetings should be published. It is the custom in Germany that the parliamentary deputies shall present to their constituencies reports of the Reichstag's activities, and in this connection render, so to speak, an account of their stewardship; but last summer one of the members was prevented from making a report of the August session of that body. A deputy in Brunswick was required to submit the manuscript of a public speech to the censor, and then forbidden to mention that this had been done. Frequent complaints have been made that the right of assembly has been suspended, and that the right of association has been denied to certain groups inclined to "talk politics" in a way that might prove embarrassing.

One of the most unpopular features of the censorship was its application to the matter of a separate peace with Russia. In spite of the Reichstag's resolution in opposition to a separate peace, wireless telegrams were repeatedly sent in the summer of 1917 offering peace to Russia, but Kerensky indignantly rejected these offers. So rigid was the censorship on this point that the German people knew nothing of this at the time and they found it out long afterwards only by indirect methods when the enemy and neutral press was full of the matter. This tricking of the German public created profound dissatisfaction.

Besides the suppression of undesirable news, there is another function of news-control which the Germans employthe forced publication of official material and "inspired articles. The editors are not only told what to omit, but they are directed as to what attitude to take on certain questions, what interpretations to place on events in the international field, what articles are to be reproduced from other papers, and what kind of "comments" are to be made on given topics. A certain kind of news is standardized and actively disseminated, and this positive side of news-control is even more important, perhaps, than the censorship itself. Editors have had their material in many cases supplied ready

for use and have been forced to give it space. Papers have been required to reprint articles from the official Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and from Reventlow's jingo sheet, the Tagliche Rundschau, without being permitted to state the source of these articles. The Wolff Bureau's interpretation of certain discussions in the Austrian lower chamber in June, 1917, were adopted as standard and the papers were instructed to treat these discussions " in no other light." The people were to have only one version of the Jutland "victory," of the actual results of Zeppelin raids, of the reasons for continuing martial law, of the "voluntary Belgian deportations, of the "strategic" retirement on the Western front, of the continued severity of the Allies' blockade, and of other points equally difficult of explanation. Such poor team-work as occurred early in the war, when two versions were given out as to why Rheims cathedral was shelled, is to be avoided so far as official standardization of news can accomplish the result.

In addition to the censoring and inspiring of matter designed for the press, the Germans do not neglect a third function-namely, the "doctoring" of news. Dispatches from abroad are published only after they have undergone a process of "editing" which may take the form of the elimination of significant passages, of unfair translation, or of explanatory comment. In the case of President Wilson's war address of April 2, 1917, more than half of the text, by an actual counting of the lines, was omitted in the Wolff Bureau's version. The convincing recital of the causes which provoked us to war was curtailed and distorted, while the denunciation of Germany's system of intrigue, with the reference to the Mexican note, was dropped. The declaration that "the world must be made safe for democracy was deleted and the passage disclaiming any desire to seek selfish compensation for America's sacrifices was struck out. The blue pencil was also run through the expressions of friendship for the German people and the eloquent statement of what we are fighting for: right that is more precious than peace, democracy, the principle of self-government, the liberties of small nations, and a universal dominion of right by a concert of free peoples. An unwilling testimony has been added to the potency of the President's burning words, for the German official news-makers did not dare to let their own people read the full text of the message. The same may

be said in general of the President's note to the Pope, the German versions of which were misleading in many respects.

Even worse than "doctoring" is the downright fabrication of news. In his Belgium Under the German Eagle, Jean Massart tells of how photographs taken in Brussels were used to illustrate the German entry into Antwerp. The reported capture of this city "with its army" was wholly false, as he shows, for the invaders merely seized an empty nest. When a German dirigible was wrecked in landing on the Belgian coast, the damaged machine was made to do service as a captured French airship." A view of German sailors around one of their own guns was published with the title "Belgian gun, captured and served by German sailors on the coast of the Channel." Assassinated Belgian priests have been referred to as 'fallen in battle." When the French were pushing forward in the Chemin-des-Dames sector, the German versions of French official reports were so doctored as to conceal entirely the capture of certain sections of the Hindenburg line, and newspaper headlines were telling of "French Defeat in Gigantic Onslaughts." To open the way for "retaliation by illegal war methods, the German papers have falsely charged the enemy with carrying military aviators on hospital ships, and misusing the RedCross flag. Secretary Baker's figures for the American Army have been distorted in the German press, and nonexistent strike riots in England have been described.

The Germans even extend this campaign of "PanMunchausenism (as an American editor aptly put it) to their own troops. Captured German soldiers, supplied only with official news, have disclosed the most fantastic ideas. Even as late as November, 1914, German troops in Belgium were led to believe they were in the vicinity of Paris. One of the soldiers near Roulers in Flanders, having understood that he was within eight miles of Paris, asked to be shown a place from which he might see the Eiffel Tower. News of different sorts is served on different fronts. Two sets of what purported to be the same edition of the General Anzeiger of Düsseldorf were prepared with identical dates and serial numbering, but one was intended for circulation in occupied Russia and the other in Belgium, the news matter varying according to the audience. Such tactics, according to the German theory, would hearten the troops, improve their morale, and develop a "will to victory."

for use and have been forced to give it space. Papers have been required to reprint articles from the official Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and from Reventlow's jingo sheet, the Tagliche Rundschau, without being permitted to state the source of these articles. The Wolff Bureau's interpretation of certain discussions in the Austrian lower chamber in June, 1917, were adopted as standard and the papers were instructed to treat these discussions "in no other light." The people were to have only one version of the Jutland "victory," of the actual results of Zeppelin raids, of the reasons for continuing martial law, of the "voluntary Belgian deportations, of the "strategic" retirement on the Western front, of the continued severity of the Allies' blockade, and of other points equally difficult of explanation. Such poor team-work as occurred early in the war, when two versions were given out as to why Rheims cathedral was shelled, is to be avoided so far as official standardization of news can accomplish the result.

In addition to the censoring and inspiring of matter designed for the press, the Germans do not neglect a third function-namely, the "doctoring" of news. Dispatches from abroad are published only after they have undergone a process of "editing" which may take the form of the elimination of significant passages, of unfair translation, or of explanatory comment. In the case of President Wilson's war address of April 2, 1917, more than half of the text, by an actual counting of the lines, was omitted in the Wolff Bureau's version. The convincing recital of the causes which provoked us to war was curtailed and distorted, while the denunciation of Germany's system of intrigue, with the reference to the Mexican note, was dropped. The declaration that "the world must be made safe for democracy was deleted and the passage disclaiming any desire to seek selfish compensation for America's sacrifices was struck out. The blue pencil was also run through the expressions of friendship for the German people and the eloquent statement of what we are fighting for: right that is more precious than peace, democracy, the principle of self-government, the liberties of small nations, and a universal dominion of right by a concert of free peoples. An unwilling testimony has been added to the potency of the President's burning words, for the German official news-makers did not dare to let their own people read the full text of the message. The same may

be said in general of the President's note to the Pope, the German versions of which were misleading in many respects.

66

Even worse than "doctoring" is the downright fabrication of news. In his Belgium Under the German Eagle, Jean Massart tells of how photographs taken in Brussels were used to illustrate the German entry into Antwerp. The reported capture of this city "with its army was wholly false, as he shows, for the invaders merely seized an empty nest. When a German dirigible was wrecked in landing on the Belgian coast, the damaged machine was made to do service as a captured French airship." A view of German sailors around one of their own guns was published with the title "Belgian gun, captured and served by German sailors on the coast of the Channel." Assassinated Belgian priests have been referred to as "fallen in battle." When the French were pushing forward in the Chemin-des-Dames sector, the German versions of French official reports were so doctored as to conceal entirely the capture of certain sections of the Hindenburg line, and newspaper headlines were telling of "French Defeat in Gigantic Onslaughts." To open the way for "retaliation " by illegal war methods, the German papers have falsely charged the enemy with carrying military aviators on hospital ships, and misusing the RedCross flag. Secretary Baker's figures for the American Army have been distorted in the German press, and nonexistent strike riots in England have been described.

The Germans even extend this campaign of "PanMunchausenism" (as an American editor aptly put it) to their own troops. Captured German soldiers, supplied only with official news, have disclosed the most fantastic ideas. Even as late as November, 1914, German troops in Belgium were led to believe they were in the vicinity of Paris. One of the soldiers near Roulers in Flanders, having understood that he was within eight miles of Paris, asked to be shown a place from which he might see the Eiffel Tower. News of different sorts is served on different fronts. Two sets of what purported to be the same edition of the General Anzeiger of Düsseldorf were prepared with identical dates and serial numbering, but one was intended for circulation in occupied Russia and the other in Belgium, the news matter varying according to the audience. Such tactics, according to the German theory, would hearten the troops, improve their morale, and develop a "will to victory."