Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917)Johnson, Douglas Wilson
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Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917)
Johnson, Douglas Wilson
World War, 1914-1918 -- Public opinion
For every pamphlet, paper, or article sent to me by English, French,
Russian, and Italian organisations I get several dozen from German
organisations. I get but a few circulars a month from Allied countries.
Not a week passes that I do not receive many from German sources.
America has been flooded with German propagandist literature; very
little ever comes from other countries. Full-page advertisements, paid
by German agents, have appeared repeatedly in American papers, urging
the merits of Germany's case. I have never seen one on behalf of the
Allies. All over New York City, before I left for my summer vacation,
were giant posters on the billboards, put there by a pro-German society,
urging the people to ask President Wilson to stop the exportation of
arms to Germany's enemies. I have never seen one poster of any kind put
up by friends of the Allies. Indeed, America has been so deluged with
German propaganda and German-paid advertisements, and requests for money
to carry on the propaganda in favour of Germany, that the whole nation
has become heartily sick of it, and has urged the Government to expel
from the country some of your agents who have been particularly
offensive in carrying on such a propaganda among our citizens. German
gold, not English gold, has been lavishly used to influence American
opinion. Our Government has had to employ a special detective force to
discover and destroy the many plots in which German and Austrian gold
has been lavishly used to influence opinion and action in America; and
from other neutral countries comes abundant evidence that the same
stupendous propaganda, to turn opinion and action in favour of Germany,
has been carried on everywhere, with an audacity and utter disregard of
cost which has astonished the world. In the face of such facts as these
the German outcry against "English gold" has seemed wholly insincere,
and little less than ridiculous.
Finally, American opinion has been based more than all else on Germany's
official communications, directly addressed to our Government, on
certain acts which Germany has admitted, and on the nature of the
defence and excuses offered by the German Government in palliation of
those acts. You must not forget that the many lengthy notes addressed by
your Government to Americans have been published in full in American
papers. The outcry against English gold, against cable dispatches
altered by the English, and against corrupt newspaper publishers cannot
be raised in connection with diplomatic correspondence transmitted
direct to your Ambassador here. This authentic, official correspondence
has given us an excellent measure of the standards of morality and
humanity which actuate the present German Government. Our opinion of
Germany has been profoundly influenced by these official documents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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