RISING HATE IN U. S. A

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 202, 21 August 1940, Page 3

RISING HATE IN U. S. A

[ "FLAGRANT DISREGARD OF, I OUR SENSIBILITIES" j (By Arthur Robb in the "Editc I and Publisher") I I Shrillness, heat, and hate are hi I ginning to appear in those columi J which American daily newspape devote to th e Editor's Mail Bo? Hysterical letters are being liurlc at newspapers which print con ments on events in Europe, r aaginst ietters from other reader Most of the screaming correspoi dents loudly protest their canism, and most of those' that aa have seen have been in prote; against editorial condemnation c the German government's rutlile; disregard of its small neighbour rights. It may be coincidence thf most of the letters (again—tliof that Ave have seen) have been sigr ed with names indicating Germani I origin. It may also be coincidenc that editorial suggestions of ir creased American aid to the Alli€ I provelv these letter writers, who ur I animousQy deny approving Hitler doings Whatever may , lie behind apparent ' coincidences, we don' like the omen. It is too reminiscen lof 1915 and 1916. Then, as now, w had in this country a graduall; rising tide of resentment agains Germany, and then, as now, wc ha the same screaming, sneering, stri dent remonstrance from (1) peopl who favoured the Germans, (2 people who hated the British, (3 people who. honestly believed tlin Europe's war was none of our busi ncss and resented what they cor sidered propaganda in the press i drag the United States into it. Propaganda of 1914-18. After reading a number of vo umes on the propaganda in th 1914-1918 war, we are not convinc ed that the press was either a will ing or a stupid victim of Allie 1 propaganda. There is no questio that the Allies worked their pre paganda machine from the very be ginning. Nor is there questio] that the British controlled the floA of news from the start and k'ep from American readers plenty o information that might have in I fluenced our final decision. W!e knew nothing of the secret treatie: which later proved to a I I Versailles. We didn't find out until much later that Britain anc France were near the end of theii string when w r e declared war or Germany. And we were not allowed to learn that mutiny had crippled the French army as an effective force for many months in 1917 On the other hand, the British did* play the plight of Belgium to n fare-ye-well. They made the most of the Germans' execution of Nurse Edith Cavell—a story which theGermans could never explain to a sentimental nation, no matter how well they justified it as a military Imeasure. The atrocity stories had a following for a time. The Providence Journal's sensational spy series, supplied by the British, fanned American heat against Germany. Despite that record, we arc noi convinced that the American press prior to April, 1917, was consciously or unconsciously luring the American people into a Avar for Avhicf they had no sympatic. Memory and reading pull us the other way. Germany Best Allied Propagandist The press printed Avhat neAvs it could get. The bulk of it came from British sources. "Franco Avas also a heavy contributor. Germany Avas loav in volume of representation, but Ave can't forget that Carl Ackerman and Karl von Wiegand, to mention only two American correspondents, distinguished themselves for their reports from Berlin. The factor that put the United States into the Avar in 1917 A\ r as not Allied propaganda. It Avas not Page's unambassadorial conduct at London. And i': Avas not President Wilson's love for England or craving for glor-y. It Avas, Ave think, Germany's! flagrant disregard of our sensibilities. Wo didn't have to think of the Germans as the "Bochc" or. the ''Hun" nv the "blond beast" to get: marl a! him for sinking ships on Avhich we, as free people, thought we had'the right io travel. No Coaching Needed. We didn't need any. coaching from en- visiting torchbearers tn resent the patronising and insolent tones of the German replies to Mr Wi'soi's scholarly slr.i era en's of America!! rights. We ra's-.-c! plenty of steam on our own (ires Avhen it

developed (admittedly, with Brit-1 ish help) that Germany was jjlobting against us in Mexico. Mr Wilson. as some have held„ may have sealed America's fate long before April, 1917, when he solemnly told the German government that the >r United States would hold it to "strict accountability"' for further violations of American rights; when he'wrote those Avords, he appeared s _ to have the approval of his counts trymen. And those Avords were not 1 rs written or suggested by any Allied propagandist. <1 It is abundantly clear from post-J h Avar records that Germany knew ,r American intervention Avas certain s- when unrestricted submarine war-' l " fare Avas proclaimed. Germany decided to gamble on ending the Avar e before American help conhl be efIt was a desperate gamble, lf but it came Avithin a hair of winning; so close, that if Germany had played her submarine game with { more finesse in the Spring of 1917. e and delayed America's entry from April to June or July, the German army might have been in Paris by July of 1918. The . Allies didn't bustle us into the Avar on April 6, 1917; the Germans did;" The smartest propagandist the Allies ever sent here Avould have been helpless Avitliout the repeated provocations that the Germans supplied. : Germany Again Irks Americans. That's an old story, but it is being repeated to-day. Britain and France don't need any propagandists in America to arouse hatred of Hitler's Germany. The ordinary newspaper reader doesn't think of Norway, Denmark, Poland, Holland, . Belgium, Austria, Czechoslovakia as lost customers for American goods. He doesn't realise as he reads his , paper that Ave won't be able to ship them our corn, wheat, automobiles, or whatever, for a long time, and. that the loss of those markets may hit him in the paycheck before ( many months have passed. He thinks of them as groups of ( human beings like himself, people who Avant to be let alone, raising their crops, keeping their stores, I ' running their lathes or their book- ( keeping machines. He knows that I ( none of them as a nation could ( have attacked Germany. He lenows that Germany over-ran them for t their food, their gold, their macli- J ) ines, their railways, their shipping I \ or for their strategic nearness to I ( ! major enemies. And our ordinary v neAA r spaper reader, an honest chap I 0 Avho believes in fair play, has no o use for the blitzkreig. His instincts /) are all against it, as they are A against the thug who shoots a cop \ from the ambush of a dark door- \ way. I \