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THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 1 December 1917 (page 10)
THIN LOYALTY.
It is only a few months ago that La Follette declared on the floor of the United States Senate,—“I say Germany has been patient with us.”
It is only a few months ago that we used to see on the newsstand a magazine called The FATHERLAND, one issue of which bore on its cover the portrait of the Wisconsin Senator whose utterances have given this great state anything but an enviable reputation over the length and breadth of this land.
The FATHERLAND no longer carries Prussia’s pet name as its title. Now it is known by its maker and bears the name of “Viereck” [George Sylvester Viereck].
Like La Follette’s henchmen Viereck talks loudly about his loyalty. Viereck insists he is loyal,—very. But like La Follette, Viereck doesn’t say much in support of the Liberty Bonds or the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A. or K. C. war funds. He isn’t making any Paul Revere kind of noise that anybody can hear to wake the people of America up to the dire danger that confronts us. No, nothing like that. “Loyalty” to Viereck and his kind consists in not saying anything against the President or against our government that will be an overt act to get themselves into serious difficulty.
Viereck’s is a type of carefully covert propaganda that is going on in this country in these days. Viereck’s Magazine is a good illustration of the kind of “loyal” press that expresses its loyalty by voicing a tolerance for Germany and praise for all those who are helping her here or in the Allied countries; and only scorn for all who regard Germany as the bitter enemy of the United States and who propose to fight her as such.
They speak of Hearst with the highest regard. They speak with reverence of Erzberger and von Buelow and Hillquit and Lenine.
But they have nothing but contempt for Theodore Roosevelt and Elihu Root and John Purroy Mitchel.
The plain fact is that Roosevelt, Root and Mitchel are anxious that Germany should be defeated; and Hearst, Erzberger, von Buelow, Hillquit and Lenine are anxious that Germany should win.
There we have the position of the pro-German papers in a nutshell.
The current issue of “Viereck’s Weekly” is typical of the lot. Viereck is wary. There is nothing openly seditious in this issue. Viereck is not one to court martyrdom. There are no sentences, no paragraphs that can be picked out and nailed to the wall. In June “Viereck’s Weekly” was filled with acrid and malicious comments on the President and the American People, each more bitter and seditious than the preceding. But there is none such now. The Powers That Be are stroked and soft-soaped. Viereck is taking no chances. He vents his malice only on those whom, for one reason or another, he knows the Administration does not highly cherish.
Viereck then is no longer sneering at the American government. The words as they flow from his easy, prostituted pen are all of love and kisses, but the spirit is unchanged. The spirit of November is still the spirit of June, sneering, malignant, treacherous. Viereck himself does not write savage attacks on America and her motives. But he quotes other editors who do, at length and evidently not without satisfaction. Viereck does not himself declare that the war against Germany is a crime against humanity, that patriotism is wicked, that “We must listen . . . to the Frenchman who sees in Germany his own best friend, the model of science, organization and foresight, which alone can build up the fallen temple (of humanity) anew;” but he lets Aleister Crowley say it, and commends his article in a special introductory note. He lets Aleister Crowley, furthermore, quote the famous line, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel;” and he lets him quote it in a way to make the reader feel that all who are patriots are consequently scoundrels.
There is much in this issue of
“Viereck’s Weekly” that is against the United States. There
is nothing that is against Germany. And between the lines on
every page there runs the siren-song of the German
propagandist: “Fools, what are you fighting Germany for?
Democracy? Tush! Germany is as democratic as America.
Humanity demands that the war stop at once. Never mind the
details. Humanity, humanity! What? You said Germany must be
beaten first? Impossible! Therefore, make peace! Humanity,
humanity! Get what terms you can. After all, Germany is the
only noble nation in the world. Don’t listen to Roosevelt!
Listen to me, me, ME, VIERECK! I am the true patriot and the
only ones who can compare with me are La Follette and
Hillquit and Gumshoe Bill and Hearst! America First and
America Only!”
The men who stood their ground at Concord bridge and fired the shot heard ‘round the world were American farmers. It was the American farmers of 1776 who gave the American farmers today the liberties that are theirs. Be it said that the newspapers that are being born today to hold up the mask of loyalty with Viereck and La Follette are not playing the part of Paul Revere today. Yet America is in greater danger today than it was when the Boston silversmith made his famous midnight ride. The questions of how we shall do it and how we shall finance it are important but the less important questions that confront us. The one great job before us now is to DO IT. DO IT NOW and save us from the tyranny and oppression of the cruel, covetous, despotic power of Prussia. |