of the majority, never became law, and is significant chiefly as indicating how far the system is in need of reform.

One of the results of the censorship is the dissemination within Germany of a very considerable body of clandestine literature. Many "verboten" books and pamphlets have been distributed widely along hidden paths, and this secret propaganda has on occasion produced radical outbreaks as in the case of the January strikes in Berlin and elsewhere. Perhaps the most daring form of underground agitation is that of the German revolutionists whose publications are printed in Switzerland and smuggled in all sorts of curious ways (as for instance in sausages and cigarettes) into Germany. Their colors are the yellow, red and black of " 1848," though it is illegal even in peace times to wear these colors or show the republican flag. In their secret pamphlets and their remarkable organ, Die Freie Zeitung, published at Berne, they declare for the overthrow of the imperialistic war lords, including the Hohenzollern rulers, and for the establishment of a German republic. The Entente, they say, is not fighting the German people, and would readily make peace with a German republic under a leadership which would repudiate the acts of those war fiends who have outraged the world with their crimes and have for almost four years demonstrated their inability to quench the conflagration which they have kindled. In spite of the campaign of persecution which has been carried on against this organization with the aid of the Swiss police (who are by no means anti-German), its ingenious activities continue and the gospel of a coming revolution undoubtedly finds many willing ears.

The best example of clandestine journalism in opposition to a savagely repressive government is to be found in Belgium. When the detested German government of occupation suppressed all existing Belgian journals, excluded foreign papers, and proceeded to restrict the news-readers of Belgium to German papers and those so-called Belgian sheets which were absolutely under German control, the Belgians resorted to clever secret methods of news propagation. Foreign papers and genuine Belgian journals which had moved to France or England were smuggled in, and important passages were copied on typewritten sheets which circulated by underground routes. In certain establishments the use of a newspaper for ten minutes could be secured for one or two francs. Besides this, a vigorous clandestine press in

66

Belgium has grown up. Of these secret journals the most interesting and defiant is La Libre Belgique. No one knows where it is published. Its habitat is fantastically referred to as une cave automobile "-a sort of migratory cellar-and its telegraph address is ironically given as " The Governorship, Brussels." There is no definite price and no regular time of issue, but an average of three or four editions a month has been maintained. Not even the carriers of the paper know where it is published, and the German authorities have been entirely baffled in their elaborate attempts to locate the offenders, partly because anonymous letters have sent them chasing false scents. The late General von Bissing would always find two copies of each issue on his desk and one of the issues prominently pictured the Governor-General with his "favorite paper," La Libre Belgique, in his hands. The Belgians enjoy it, and all the copies are carefully treasured. Besides this, many secret pamphlets have been distributed in Belgium, and their circulation has been sufficiently wide to nullify the effects of the German propaganda with which that unfortunate country has been flooded.

Another side to Germany's news system is what might be called its foreign policy-the attack upon neutral and enemy opinion. Laborious methods are used to discredit the enemy's official reports. Before the commencement of the Somme offensive (which they foresaw) in 1916, the Germans circulated exaggerated reports regarding the "great successes of the Allied armies, so that the people would discover the falsity of these rumors, and fail later to believe the genuine reports. German wireless operators sent out on the night of June 27, 1916, messages which purported to emanate from Allied stations announcing the "taking of Lille," the "capture of St. Quentin," "Constantinople in flames" and other such interesting developments. These messages began: "Attention! French wireless station-the following is the latest news!" Because of this clumsy wording and the tone of the waves, the Allies had no difficulty in determining that the reports emanated from German stations. At various times the Germans transmit false items to the neutral press with the prefix "via London" or "via Paris" in order to convey the idea that the reports have been passed upon by the Allied censors and are admitted as correct. They publish in neutral papers inspired articles purporting to come from official sources in one of the Allied capitals concerning such

66

a point, for instance, as the capture of a position held by the Germans. This is then followed by a denial" with full references to German papers, and newspaper men are even in some cases sent out to confirm the "untruthfulness" of the enemy's statement.

The world is painfully familiar with the enormous expenditure of energy and money in the German onslaught upon neutral sentiment. Every neutral country of Europe has its German news service, and a crop of German newspapers. The Wolff Bureau has its sub-agencies in neutral towns, and the Overseas Agency of Berlin sends out daily wireless messages of various wave-lengths to be picked up at different stations, furnishes many special feature articles, and conducts an intelligence section employing correspondents all over the world. In Switzerland the Neue Zürcher Nachrichten sows the seed of German propaganda, while for Holland this service is performed by the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant. There is a special bureau (under the control of the German Foreign Office) for furnishing news to Portugal and Spain. German newspapers are dotted thickly over Central and South America, and the Far East has not been neglected.

Neutral correspondents, after a careful testing, are escorted upon personally conducted tours to prison camps or sections of the front where Germany is conspicuously successful, and, if sufficiently deaf and blind about things they are not supposed to hear and see, they are permitted to send home censored dispatches. Though these correspondents find it hard to get what they want, they are flooded with literature written in German by Germans.

Tons of pamphlets are thrust upon neutral readers, and the journals of Germany are lavishly distributed, either gratis or at special prices, often with significant passages marked. Many of the German papers have special foreign editions, as for instance Die Welt im Bilde, an illustrated edition in seven languages issued by the Hamburger Fremdenblatt. Stereotypes made in Germany are furnished to Dutch newspapers, and a German organization exists for supplying without cost the articles of leading journals translated into Dutch. The departments of the German government of occupation in Belgium are in correspondence with Dutch journalists, and thus a great amount of news unfavorable to Belgium is made to originate in Belgium itself.

All this press "copy" for neutral countries is obviously

were to perform their duties under his orders and instructions. By such proclamations, issued in the off-hand manner of military chieftains, a sufficient legal basis was afforded for the summary treatment of newspapers. In a proclamation of the Imperial Chancellor, July 31, 1914, a long list of "verboten "subjects was indicated, and on the following day General von Kessell, Commander-in-Chief of the Mark, received representatives of the press, not to consult with them, but to inform them of the limits under which they would be permitted to operate their papers.

The whole press of Germany was thus placed under military control, and has remained so during the war. Editors receive instructions every few days from the military commanders of their districts as to what their sheets may or may not contain. Some fine day an editor may arrive at his office to find a brief official notice of the suppression of his papermerely a printed form on which is filled in the title of the publication and the period of suspension, the commander's name being affixed with a rubber stamp. At the news-stands one finds a poster stating that the publication of the paper has been suspended by military authority. There has been no warning, no hearing, no explanation even of the reason for the suspension. Under martial law explanations and hearings are not in order. Newspapers that prove too daring are dealt with more severely. The editor may be imprisoned or inducted into the auxiliary service, the establishment may be confiscated and silenced for the remainder of the war, or the paper may be subjected to a preventive censorship which requires that the copy for all political articles must be submitted to the censor before publication.

The various governmental agencies for publicity have been organized with typical German thoroughness. The publicity departments of the General Staff, the Admiralty, and the Foreign Office have issued official bulletins throughout the war, and the elaborate War Press Bureau has been constantly active, supplying journals with material whose publication or reprinting is officially desired. More recently the scale of governmental publicity has been greatly enlarged, and the "Imperial Official Press Service" in charge of the "Press Chief of the Imperial Chancellor" has been organized, by which every bureau of the Central Imperial Government has its press institution in close permanent touch with the management. In this way the Government may at any

moment exercise an authoritative influence over the manner in which the motives of imperial policy are explained to the public.

A much closer relationship exists between the German Government and the leading newspapers than is the case in other countries. The Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung acts as a purely official organ of the Government. It makes no appeal to the general public and has a limited circulation chiefly among journalists and politicians. A semi-official character attaches to the Berliner Lokal Anzeiger, which was purchased by a syndicate, including a Krupp director, on the understanding that its columns should always be open to the Government. It is usually the official voice that speaks through the Kölnische Zeitung, particularly with regard to foreign policy. Certain powerful journals are controlled by the big armament firm, as for instance the Berliner Neueste Nachrichten and the Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung, which are Krupp organs. The great telegraph agency of Germany, the Wolff Bureau, which answers to our Associated Press, is in the full sense an instrument of the Government, and the news it issues always undergoes a sifting and doctoring process.

In theory the censorship has been supposedly limited to military matters, but its actual operation has been such as to stifle political criticism as well. For instance, all discussion of the future constitution of Alsace-Lorraine is under the ban; no mention must be made of conditions of pay and work in Government munition plants; labor disturbances must not be referred to, and severe conditions of living in Germany or in occupied territory are not to be reported. No information must leak out regarding violence and unrest in Bohemia and East Prussia, conscription into the industrial or "national auxiliary service" must not be discussed, and under no circumstances is the " High Command" (i. e., Hindenburg) to be introduced into the discussion of political questions. Most unfortunately the treatment of peace offers and war aims from a liberal standpoint has been stifled, and those who favor a peace of understanding have been branded as traitors.

Not only written opinion, but spoken opinion as well, if it be of a liberal sort, is suppressed. The military governor of Strassburg did not permit the diet of AlsaceLorraine to meet till he was assured that it would not "talk