Now Editorial Notes

THE COMMITTEE on Immigration and Naturalization, under the chairmanship of Congressman Dickstein, has filed with the House of Representatives a report based on the unofficial investigation of Nazi propaganda in the United Staes and has urged Congress that immediate action be taken to halt the alien, anti-Jewish and anti-American activities of German agents in this country.

It is pointed out in the report that this alien propagnda is seeking to undermine the established constitutinal principles of the United States and that such propaganda is financed by the German Nazis, that racial anfagonism is promoted here, that the eventual arm and purpose of the Nazi propagandists is to establish a dictatorship in this country, and that meanwhile the agitators are concentrating their efforts into one channel of hatred directed against the Jewish people.

If the unofficial investigation has secured sufficient evidence to justify these serious charges, an official investigation should be approved by Congress without delay in order that the activities of alien agitators and organizers of unrest may be scrutinized thoroughly and that immediate drastic measures be adopted to put an end to such destructive and sinister propaganda.

The Germans have never been wise or subtle or scrupulous in their propaganda. During the World War the Germans, by their clumsy and stupid agitation in for eign lands, especially among the neutrals, lost whatever sympathy the people may have had for the German cause. In the United States the German agents and propagandists did everything to antagonize the American people and force Woodrow Wilson from his position of neutrality into the camp of the allies. The sinking of the Lusitania, the notorious Zimmerman note, the acts of sabotage and destruction instigated by German agents in the United States, could be endured no longer by the American people. But in Germany the Foreign Office lived in a fool’s paradise. The German statesmen believed that America would not move from her position of neutrality because America was more interested in profiting materially as neutral during the war than in human rights and international justice. Before America entered the war the Germans actually be lieved that the German Americans would cause serious trouble in this country.

A prominent official of the German Foreign Office even had the audacity to tell our Ambassador in Berlin that Germany had an army of half a million German American in the United States who would defend Germany’s interests in the event America decided to declare war on Germany. Ambassdor Gerard, who represented our country in Berlin with courage and dignity, replied that if Germany had an army of half a million German Americans who would revolt against the American people, there were a half million lamp-posts on which those men would be hanged. But the Germans in Berlin and their agents in the United States did not know or refused to believe that the great mass of German Americans were loyal Americans, that while they had a natural interest in their native land, they were more attached to their adopted land where they have found a new home, new opportunities for themselves and their children, away from the militaristic system created with typical German thoroughness.

The German military machine was smashed, and led to the collapse of the system which was responsible for the sinking of the Lusitania, the use of poisonous guses, the violation of Belgium, the enslavement of the Jews in German Poland and Lithuania, the spurious promises to Poland, the sending of explosives in German diplomatic pouches to neutral countries to blow up neutral ships, the baby-killing Zeppelin raids, and the policy of “Spurlos versenkt.”

The Prussian martial spirit has not undergone any change. For a few years the German people have tried to liberate themselves from this war psychosis. They worked hard and regained the sympathy of the world. The statesmen of the new Germany worked for peace and for better understanding with other nations. Then the foremost of these German statesmen, Walter Rathenau, the Jew, was assassinated by two youths who have now been made national heroes by Hitlerist Germany.

Since the overthrow of the republic by Hitler, every day brings new evidence of Nazi agitation in various lands. In Austria, in Greece, in Hungary, in Roumania, in Japan and elsewhere, German agents are organizing political groups and disseminating religious hate, breeding unrest and revolt.

There is no fear that the Nazi activities in this country can succeed in even the slightest degree. The institutions of American democracy can easily withstand the agitation of the mediaeval charlatans directing the German propaganda machine.

But the truth must be made known. The facts must be made clear to the American people. A thorough official investigation of the activities of alien enemies in this country must be instituted without delay.

The Nazi propaganda is directed not merely against the Jews. It is directed against America, against the peace of the world. Nazi propaganda in foreign lands must be checked, if the world is to be made safe for peace.