forces were pointed out to these simple people; but, on the other hand it was explained to them that if they would work for the German interests, they would be allowed to set up a government of their own in America if Germany won the war! They were told Germany loved the negroes and believed in their equality with the white race in every way, and would support their government when once her war was won! One such secret German worker among colored soldiers and civilians was M. F of New York, indicted under seven counts in June, 1918, under the new Espionage Law. F put out much the same story to frighten the negroes and make them discontented—wholesale mutilation at the hands of Germans if they were captured in France. He declared that their eyes would be gouged out and their ears cut off. He also said that Germany was allowing our transports to reach Europe unharmed because she wanted a lot of Americans in France, where, after cutting off their supplies, she intended to starve them all to death.
This looks like making out a bad case for Germany—but softly. F also said that, on the other hand, Germany did not want to kill the negroes if they would not fight; that if only they would work for Germany's interests, they should have their own country and their own government. Stories like this were circulated in the South and among cities in the North with a heavy negro population. F was the first propagandist to be caught with the goods. He was talking much with colored privates in the draft army.
Of course, a prime object of propaganda was to obstruct the draft and to prevent the shipment of munitions. It largely failed, as everyone knows. But still it cannot be said that Germany did not invest such money well as she spent on her secret pro-German propaganda in America. She knew that she had ruined Russia by propaganda. We might further have learned the danger of propaganda as a weapon had we heard the rumor that Germany herself had her collapse hastened by propaganda which Great Britain managed to spread among her people. It is a matter of history that German propaganda caused the Italian debacle in the first Austrian advance into Italy.
Nor is it to be believed that Germany has ceased in her
