brewing and l iquor interests and german propagand a, and bolshevik propaganda. mr. o verman, from...
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I 66TH CON GR ESS'DV 1 Ist Session
SENATE
BREWINGANDLIQUOR INTERESTSANDGERMANANDBOLSHEVIKPROPAGANDA
REPORT OF THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE JUD ICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
PUR SUANT TO
S. RES. 307 and 436
Sixt y-fifth Co n gre ss
RELATING TO CHARGES MADE AGAINST THE
UN ITED STATES B REWERS’ASSOC IATION AND
ALL IED INTERESTS
WASH INGTONGOVER NMENT PR INTING OFFICE
1919
SENATE RESOLUTION NO . 136 .
( Submitted by Mr. N e lson . )
IN TH E SENATE OF TH E UN ITED STATES,Ju ly 28, 1919.
R eso lved, That the report of the Subcommitte e on the Judiciawho were directed to report the result of their investigation relato charges made against the United States B rewers ’ Association anallied interests be p rinted as a Senate document.Attest !
SAND ERSON ,
Secretary.
BREWING AND L IQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMANPROPAGANDA,
AND BOLSHEVIKPROPAGANDA.
Mr. OVERMAN ,from the Subcommittee on the Judiciary, submitted
the following
R E P O R T .
!Pursuant to Senate R e solutions 307 and
The Subcommittee on the Judiciary having under consideration theresolution directing the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate t ocall for certain evidence and documents relating to charges madeagainst the United States Brewers’ Association and allied interest sand to report the result of their investigation to the Senate, haveconcluded their duties.The chairman appointed as a subcomm ittee to investigate the matters and things named in said resolution the following SenatorsOverman (chairman ) , King, Wolcott, Nelson , and Sterling.
The resolution directing the committee to make this investigationis here printed in full
,as follows
Whe reas Honorable A. Mitche ll Palme r, Custodian of Alien Prope rty, on orabout Septembe r fourteenth made the following statement !
The facts will soon appear which will conclusive ly show that twe lve orfift een Ge rman brewe rs of Ame rica, in association with the United State sB rewe rs ’ As sociation , furnished the money, amounting to seve ral hundredthousand dollars, to buy a great newspape r in one of the chie f citie s of theN at ion ; and its publishe r, without disclosing whose money had bought thatorgan of public opinion , in the ve ry Capital of the N ation , in the shadow ofthe Capitol itse lf, has been fighting the battle of the liquor traffic.
! When the traffic , doomed though it is , unde rtakes and seeks by thesese cret me thods to control party nominations , party machine ry, whole politica lpartie s , and thereby control the Gove rnment of Sta te and N ation , it is timethe people know the truth.
!The organized liquor traffic of the country is a vicious inte re st because it
has be en unpatriotic, because it has bee n pro-German in its sympathies andits conduct. Around these great brewery organizations owned by rich men,
a lmost all of them are of German birth and sympa thy, at least be fore weentered the war, has grown up the societies , all the organi zations of thiscountry intended to keep young German immigrants from becoming realArnerican citizens.
2 BREWIN G AN D L IQUOR IN TERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGAN DA.
I t is around the sangerfe sts and sangerbunds and organizations of thatkind, gene rally financed by the rich brewe rs, that the young Ge rmans whocome to Ame rica are taught to remember , first, the fathe rland, and second,Ame rica andWhe reas it has been publicly and repeatedly charged against the United State sB rewe rs ’ Association and allied brewing companie s and interests that thereis in the D epartment of Justice and in the office of a ce rtain United State sdistrict attorney ”
evide nce showing !That the said United State s B rewe rs ’ Association
,brewing companie s, and
allied inte re sts have in re cent years made contributions to political campaigns on a great scale without pre cedent in the political history of thecountry and in violation of the laws of the land ;Thatpledge sSenators, be fore e le ction , such pledge s be ing on file ;
subsidized the public press andspace with the newspape rs thaliterary mate rial for the spaceoffice in N ew Y orkThat, in orde r to suppre ss exppolitical inte re sts , they have se t
ting of Ame rican manufacture rs ,
political organization to carry out the ir purpose s ;That they we re allied to powe rfu l suborganizations , among them the
Ge rman-Ame rican Alliance , whose charte r was revoked by the unanimousvote of Congress ; the N ational Association of Comme rce and L abor ; and theManufactu re rs and D eale rs’ Associations, and that they have the ir ramifications in othe r organizations apparently neutral in characte r ;That they have on file political surveys of State s, counties , and districtstabu lating the men and force s for and against them , and that they have paidlarge sums of money to citizens of the United States to advocate the ir causeand inte re sts, including some in the Gove rnment employ ;That they have de frauded the Fede ral Gove rnment by applying to the irpolitical corruption funds money which should have gone to the FederalTreasury in taxe s ;That they are attempting to bu ild up in the country through the control ofsuch organizations as the United State s societies and by the manipulation ofthe fore ign-language press , a political influence which can be turned to oneor the othe r party, thus controlling e lectoral re sults ;That they, or some of the ir organizations , have pleaded nolo contendre tocharge s filed against them and have paid fine s aggregating large sums ofmoney ! The re fore be itR esolve d , That the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate , or any subcom
mit tee the re of, is he reby authorized and dire cted to call upon the HonorableA
. Mitche ll Palme r, Alien Prope rty Custodian , and the D epartment of Justiceand its United State s district attorneys to produce the evidence and documentsre lating to t he charge s he re in mentioned , and to subpoena any witne sse s ordocuments re lating the re to that it may find ne ce ssary , and to make a report ofthe re sult of such inve stigation and what is shown the reby to the Senate ofthe United State s as promptly as possible .
The subcommittee began its inve stigation on September 27,.
1918.
At the request of the subcommittee the Secreta ry of War very kindlyde tailed from the Judge Advocate General
’s D epa rtment, UnitedStates Army
,to aid the commit tee, Maj. E . L owry Humes , fo rmerly
United States district r attorney for the weste rn distri ct of Pennsylvania
,and from the Military Intelligence D ivision , United St at e s
Army, Capt. George B . L ester , an attorney of New Y ork, and also
the Attorney General very kindly detailed from the D epartmen t ofJusticeMr. William R . Benham,
all of whom rendered most valuableassistance to the committee in the collection of evidence, the production of te stimony, the examination of witnesses, and in the preparation o f rep orts.
BREWIN G AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGAN DA. 3
BREWIN G AN D L IQU OR ACTIVITIE S.
The allegations and charges made in said resolution No . 307, hereinbe fore set out, in regard
! to the brewing and liquor activities,were substantially sustained
,as will appear from the printed record ,
volumes 1 and 2, herewith transmitted.
Y our committee in ente ring upon the investigation directed by saidresolution No . 307 interpreted that resolution as requiring an inquiryinto two subjects , to wit !1 . The conduct and activities of the brewing and liquor interest
political and otherwise was specifically demanded ; and2. A general inquiry into pro-German propaganda and activities
was required . The testimony taken having been printed , a reviewthereof is deemed unnecess a ry. Complying, however, with the mandate of the resolution requiring a report of the results established bythe investigation the following findings a re herewith submitted forthe information and attention of the Senate.
With regard to the conduct and activities of the brewing and liquorinte rests
,the committee is of the opinion that the record clearly
establishes the following facts !(a ) That they have furnished la rge sums of money for the pur
pose of secretly controlling newspapers and periodicals .(b) That they have undertaken to and have frequently succeeded
in controlling primaries,elections
,and political organizations .
That they have contributed enormous sums of money to political campaigns in violation of the Federal statutes and the statutes ofseveral of the States
”
.
(03) That they have . exacted pledges from candidates for publicoffice p rior to the election .
(e ) That for the purpose of influencing public opinion they haveattempted and partly succeeded in subsidizing the public p ress.(f) That to suppress and coerce persons hostile to and to compel
support for them they have resorted to an extensive system of boycotting unfriendly American manufacturing and mercantile concerns.(g) That they have created their own political organization in
many States and in smaller political units for the pu rpose of ca r ryinginto effect the ir own political will and have financed the same withla rge contribu tions and assessments .( it ) That with a view of using it for thei r own political purpose s
they contributed large sums of money to the German-AmericanAlliance
,many of the membership of which we re disloyal and un
patriotic .
(i ) That they organized clubs , leagues , and corporations of va rious kinds for the pu rpose of secretly ca r rying on their politicalactivities without having their interest known to the public .
(j) That they improperly treated the funds expended for politicalpu rposes as a p roper expenditu re of their business and consequentlyfailed to retu rn the same for taxation under the revenue laws of theUnited States.
a BREWIN GAN D M QUOR iN TERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGAN DA.
(Is) That they undertook through a eunningiy conceived plan ofadvertising and subsidat ion to control and dominate the foreignlan age press o f the United States .
That they have subs idized authors of recognized standing inliterary c ircles to write articles o f their mle ction for many standardper iodicals .(m ) That for many years a working agreement exist ed. between the
brewing and distilling interes ts of the country by the terms of whichthe b rewing inte res ts contributed two-thirds and the di stilling inte r
-third of the po litical expenditures made by the jo int intercets .
GERMAN PROPAGAN DA.
Y our committee has conduct ed a large numbe r of hearings andthere has been produced before you r committee a large amount of information through the te stimony o f witnesses and the productionof documents in which is shown in considerable detail the system of
p ropaganda carried on in the United States by the German Government and its sympathize rs afte r the beginning of the European war.
The purpose of this inquiry has been to make a public and permanent record of the impo rtant facts and surrounding conditions whichhave made po ssible the creation and maintenance o f
'
a system of
violence,espionage
,and distribution of ropaganda literature by the
German Government during the perio of our neutrality, in orderthat the public might be informed and that proper legislation by theCongress of the United States.may render impossible the creation andmaintenance in the future o f a simil ar system ,
whether conducted bythe German Government and its sympathizers or by any other foreign
power.Without Going into the detailed activities of the agents and repre
sentatives of Germany and those who were aiding and assisting themin their purpose
,it is clear from the evidence that the following may
be accepted as the established facts !For many years prior to the outbreak of the European war the
Central Powers, especially Germany , had contributed largely to the
pe pul‘
ating of the United St ate s, and according to the United Statescensus of 1910 there were residen t in the United Statesmales who had been born in Germany , and after the United Statesentered into the war with Germany the re were registered as Germanalien enemie s
,pursuant to the President’s proclamation of Novembe r
16,1917
,males of the age of 18 years and upward .
There were in addition a vast number of residents within theUnited States who were the immediate descendants of Germanparents, and it has been variously estimated that the so -called German-American popu lation within the United States total upward of
persons,or approximately one—tenth of our population .
Of this vast numbe r it is in evidence that a considerable pa rt maint ained a nd designedly pe rpe tuated the language , cu stoms , and racialideals of Germany , and through and by me ans of the introduct ionand maintenance of the German language in the common schoo ls ofthe variou s States and in the parochial and religio u s schoo ls , seminarie s and colleges, in conducting re ligious services in their churchesin the German language, in the wide dissemination of German liter
BREWIN G AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PR OPAGANDA. 5
ature through the German language pre ss , and in the publication,
both in Germany and in this country,of books and writings in the
German langua e,this portion of our population has been educated
al ong lines of erman thought,In addition
,the se Germans and German-Americans have main
tained a system of social segregation through numerous local societies and organizations which come under the general head of vereinsand verbunds , the object and purpos e of which have been to preservethe language and customs of Germany and to bind together those ofGerman lineage . Many of these va rious societies and associationsa re subsidiary to or a part of so -called staatsverbunds
,which in turn
became subsidiary to and part of the German-American All iance, a
national organization incorporated by act of Congress of the UnitedStates
,the charter of which has , however, been revoked
! by act ofCongres s since the United States entered the war. This organization , with its local vereins and verbunds
,claime d to have at the
time of the outbreak of the EurOpe an war a membership of approximately persons. The members of the alliance never conce aled their main aim
,which was to keep their own nationality sepa
rate from that of their fellow citizens 111 the United States, and bymeans of the disseminat ion of literature by the National Alliance
,as
well as by the State alliances and the local societies,the ir objects
were accomplished .
At the outbreak of the European war the German-American Allianc e , through its auxili ary societies , became particul arly active inits efforts to bring all citizens and residents of the United States ofGerman extraction together and to work publicly and p r ivately for’
the aims of Germany .
In the Official Bulletin the propaganda comm ittee of the GermanAmerican Alliance
,by Joseph Ke ller
,chairman
,makes the following
declaration,which gives a fair ide a of the attitude of these Ge rmans
and German-Ame ricans toward the rest of the country (Bulletin ofJanuary
,1916 )
The leade rs and le cture rs of the Ge rman-Ame rican N ational Alliance have ,since the e stablishme nt of this organization , neve r failed t0 '
emphasize the factthat the grea tne ss , the strength , and the influence of Ge rmanism in this countrylie s in appreciation of itse lf, in the recogni tion of an invio lable union of idealswhich knows no limits, but only progr e ss and upward aspiration , a union whoseactivity lie s in the United State s, prote cting Ge rman style and manne r and
strengthening them .
Tha t the hyphena ted Ame rican , as the Ge rma n-Ame rican is now scornful lycalled , mus t run the gauntle t of the pro-B ritish English press and the Anglicized Ame ricans is large ly to be ascribed to the fact that th e concentrationof the strength of the entire Germanism ,
or , rathe r , of th e de scendants of thegre at Ge rman ra ce in this land, for which such e fforts we re made , e spe cial lyduring the years just preceding the outbreak of the Great War, had not ye t
be en rea lize d , inasmuch a s in ce rtain circle s , e specially in Ge rman churchcircle s , the re was to a ce rtain extent a he sitation at forming a union of force swith the national alliance .
L e t us in this critical epoch for u s Ge rman-Ame ricans remembe r the wordsof Prof. T. L indsey Playne r, of the Central University , Kentucky, who said inhis time ! H e re in the N ew World, whi ch posse sse s so much good and so muchfor the blessing of humanity , we be lieve that we are in no wise untrue to our
fathe rland if we , in contemplation of all that you have confe rred on u s , our
spiritua l mothe r , cry, ‘ Hai l Ge rmania .
’
As guiding principle and source of teaching, cou rage and hope , we mayquote the words of the German pastor, O tto We pple r , of Monona Iowa , whospeaks in the name of his synod ! ! As German pastors we should no longer
6 BREWING AN D L IQUOR . INTERESTS , AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA!
look as s ilent spectators on the confl ict of polit ical truth and social righteousne ss , but
,
enter the arena in ful l s ight o f friend and foe , and with the ta lentswhich Wé
,posse ss serve in confl ict the bold champ ions of the Ge rman cause
as we ll as we are able . Too long already have we , Ge rman pas tors , at anyra te mos t of us , L utheran pas tors , lain inact ive ly in we ll-prote ct ed trenchesas lit t le more than pass ive spectators . of the confl ict . B ut , praise God , weare fina lly shaken from our indo lence and have de t e rmined to take our standin the open and take an act ive part in
‘
the struggle for truth and rig'hteou sne ss be fore the forum o f the public. Here tofore our effort s at re form wereconfined to the tranquillity of the church and the limited circle of the congrega t ien. B ut from now on we propose to he lp in shedding the rays of Germantru thfulne ss , German honor, and German loyalty , among the masse s as far
a s we are able .
”
The propaganda commit tee of the German-American Alliance urge s theretore that the beginning of the new year that all German-Americans , forget t inga l l separa te int e re st s , bu ild , ope ra te , and exe rcise the ir crea t ive abi lityon the rock of true , inviolable union, on which all Ge rman life re s t s , on
which all the higher ideals of the Germans can s ecure ly re s t . This is
the rock on which ~
'
unfortunate ly the Ge rman-American Nat ional Allianeewa s e s tablished too la t e , a lthou gh the lat ter can look back upon many fineachievements in the Ge rman-American s truggle for the promot ion of itspecu liar culture and may be regarded in this storm-swep t period as a veritableGibraltar standing out agains t a ll vulgar, malicious insult and ridicu le of the
German name and aga inst the unjust ‘
perse cut ion of the German race and its
Offspring in this land provoked by B rit ish gold.
In addition to the German-American Alliance , with its extensiveramifications , there existed in the United States for many yearsvari ous secre t and semisecret organizations
,more or less local in the ir
character, that were devo ted to the same general obj ect,name ly
,that
o f prese rvmg the language , customs , and ideals o f Germany . Amongthese may be noted the Schlarrafia , a secret organization which hadit s incept ion in Germany inany generat ions ago and which has
‘
beentransplanted to this country . While it IS largely a social "
se cretorganization
,one o f i ts principal obJect s is the maintenance o f the
re spect fo r the Prussmn military ideals and loyal adherence to
Germany.
Another organization i s the Sons o f Herman , a secret organizationSimilar to the Masonic fraternity . This organization has lodges invarious parts o f the United States . It s membership i s almost excluiSively
'
ma'
de up o f men o f German birth or parentage .
Another organization is known as the Kri ege sbund, a society of
German Army veterans . The only men e ligible to the society are
men who have served in the German Army.
!It is‘
in evidence , through documents produced by Prof. von Mach,that in 1916 an offer was made by D r. von Mach to the Secretaryof -War o f the United State s to list and send to the Secretary of War
the names and addresses o f upward o f abou t men o f German
birth resident W ithin the Unit ed State s who had served at one t imeor ano ther in the German Army. The plan was conce ivedman B idder, the publisher of the Staats ! e itung
,the lead
York German language daily paper, who undertook , as stated in hisle tter t o Von Mach
, to make this census compile lists , and forwardthem
'
to the Secretary o f War. Mr. Garrison,then Secretary of
War, declined the offer on the ground that the War Departmentcould not accept the service .
It i s in evidence be fore the committee that certain branches o f the
Lutheran Church were particu larly active in de fending the Ge rmancause during our period of neutrality
,not only by means o f religious
B REWING AN D LIQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 7
teachings , but by work through the secular societies,especially the
subsidiary organizations o f the German-American Alliance .
Prior to the outbreak o f the European war the Hamburg-American Steamship Co . and North German Lloyd , and the Atlas Line , asubsidiary o f the Hamburg-American Line , handled a large part o fthe carrying trade between the United States and Europe an countries .
The Hamburg-American Line maintained a large commercial organizat ion in the United States with offices in most of the principal citiesof the country . Many o f the agents and representatives were Germancitizens temporarily resident in the United States . This who leorganization is semiofficial in that all o f the se lines were under sub
sidy o f the German Government and subject to its contro l and use ifrequired.
At the outbreak o f the Europe an war the German Governmenthad in the United States a very strong and well-trained diplomaticcorps. The German Embassy in Washington was the headquarterso f the German diplomatic system and the center of its directing influence . This s stem included the German consuls and consular agentswho had headquarters and who were stationed at various of the largercities in the United States . The commercial fie ld in many industrieswas dominated by Germans or those o f German extraction and sympathy . These included many of our largest banking institutions andmany of the large export houses . The chemical and textile industriesa t many of the large centers were owned outright or dominated byGermans , many o f whom were resident in Germany. The brewinginterests of the country were largely owned and controlled by citizenso f German extraction .
There had been built up in the United States a German languagepress with ramifications in practically every part o f the country
,
which German language press was represented by large dailies inthe principal citie s of the United States . This German languagepress was supplemented by a vast number of periodicals and magazines printed ih the German language and wide ly distribut ed
,the
oificial newspaper dire ctories showing that upward o f Germanlanguage publications were in existence in the United States at the
outbreak o f the European war.
With this situation before them the Imperial German Go vernmenthad some reason to fee l confident in August, 1914, that there wasa powerful German influence in America , and if taken in h and and
organized and properly directed by skilled agents o f the Ge rmanGove rnment
,the American Government ’s po licies could be mo lded
to suit the interest o f Germany . To this end the German Government inaugurated within the United St ates a propaganda system
,the
main objects o f which wereFirst. To prevent the shipment of munitions o f war and s upplies
o f various kinds to the allied Governments who were at war withGermany , by peace ful or other means ; andSecond . To keep the United Stat e s on a peace foo ting and at all
hazards prevent the United States from entering into the Europe anwar as an ally o f France and England .
Third. To maintain its so lidarity o f the German and Aust rianelements o f our popu lat ion and to retard their assimilat ion.
Almost immediate ly after the outbreak o f the European war theGerman Government sent to the United States D r. Heinrich Albert,
8 . Dec . 61 , 66—1— 2
a privy counc ilor o f the Ge rmanministry of the interior,as a specia l
commercia l agent to have charge o f the financia l a fiair—s and generaldirect ion o f theGerman ropaganda in the Un ited Sitases .
Dr . Albert arrive d in lingui st , 1914, and at ahent the same time D r.
o f these no tes wereactually used and these were used for the purpose of co llateral inraising money.
Late r on o ther financial arrangements were made by the Germanrepresentatives in this country by means o f the sale of German bondsand otherGovernment securities and the transfer of credits , and theevidence shows tha t at least was raised and e xpended bythe Ge rman Government in the United Sta tes for various purpo sesduring the period from August, 1914, to February, 1917.
Upon the arrival o f D r. Albert and D r. Dornberg and t he ir groazrpthe re was an immediate organization o f the Ge rman repre sentat ives,including the embassy forces , a nd the work of the various departments was laid out along the following lines !D r. Albe rt established headquarte rs in the offices o f the HamburgAme rican Line
,45 Bro adway, N ew York City, took over one Carl
Heynen,agent o f the Hamburg-American Line at Tampico, Mexico ,
’
as his main ass is tant, e st ablished financial connections with a numbero f important private banking houses and trust companies , and, withCount Von B ernsto rfl’, the German ambassador
, proceeded t o gm intouch with impo rtant and influential people and c once rns in the
United States who were considered favorable t o the Ge rman caus e .
American agents and represent ative s were employed t o negotiate thepurchas e o f ships , grain , cotton , rubber, and supplies of every natureand description o stens ibly for shipment to Germany.
Under Albert’s and Von B ernsto rfi’s direction , Capt. HansTausche r
,representative o f the Krupps in Germ any
,with the assist
ance o f cert ain Americans , inaugurated the Bridgeport Pro jectileCc .
, which was financed by the German Governm ent . This companybuilt and partially equipped a large munition plant at Bridgeport,Conn , a t an expense o f upward o f The o stens ible purpose was to manufacture she lls and other ammun ition, which later on
could be s hipped to Germany . The real purpose was t o deplete thecountry
,for a period
,of machinery and mechanical device s and t o
concentra te labor,and by the manipulation o f wages to cause disturb
ance in other munition fa ctories , and to buy up and control,temp o
rarily at leas t,the available supp ly of powder . This enterprise
st arted in the summer o f 1915 ; the plant was built, a large quant ityo f powde r was bought and he ld for a while , and certain labor disturbauces were brought about in American munition factorie s located at
Bridgeport Conn,during the summe r o f 1915. Carl Heynen was
treasurer o f the Bridgeport Proje ctile Co. and, wit h Tauscher, dirooted its opera tions.
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 9
In connection with the work o f D r. Albert, Count von B erns torfl‘
,
the Ge rman ambassador, de tai led Capt . Carl B oy-Ed, the naval attaché o f the German Embass in Washington, and Capt . Franz von
Papen, the military attache o the embassy,for special work, the pur
po se of which was to revent the shipment o f munitions and suppliesto the Al lies . B oy d
, as the naval at tache, us ed the organizationo f the Hamburg-American Line , espe cially Paul Koenig, head o f the
investigating bureau o f this line , and his assistants to obtain informa
tion conce rning the shipment of munitions and supplies and to pur
chase or acquire by option to purchase various articles ,such as rubber
and coppe r, and it is in evidence that B oy-Ed employe d certainAmerican agents to endeavor to purchase large numbers of combustion engines and small bo ats .
In the early period of B oy-Ed
’s activities a cert ain gro up o f Ger
man aliens and others were indicted by the Fede ral authoritie s forvio lating the neutrality o f the United States by de livering supplies toGe rman ships at se a.
Shortly therea fter an effo rt wasmade to prove that the British hadvio lated the neutrality o f the United States by similar practice s . Onewitness be fore the committee , who admi tted that he was an agent o fthe German Government and in the pay of B oy
-Ed,claimed that he
had undertaken to and had obtained the evidence showing that various afiidavits and statements made by certain tugbo at captains and
o thers that supplies had been sent to British ships were un true .
Whe ther or no t he did this at the instance of B oy-E d doe s not
appe ar.
In April 1915, the German Government sent to the Un ited States
one Franz Binte len ,who undertook active work to prevent the ship
ment o f munitions from the Uni ted Stat es to the Allies .
B oy-Ed was suspected of comp licity in various acts o f vio lence per
pe trat ed by Franz R in telen ,and his activities were so pronounced
that it was requested by the United States Go vernment that he bere turned to Germany
, and he was re lieved as the naval attaché o f theGerman Embas sy on the 4th day o f De cember, 1915, and subsequentlyre turne d to Germany .
Immedi ate ly upon R int elen’s arrival in the United States he was
put in touch with David Lamar,the no torious wo lf of Wall Stre et ,
”
and a plot was conce ived t o s top the pro duction o f munitions by or
ganizing labor employed in munition factories , and an organ izationwas formed known as Labor ’s National Peace Council. ProminentAmericans
,including one Unit ed States Congressman
,were enlisted
in the movement . Mee tings were he ld in various of the large citie so f the United States and reso lutions were adopted recommending thatthe manufacture , sa le, and shipment o f mun itions to the belligerentpowers , as we ll as all materials u sed in the production o f the same ,
be prohibited by Execut ive pro clamation .
A convention was held in the latter part o f July, 1 915, in the cityo f Washington, at which were present some 200 de legates fromvarious parts of the United State s
,and dete rmined effort was made
to induce the Pres ident and Congre ss to de clare an embargo upon themanufacture and sale of munitions to the Allies . This scheme wasfinanced by the German Governm ent
,appro ximam being
turned over to Lamar. The organization was broken up and never
10 B REWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN P ROPAGAN DA.
accomplished anything of consequence for . !the German Government. The fa ilure was in a great measure due to the action o f Mr.
Gompers , of the American Federation of Labor,who re fused to give
the movement any support . The le aders in the movement were all
indicted by the Federal authorities for vio lation o f the Sherman law
in conspiring to instigate strikes in munition plants . R inte len,Lamar
,and one Mart in were convicted and sentenced each to one
year in jail .R int elen was engaged in attempting to further hinder the ships
ment of munitions by the placing o f fire bombs on ships,in which
work he was assisted by D r. Walter Theodore Schee le, a German
agent who had resided in the United States since 1909. Schee lewas an expert chemist and has a complete knowledge of explo sives,and prior to 1915 had operated a drug store in the city of B rooklyn.
In 1915 Schee le started a business in Hoboken,N . J under the
name of the New Jersey Agricultural Chemical Co . , which wasa cover up for the manufacture of bombs , which were
'
placed byemployees of the North German Lloyd Line on various ships.
Schee le and R intelen were assisted in this . work by Capt. OttoWo lpert ,
! pier superintendent of the Atlas Line,who had the im
mediate charge o f distributing "
and planting the fire bombs ! Rinte len
,Scheele , and Capt. Wo lpert and a number of o thers were
’
all
indicted by the Federal authorities and convicted. Associate d withR intelen was a man by the name o f Steinberg
,who is said to have
come from Germany with tetanus germs to be used for po isoninghorses which were being shipped to the Allies .
Paul Ko enig, who was the head o f the Hamburg-American Linesecret investigators , entered the employ of the German Governmentvery shortly aft er the war began , and served as head o f the Germanse cret service in N ew York City , working for D r. Albert , B oy-Ed,Count Von Papen, and the German consul and Austria-Hungarianconsul . Koenig maintained a great force o f men ,
Von Papen and Hans Tauscher, the Krupp agent,undertook a
plan to blow up the We lland Canal in order to prevent shipment ofgrain from the Northwest t o the Allies by way o f the Great Lakes .
A German agent who went under the name o f von der Go ltz had immediate charge o f the plot. Von der Go ltz and his immediate asso
ciates , as well as Tauscher, were indicted by the Federal grand jury.
Von der Go lt z made a confession to the efiect that he was sent byCapt. Von Papen , Von Igle , Von Papen
’s ass istant
, and o thers withdynamite to blow up the We lland Canal . They found the canaluarded and abandoned the enterprise . Von der Go ltz was used as a
Government witness . Von Papen was a diplomatic agent and wasimmune from prosecution , and Tauscher was acquitted. All othersinvo lved in the plot were convicted .
Von Papen was also responsible for an attempt_to blow up the
Vanceboroi Bridge , using for this purpose a man by the name o fl 'Verner Horn
, to whom he supplied money , and arranged for a
supply of dynamite , which was carried from N ew York City byHorn to Boston and from Boston to Vanceboro
, Me .,which attempt
was only partial ly successful .
Von Papen was responsible and directing head of practically all ofthe violence 'work done by the German agents in the United States,
B REWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 1 1
and it was through his agents and under his direction that numerousfires and explosions in munit ion factories were brought about andattempts at labor disturbances .
In a communication sent from the Central Purchase Co . (Ltd . to
the Prussian ministry of war under date o f October ( se e therecord p . D r. Albert’s statement o f account o f his dealingswith Von Papen 18 set forth , in which he takes credit for paymentsamounting to $280,000 as mmoney be ing turned over to Von Papenwhile In Ame rica .
From a copy o f a letter sent by B oy-Ed to Von Pa en on the3d of March , 1917, which lette r is written by his exec leney VonIgle Schwerin
,the following is quoted .
Herr Von Papen’
s career clo sed with qui te a disas ter. He was chargedwi th be ing concerned in many explo sions in munition factorie s , in so far as
that he had given the money for the procuring of mat erials and ins tructed thepeople . It appears , too , that some really childish arrangement s were made ,which every one capable of forming an opinion could have seen beforehandcould no t have the sl ighte st use for us , whereas if the affair went askew a
grea t injury mus t re sult . For example , the de s truct ion o f the We lland Canal ,a s well as the a t tempt to destro y a railway bridge in Canada . Even if bo ththe se had been succe ssful , there were a lot of o ther ways for t ransport ing thecorn to the seapor ,t s and the bi idge , too , could only have upse t the trafficfor a few hours . B oth a t tempts ended in absolu te fiasco . The p eople whowere invo lved in the affair will mee t with a sentence and one , of the nameof Horn, had become a cripple and will have to spend a year locked up in
prison. All that cou ld have be en forgiven Since failure s in such things can
no t always be avoided , also much has be en performed by Herr Von Papenadvantageous to us .
It is clear that plans were made by the German Government forextensive and far
pl eaching acts o f vio lence , much o f which was
frustrated by the activities of State and Federal officials and lacko f cooperation by trusted German agents .
Capt. Tunney’S testimony gives a fair account o f the violent work
o f the Germans In and about the city o f N ew York,which can be
taken as a faii example of at tempts In different parts o f the country.
The German Government no doubt,counted large ly upon the fact
that In the various munition and other manufactul Ing plants In the
United States there were employed a large number o f German andAustrian subjects , whose sympathies would be for Germmany , and whowould act in accordance with the wishes o f the German Gove 1 n ment ,even to the po int o f destructive me thods .
In conjunction with the activities o f the German Government,
through it s repre sentatives Von B ernstorfi'
and Von Papen ,to pre
vent the production and shipment o f munitions during the year 1915,there was inaugurated by direction o f Ambassador Dumba
,the
Austro Hungarian minister to the United State s , and Count VonB ernstorfi what was known as the Liebau Labor Re lie f Bureau , whichwas an employment agency or bureau run by one Hans Liebau and
0 1gamzed and maintained for the purpo se o f taking Austro Hun
garians and Germans out o f munition and o ther factorie s . Thisbureau had its headquarters In the city o f N ew York, and branchesin Philade lphia , Pa .
, Bridgeport, Conn , Chicago , Ill. , Pittsburgh,Pa ,
and Cleryeland, Ohio .
In a communication f1 om the German Embassy to the foreign officein Be i lin, under date of March a review of the activities of
12 BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA.
the bure au is given and the necessity o f a continuance Of the bureaui s made evident. Th1s re port says
,In part
I take the liberty to refer t o the communicat ion of the imperia l and reya lAntro-Hunga
vrian charge d’
a ifaire'
s , dated March 4, concerning the L iebau
bureau , copy of which wa s sent here . I see from tha t communica t ion tha t nothing is known to the imp eria l and royal charge d’affa ires re lat ive t o the arrangement s of the imp eria l and roya l Ambassador D umba , which inc luded a subs idyof the aforesa id bureau for a lengthy period.My inquires have disclo sed that in the course of a conf erence with Cap t .
‘
Von
Papen, Me ssrs . R it tme is ter Hecker, D r. Von Kleinwaecht er, and ConsuLQt tO , the
At tache Prince Hohenlohe , as repre sentat ive of the imperial and "
r eyal tam
bassador, advise d that the Imperial and R oya l Government , as wel l as the German Government , wou ld support the undertaking. On the strength of tha t announcement the act ivit ies of the bure au were a ls o ext ende d to subje ct s o f the
Imperia l and R oya l Aus tro-Hungarian Monarchy.
This communication then goes on to state that the bureau afterbe ing in operation for six and one -half months had rece ived over
applications and had filled pos itions permanently, onethird o f whom were Austro -Hungarian subjects .
The report then continues
Pa triot ic sent iment and al legiance for the fatherland among the workmenha s undoubt edly been awakened through the act ivity of this employmentagency. R epea tedly peop le have visit ed the central and branch offices in orderto expre ss the ir thanks for the a ssistance furnished them. However, I willnot go into the que s t ion now as t o whether or not the cont inu ation of the
bureau afte r the war appe ars des irable .
At any ra t e , for the pe riod of the war the cont inu at ion of this inst itut ion is
de sirable and wi ll be maintained for military reasons by the German Government even if the Imperial and R oya l Government shou ld Withdraw it s support
from the bureau . Many disturbances and vacancie s suffered by the warmaterial concerns , which cou ld not a lways be removed qu ickly , but on the
contrary of ten resu lt ed in long-drawn s trike s, can be traced back to the
ene rget ic propaganda of the workmen’s re lief.
This bureau was financed jo intly by Germany and Austria and
continued up to about the time when the United States entered thewar. Germany paid two -thirds of the expenses and Austria one
third, and there is evidence that Germany
’s fore ign office authorized
a charge to be mad e by the embassy of toward supportingthe Liebau Bu reau
, or the workmen’s re lief, as it was sometimes
called .
Mr. B ielaski has testified that there were , approximately, a millionGerman and Austrian reservists in the United States , and that theagencies of the Department of Justice , supplemented by variouso ther governmental investigating bureaus , and the local police offi
cials of the various cities and towns of the United States aggregated ,approximate ly , men . With such a force and the protectionit affgf
ded, a wholesale de struction of property would be almost im
possI e .
There is in addition one very potent factor which militated againstthe lans o f the German agents
,that is the high wages paid t o the
emp oyee s in munition factories and the natural avers ion which theaverage man has for des truction or damage to the plant in which heis working and from which he is deriving his living. The fact remains , however, and is clearly established that we ll-defined planswere made to prevent the manufacture and Shipment o f mumt ionsand supplies by destructive and violent methods which were onlypartially successful and covered only a Short period of time .
RREWIN G AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGAN DA. 13
Shortly after the arrival of D r. Albert and D r. D ernberg in the
United States in August, 1914, there was e stablished unde r the irdirect ion an organization for the dissemination o f German propa
ganda through newspapers and the public press . This organizationwas known as the German Information Service and has been referredto as the German Information Bureau . It had its headquarters at
1123 Broadway , N ew York City , and was in the immediate chargeo f D r. Carl A. Fuehr, together with a corps o f translato rs
,writers
,
and assis tants,who conducted the operations o f the bureau from the
fall o f 1914 down to about the 1st o f February , 1917.
D r. Bernard D ernberg was sent by the German Government tothe United States o stensibly as a private citizen
,but in reality to
gave general supervision o f the publicity propaganda in the Unitedtates .
D r. Carl A. Fuehr was the former commercial attaché of the Gera
man embas sy in Tokyo,Japan
,and came from Japan to N ew York
shortly after the outbreak o f the Euro ean war.
The bureau employed Mathew B . laussen, who had been publicity agent o f the Hamburg-Ame rican Line , as the ostens ible man
ager o f the bureau under D r. Fuehr, and in the early stages of thebure au ’s Operation publicit was given to the fact that the bureauwas
!conducted by M. B .
llaussen
,
”at the reque st o f a number o f
American citizens who believed that the public desired to be informe das to both sides o f the war, that it may form its own opinions fromthe facts . That, of course , was done to dece ive the public , becausethe bure au was organiz ed
,financed, and directed by the official rep
res entatives of Germany.
The main funct ions o f the bureau were to prepare daily what wasknown as an information shee t, which contained articles on
”
e'
war ‘
st rongly favoring Germany and giving in formation which tended toupho ld the German cause . These sheets were sent gratis t o newspapers all over the United States
,from five to e ight hundred news
papers be ing supplied with this service . In addition the bureauprint ed and distributed a large quantity o f pamphlets , books , andleaflets , and in this connection worked in close conjunction withGeorge Sylve ster Vierick, editor of a weekly paper called the Fatherland
,which was St rongly pro -German and which had a wide circula
tion among Germans and German-Americans in the United St ate s.D r. D ernbe rg
’s work was large ly superviso ry, so far as the bureau
was conce rned , he devo t ing a gre at deal o f his time and energiest o delive ring lectures in different parts of the country and in get
ting in contact with men o f prominence in literary and educationalcircles and enlisting the efforts of newspaper representatives to givea favorable comment on the German cause .
D r. D ernberg and D r. Albert undertook to negotiate the pur
chase of a great daily newspaper in the city o f N ew Yo rk,and
through a ents and representat ives made plans for the acqu isit iono f some of the prominent newspapers , re sulting finally in the purchas e o f the N ew York Ev ening Mail and‘
the placing o f D r. EdwardA . R umely in charge as managing editor.
D r. D crnbe rg’s work as a propagandist in the United States came
to a te rmination as a result o f a speech which he made immediatelyfollowing the sinking o f the L usitania , in which speech be just ifiedthe action of the German Government.
14 BREWIN Gr AN D L IQU OR'
IN TERESTS AN D -GERAIAN PR OPAGANDA.
D ernberg wa s never c redited as a diplomat ic r epresentative to theUnite d States by the German Government, and he returned to Germany in Jun e , 1915.
In December, 1914, the bureau engaged the services o f D r. Wi lliam Bayard Hale to take charge of the publication of the daily information sheet . D r. Hale was well known as an author and writer.
Hale continued as head o f the German Information Bureau fromDecember, 1914, to December, 1915, rece iving a salary o f a
c ar.3
yIn addition to D r. Hale and Vierick, D r. Fu ehr had the coopera
tion and assistance o f D r. Isaac Straus , who had charge of the Jewishpropaganda, and D r. Hecker
,who had been sent from Germany to
take charge of the German R ed Cro ss . He was also a ssisted byMeyer
,one of the directors of the Hamburg—American Line , and
Privy Councilor D r. Meyer Gehardt , who accompanied D r. Albertfrom Germany . In addition there was D r. Carl Mechlenberg and a
group o f translators and readers,who assisted in compiling the
material for publication .
The scheme of propaganda was to write up each day a series ofarticles strongly p1
’
0 7Gemnan in their character, which articles werecompiled from the daily press , from German newspapers , Germanmagazines , German,
books,and American books .
For the purposes o f the bureau there were transported to them fromGermany quantities of German literature , consisting of books
,maga
zines,illustrated periodicals of various kinds , scientific publications ,
books on the war,and war art icles . From these were built up the
art icles which app eared in the news shee t s and in the various booksand pamphlets distributed directly by the bureau or through the
numerous organizations which were created for propaganda purposes .
The evidence shows that in D r. Fuehr’s files there were records of
different topics , out o f which Fuehr had made use o f
items , by either giving them to the newspapers through the'
Germaninformation sheets or otherwise .
In addition to the German information news service,the bureau
maintained what was known as the Irish press and news service !This was maintained in separate offices at 42 West Forty-secondStreet, N ew York City , but was under the contro l of D r. Fuehr and
his agents . The active manager of the Irish press and news servicefor the Germans was one James K. Maguire
,who
,with his corps o f
assistants , sent out news-service bulle tins two or three times a‘
week to18 or 20 newspapers in many of which he personally was interestedand also t o various daily newspapers . Copies of all propagandamaterial supplied by the Irish press and news service was sent toD r. Fuehr.
Throughout the German propaganda work in the United Statesuse was made by the Germans of the disaffection o f the Irish towardEngland and common cause was made by the adro it German agentswith the Irish-Americans , and throughout the various associationsand societ ies inaugurated by German propaganda will be foundthe Irish-American e lement strongly affiliated , as in the early stage sthe German agents convinced numerous people prominent in the
Irish-American groups in the United States of the justness o f the,
German cause and the advantage o f a close alliance of Germany andthe Irish symp athizers as against England.
I6 BRw N e AN D L iquor; INTERE STS AN D GERM AN PROPAGAN DA.
the evidence shows thatwere sent by the Fuehr
As part Of the information service there and maint ained what was known as the Trans -ocean which wasoperated under the dire ct ion o f D r. Fu ehr and his ass istants , whichwas a wire less news service from N ew York to Berlin by way O f
Sayville , Long Island , and the Nauen wirele ss station in Germany .
B y means of this service the German agents operating under thed irection Of D r. Albert and D r. Fuehr were kept in dire ct communicat ion with Berlin at all times and news information coveringev ery conce ivable phase of American act ivities was collected , classified , and forwarded to Berlin , and it was by means Of the wire lessservice that a grea t deal o f the current information concerning warhapp enings that went to make up the German informat ion sheet wasrece ived .
,At the commencement of !
the European war there were wirelessplants located at Sayville, Long Island , and Tuckerton, N . J owne dand controlled by German interests , capable Of rece iving and transmitting mess ages t o and from Berlin. Through this means of communication material received from Germany was forwarded to
various centers for distribution in Central and South America and
the West Indie s by cable . The expenses o f the N ew York bureauconducted by Mr. Fuehr for such cable service amounted to manythou sands o f dollars a month .
A lette r from the German propagandist agent at Corumba , Brazil,dated May 27, 1916 , which was intercepted by the British secre t service
,reads, ih part, as follows
It would be very fitt ing if immedia t e ly aft er the war a commission Of wire le sst e legraphy was sent to all the State s of South America to Obtain conce ssionsfrom the difie rent governments for the e st ablishment of wire le ss stat ions and
t o start cons truct ing the same immediate ly. The Say vil le-Tuckerton s tat ionhas be en invaluable and wi thout it Sou th Am erica wou ld have be en in the
hands of the Anglo-French news service . The es tablishment of wire les s is
ce rt ainly cheape r than cable and impresse s Creole governments about its s im
All of the propaganda work in the United States , Mexico , andSouth America was conducted under the immediate direct ion o f theGerman fore ign Office at Be rlin by the central section for fore ignnews service , or ! entralste lle fiir Auslandsdienst. This section o fthe fore ign Oflice was under the immediate direction of D r. Thiel , andwas the bure au to which D r. Fuehr reported. It was charged withthe preparation Of news matter, films
,books
, etc.
,for war propa
ganda in fore ign countries and was the u
principal source from whichforeign newspaper correspondents in Berlin obtained material forthe ir dispatches .
One of the principal and most impo rtant means of diss eminatingGerman propaganda was through the medium of moving p ictures ,
and early in the year of 1915 the German Government organized in
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 17
the Unite d States a film co rporation known as the American Correspondence Film Cc .
,with headquarters in the city o f N ew York ,
for the purpo se of rece iving from Germany movin -picture films o f
various war scenes and Civil life in Germany or disseminat ionthrough the moving-picture houses in the Unite d StatesIn a le tte r o f ! immerman
, secretary of fore ign affairs o f the
German Government, dated March 1 , 1915, addre ssed to Count Von
Bernstorf‘f, directions are given for the carrying on of this type o f
propaganda . The letter states , in part , as fo llows !
I beg to advis e your exce llency that 5 copies of a film me ters long wil lshort ly go t o the Ge rman B ure au of Informat ion in N ew Y ork .
As propaganda through p icture s has shown it se lf to be remarkably e ffect ivein neutra l fore ign coun tries , it se ems expedient to place this work of publicat ion on a great er basis than here tofore .
t t t t a
In cons iderat ion o f the fact that the sending of larger packages to the Uni t edS tat e s a t this t ime encounters insupe rable difiicu ly , the es tablishment and
ext ension of a cent ra l place in N ew Y ork , o rganized on a large scale,seems
impe rat ive ly nece ssary. In this case part icu larly sharp proofs of all phot ographs and films rec e ive d here shou ld be s ent in two exemplificat ions in le t te rfo rm by diflr'erent rou te s to the central point in N ew Y ork . The la tte r couldthen, by ca lling on expe rt s and persons we ll info rmed of condit ions t here1 . Have produced from the origina l photographs there on the spo t dupli
cates , e nlargeme nts , ste reo type p la te s , illus tra ted writ ings and compos it ions,s tereopt icon pictures , e tc.
2. Undertake the exhibition of t his entire picture and films in the wholecountry through agencie s to be es tablished in all the larger cities .
In a report o f D r. Fuehr to D r. Albert under date o f April 20,1915
,the forme r states !
As I had the honor to exp la in briefl y at the se ssion of the pres s bureau on
the 12th of this month , it seems se tt le d that an e specia l regist ered companywill be formed to obta in good war films in Germany adapt ed to propaganda in
this country and to circulate the same in the United States .
a! c c s a! e 0
Acco rding to the wire le ss re ce ive d he re ye s te rday , t he plan ment ione d hasbeen officia lly approved in B erlin.
The company , whos e inco rpo ra t ion under the firm name! American Corre
spondence Film Co.
”has bee n accompl ished tod ay under the prope r au thori
t ie s, is in need o f a capital of nomina lly divided into shares of
$10 pe r share .
The inte re st of the Impe ria l Government in this undertaking cons ists in the
fact s that the company shou ld not work for the greates t poss ible financia l profitfrom the dispo sa l of the war films
, but lay chief emphasis on the gre at es t poss ible circula t ion of them in the mo st respectable film the aters of the land.
The company was incorpora te d with a nominal capital ofwhich was shortly increased to The enterprise was p lacedin the hands of Mathew B . Claussen , o f the Hamburg-Am ericanLine associated with whom were Fe lix Malitz
,Adolph Ingel, and
D r. uehr, the latter re taining control of the company. The ent erprise was large ly financed by German money, and a scheme wasadopted of smuggling films int o the United St ate s by way o f neu
tral countries through arrangements made with the chief stewardso f certa in steamships . As a re sult o f the se activitie s , Malitz and
Inge l were indicted by the Federa l authorities , convicted , andtenced to terms o f imprisonment.A great many films were brought pver
,the company hav mg sent
two men to Germany to take the pictures and write the scenarios ,
1 8 BREWING AN D moti on INTERESTS”
AN D GERMAN‘
PROPAGAN DA.
and there was considerable distribution throughout the moving picture houses o f the United States . An effort was made to interest theHearst Film Service in handling all o f the films obtained and produced by the American Corre spondence Film Co .
, but the propositionwas not consummated.
Under date of December 3, 1915, D r. Fuehr makes a report to VonB ernstorfi
'
which indicates that the display o f films was considered byhim to be effective . The letter
,in part
,i s as follows
Our opponents now seem to have recognized the e ffect ivene ss of this propaéganda and are exhibit ing films from the ir front s , which do not fail to make an
impre ssion, with extraordinary ou t lays for ext ens ive advert ising and under bitepatronage of the highest personalit ie s . Some of the films exhibited are quiteexce llent ; o thers are obvious ly maneuver p icture s , which , however, have athril ling e ffect upon the public.
it
Would it not be possible to secure similar p ictures of our front s for distribut ion to the Ame rican Correspondence Film We have far more ce lebratedmen to int roduce than any of our opponent s ; we have the most varied front s ;we have a much grander organizat ion.
With the films which we have he re tofore re ce ived, mos t ly from Aus tria and
much from Germany , our busine ss manager,'with a skill highly worthy of
recognit ion, has made up four good film dramas , but there is no doubt that hewou ld do much be t ter if our people were given more opportunity to take intere st ing views .
According to the books o f the American Correspondence Film Co .,
it had rece ived up to October 31 , 1915, from the German Governmentthe sum o f $78,600.
In May of 1916 the assets and property o f the company wereturned over by the German Government to Malitz and wound upthe ir direct connection with the film business .
As part o f the German propaganda system in the United States ,D r Albert, Count Von Bernstorff , and other German representat ives and agents were particu larly active in the organization of andsubsidizing o f innumerable societies and leagues formed for the purpose of spreading German propaganda , and one at least for the definite purpose o f influencing national legislation .
A rev1ew o f all of these organizations and the ir various ramifications wou ld be impracticable , but reference may be had to the mostimportant ones as typical o f this part of the system .
The most important and far-reaching of the efforts made by theGerman Government and its sympathizers was the organization of
what was known as the American embargo conference , which was0 1ganized in the summer of 1915. Those ln
t D
direct charge of the movement were William Bayard Hale , then m the employ of the GermanGovernment and connected with the D r. Fuehr Bureau , one G . H.
Jacobson , from Chicago ; Carl E . Schmidt, of Detro it , Mich ; R ev .
Charles F . Aked ; Will R. McD onald,a newspaper man
,who was en
gaged.
as press agent , and George F . H anscher, president . The
organization was incorporated ln September o f 1915 under the lawso f Illino is . The organization and i ts activities are descrlbed in a
report made by Jacobson to William Bayard Hale,which reads in
part as follows !The organiza t ion of the American embargo confe rence was first f ormallydiscusse d a t a mee t ing he ld in D e troit on Ju ly 10, 1915. This mee t ing wasat tended by repre senta t ive men from I llinois , Ohio , Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota , and severa l o ther S tate s .
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 19
At this mee t ing numerous p lans were canvas sed in an e ffort to adopt one
that wou ld be most likely to bring abou t the succe ss o f the embargo movement ,and when the p lans had been outlined the commit tee adjourned to a llow therepre sentat ives to consider them a ll thoroughly, with the understanding thatthey would be again canvassed at a mee ting to be he ld in Chicago on July 24.
A meeting was held in Chicago, and the plan adopted was t o
endeavor to influence the voters o f the United States , particularlythe German-American voters
,to use every e ffort with their Congress
men and Senators to pass a resolution which would be introducedprohibiting the shipping o f munitions and supplies to the Allies.The plan adopted was exceedingly comprehensive , in that it cont emplated a local organization in every town and city in the UnitedStates and the obtaining of signatures to individual declarations byvoters who either were opposed to the shipment o f munitions andsupplies t o the Allies or who could be persuaded to oppose theshipment.The report of Jacobson to D r. Hale states
The first we eks of the campaign taught us that it would be necessary for theconfe rence to depend in many ways upon the workers in the di fferent localit ies ,and this brought about the plan to establish loca l branche s of the conference ina ll o f the cit ie s , towns , and vi llage s
‘
o f the United Stat e s .
This work has been pushed rap idly during the past two weeks , and alreadythe conference has found that the loca l organizat ion p lan will make it poss ibleto have the vo te lined up and under orders in t ime to make it po ssible for thevo ters to show the Congre ssmen a s trength that they wi ll be afraid to ignore .
The me thod of doing this has be en to secure the name or name s o f persons
in different localit ies who are known to be s trongly in favor of an embargo .
We have secured th ese names in diffe rent manners . In one way we sent ou t
le t ters to the editors of the different German papers of the country asking themt o supply us with names . Again, we t ook the names of writers who had se
cured some of our postal cards and had not contented themse lve s with sendingin the ir p ledge s , bu t had writ ten for more cards or had sent in contribut ionsto he lp the movement or had writ ten to ask in what manner they cou ld givethe ir services .
And further on the report statesIn addit ion to all this , a staff of German-American speake rs , under the direc
t ion of D r. Herman Gerhard , has be en at work among the German-Americanorganizat ions o f the States o f I llino is , of Indiana , o f Michigan, of Wiscons in,and of N ebraska , and the se speakers have be en t eaching the doctrine of organiza t ion unti l we can say that it has been we ll dri lled into the Ge rman-Americansof these sect ions , and already they are at work lining up the vot ers of o thernat ionalit ie s .
a! a! a! 0 at
To aid in the ini ti a l work in Illinois , D r. Gerhard , an exce llent spe aker and
a most succe ssful organizer, was brought to Chicago from Texas , and , as hasbe en said be fore , was p lace d in charge o f the speakers of our German-Americanbureau . D r. Gerhard firs t devot ed hi s t ime to the German-American socie tie sof Chicago , and his succe ss in securing the ir hearty support and off ers o f a s
s is tance was such as to lead the conference t o add o the r speake rs , and the semen are now be ing sent ou t as rap idly as our funds will permit .
The report then goes into more detail about de scribing the distribu t ion o f literature o f var1ous kinds , includmg pamphlets and copieso f editorials from certain prominent American newspapers whl chwere 1n favor o f the embargo , and then says !To-day J. J. Tobias , o f the Friends of Peace , in an interview in the ChicagoHerald , declared that the Teutonic voters of the country to the numbe r o f five
million were ! going to raise he ll with any party no t in our favor.
”One
month ago this s ta tement wou ld have called down the wrath of a score of
editoria l writers . To-day the editorial writers and the po lit icians are wondero
20 Bnnwrne AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA.
ing just how clos e to the ! right number of vot ers Mr. Tobias was when heput the figure at five millionAnd if the American embargo conference ’
s succe ss continues to grow as ithas been growing during these early and trying weeks of it s short career the
po liticians of the country will find tha t the Teutonic voters of the country are
not standing alone but are lined up with other Americans in a body of Americans who are a ll real Americans and of so many nat ionalit ies tha t no one willa t tempt to drag out one nat iona lity and at tempt to ho ld it up to scorn as thefriends of the muni t ion forces have be en at temping to do with the GermanM erican vote .
The report shows that the embargo conference was part icula rlyactive in the States o f Illino is , Indiana , N ew York, Arkansas , Alabama , Kansas
, Minnesota, Missouri , Ohio , Texas , Iowa , and Michigen
As a resul t of the activities of this group which composed theembargo conference the members of Congress were flooded withnumerous prepaid telegrams from all over the country, all o f whichte legrams were prepaid by the embargo conference in different formsand made to appear as though coming from separate groups o f peoplewho were so lely prompted by the ir own views in sending the request.The embargo conference continued its activities through 1916 and
into the early part o f 1917. It was financed in part by contribu
tions made by citizens , many o f whom were of German extraction ,and a partial list o f thes e contributions appears in the record on
pages 1508 to 1512.
onfidential communications which passed be tween_Von Be rn
storff'
t o the fore ign office in Be rlin and from o ther German agents ,show that the movement was financed in a large measure by the German Government.R eiswitz , the German consul at Chicago
,under date o f December
21 , 1915, sent a cipher message t o the German ambassador requestingfinancial ass istance for the embargo conference to the extent of six
or seven thousand dollars to continue it s activities , statin that theembargo conference has rendered service worthy of acknow edgment .
In September, 1916 , Von Bernstorff sent a message to the foreignofiice , B erlin , in part , as follows
The embargo conf erence in regard to Whose earlier frui tfu l cooperat ion D r.
Hale can give informa t ion , is just. abou t to enter upon a vigorous campa ign to
secure a ma jority in bo th Hous es o f Congre ss favo rable to Germany , and
requests furthe r support . There is no poss ibility of our be ing compromised.And later, on January 22, 1917, just prior to the breach in diplo~
matic relations , Count Von Be rnstorff sent the fo llowing mes sage tothe fore ign office in Berlin
I re ques t au thori ty to pay out up to! in order, as on former occasions ,
to influence Congre ss , through the organization you know of , which can per
haps pre vent war. I am beginning in t he meant ime to act. accordingly . In
the above circumst ance s a public officia l Ge rman declarat ion in favor of Ire landis . highly de sirable in order to gain the support o f Irish influence here .
It was about this time that the embargo conference , which had beencontinued by popular subscription as well as by German subs idy,was causing t elegrams to be sent t o Congressmen and Senators fromall parts o f the country
,urging them to stand firm against any
de clarat ion of war. Specnnens o f the se telegram s are as fo llows !
Y our cons ti tuent s urge and expect you to s tand like a rock aga inst the passing frenzy o f ins ane and crimina l fo lly on the part of the sma ll port ion of
int e res ted persons who are clamoring for war. We want peace . N othing
Warrants any other act ion.
ssnwme AN D L IQUOR mm srs AND GERMAN PROPAGAN DA. 21
Another reads as fo llows
If warlike rumo rs coming from Washington are true , will you le t me reassure
you that the great majority o f your cons ti tuents stand for peace , be lieve warnow unnece ssary and uncalled for, and will resent be ing prec ip ita ted into the
European confl ict .
In the early stages of the activities o f the embargo conference , in1915
,D r. Hal e organized a women’s auxiliary known as the League
of American Women for Strict Neutrality, which had it s headquarters in the city o f Baltimore . The object o f this association was t oenl is t the women of the United State s against war and the shipmento f munitions and supplies to the Allies .
At one of the conferences he ld at D r. Fuehr’s office , written reporto f which is in the record at page 1394, the foll owing appe ars !Mr. Ha le then reports concerning the progre ss of his negot iat ions wi th the
B a lt imore ladies conce rning the propaganda aga ins t the export o f arms .
Al l prepara tions we re made for carry ing through the project of pos ter adver
t ieing. A pamphle t ent it led ! Thou sha lt not kill , written by Mr. Hale , hasbe en printed and will be sent out . Signa tures t o a pe tit ion to Congre s s co llect e dby the ladie s now number and wi ll in t ime perhaps reach The
ladies have app lied for ass is tance in the ir campaign to a number of persons
named by Mr. Ha le . It is sugge ste d tha t it be pu t up to the ladies to addre ssthe pe ti t ion to the Pres ident and Congress and not wai t unt il the collectiono f signature s is comple te be fore sending it to Washington , bu t send them at once
in ba tche s of about
The League of American Women for Strict Neutrality rece ivedfrom the German fund for po ster advertising, which sum was
paid through D r. Hale .
In the same report the following is stated
Mr. Claus sen propose s to have a film prepared _for propaganda against the
exportat ion of arms , which shall exhibit the manufacture of American shrapne lmuni tion and aft erwards show in dras t ic s tyle the resu lts o f the use o f thismunition.
Mr. Hale reports tha t Mrs . Hale is busy upon propaganda aga ins t the exportav
tion of horses . Mr. Claussen undertakes to have a correspondingly touchingscenario ( s tory of former fire-brigade mare s laughtered in Flanders ) writ ten .
At this same conference , which took place on May 24, 1915, the
report statesMr. Hale calls a t tent ion to the interview, printe d in the evening papers , with
the surviving pass enger of the L usitania ,D r. Foss , who has arrived here .
It is re so lved that Mr. Clau s sen have the sa id Foss int erviewed as to whe therthe L usi tania had any guns mount ed on the deck at the t ime she wa s torpe doed .
Mr. Meye r undertakes to prepare a co l lect ion of newspaper clipp ings in his
office conta ining s ta tement s o f pas sengers , e tc. , which show the blame attachedto the Cunard L ine . Mr. Fuehr will also prepare a s imilar collect ion.
The evidence shows that,an attempt was made on the part o f
the German Government to prove by various false afl‘ldavit s o f pas
sengers and those who claimed t o be passengers that the L u sitaniacarried guns mounted on her forward deck , all o f which was afterwards disproven and admitted to be false by German representativesin this country . However
,as a result o f D r. Fuehr
’s work , enor
mous publicity was given t o the claim o f the Germans that the L ucitam
’
a was armed and consequent ly the act o f the German submarinein sink ing her was just ified .
As part o f the ,
German propaganda system there was incorporatedby one Jeremiah A . O
’Le ary , an American citizen o f Irish extrac
tion , what was known as the American Truth Society, which had
22 EREWIN G AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN P ROPAGANDA
a very large membership , made up principally of Germans and
German -Americans and American citizens of Irish extraction . Thisassociation had its headquarters in the city o f N ew York and had
among'
its prominent members and organizers such men as GeorgeSylvester Viereck , Bernard H . Ritter, o f. the N ew York Staats ! ietung ; Frederick F . Schroeder, associated with Viereck in the publication o f the Fatherland ; and Jeremiah
‘
A. O ’L eary, who was the president of the society .
O ’L eary’s activities were mainly directed to lectures and address
ing public mee tings in N ew York and in various parts of the UnitedStates
,writing articles for the German propaganda publications ,
and conducting a publication o f his own known as The Bull .O
’L eary
’s writings and speeches were vio lently anti-British and up
held the cause o f Germany as against England .
The socie ty published a large number o f pro-German and anti
British pamphlets and books , which had a wide distribution, a listo f which is found on page 1541 o f the record . An examination of
these pamphle ts and books show the ir vio lent anti-British and pro
German character.
Just how much the German Government as sisted in financing theAmerican Truth Society has never be en developed, but the recordsshow the transfer o f approximate ly t o the socie ty through a
banking house in N ew York, which money came from the German
Government,and a direction by D r. Albert in a letter o f April 19
,
1915,to ano ther banking house to pay over to the treasurer o f the
society the sum of $500 and charge the same to his account.The socie ty was maintained in a large measure by financial contri
butions o f it s members,80 or 90 per cent o f the contributors be ing
German or German extraction .
O’L eary is under indictment by the Federal authorities for vio la
tion of the Federal statutes on account of his activities .
This society was particularly active!
during'
the year 1915 in theconcentrated effort being made to induce Congress to place an embargo upon the shipment of munitions and supplies to allied Governments , and to the formation of a large association o f various proGerman so cieties which went under the name of the Friends o fPeace , which was organized through the assistance o f the GermanAmerican Alliance o f the city of N ew York, o f which HenryWe issman was president.The Friends of Peace he ld two large meetings in 1915
,
!
one mMadison Squ are Garden
,in N ew York
,and one in Chicago , which
mee tings were addressed by prominent Americans who were infavor o f peace for the United St ates at any price and who wereparticularly in favor of an embargo on shipment o f munitions to theAllies . These addresse s were wide ly distributed by the various proGerman organizations throughout the United States .
In the ir efforts to create a sent iment in the United States againstthe manufacture and shipment o f munitions to the Allies , the Germanagents under the direction of D r. Albert , acting through D r. Rumleyundertook the preparation and publication ,
in April , o f 1915, of whatwas known as an appeal to the American people , which was publishedin most of the fore ign language newspapers of the United States on
or about the 5th of April , 1915, and in about 70 of the principal
profit. This , however, is denied‘by one of his form r associates , who
had ass isted in the preparation o f the art ieie . T he appeal waspared and arrangements were made to publish the same in semehundre d c f the papers who were members o f the association
, aswe ll
as in s ame seventy English-language papers. The considerationagre ed upon was The appe al was published, as arranged ,
on or about the eth o f April,1915
,in the daily papers and cont inued
to be published in the we ekly papers at int ervals duringc f April . This appea l appears on page 568 of the record , and reads ,1111 part
,as fo llows !
We appea l to the Ameri can peop le , to the high-minded and courageous American press , and to the Americanmanufa cturer oat powder, shrapne l, and cart ridg es ,and we appe al to the workmen engage d in the plant s de vo ted to the manufacture of ammuni tions for use of the nations at war t o immediat e ly cease makingpowder, shrapne l , and cartridge s dest ined to de stroy our bro thers , widow our
sis ters and mothers , and orphan the ir children, a s we ll as de stroy forever theprice less pos se ss ion handed down by ‘
our ance stors .
We ap pea l particu la rly to the American manufacturers and the ir worlnnenengaged in manufacturing any of the se art icle s to suspend a t onc e the manufacture of powder and bulle t s , which are be ing made for the crue l and inhumanpurpose of mu tilating and des troying humanity.
We appeal ind ividua lly to the workmen of such factories , even a t the sacrificeof the ir pe si t ions, to go on record as be ing una lte rably oppose d to being emp loye dfor the purpose of manufac turing ammuni t ion to sha t ter the bodie s and blot out
the live s o f the ir own blood re la t ive s .
It appears from the evidence that Hammerling had sent agents andrepresentative s to the principal munition manufacturin
glcenters prior
to the publication of the appeal in order to ascertain e nationa lityo f the various workers in the munition plants . Men were sent toBridgeport, Conn ; Illio n , N. Y . ; Bethlehem ,
Pa . ; and to munitionplants in Brooklyn . Hemmerling denied that these men were sentto stir up any labor troubles , but were mere ly sent to ascertain thee xtent o f the fore ign e lement employed in the plants .
This appeal had an enormous circul ation, and, of course,was de
signed by the German agents to re ach the fore ign-born e lement outs ideo f the Germans and to add the we ight of this e lement to the generalpropaganda be ing conducted at the same time by the various propaganda organizations throughout the country .
The extent of the c irculation of the fore ign-language press con
tro lled by Kamm erling at about this time is de scribed by PercyAndreas in a report made to the brewers
’association on October 15
,
1915, as fo llows
The persona l-liberty art icles appe aring in the Ame rican L eader are be ing republi shed in 30 language s in who le or in part by about 800 newspape rs, wit ha t ot a l circu lat ion o f cop ies . There are thus be ing reached throughthis channe l reade rs biwe ekly . The organizat ion of this pres s and
the e lements surrounding it by the American Associat ion of Fore ign L anguageN ewspape rs has now reached the stage at which pract ica l re su lt s can be Ob
ta ined throughou t the country by the app licat ion of proper organizat ion me thods in any locality where this pre ss is repre sented. This has been provenbe yond que st ion in Ohio , where in the last campaign, through the instrumenta lity of the fore ign-language pre ss , regist rat ion o f vo ters of fore ign origin or
fore ign extra ct ion exceed ed in one county a lone by over anything everknown in the po lit ica l history of the county.
It developed in the examination of Kammerling that, although thelatter at times claimed to be an American citizen by naturalizationand to have been born in the island of Hawaii
,in fact he was born
BREWIN G AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGAN DA. 25
in Galacia , under the sovereignty o f the Austrian Imperial Government ; that he had made a fals e affidavit upon his application fornaturalization in the State o f Forms lvania in 1901 and upon hisown admiss ion had only resided in t e United States for a periodof three years prior to his application for naturalization apers.He admitted that his
find al pro erty interests were in ale cia,
and, while denying all ow edge 0 the fact that the German Government had employed him and his asso ciation for propaganda puroses , admitte d that he could see no harm in the appeal , as it wasgone purely for financial profit.It appeared from Hammerli ’
s statement and from other evi
dence that all o f his personal boo s papers and documents,and the
records of his asso ciation , co vering the years 1915 and 1916 have beendes troyed .
N o other evidence on the use o f the Foreign Language Press Association for German propaganda purposes was obtained, but it isclear from the evidence that Hammerlin was em loyed for a defi
nite purpose by the German agents and t e recor indicates that heknew at the time the purpose for which he was be ing employed.
It appears from the evidence that there are several thousand foreign
~language publications in the United State s , o f which a largenumber were unpatriotic and disloyal to the United States
, its principles and institutions , and it has been established that some of thesewere subsidized by the German and Austrian Governments . N or was
the fore ign language pres s alone responsible for all pro-German
propaganda . Many English newspapers , both before and for monthsafter America entered the war, while not shown to have been actually subsidized nor charged with actual violation o f the espionageact , persisted in the endeavor throu h editorials , news co lumns
,and
cartoons , to create a popular preja ice against the war and aga instefi
'
ectual action on the art of the United States . The effect of thisattitude on the part 0 thes e English newspapers was t o encourageGermany and German sympathizers.
One o f the most effective organizations of the Ge rman propagandistsystem was the German University league
,an or anization formed
in the city o f N ew York by a group of Germans , ermafi -Am ericans,
and American citizens who were strongly pro-German in the ir sym
pathies , including D r. Edmund Von Mach ; William R . Shepard , ofCo lumbia University ; M. R . Hine
,George Viereck’s father-ih -law ;
D I
!!Hugo Schwe itzer, chief chemist of the Bayer Chemi cal Co .
,and
o t ers .
The constitution states the purpose of the league to be1 . To establish in the United States a we ll-organized center for forme r
s tudents at German Univers itie s and other German institu t ions of similarstandard s in Germany , Aus tria-Hungary , and other countries .
2. To cooperate with every effort to s trengthen the regard for the Germansand for their a ims and ideals , and to secure for them fair play and proper
appreciat ion .
3. To correct misinforma tion about German conditions and problems byp lacing be fore educate d Americans and be fore the press of this country re liablema terial bearing on German ad airs
This organization had branches in N ew York City ; Bost on , Mass ;Phil ade lphia , Pa . ; Richmond , Va ; Atlanta , Ga . ; Chicago , Ill ; St.LouisMo . Milwaukee ,Wis ; Kansas City , Kane ; Dallas , Tex ; and
26 BREWIN G'
AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN ‘ i’ RbPAGAN bA.
San Francisco , Calif. I ts membership was!
made up of college profes~sors , writers , publishers , clergymen , scientists , and, generally , men of
higher education.
There is little evidence of the actual activities o f this‘
membershipas a group , with the exception of thework of D r . Edmund Von Mach ,who wro te several books in favor of the German cause
,wrote continu
ously for the newspapers , and presented a petition to Congress on
the 2d o f April, 1917, urging Congress to refuse to declare war
againstGermany . This petition is found on pages 1532 to 1536 of theecord .
The only e vidence contained in the record that the German University League was subsidized by the German Government agents inthe United States is contained in a 'message o f Count Von B er
'
nst'
orfi’
t o the fore ign office,dated November 1 , 1916 , in which Von B ernst orfi
'
states as fo llows !
Since the L usi tania case we have s trict ly confined ourse lves to such propaganda as can
-not hurt us if it become s known. The so le exception is perhap s
th e peace propaganda , which has cost the largest amount , bu t which also hasbe en the mos t successful .L at terly,
'
I have been us ing the embargo associa t ion and some ent irely re liableprivate intermediarie s . I have a lso made use of the German University L eague ,founded since the war. This has done its be s t to take the p lace of the German
As sociat ion, which has been of no u se during the war on account of its
management . The league has published unde r my collaborat ion an exce llentcollect ion of reports on the war, which will be of great service to our cause .
The support which I have already given the league is ent ered in the firs tquarter’s account for 1916 , item N o . 208. On the occasion of later installments
.t o them I will refer to this report . I ask that this be sanctioned .
It would be difficult to write a full and comple te history o f the
ramifications o f the German propaganda in the United States fromthe time o f the beginning o f the European
!
war down to the dateo f the departure of the oflicial German group in February
,1917.
Much of"
the material available discloses connections o f variousindividuals and firm s now under investigat ion by the Departmento f Justice and other information of persons now under indictmentand awaiting trial .It is needless to say that perhaps only a comparative ly small part
o f the whole system will ever be known.
Sufficient evidence has been produced before this committee to es
t ablish the fact of the inauguration in the United States of a widespread system and mo st o f it s principal ramifications and activities
,
There is a sharp line of demarkation to be drawn between legitimate commercial enterprises conduct ed by a fore ign power withinthe United States and propaganda
‘
conducted for the purpose o finflu encing public opinion and official action .
In order t o prevent the assimilation o f the aliens coming to thiscountry , the Austrian Government organized the large financialinstitution, having branch offices throughout the count ryL and the
act ive endeavor o f this institution was to secure the funds and earnings belonging to aliens for transfer to the ir native country. Inthis way as much as was annually sent out o f thiscountry . In connection with these financial activitie s , this ins titution promoted the separatist movement
,having for its purpose the
ho lding together!
in nativistic groups the alien elements of our
population.
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 27
BOLSIIEVISM .
On the 4th da o f February, 1919, the Senate adopted the following resolution , 0 . 436 , and in pursuance to the dlrect ions there incontained your committe e proceeded to make the inquiry requested ,and the testimony taken by your committee 18 contained in the
printed record, entitled Bolshevik propaganda ,” whlch 1s herewith
transmitted .
R eso lved , That the authority of the Commit te e on the Judiciary conferredby S. R e s . 307 be , and the same hereby is , extended so as to include the powerand du ty to inquire concerning any efforts be ing made to propaga te in thiscountry the principle s of any party exercising or claiming to exercise authorityin R us s ia , whe ther such efiort s originate in this country or are incited or
financed from abroad, and , further, to inqu ire into any e ffort to inci te the ove rthrow of the Gove rnment of this country or all government by force , or bythe de s truct ion of life or property , or the genera l ce ssat ion of industry .
In order to determine the possible connection and re lation betweenthe principles of government advocated by those claiming to exerciseauthority in Russia and the several activitie s now be ing carried on
in the United States,it was deemed essential that a care ful inquiry
be made to determine the exact nature o f the so -called principles o fgovernment now be ing applied in Russia . The record includes theconstitution and a compilation of many of the so -called laws in forcein Russia from which the nature o f the paper government can be determined and the testimony of many eyewitnesses of the attemptedapplication o f this paper government discloses the character andnature o f the actual government in practical operation. The investigation which your committee has conducted convinces it that few ofe ither the advocates or opponents , in this country, of the present R us
sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, are familiar with the f undamental principles upon which this Government is attempting to perpetuat e itself. Consequently the agitation growing out o f developments in Russia has largely degenerated into appeals to the pre judicesand the animosities that are inherent in the selfish natures o f mo stindividuals and little or no appeal has been made t o the inte lligenceo f the people .
It is therefore not surprising that the word Bolshevism has nowbecome merely a generic term
,and in America is nothing more than
a slogan o f the e lements of unrest and discontent .By reason o f the ir ignorance as t o what Bolshevism as a code of
polit ical and social morals in Russia means , almost every dissatisfiede lement
,from the radical anarchist to the theoretical idealist, has
se ized upon it as approaching something of a Utopian nature . It isinteresting to no te that every witness called before your committee as
a champion of the cause of the principles of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic admitted that he or she had never read the con
stitution of the government of which he was the champ ion .
The word Bo lshevism has been so promiscuously applied to variouspo lit ical and social rograms that we fee l that it is of paramount importance that the ddlusions and misconceptions as t o what it really IS,
as it exists tod ay in Russia , shou ld be , as far as po ssible , removedand that the people of the United State s should be thoroughly ln
formed as to just what this much-discussed institution really is , bothin theory and in practice .
28 BREWING AN D LIQUOR IN TERESTS AN D GERMANr ROPAGAN DA.
Your committee is o f the op inion that the best answer that can
be given to the argument o f the champions o f this Russian institution ! is a true e xplanation of its real nature and the actual principlesupon which it is founded as wel l a s the unavo idable conse quencesthat would fo llow its adoption . The wo rd Bo lshevik is the name o f
the party that contro ls the Russ ian Socialist Federal Sovie t Republic and that dictated it s constitution . We are , therefore, j ustified inusing this name to identify the constitution which it dictated and 111
accepting that constitution and the laws that have been prescribe dunder it as the platform and program of Bo lshevism.
The fo llowing are a feW‘
o f the fundamenta l facts descriptive o f
Bo lshevism and the form and character o f the government establishedand operated by the Bolsheviki in Ru ssia under the name o f the
! R us
sian Socialist Federal Soviet R epublic.
”
It is the dictatorship o f a class and is no t a democratic form o f gov
ernment . In its actual application it has become an autocracy o f a
few individuals who exercise their authority and suppress all oppos ition by fe ar , terrorism ,
and force . It has deve loped into as much ofan autocracy , though more cruel in its me thods
, as the monarchialgovernment o f the Czar’s regime . Under the provis ional governmento f Kerensky an efiort was made to establish a democracy and to in
augurate a socialistic state under that form of government. With a
View to establishing such a democratic government the provis io nalgovernment
,on July 22
,1917, ordered the e lection o f the constituent
ass embly to be voted for by all o f the people of Russia on September30
,1917. Prior to this time general e lections in Russ ia on an equal
suffrage basis were unheard of, and it therefore be came nece ssary for
the provisional government to cre ate the necessary ele ction machineryand to secure a complete and impartial registration o f the newlycreated e lectorate . The difficulties encountered in this undertakingmade it necessary in August to po stpone the election of the constitue ntassembly from the 3oth of September t o the 25th of Noventiber. Thispostponement was se ized upon by the Bo lsheviki as raising an issuethrough which they could attack the provisional government, and
they charged that government with having an ulterior purpo se indirecting this postponement.In raising this issue they appealed to the people to arise in de fens e
of a demo cratic form o f government by overthrowing the provisionalgovern ment and securing for themse lves thereby , through the B 01shevik Party , the benefits and advantages o f a demo cracy and the
e lection of a constituent assembly as an instrument which wouldmake po ssible the establishment of a constitution based upon the
e quality of man and secure to all Russian cit izens equal participation in the affairs of government. With this issue
,among o thers
,the
Bo lshevik Party overthrew the provisiona l governmen t in the October revolut ion and immediately issued a decree (Exhibit 1 , appendixo f record o f hearing ) ordering
! that the e lections to the constituentassembly shall be he ld on November 25, the day set as ide for thispurpos e
”by the pro visional government and ordering that the free
dom of the ballot should be adequate ly sa feguarded . At the appointed time the co nstituent assembly was e lected and a canvass o fthe personne l of that as sembly established the overwhe lming defea tof the Bolshevik Party and the supremacy o f other socialist partie s,
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTEREST S AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 29
whereupon the attitude o f the Bo lsheviki toward the constituent assembly underwent a complete change , and from that time the irantagonism toward a cons tituent ass embly, universal equal suffrage ,and a democratic form o f government has been manifested in e veryofficial act o f the government and in the actual application o f thatgovernment to the several activities o f the nation.
In the original call for the e lection o f the cons tituent ass embly,December 12
,1917
, had been fixed as the time o f its meeting . It was
no t,however
,until January
,1918
,that the B alshevik autocracy
permitted the constituent assembly to convene . When it did me etthe Bolshevik Party submitted to this representative body for adoption a set o f resolutions denouncing the election at which it wase lected , repudiating itse lf as representative of the e lectorate , whosecommission it he ld , and declaring that there was no proper functionfor it to perform in the proposed new government o f the Russiannation. (Exhibit 16 , appendix . ) As might we ll have been expected,the constituent assembly declined to pass this reso lution, whereuponthe Bolshevik members withdrew ,
and the cons tituent assembl wasforcibly dispersed by the R ed Guard
,and a democratic form 0 gov
ernment was lost to the Russian people . In its place has arisen thedictatorship of the small minority — headed by Lenin and Trotsky .
Lenin,pres ident Of the Sovie t o f Peoples Commissaries , frankly,
admits this in the following words
Just as lordly landowners domina ted the of R uss ianpeasants , so membe rs of the B olshevik Party are imposing the ir prole tarian will on the mass .
N or is this dictatorship the result of a usurpation of power on thepart of the officials o f the Bolsheviki , but it is the recognized foundation upon which the who le governmental structure is erected
,as is
evidenced by paragraph 9 o f —the Bolshevik constitution,which pro
vides as fo llows !
The principal aim of the constitut ion o f the R uss ian Socialis t Federal SovietR epublic in the present trans itory pe riod is to e s tablish the dicta torship Of the
city and rura l prole tariat and of the poores t e lement s of the pe asantry in the
form of a powerful all-R u s sian soviet government for the purpose of comp le te ly,suppre ssing the capitalistic class .
( NOTE .—Under B o lshevism , t he capitalis tic clas s includes all persons who do noil
pe rform manual labo r for a livlihoo d , o r who employ an y person m their busmes s , or
who own any prope i ty or receive any income , no matte r how sma l l t he amount . Th e
words ! parasitic clas s and!bourgeoisie are popu larly used by the B o ls heviki as
synonymous W l th capita lis ticIt is perhaps difficu lt t o realize that it has been poss ible to per
pe tuate a dictatorship of such a small minority through the manymonths which have passed s ince it came into power. Without someunderstanding o f the nature and character o f the actual activities o fthe Bo lsheviki the casual observer would be persuaded that thetyranny o f this autocracy wou ld in a Short t ime bring down uponit s head the wrath o f the majority , who with reasonable effort wouldhave no difficulty in overthrowing the usurpers . A study o f the
actual methods and practices o f the dictatorship , however, clearlyestablishes the helplessness o f the great mass o f the Russian popu
lace . The Bo lsheviki have inaugurated a reign o f terror unparal
leled in the history o f modern civilization , in many o f its aspects
rivaling even the inhuman savagery of the Turk and the terrors of
30 BREWING AND L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN pROPAGAN DA.
the French Revo lution . Under -the evidence your! committee has beencompelled to impose the responsibility for this terrorism upon thegovernment itse lf rather than attribute it merely to the excesses o findividuals and groups undisciplined and untrained in the personalliberty acquired by them with the overthrowing o f the centralizedautocratic gov ernment o f the old monarchistic regime . Terrorismand excesses in a state are either attributable to the encouragement ofthe state or the weakness and inability o f the state to restrain thesame . In Bo lshevik Ru ssia every
"
instrument available for the ex
ercise of force and power is in the possession of that government,and
those opposed to the government or who fail t o render it who lehearted support are completely suppressed and abso lutely powerless .
The government is more highly centralized and le ss restricted in theexercise of that centralized power than was the government of theCzar. The agencies used by the dictators in impo sing the ir willupon / the masses are less restrained and restricted in the exercise o f
the ir power by law, custom , or humanity than were the agencie sutilized by the old regime .
" Economic domination unheard Of andunsought in the past has been se ized upon and usurped by the dictatorship .
All these facts negative the suggestion o f the existence o f a degreeof weakness which makes the government impotent to exercise thenecessary restraint . On the contrary, every act of terrorism is justified by the affirmative pronouncement o f the Bolshevik government ,e ither through its cons titution and laws or the authoritative utterances of it s officials . The government is founded upon class hatred
,
its avowed purpose is the extermination o f all elements of society thatare Opposed to or are capable o f opposing the Bolshevik party.
! Merciless suppres sion and!extermination ”
o f all classes exceptthe present , governing class are familiar slogans of the Bolsheviki ,and confiscat l on is adopted as an essential instrument in the governmental formula . AS a guaranty of its perpetuation in power it sunderlying po licy is that !
the end justifies the means ,”and in the
application o f this po licy the government denies the existence o f anyinalienable right in the Russian citizen and respects neither the rightto life , liberty, or property .
-Ih its so -called declaration of rights thegovernment adOpts a po licy which it hopes will result in the destruotion o f the parasitic classes of society ,
”and as an aid to this end has
decreed as an essential part Of its fundamental law the principle o f
arming one class and disarming another,with a View of making the
extermination and destruction more effective . In practice , this government has classified all of those people who fail to sympathize withand support the existing dictatorship as the bourgeo isie , and hasproclaimed the doctrine that their refusal to bow to the edict of
the dictatorship Should be answered by ! violence toward the bourgeoisie .
” A careful survey of the innumerable acts of violence andterrorism committed in Russia will fail to disclose scarcely a singleo ffense that has not been participated in e ither by the ir R ed Guard
,
by Commissars , or by others having an official and government alstatus .
The dictatorship , utilizing Lett ish troops and Chine se laborers as
well as to some extent German and Austrian prisoners and criminals
32 BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN, PROPAGANDA.
opulation, representat ion is 1 t o every o f the population .
ven this discrimination did not adequate ly safeguard the domination o f the Bolshevik minority. D isfranchisement o f large groups o fthe population was necessary. By constitutional provision they denied the right to participate in the government and disfranchised thefo llowing classes(a ) All persons employing o thers in connection with the conduct
o f the ir busines s .
( 6 ) All persons rece iving interest, rents , dividends , or an incomefrom financial or industrial enterprises .
(c ) All merchants , traders and dealers .
(d ) All clergymen, priests , and employees o f churches and re
ligious bodies .
( 6 ) Certain pe rsons connected with the Czar’s overnment , pers ons mentally afliict ed and persons convicted of certain crimesaga inst the Bolshevik government.Even with the se restrictions upon suffrage the Bolshevik govern
ment has re fused to undertake the e lection of a constituent assembly . The e lections that are permitted are conducted under supervi
s ion of the R ed Guard and local bodies or soviets that are not satisfactory to the dictatorship are removed and in some instances so
called commissars or officials o f unquestioned loyalty to the government are imported from the cities to govern the affairs of the political unit (the local sovie t ) sought to be dominated according to theBo lshevik faith.
Confiscation on a who lesale scale has been used as a means of
undertaking to create and maintain tangible assets that could be usedas the economic foundation upon which could be built the industrialand financial su erstructure of the Bolshevik state . By constitu
t ional edict and y a series o f decrees issued by the dictatorship allland, fo rests , and natural resources of Russia have been confiscatedby the government in order that the Bolshevik government may be
come the landlord of the entire population and exercise the contro lincident there to . Where a man shall live and to il and till the so il isde termined b the State and the right to determine the nature andextent of e ac man’s domicile , and the power to compel the migration o f the peasant from the locality o f his birth or adoption, evento the extent of separating families as the population o f the variouscommunities exp
’
ands or contracts , is exercised by the Bolshevikgovernment through the laws whi ch it has decreed for the controlo f the people .
The alleged purpose of the seizure of land by the government wasthat the right to the land might be transferred to the rank and file o fthe people o f Russia in order that the individual Russian peasantmight become the unrestrained and unrestricted architect o f his ownfu ture economic development, but the methods adopted by the B olsheviki have mere ly transferred the landlordship from the large landowners , and in many instances from the peasant groups themse lves , tothe Bo lshevik government, and the present contro l by that government is no t confined to the land itse lf , as was the contro l o f the landowners under the Old regime
, but extends as well to the persons andeventhe too ls , implements , and products o f the peasants . The agedand infirm are deprived of all right to utilize and enjoy during their
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 33
declining years the so il the ir efforts may have enriched , because theirphysical strength makes them powerless to perform all o f the laborincident to its full cultivation . They , thereupon, become mere p ens 1oners o f the State . This system guarantee s to the peasant only thepresent enjoyment o f a given piece o f land , and consequently onlywarrants him in so utilizing the beneficence o f the State in accordinghim t he right to use the same as to insure the maximum present
production to the exclusion o f a scientific development that will enureto future advantage . In o ther words , an uncertain tenure is naturallyaccompanied by an explo itation rather than by a systematic development o f the leas eho ld inte re st. Under this system, the pe asant cannever become the owner of the land he tills or o f any o ther land . To
aid in the system and to establish a larger contro l o f pe asant activitiesby the govern ment the principle o f confiscation has also been invokedin the case o f all live stock and all agricultural implements
,and as a
cons equence these essential instruments o f land cultivation , thesechattels ne ce ssary to the production o f bot h meat and vegetable foodstuffs have become , without regard to the rights o f former owners orthe advantage to the individual o f future ownership therein , the
property of the Bo lshevik government , and the only right theretothat the peasant can in the future acquire is a use upon suchand conditions as the government may prescribe .
As may we ll be expected , there seems to be much difficulty in determ ining the manner in which this po licy is be ing carried into actualoperation , and it is apparen t that only by the application o f arbitrarymethods can the already existing articles in these categories be madeuse ful to any portion o f the peasant popu lation or be adequate ly protected and maintained so as t o preserve their value . It is also interesting to contemplate , but dubious to predict, howmeat—foo d productscan under this system be maintained at a sufficient quantity to sustain
The thrift, industry, perseverance , and intelligence which has
enabled a portion o f the Russ ian people in the past to acquire andsave money has also been penalized by the confiscation of all banksand banking institutions and the ir transformation into a statemonopo ly.
Confiscation under the milder term of nationalization has climinated from all industrial establishments such as factories , mills , andmines the business acumen and scientific methods necessary to successfu l operation and competitive methods . The abso lute contro l of the iroperation and management is placed in the hands o f the employee s .
This has been fo llowed by the stagnation o f the industr ial life of thecountry, and even those nationalized industries which have been ableto operate under government contro l have operated at an enormouspercentage o f loss , the deficiencies be ing met from the unlimited issueo f fiat paper money printed by the government! The nationalizationo f the enterprises essential to the production and de livery o f raw
mate rials has so handicap ed the ir production as to restrict the quantity o f raw materials avai able for the maintenance of industrial cnterprise s , and the whole economic condi tion o f Russ ia has made it imposs ible to secure relief from fore ign sources . Thes e industrial conditions can only continue so long as the government can succeed inmonopo lizing the means o f subsistence , maintain an adequate mi litary
34 BREWIN e AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGAN DM .
force to enforce the decrees o f the dictatorship , and force the recognition of worthless fiat paper money as the basis of its financialS stem .yAs the economic formula o f the Bolsheviki prescribes the confisca
tion o f the property rights of others , likewise it proclaims the doctrine Of the repudiation o f financial obligations and the debts
”
of
Russ ia have been renounced . Repudiation is also invoked to secure
the government against the incumbrances upon and liabilities o f theproperty and assets of the enterprises , land and chattels seized by itunder its confiscation program. This repudiation also aided materially in suppress ing and exterminating ‘
the creditor class ,!
whichnaturally '
constitutes a part o f the e lement that the Bolsheviki arepleased to call the Bourgeo isie
,f or capitalistic class
,by depriving
them of the right and ability to recover and utilize the earnings ,savings
,and accumulations of the past. As it affected them it was
a form of confiscation . Repudiation is,therefore
,a consistent aecom
paniment of confiscation and an essential element in the process of
destruction . The financial condition of the dictatorship,however
,
required the adoption of some constructive policy that would financeit . It was necessary t o maintain at least a color of legitimacy ,
an
appearance of hone st business methods , in supporting it s so -calledR ed Army and in securing contro l o f the articles nece ssary to sus
tain life . Further than that it was desirable to devise ways andmeans by which service in the R ed Army and employment in na
tionalized enterprises might appear sufficiently attractive,and at the
same time give an appearance o f pro sperity to the government itse lf,in order that hOpe as well as fear might assist in maintaining theBolshevik government. The policy adopted was the printing of uh
limited amounts o f flat paper money unsecured by any reserve . Thisnaturally furnished to the government a cash capital limited onlyby the
,capacity of the printing presses of the government
,which
,in
turn , had been confiscated and nationalized . A lready it is e stima tedthat a sum in excess o f rubles has been put into circulation. This has created a ridiculously inflated circulating mediumo f no mat erial value t o the public but of enforced value to the government .The populace are compelled to accept this paper money from theBolshevik dictatorship , but can secure little for it in transactionsbetween one
!
another. Barter and exchange have,therefore
,become
the only satisfactory means o f conducting commercial transactionsand the breakdown in the industrial life and transportation facilitieso f the country has made practically impossible the bringing togetherin the same community o f the articles o f trade and commerce neces
sary to the health , comfort , and life o f the various elements o f S0
ciety. In consequence,many Russians are faced w ith starvation
while possessing large sums o f the money o f the government that ,in the ir extremity, avails them nothing. There can be no permanence t o a government whose financial system is founded upon sucha method.
The destruction o f all effective military and naval power and theremoval of the leadership o f capable officers was essential to thee stablishment o f a powerful dictatorship as well as
‘
to the complet eabandonment o f the eastern front during the war. By the safe con
!
BREWIN G AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 35
duct of Lenin from Switzerland through the German Empire intoR ussia , regardless o f the question as to whether he and his confrereswere financed , as seems probable , in the ir revolutionary undertak
ing by the‘
. German Government , an obligation was incurred to demoralize and destroy the existing Russian Army which had be enmore or less effectively maintaining the eastern front. How com
plete ly this was accomplished is now history. They promptly decre ed in the ir so -called declaration o f rights that the so ldiers and
sailors are liberated from the power of autocratic generals,because
the generals will now be elected and they may be removed .
” Allt itles and degrees of rank and the authority incident to superioritywere annulled and discipline was discont inued . Instantaneouslythe army and nav degenerated into a mere mob with every soldiera. law unto himselfi Demobilization was directed and the demorali
zat ion was complete d . The organization o f the R ed Army was nudertaken around the nucleus which the Lettish troops and sailorsin the R ed Guard o f the October revolution provided.
By similar means the organization o f the R ed Fleet was undertaken . Chinese laborers without o ther means o f subs istence wereeasily enlisted . The opportunity that service in the R ed Army andR ed Fleet afforded for pilfering and loo ting under color of author-1ized confiscation presented a sufficient invitation to the lawless and‘
criminal elements that had become conspicuous through the opening
’
o f the . doors o f prisons by the Bo lsheviki to jo in those bodiesand participate in the confiscation and se izures that were a part o fthe program of terror, fear, extermination , and destruction uponwhich the Bolshevik government had entered . The food and clothing situation was desperate
,and the government had acquired
,
through the application of it s formula , a generous supply , and wasusing it s R ed Guard to gain a monopoly. In consequence the one
reasonably certain way o f gaining a livelihood was by affiliatingwith the R ed Army. This brought into the Bolshevik fo ld manypeople who o therwise would have been condemned to starve . Hostages were held by the government to compe l the submiss ion of thosewho might o therwise have been recalcitrant. Thus a R ed Army anda R ed Fleet has been created
,and they are charged with the exe cu
t ion o f the decrees o f the dictatorship and the sentences o f the so
called courts or revo lutionary tribunals , and they are afforded a
large degree. of personal discretion in the exercise o f duties whichpract ically constitute a rule o f martial law.
Repudiating the doctrine o f all radical revolutionary groupsthroughout the world that have claimed for the individual of all
lands the right of conscientious objection for religious or o therreason against the bearing of arms and the participation in armedconflicts , the Bo lsheviki have adopted as the essential safeguard o f
the ir political fabric compulsory military. service . As Prussianismfound it essential to world domination by the auto cracy o f the Hohenzollerns , so Bo lshevism se ized upon it as the mainstay that wouldweather it s autocracy o f the dictatorship through it s campaign of
confiscation and repudiation.
All o f the established courts and judicial institutions have beenabolished and in the ir place have been created revo lutionary tri
bunals. Under the dictatorship these new judicial tribunals dis
regard all laws that !contradict the revo lut ion ary concept ion o f
righ In actual op erat io n these re volu tionary tribunals have triedand condemned men in the ir absence . No right t o bail is recognize dand the a lty imposed depends large l upon the caprice o f the
court. he death pena lty , the re es tablis ent o f which unde r theprovis ional gove rnment was vociferous ly deno unced by the Bo lsheviki
,has been invoked for a ll so rt s o f crimes and misdemeanors .
In fact,the proc edure in the courts is a mere trave sty on justice
and most summary in its nature .
Every act ivity o f the Bo lshevik government indicates clearly theantipathy o f the Bo lsheviki toward Chr istianity and the Chr ist ianre ligion. Its program is a direct challenge to that re ligion. The
Chr istian church and Bolshe vism can no t both survive the programthat is be ing de veloped by the Russian dictatorship and whichit is unde rtaking to extend thro ughout the world. N ot only have
confiscat ed all church property, rea l and persona l,bu t they
have established the right o f anti-re ligious propaganda as a const itu
tionally recognized institution. Church and schoo l have been divorced even to the e xtent o f suppress ing the Sunday scho o l and theteaching of a ll re ligious doctrines in public, e ither in schools or educational instit u tions o f any kind , is expressly forbidde n . Re ligioncan only be taught o r s tudied private ly. All church and re ligiousor anizat ions are prohibited from owning property o f any kind.
A recognition of a Supreme Be ing in bo th go vernmental and judicie l o aths is abo lished The clergy and a ll se rvants or employe e s ofchurch bodie s are expressly d isfranchised and deprived o f a ll rightto ho ld pub lic pos itions. The ful l Significance o f the at t itude of theBo lsheviki toward Christianity IS most fully manifest ed in the factthat , though by Russian cu stom and de cree unde r the old regime ,
every newspape r o r periodical published on Easte r Sunday in the
Russian Empire was required t o carry the headline,Christ is risen,
”
on E aster Sunday in 1918, all Bolshevik papers subst ituted for thissacred sentiment the headline and slogan , One hundred years ago
tod ay Karl Marx wa s born.
” Thus the issue has been framed between the gospel o f Karl Marx and the teachings o f Chris t. We
re iterate , the re fo re , that B o lshevism and the Christian re ligio n can
no t both survive .
Bolshevism accords t o the family no such sacred place in societyas modern civilization accords t o it. Conflic ting repo rt s have be enpassin current during the last fewmonths relative to the nationalizat ion 0 women by the new Rus sian go vernment. Two o r three localso vie ts have apparently thus degraded the womanhood o f theirparticular districts, but the centra l gove rnment has re frained fromad opting any such po licy in the who le nation . They have , howeve r,promul gated de cree s re lating to marriage and divo rce which pract ically establishes a state of free love . Their effe ct ha s been to furnisha vehicle for the legalization of prostitution by permitting the ah
nu llment of the marriage bonds a t the whim of the part ie s,recog
nizing the ir col lu sive purposes as a ground for the s eve rance o f thematrimonial state .
The freedom of the press and o f speech, though heralded by theadvo cates of Bo lshevism as necessary to the inte lligent participa t ionof the people in popular government, has been abrogated in Rus s ia ,
BREWING AN D L IQUOR IN TERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 37
and by the usual coO
nfiscatory me thod o f the accepted fo 1mula all o fthe mechanical devices and mate rials necessary for the ublicationo f periodicals and a ll places o f meeting and public assem lage havebeen se ized by the Bolshevik government.To make the cont 1 o l more complete and e ffective the publication
of all advertisements , whether in regulai ly published periodicals0 1 on handbills 0 1 pi ograms, is made a monopo ly o f the government.As a consequence the people o f Russ ia are deprived o f all facts
,
literature,and public expressmn, through the medium of the pres s or
public mee tings , except such as i s approved by the dictatorship andhas be en passed by its censo rship .
In the attempted establishment o f an educat ional s stem it is to beexpected that much difficulty would arise be cause 0
8
? the la1 ge percentage o f illiteracy that afflicts Russia , and it is not surprising thatthis system is large ly on paper and o f little practical value . It ISintere sting to note , however, that unde 1 this system age rathe 1 thanattainment determine s the admiss ibility o f the s tudent to a givenscho o l or grade
,and that to require the production o f evidence o f
the qualification o f a student for such admission is a criminal o ffense .
This again reflects the Bo lshevik theory that equalization can be
accomplished by dicta to rial decrees .
The apparent purpose of the Bo lshevik government is to makethe Russian c itizen , and espe cia lly the women and children, thewards and dependents of that government. No t satisfied with thedegree o f dependency incurred by the economic and industrial contro l assumed by its functio naries , it has destroyed the natural ambitiou and made imposs ible o f accomplishment the moral obligationo f the father to provide , care for, and adequate ly pro t ect the childo f his blood and the mother o f tha t child against the mis fortuneso f orphanhood and widowhood. To accomplish this it has by decreeexpre ss ly abo lished and p1 ohibited all right of inheritance
,e ither by
law or will . Upon death all o f the de cedent’s e state is confiscatedby the State , and all he il s who are phys ically incapable o f workingbecome pensioners o f the State to the extent that the ass ets confis
cated by the gove 1nment make such pensions possible .
Insurance of all kinds has been nationalized, the asse ts o f meurance companie s confiscated , and the business of insuring life , property, accident , old age , and unemployment made a State monopo ly.
In the attempted liquidation o f existing companie s and associationsthe liqu idating repi esent at ives of the go vernment s eem only con
cerned in se curing po ssess ion and reco rd o f all o f the ir ass ets andfail to recognize the propriety o f accurate ly adju st in then liabili
tie s . As a cons equence , those insured and the heme ci aries underexisting policies find themselves without the protect ion for whichthey have been paying premiums .
There has been much discuss ion with re ference t o the policy and
motive o f the associated Governments in landing troops on Ru ssianso il . It is intere sting to no te that the combined military force at
Archange l was landed at the so licitation and request o f the established and de facto government o f the northem Provinces of Russiato aid that government in prote cting it s citizenship from the murder,crue lty , and confiscation of the appro aching R ed Army of the B 0 1
shevik government.
BREWING AN D LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA.
The salient features which constitute the program of Bolshevism ,
as it exists to -day in Russia and is presented to-the rest of the worldanace
’
a for all ills , may be summarized as follows !The repudiation of democracy and the establishment of a
dictatorship .
(2 ) The confiscat ion‘
of all land and the improvements thereon .
(3) The confiscation of all forests and natural resources.(4) The confiscation of all live stock and all
‘
agricultural im
plement s .
(5) The confiscation of all banks and banking institutions andthe establishment of a state
"
monopoly of the banking business.
(6 ) The confiscation of all factories, mills, mines, and industrialinstitutions and the delivery of the control and operation thereof tothe employees therein .
(7) I‘he confiscation of all churches and all church property
,real
and personal .(8) The confiscation of all newspapers and periodicals and all me
chanical facilities and machinery used in the publication thereo
(9) The seizure and confiscation of all public meeting places andassembly halls .
(10) The confiscation of all transportation and communication
( 11 ) The confiscation of the entire estate of all deced‘ents.
( 12) The monopolizing by the State of all advertisements of everynature
,whether in newspapers
,periodicals
,handbills
,or programs.
( 13) The repudiation of all debts against the government and allobligations due the non—Bolshevik elements of the population.
The establishment o f universal compulsory military serviceless of religious scruples and conscientious objections.
( 15) The establishment of universal compulsory labor.
( 16 ) The abolition of the Sunday school and all other schools andinstitutions that teach religion .
( 17 The absolute separation of churches and schools .(18) The establishment, through marriage and divorce laws, of
a method for the legalization of prostitution,when the same is
engaged in by consent of the parties .( 19) The refusal to recognize the existence of God in its govern
mental and judicial proceedings.(20) The conferring of the rights of citizenship on aliens without
regard to length of res idence or inte lligence.
The arming of -all so -called toile rs,and the disarming
of all persons that had succeeded in acquiring property.
(22) The discrimination in favor of resident s of cities and againstresidents of the rural districts through giving residents of citiesfive times as much voting power as is accorded to residents of ruraldistricts in such elections as are permitted .
1 (23) The disfranchisement of all persons employing any otherperson in connection with their business .(24) The disfranchisement of all persons receiving rent, interest,
or dividends.(25) The disfranchisement of all merchants, traders, and com
mercial agents .(26 ) The disfranchisement of all priests, clergymen, or employees
of churches and religious bodies.
40 BREWING AND L IQUOR mre ansrs a nn GERMAN PROPAGANDA.
alleviate. Their me ssengers and their friends have afflicted this country
,and their new civilization has been represented as Utopian in it s
nature . Many well-dispose d persons have be en deceived into the belie f that they were promoting a social welfare movement in advocat
ing it. They have even iven their substance that it might be per
pe tuated and extended . éet , while thes e people who have be en pe pularly called parlor Bolshevis ts are contributing to these Bolshevikagents
,these same agents are appealing to the hatred and the lowes t
instincts of the more ignorant‘
elements of the population, reinforcedby the criminally inclined , to whom the doctrine of confiscation furnished a form of legalized robbery and a means of livelihood withoutphysical or mental effort
,to rise en mas se and destroy our civilization
and the s o -called bourgeoisie with whom, of course, must be classedthese same ! parlo r Bolshevists who are assist ing , by lending fundsand respectability t o the movement, in bringing the temple downupon their own heads .It is significant, however, that in the United State s only a portion
of the se —called radical revolutionary groups and organizatio ns aoce pt in its entirety the doctrine of the Bolsheviki . They have
,how
ever,all seized u on Bolshevism as a rallying cry and are under
taking to unite all3
of these elements under that banner for the purpose of accomplishing the initial step in their common formula , towit
,the overthrow of existing governmenta l institutions and the
complete demoralization of modern society . With this accomplishedeach group hopes that it can muster sufficient strength to maintaina supremacy in the new social order and invoke the policies of itsparticular creed . Most of these groups accept the common groundthat forcible
,as distinguished from political
,action should be used
as the instrument to secure the overthrow of the present governmentand in so doing defy and repudiate the democratic form of government which guarantees under our Constitution the rule of the majority . L ike the Bolsheviki in Russia
,these groups recognize in
the destruct ion of life,property
,and personal security the nece s
sary preliminary to the establishment of a government foundedupon the violence of the minority. They realize that riot
,disorder
,
and hunger breed hatred , blood lust, and desperation , and that without these mankind can not be driven to the use of force to aecomplish an end attainable by lawful and peace able political methodsunder the existing government .The radical revolutionary elements in this country and the B 01
shevik government of Russia have,therefore
,found a common cause
in support of which they can unite their forces . They are both fanning the flame of discontent and endeavoring to incite revolution .
Numerous newspapers are Openly advocating revolution . L iteratureand circular matter demanding a resort to violence are being widelycircul ated. Bombs and high explosives have been used in many partsof the country in an attempt t o inaugurate a re ign of terror and t oaccomplish the assassination of public officials. The demonstrationof the consequences of this movement in Russia
,no matter how
graphic the description , is a distant, far-away picture to the averagecitizen of the United State s. While entert aining and perhaps amusing him, much as the novel in modern fiction does
,it fails to impress
him as an actual existing institution, in a world growing smaller
BRRWIN G AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 41
and sma ller through the accomplishments in transportation andcommunication , that must be considered and met as an actuality. Tounderstand and realize its real consequences it must be broughthome to the citizen and applied to the life and ins titutions which heknows.With a view
,therefore
,of concretely illustrating just what this
new social order would accomplish if transplanted into the political ,educational
,industrial
,and religious life of the United States atten
tion is invited to the following unavoidable consequences1 . The application of force and violence
,the shedding of blood and
t he destruction of life and property,the common incidents of all
revolutions,and all this to destroy a democratic form of government,
under which the majority can secure just the kind of government thatit desires . The advocacy of revolutionary methods is an admiss ion ,therefore
,that minority rather than majority rule is the goal sought
to be attained .
2. To make pos sible the control of the minority as the dictatorsof the majority, _
the disfranchisement of millions of substantial , patriotic citizens who would fall in the so -called bourgeois or capitalistic class . This would deprive of the right to participate in affairsof government(a ) Millions of farmers , merchants , and manufacturers, both large
and small , employing persons in the conduct of their business , andall professional and business men utilizing the services of a clerk,bookkeeper
,or stenographer.
(b) All persons receiving inte rest on borrowed money or bonds,rent from real estate or persona l property
,and dividends from stock
of any kind.
( 0 ) All traders, merchants , and dealers, even though they do notemploy another pe rson in the conduct of their business.(03) All preachers , pries ts, janitors, and employee s of all churches
and religious bodies.It is apparent with the millions of persons falling into these several
class es , di sfranchised and deprived of all right to participate in theaffairs of government, accompanied with the immediate enfranchisement of al l aliens who do not fall within these prohibited classes,and the openin of the doors of all prisons and penitentiaries , thedomination of ti e criminal and most undesirable alien elements ofthe country would be a comparatively easy matte r. To simplifythe question of this control
,however
,the substantial rural portion
of the population would be further suppressed and res tricted , andunder the revolutionary formula the voting power of the cities wouldbe five times as great as that of the rural communities
,the ratio of
representation in cities being 1 to every of the population ,while that of the rural districts would be only 1 to every ofthe population . In the United States the rural population underthe 1910 census was considerably in exces s of the urban . We mu stalso remember that the application of the formula would include thedisarming of all disfranchi sed classes and the arming to the teethof these criminal and alien elements .
3. It would result in the confiscation by thef
overnment thus constituted of the land of the United States inclu ing farms o fwhich per cent
, or farms, are owned in fee by the
42 BREWING -AN D LIQUOR INTERESTS AN D LGERMAN PROPAGANDA.‘
farmers who cultivate them and represent the labor and toil of a lifetime. On the farms of the United States there are improvements,machinery
,and live sto ck to the value of (census of
all of which would be confiscated with the land. The con
fiscat ion program woul d include the more than manufactur
ing establishments,including the of invested capita l ,
much of which is owned by the small investor whose livelihood depends upon the success o f the respective enterprises . T he confiscationwould also ! include church edifices . Forests aggregating
acres would be seized by the overnment and an annualproduct of would come un er the control of the dietat orship . D wellings to the number of of whichare owned in fee
,with entirely free from debt
,would be
confiscated and the owners dispossessed at the pleasure of the government .
4. Although clamoring loudl for a free and unrestricted pressthe revolutionary program wou d require the seizure and confiscationof the newspapers and periodicals in the United States
, to
gether with all mechanical equipment necessary for their publicat ion ,
! and a control and ownership of the public press by the government.5. Complete control of all banking institutions and their assets is
an essential part of the revolutionary program ,and the banks '
in the United State s would be taken over by the government and thesavings of millions
,including depositors drawing interest
on accounts in savings banks,and consequently belonging to the so
called bourgeois or capitalistic class,j eopardized.
6 . One of the most appalling and far-reaching , consequences of an
application of Bolshevism in the United States would be found inthe confiscation and liquidation of its life insurance companies.There is 20 per cent more life insurance in force in this country thanin all the rest of the world and nine-tenths of it is mutual insurance.Almost life insurance policies representing nearly $30,
of insurance,the substantial protection of the women
and children of the Nation would be rendered valueless.7. The atheism that permeates the whole Russian dictatorship islearly reflected in the activities of their revolutionary confreres inthe United States and in. their publications they have denounced ‘
our
religion and our God as lies.” This gives added significance to therevolutionary attitude toward the Christian Church and the Chris
‘
tian religion . The prohibition of religious schools and the teachingor studying of religion , except in private, would necessitate the
abolition -of 194,759'
Sunday schools in the United States and a'
greatnumber of seminaries
,colleges
,and universities ; Sunday
school scholars would be deprived and prevented from enjoying theinstitution that has become an important part of their lives and isone of the great moral influences of the Nation. Catholic schools
,
colleges, and seminaries to the number of would be suppressed .
Church‘
property of the value of would be confiscatedand (census of 1916 ) members of church organizations w
'
ould be subjected to the domination of an atheist dictatorshiNj
o twithst a‘
nding the ! fact that every char‘
npicin and de fender of
B olshevism that testified before your committee unequivocally ad
BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA .
‘
43
mitted that the Bolshevik formula was not adaptable t o the economicand social life of the United States, they and their co evangclis ts
persist in their appeals to the passion of the people in an attempt toprovoke discontent and hatred . In cooperation with the revolutionary elements
,destruction of existing social and governmental insti
tut ions by violent methods is being promoted . They must,therefore
,
be condemned as the mere champions of discontent and disorder,
offering no practical and acceptable ideal , as they profess to have ,with which to soften and appease the wrath that they are undertaking to arouse .
GEN ERAL STATEBIEN T AN D OTH ER RECOBIBIEN DATION S.
The testimony taken before this committee having been printed,a
further review thereof is deemed unnecessary . A careful consideration of this record discloses certain well-defined abuses
,prejudicial
to the bes t interests of the Nation and calculated to undermine anddestroy our form of government . The Nation having engaged in thegreatest war in history with the purpose of saving the world fordemocracy, now emerges from that struggle confronted with theparamount duty of preserving democracy for the world.
The disclosures before this committee concerned (a ) the politicalactivities of the liquor interests in their effort to control and dominateelections and public officials
, (25) the propaganda of the agents , representative s
,and sympathizers of a foreign government
,the form of
which and whose purposes,industrial
,commercial
,and political
,were
incompatible with and antagonistic to the form,ideals
,and purposes
of the Government of the United States,and (c) Bolshevism as it
exists in Russia and the activities of its champions in the i country.
No useful purpose is to be served by reviewing and recounting thereprehensible activities of either of the clment s whose conduct hasbeen the subject matter of this inquiry. A perusal of the testimonyfurnishes adequate evidence of it. This testimony embodies such an
exposure of all of these elements as to j ustify fully the investigation.
The activities brought to the attention of the committee are sostartling
,however
,that we believe that the real advantage of the
inquiry will be lost unless Congress profits from the knowledge thusobtained by undertaking by appropriate legislation to make impossible a repetition of these activities
,either on the part of the offenders
who have been under investigation, and many of whose activitiesare still continuing
,or by ot hers who at some future time may seek
to undermine the Govermn ent or pervert the popular will by theadoption of similar methods against which the Federal statutes seemto provide no adequate safeguard .
With this end in view,therefore
,this committee invites attention
to certain abuses which are clearly established by the record of.
itshearings and a summary of proposed legislation the immediateadoption of which it earnestly recommends.
That millions of dollars have been expended in elections,in con
nection with which Federal officers were voted for by special intereststhrough organizations of their own creation and by methods of their
44 BREWIN G AN D LIQUOR iNTEREsTs AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA.
own adoption. That secrecy has surrounded these expenditures andthe activities thereby induced . That the publicity and. accountingsought for all political expenditure s by the co rrupt pract ices acts s fthe Federal and the several State Gove rnments has been largelyde feated . That the Federal corrupt pract ices statute s are errtirslyinadequate to meet present-day politica l me thods and are easilyevaded without involving a violation of the statute. Any adree tivecorrupt practices act must provide( 1 ) For full publicity of all receipts and expenditures intended to
influence in any way the result of an election.
(2) To bring under legal control and supervision every committeeand organization participating in a political activity.
(3) To perpetuate and preserve for a reasonable time a completerecord of the financial tran sactions of all individuals
,candidates,
committees,and organizations.
(4) To define clearly the purposes and activities for which mone ycan be legally expended.
To require publicity that will unequivocally fix responsibilitypaid and inspired advertising or publicity matter used and
intended either openly or secretly to affect the result o f an elect ion .
N ewspapers printed in both English and foreign languages havebeen subs idized directly and indirectly for the purpose of undertakingto influence the minds, thoughts, and actions of the pe ople of theUnited State s without dis closing in any way the commercial or
po litical influence financially interested. It is of great importancetha t every facil ity should be afforded to all element s of society and toevery commercial
,industrial , so
‘
cial,religious, and e ducational
interes t to pres ent openly and frankly its views on every subject nota imed at the impairment of the sovereignty of the Nation or in disparagement o f our form o f government as established by the Constitu tion . But as the right to present these various contentions shouldbe preserved as inalienable
,so the public to whom the appeal is made
have an inalienable right. to know and to be advised as. to who is the!spokesman of a given cause . Newspapers have become such aneducational medium that the public should be afforded an ampleopportunity t o know just who their instructors are.
The act of Congress of August 24, 1912, undertook to accomplishthis
,but in the light of experience it is How clearly established that
this act is inadequate. It pe rmits of the adoption of many subt erfuges by which its purpose is defeated though its spirit is Violatedwithout the commission of a legal breach of its prohibit ionsIt is the opinion of this committee that this act should be amended
and made more! effective in several important particulars.
The foreign-language press of the country as now conducted hasthe efl’ect and in many instances is inspired with the purpose of discouraging the assimilation of the foreign elements with the Am ericanpeo ple a nd has be en utilized by special interests for political andpropaganda purpose s. The financial condition of many of these
BREWING AN D L IQUOR INTERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 45
newspapers has made them the easy and cheap victims o f designingpersons and interests whose financial advantage is best secured byretarding the Americanization of the alien and limiting him to theuse of the foreign-language paper as his sole source of information.
The foreign-language press exerts a greater influence upon its reader‘sthan an English newspaper does because of the limited educationalfacilities of the persons who can only read and talk in such foreigntongues
,and consequently the subsidization and domination of this
press is proportionately more vicious in its effects than similarpractices would be in the case of English newspapers .The experience of the last few years has clearly demonstrated thenecessity of Americanizing the residents of this country , and especially those who from time to time are assuming the responsibility ofcitizenship. The aliens now residing within our borders or hereafter,immigrating to our shores must either be assimilated by the Americans or they will be held together in their several nativistic groups ,each group adhering to its own language and customs, with the consequent adherence , either consciously or unconsciously, to the land o ftheir nativity. While it must be recognized that during the timewhen they are merely the guests of this Nation a knowledge of theirnative language is all that can be expected
,the Government is justi
fied in requiring that be fore their status is changed to one of citizenship and before they can be permitted ,
to participate in the government of the United States there should be some evidence at least o fa purpose on their part toward that assimilation which is essentialto the unity of purpose and substantial adherence to our institutionsnece ssary to the healthy development of the Nation.
Foreign-language newspapers are a danger to the country un lessthey are utilized to ass ist in the assimilation of the alien element andto aid in the process of Americanization which is essential to thehealthy development of the population into a homogeneous whole.This much-sought-for Americanization would be impeded by eitherdepriving the alien of the educational value of a newspaper in theonl language he can read or by withholding from him proper aidandfacility for learning the English language and failing to encourage him to acquire the educat ional advantages incident to the mastering of the language of his adopted country . With this in mind
,
therefore,this committee recommends legislation to control and
regulate the printing of fore ign-language publications in thiscountry.
For a numbe r of years prior to our entry into theWorldWar agentsof the German Government persistently carried on a great propaganda in the United States, the purpose of which was to promote theinterests of the German Government and to create a sentiment in thiscountry in favor of that Government to the rejudice of this Nation.
Every activity which tended to weaken our vernment or to arouseantagonisms that would demoralize the unity and morale of our
opulation and every movement that was aimed at involving us 111
o reign d isputes or domesti c difficulties was encouraged and frsquently financed by the agents and repre sentat ives of the GermanGovernment.
46 B’
REWING AND L IQU OR IN TERESTS AN D GERMAN PROPAGANDA.
To—d’ay the forces of anarchy and violence are utilizing the financial resources plundered by them from the European people theyhave succeeded in exploiting, to import into this country money , literature , and hired agents for the purpose o f promulgating the doctrine of force, violence , assassination , confiscation , and revolution ;As an effect of these activities there has appeared in this countrya large group o f ~persons who advocate the overthrow of all organized government
,and especially the Government of the United States ,
who favor revolutionary movements , repudiate the Constitution o fthe United States, and refuse to respect our national emblem andour governme ntal institutions. There are found among the leadersof this group many aliens who unhesitatingly abuse the hospitality which this country has extended to them and who becauseof that leadership are able to retard the real Americanization of themore ignorant residents possessing similar racial characteristics.These persons encourage and maintain a solidarity of the people ofthe several foreign tongues which is used to create and incite a classhatred that is quickly absorbed by and incorporated into the revolut ionary movement led
‘ by them. The alien element in this country is the most susceptible and is the first to adopt violence as aneffective weapon ! for sup1 emacy.
More reprehen sible than the alien element is that class of Americancitizens
,whether native born or naturalized , who , having obligated
themselves to support and defend the Constitution o f the UnitedStates
,lightly disregard their responsibilities and promulgate the
doctrine that the form of Government established by the Constitutionshould be overthrown and that a government responsive to a classrather than to all the people should be forcibly substituted therefor.It is a significant fact that almost without exception the persons inthis country who are to-day advocating revolution and violence andall of the suffering, pain , and bloodshed incident to such a movement,have during the great struggle of the past
'
two years undertaken t ohandicap
,check
,and obstruct in every way possible the military
Operations o f this Government under the pretext that their consciences would not permit them to take the life o f their fellow meneven in war . The destruction of life
,property
,and government has
no horrors to them when directed toward the overthrow of the Government of the United States, but the use of force in defense of ourcountry they conscientiously object to .
Prior to the enactment of the statute of June 15, 1917, as amendedby the statute of May 16 , 1918, our Government was without lawsadequate even to protect its own sovereignty ; It is indeed unfortu
nate that this legislation should have been called an espionage act .Much of the complaint and criticism directed. at this act was aime dmore at the word used to designate it than at the text of the statute .Many of the provisions of this act are applicable only during time ofwar and consequently the restoration of peace will leave the Government of the United States more helpless, and because of the growtho f the revolutionary movement as a result of the World War, morepowerless
,than it found itse lf prior to our entrance into that struggle.
It is therefore imperative that there be enacted before the re
establishment of peace an act adequately . protecting our'
nationalsovereignty and our established institutions.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
0 021 395 57248 BREWIN G AN D L IQUOR IN TERESTS AN D GERMAN m
to die by limitation without enacting in its place a peace-timemeasure.The committe e wishes to again express its thanks to Maj. Humes,Capt. L ester, and Mr. B enham for their untiring zeal and greatability in aiding the committee in securing the great mass of testimony which, in our opinion, will be most useful to the public.All of which is respectfully submitted .
L EE S . OVERMAN ,Chairman.
WILL IAM H . KIN G.
JOSIAH O . WOLCOTT .
KN UTE NEL SON .
TH OMAS STERL IN G.
AS a member of the subcommittee , I have joined in the abovereport ; but while agreeing with many of the statements and recommendations appearing on pages 43 to 48, inclusive, I des ire to statethat I am not in full accord with all the committee’s recommenda
WIL L IAM H. KIN G.