Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 262, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1917 — Don’t Let Anyone "Camouf” You. [ARTICLE]

Don’t Let Anyone "Camouf” You.

By George Ade.

The war is teaching us many new words and phrases. We are beginning to get at the hidden significance of such words as “pacifist,” and “Hoover” and “Surtax.” One year ago who knew the definition of “camouflage”? Now we have it for breakfast every morning. The camouflage, as we read of it, is designed to fool the Germans. Some implement of war is so masked or blended or smudged up, that it can not be distinguished in its correct outlines. It does- not seem to be what it really is. A chicken hawk, properly camouflaged, will be identified by some persons as a dove of peace. It is a great joke to camouflage the Germans, but it is a serious matter when thousands of well-meaning people in Indiana are. being “camoufed” every week. When a man who thinks he is a patriot becomes, without knowing it, an active agent in spreading proGerman poison, the laugh is on us and not on the other fellow. I am writing this letter to .Hoosiers of all ages, sizes and conditions at the request of the State Council of Defense. This letter is being written because the State Council can no longer ignore the piled-up evidence that the whispered scandals and fake rumors and silly lies which are discovered every day in some part of the state, are deliberately originated and put into circulation by pro-Germans, hiding under a camouflage of Americanism. Ever since the war began, the reports have been coming in. From one definite region at the north of the state would come stories of underhand attacks on the Red Cross. A few stupid falsehoods repeated over and over, with only slight variations as to names and places and dates. The Red Cross was selling knitted articles to department stores. The Red Cross was selling surgical dressings to private hospitals, etc. Every attempt to trace back one of these libels to the original source had to be a failure because, usually, the busybody repeating the story heard it from a man on the tram, who had a cousin living in Indianapolis, who got it straight from a neighbor, who talked with a soldier on the interurban. Every person who had helped to spread the shameful accusation passed the responsibility to some one else. The endless chain of idle gossip simply led off to nowhere. Always the thing had happened off at the other end of the state or up

in Michigan or out west. Like the “hoop snake” of our younger days—no boy ever saw one but he knew that one had been seen jn the adjoining township. Stories intended to discuorage the sale of Liberty bonds, stories meant to intimidate any family displaying a food pledge card, stories which alarm and worry parents who have boys at training camps, all sorts of cock-and-bull inventions are being passed around by persons who do not realize that they are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The State Council of Defense calls upon the sensible people of Indiana to discourage the circulation of stories which help .to disorganize our forces lined up to wiq the war. When unity of sentiment is essential, don t be the tool of those who would divide sentiment. When you hear one of these foolish yarns, don’t pass it along to some one else. Nail it down. Demand the proofs. If any man, woman or child in Indiana who wishes to. perform a patriotic service is intimidated or frightened away from the performance of that service, get the facts in the case and report them to your County Council of Defense. One of the blessed privileges of peace is to peddle cheap hear-say. In time of war the passing along of a slanderous story, directed against any agency consecrated to the winning of the war, comes mighty near being treason. The stories are made to sound plausible. That is camouflage. Don’t be deceived.