Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1918 — MORE LIES. [ARTICLE]

MORE LIES.

There is something singularly stupid about the German lies as they have been revealed in this war. Early in thfe struggle Germany tried to make it appear that Great Britian was sacrificing colonial troops, notably the Canadians, while saving her own soldiers. The purpose was to create discord in the ranks of the allies. Later the attempt was made to poison the minds of the French against their British allies by efforts to show that the British were not carrying their fair share of the burden. The whole campaign failed, since it was based on falsehood. : Now we have another specimen. In dispatches to the Wolff Bureau yesterday it was said that “dense masses of blacks and Americans were hurled against the German lines,” and that “they paid for it in some hundreds of thousands of killed negroes and Americans.” Later “tens of thousands” were substituted for “hundreds of thousands,” since it “would never have done to leave the impression that there were so many Americans in France. The design, of course, was to create the impression that the negroes were being sent to slaughter while the white soldiers were being spared. It is the same old lie.

There is no one in this country who will be deceived by it. Every one knows that there are comparatively few negro soldiers in France, and every one knows also that in war our negro and white troops have been dealt with in precisely the same way. This country has had some experience with its black troops, and knows that they will fight (bravely on their own account. Germany 'knows now, too, that the Americans do not need or desire a screen of others troops to protect theiT attack. Of all this the correspondent responsible for the falsehood is profoundly ignorant. Nothing in his story is more ridiculous than his description of an American attack. We do not assault in “dense masses,” and send men into battle “sixteen waves deep.” That is the German style. The man has simply given a German assault an American name. It all indicates that the Germans are in a rather desperate frame of mind. Their hope is that they may win by mendacity, and through division in the ranks of their enejnies. But the United States <is no Russia, and so the tactics used against the latter country wil fail against the American people. But it is interesting to meet the old lie once more, and to recognize it for what it is.— Indianapolis News.