Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1918 — "THE SERUM of SILENCE" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

"THE SERUM of SILENCE"

A message to the women of the United States from a man who asks them just , s.—to keep still when theu hear German Js/BUBF propaganda —- —*

By RUSSELL T. EDWARDS.

Director, Educational Section, Nation, al War Garden Commission. F TEN million war garden1 ers will set their minds ti resolutely to refusing to listen to German propaganda or vicious knocks against our government —the most powerful arm of the German war machine will be paralyzed. That looks like a big order but it is not when you come to analyze it. The pity is that women will repeat so much of the senseless rumor that is going the rounds. If the women of this country will inoculate the peddler of German propaganda with the “serum of silence” they will bring victory very near, for the big battle of this war is for public opinion right here on this side of the ocean. Turn from the knocker and the propagandist in silence, turn as you would from the £nake in the grass or the snapping dog. But turn in silence f®r then the enemy will know you mean business.

The potato bug is a great success until you separate it from the leaf; the electric light bulb is a great success until you turn off the current; > the prairie fire Is a great success until- it hits the back fired strip and has nothing to feed upon. So with German propaganda, it is a great success as long as you listen to it. Why cannot this supposed wonder of women keeping silent be brought about? Twenty years ago the Wright Brothers were considered insane; today I can see from my office the Airplane mall start, for Philadelphia, New York and Boston and the world’s greatest war hinges upon the airplane.. Twenty years ago Mr. Marconi was unknown ; today the business of the world’s war is conducted by wireless. Some German Propaganda. ‘ German propaganda Is constantly shooting at the war gardeners and all questions pertaining to fo&d. There is the old story about the potato pens and how you can get three or four bushels by simply planting as many potatoes in a three story boxlike arrangement. The leading potato experts of the world denounce this. It is but a sample of German propaganda which hopes.to cause a big wastage in potatoes. Then there is the other yarn that the food administration will seize all the canned stuff of the housewife and all her hard work will-go for naught. This Is a lie but,the national war garden commission used to get-a hundred,, letters a week asking about this. Constant publicity, thanks to the •magazines and the newspapers, has nailed this story. There is the one about the soldier telling his parents he had two legs cut off in a battle at the front. Mrs. Blank hears it from Mrs. Blank up the street. Johnny had got the word to them by writing It under a stamp. In the first place there are no stamps on soldiers’ letters. The campaign of letter-writing to newspapers is a favorite form of German propaganda, but the editors do' not “fall” for this and the “patriots” might better save their stamps and stop cluttering up the malls. The war gardeners of the United States have certainly shown they mean business. The war gardens are the finest offsets to German propaganda I know of. for the garden makes no noise, but goes right on about Its business. It is this point I want to bring home—the terrible power of silence if applied to German propaganda. This war is a battle of publicity. The junker has prepared the German mind for this war for forty years and only as long as he enn control the German state of mind can he continue this war. When the German helmet and then the German skull is penetrated with the X-ray of civilization, kept alive by the white hot flame from

the torch on the statue of liberty, then victory comes and not until then. Woman's Part In War. The greatest factor in overcoming the German state of mind is woman, who for the first time in a war has a recognized place outside of hospital work. The Women’s Association of Commerce of the United States of America has taken the initiative In stopping German propaganda by refusing to‘listen to it. The members of this organisation, of which Florence King, the Chicago attorney, is the president, and Mrs. Howard Gould, secretary, have started an endless chain looking to this end. Our quarrel is directly with the German people, make no mistake About that, for we are fighting a system that must be abolished. Therefore this war is not a question of men primarily. It is not a question of food primarily. It is not a question of ships primarily. It is the question of . a state of mind. That, state of mind must be burned clean vvlth the caustic of civilization and If you doubt the bigness of that job let me quote the plans Germany has for you. You will find this plan in a book called “Krieg” written by Klaus Wagner. The whole story is told in this paragraph: Not only North America, but the whole of America must become a bulwark of Germanic Kultur, perhaps the strongest fortress of the Germanic race. That is every one’s hope who has freed himself from his own local European pride and who places the race feeling above the love for home. I call your attention to that last line: “he who places the race feeling above his love for home.” What is your answer to Doctor Wagner’s prescription. The answer is best made b.V Dr. John Mcßae, a physician killed at the front, who never wrote a line of verse until he saw the slaughter in Flanders-"and then penned these wonderful lines: • In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the Crosses, row on row. That mark our place: and In the sky The larks still bravely, singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved, and now we lie . In Flanders Fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from falling hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields. There Is the answer and If you do

not make like answer you may as well turn out the light on the statue of liberty for you will find a Berlin date line on your tax receipt. How to meet it? The way to meet Doctor Wagner’s plan is by the united co-operation of the brain power of this country. < State of Mind Needed. That job needs the state of mind of the. French women. When a French woman drops a plate and breaks It, or she is informed her husband has been killed in the trenches, she has the same answer—’c’est La Guerre’ —it' is the war. To perform this job takes just that state of mind. I have seen this state of mind displayed by the war gardeners who have made up their mind that General Pershing’s call “Keep the Food Coming” sljall be answered. Theirs has beeA one of the most remarkable tributes to the call of patriotism the world has ever seen. We are told there will be three million men under arms shortly. With the dally average cost of fifty cents to feed a soldier that means Uncle'Sago’s food bill will be one and a.half million dollars every day. Where is that food coming from? It means the people of this country will have to get into a state of mind on the food question. Some of them are as the national war garden commission well knows; for example let me read one of th® thousands of letters the commission receives every day: My Dear Sir: I want to help win the war by having a war garden.* I saw your notice about getting a free book. My father Joined the army In 1916 and was killed In 1917. Will you help me by sending the book? , HARVET CAMERON. New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Will you look this job In the face as that boy, who has lost his father, looks at It? Or must you wait until the steel helmets of the kaiser’s Junkers smash tn the windows of your homes and the arm of worse than murder stands your men against a wall and herds you off to worse than decth? Remember ‘‘this is every one’s hope who has freed himself from his own local European pride nnd who place* the race feeling above the love for home.” Remember that prescription. Are you ready to take Doctor Wagner’s medicine? Do the women of the United States want to swallow any potion prepared by anybody who attempts to rule the world In partnership with his royal highness the Sultan of Turkey? Talk Should Be Conserved. We are fighting a cankerous growth that threatens to consume the world. German poison is now running wild In this country. Talk is not cheap. It has gone up like everything else and you. should conserve ft like coal or flour. There are Just two antidotes for German poison. One Is a bullet with the trade mark U. S. A. in the lower left hand corner as ft whistles "Yankee Doodle" in Its scream across No Man’s land. The boys you have sent to the front will administer that dose, have no fear about that, as long as yon feed them. The other antidote Is the serum of silence and It Is just as important in the winning of the war on this side of the ocean. Without It the work of the soldier will go for naught for if the German brain cannot be reached the dragon will rise again. Tn the name of humanity do not let. the soldier’s sacrifice be in vain. To you the torch Is thrown from Flanders Fields. Re vours to hold it high and WIN THE NEXT WAR NOW.

Above, Russell T. Edwards, director of educational section of National War Garden Commission. Below, Mias Florence King of Chicago, president of Women’s Association of Commerce of the United States. At right, Mrs. Katherine Clemmons Gould, secretary Women’s Association of Commerce. It was at a meeting of this association that the campaign to spread “The Serum of Silence” was started.