Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 221, 29 July 1918 — Page 2

?AGE TWO

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, MONDAY, JULY 29, 1918. MAN Aroazing Story of the Life of an American Who Placed German Institutions Above the Traditiops of His Native Lapd 3

I nnrmR R I IMF I V-

KX-J .

As Confidant of High Huns

1914 and Laid Plot for Propaganda Sought to Turn Public Sentiment from Allies to Germany.

y Frank Parker Stockbridge, Late Managing Editor of the Evening Mail. (Copyright. 1918. by the w York Herald Company All Rights Reserved.) (Copyricht. Canada, by the Mew York Herald Company.) The naroo of Uumely still stands over the big plants at La Porte, bnt tbe name is the only interest tbe Rumely family has left in the business that was fVfnded by Melurad Iiumely in IS." 3. To-day it is the Advance-Rumely Comrnuy. Its president, FInloy P. Mount, is also receiver of the assets of the defunct M. Rumely Company. Rapid as were the expansion and balloon-like growth of the M. Rumely Company ?inder the management of Edward A. X:uinely, its eollrpse was even more sudden and spectacular. At the time the company's capital stock was increased the preferred and ccmnion issues were both listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Industrials were particularly popular Just at that time, and the report to the Governors of the Stock Exchange of the company's condition and prospects was satisfactory as to the former and optimistic as to the latter.

The new common stock particularly was actively traded in from the beginning, with an opening quotation of 101. That or in November, 1011. The company's report for 1911 showed net earnings of More than eight per cent on the outptnnding common stock for the year after taking care of the preferred, and a surplus of close to three-qtiai ters of a million dollars. The private banking houses of William Salomon & Co and Ilallgarten : Co., who underwrote the ton million tlollar note issue of 1012. had every realun for confidence in these securities. Business Steadily Expands. In the meantime the company's business expanded and expanded. To facilitate the handling of added lines of ogrir'tltiirnl implements .and to separate the distributing end from the manufacturing there was formed during 1912 the Rumely Products Company, with Leo M. Runiely, n brother of Edward A. Iiumely, as presitlmt. During the year also the M. Rumely Company acquired the Northwest Thresher Company. Before the end of 1912, however, rumors began to circulate in financial circles that all was not well with the M. Iiumely Company. Perhaps some one ii terested had seen those rows of red threshing machines and tractors alongside the railroad tracks at La Porte and wondered why they were not being moved. Perhaps well, it is hardly important to run down ancient rumor, bnt whatever the cause, investors in Runiely stock began to get nervous and -toward the end of the year a selling wave began that carried the common stock down fifty-eight points in less than five months. On April 3, 1913, however, the company's annual report for 1912 was issued and the common stock jumped from SSVj on the Stock Exchange to 44l2. The report showed net profits .f the three allied companies for 1912 of $l.S24,r00. or at the rate of better than ten per cent on the outstanding common stock. The gross sales for the year, of $17,597,431. were more than forty per cent greater than in the previous year, while the company's figures showed a surplus of almost $i'iO.O(X. Still the reports that all was not well with the M. Rumely Company persisted and stockholders continued to sell. Certain of them went so far as to complain to the Governors of the Stock Exchange that the facts about the company had been misrepresented to them by the bankers who had floated the original issue. Tbe bankers had not been idle in the fare of the unsatisfactory rumors, and on May 9, 1913. they were able to report that the board of dicetors of the M. Iiumely Company had been completely reorganized, that Clarence S. Funk, previously general manager of the International Harvester Corporation, had been elected president; that John II. Guy had been elected vice president in charge of finances, and that all of the former executives of the company, including Central Manager Edward A. Rumely end bis uncle, A. J. Rumely, president, had tendered their resignations, which had ben accepted. Reorcnnlxittlott Does Not Save It. The reorganization did not save the M Rumely Company from bankruptcy, even though production was cut down and the selling force increased under the new management. On January 15, 1915. 1'inley P. Mount was appointed receiver and later, with the sanction of the Court, sold the remaining assets to the Ad-vance-Kumely Company, of which he is president, and which is doing a large and profitable business. The receivership still continues. With Dr. Rumely out of the management and the Rumely inter est in the oimpany that bears the family name entirely wiped out, the affairs of the agricultural implement business have no further bearing on the present narrative. It is of interest, however, to inquire into the nature of the "mistakes" to which the bankers attributed the crash. I have referred to Dr. Rumely as an enthusiast He is all of that. When he becomes possessed of a new idea nothing will suit him but to see it put into execution at one. I have referred to the activity and scope of his mental processes. Ho fairly bubbles with new ideas. The kindest and at the same time tbe fairest explanation, I believe, of the demise of the M. Rumely Company is that Dr. Rumely choked it to death by trying to force too many new ideas down its throat at one time. They may all have been good ideas and if they had- been administered in homoeopathic doses perhaps the M. Rumely Company might hare developed such an appetite for

Was Aware of War Secrets in

them that they could all have been assimilated and it would sit up and beg for more. Ideas from Germany. Perhaps Dr. Rumely called in too many consultants. One of tac fixed beliefs he brought back from Germany with him was tbe belief in the trained expert. It is typical of the German mind to believe in the trained expert. The whole German system is a system of trained experts in government, in military science, in the arts, in the industries and in affairs genertlly, imposing their methodically worked out rules and systems upon a populace trained through generations to supine and credulous submission to the dictation of the expert. Any student of the German character must at times be puzzled to determine which is its mo.-t amazing manifestation, the overbearing arrogance of its experts or the cringing credulity of the rest of the population. Even the German expert is credulous where another expert's specialty is under consideration. He is a German scientist and therefore he must be right, is the apparent formula. So Dr. Rumely called in experts of all sort' and every kind. There were expert engineers and expert salesmen, expert accountants and expert office boys, expert publicity men and expert letter writers. Early in his career in the Rumely Company's management he formulated this denmtion or management; "Gel a good man. give him a definite job, let him alcne." I have no knowledge of the extent to which this formula was ever pnt into effect in the sffairs of the M. Rumely Company. Perhaps the doctor attributed the company's failure to this rule. At any rr.te, he had definitely abandoned it when he took over the Evening Mail. Experts and IVon-Experts. Besides all the experts who were turned loose on the if. Rumely Company there were" expert efficiency engineers to tell the other experts how to co-ordinate their work, and then there was the expert picker of experts to determine by a process of psycho-phreno-physio-gene-alogy just what sort of an expert each particular employe of the company really was. Perhaps it was a perfectly good system. Perhaps the reason business men and bankers looked askance at it was simply because it was too new for them to grasp suddenly. I do not know, however, of any way in which I can better elucidate the opinions of those who were in a position to observe closely the operations of the M. Rumely Company under Dr. Rumely's management and at the same time round out and terminate the story of that ill starred venture than to quote a brief report from the New York Herald of May 18, 1913, which follows: " 'So yon want a job as confidential secretary with M. Rumely & Co., do you? Take off your hat. Brush back you hair. Turn around. M-m-m, no; you won't do. Skull broad behind the ears: pad of fat back of your eyes; slight depression over the right ear. " 'You're too talkative for a confidential agent. That dent means you don't believe the truth ought to be told all the time if it is likely to become monotonous; the pads back of the eyes mean you like music and gayety. You're a natural salesman, my boy; you're no confidential secretary.' "This, slightly exaggerated, was the method many applicants for jobs in the Iaporto (Ind.) agricultural implement factory, which has asked Clarence S. Funk, general manager of the International Harvester Company, to be its president, met under the 'efficiency' system installed by Dr. Edward A. Rumely, the 'progressive' president of the concern. His 'progressiveness proved too progressive for the financial affairs of the company, it is said, and bronght upon it the financial backers with a demand for a new management. "Katherine Blackford, a physician on the staff of Harrington Emerson, efficiency expert, was the founder of Dr. Rumely's plan to hire men by the shape of their heads and by their family histories. Dr. Rumely considered it a re markable system. Men asking for advances in the concern's offices or factories and applicants for new Jobs were confronted by a list of thirty-two questions seeking a more complete family history than those asked by an insurance examiner. "Then Dr. Blackford looked over the man's head, sized up his ears and noted

his mannerisms and told him whether he was cut out for a cashier or auditor, a blacksmith, a moulder or an artisan. "As a result, it is said, not all the applicants for jobs at the Rumely plant were found to measure up, cranially speaking, with the jobs they sought. They didn't get the jobs. There was more or less annoyance felt by old hands who wanted advancement. "Salomon & Co., bankers, owned or controlled a large amount of the company's stock. Hallgarten & Co. and the Salomon house underwrote the $10,000,000 issue of two-year notes. These notes, sold to smaller banks, soon had to be met, and the New York Stock Exchange heads cast speculative eyes on the notes, it is said. "Thereupon Dr. Rumely's efficiency and 'progressiveness' methods began to wane and reorganization plans proceeded forthwith." New Ideas and Projects. Once out of the M. Rumely Company, Dr. Rumely concentrated his attention and interests upon his Interlaken school. He also began to write articles for various magazines on education, on manufacturing, on agricultureand other economic and social topics. His active brain was continually evolving new projects and ideas, some of which he put into effect in his school, others of which he attempted to promote. I was then living in Chicago and saw Dr. Rumely at more or less frequent intervals. Sometimes I would visitthe school; at other times he would call pie up when he was in Chicago and we would lunch or dine together. There was always something stimulating in this sort of intellectual intercourse. He would spread his latest new idea before me and in rapid fire sentences illuminate it with excursions into the realms of philosophy and art, science and fancy, history and romance, until the ordinary mind grew weary in trying to follow the myriad threads of thought. Often after a session of an hour or two with the doctor I have found myself a month later still trying to trace to its ultimate conclusion some line of thought suggested by some sparklingly brilliant idea carelessly dropped into the middle of a conversation on some en tirely different topic. Brushed Aside Obstacles.' It was always difficult -to draw the line

between sound logic and fallacious reason ing when listening to Dr. Rumely expounding whichever one of his pet ideas was uppermost in his mind at the moment. Difficulties and obstacles he brushed aside as of no moment. Projects and schemes that, emanating from a less brilliant intellect, would have seemed crude and half baked, under the spell of his almost hypnotic enthusiasm and con fidence took on the semblance of reality. It was not until the next day, or the next week, after the magic had, worn off, that the flaws in the reasoning became apparent. I remember one of Dr. Rumely's plans in this period between the downfall of the Rumely Company and the beginning of the European war was to establish a ?reat publishing house to provide improving literature for the working man at low cost. They do that sort of thing in Germany, he told me. Every village has its book shop, where the laborer ca.i buy his copy of Bernhardi or Treitschke or "Also Sprach Zarathustra" for a pfennig or two. Books cost too much in imerica, he thought. He would get out dttle books to sell for a nickel, which the working classes would eagerly devour. Having had a good many years of experience in various phases of the printing and publishing business, I was able to qualify in his eyes as an expert ; therefore my assurance that, whatever they might 3o in Germany, this project would not work in America, for more than one rea son was sufficient to divert his attention from the scheme. An AmncluK Proposal. Then in August, 1914, Germany tore up the scrap of paper on which she had guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium and started out to conquer the world. I do not need to recall to the memory of any thinking American the shock that this wanton act of a nation with which !l the world had been at peace sent through the civilized portions of the earth. Many of us most of us in fact did not sense it at first as our quarrel or as anything that concerned the destinies of America. A.s for our German-American friends and neighbors, we did not blame them for sympathizing and openly expressing sym pathy with the land of their birth. We were confident that whatever their sentimental attachment for the Fatherland, they were at heart Americans ; they had merely failed to grasp the essential differences between what Germany was fighting for and whar the Allies were fighting for. That any real American, however much he might admire the good qualities of the German people or the splendid achievements of Germans in art literature and science, could accept the

"I understand that it is a war between two opposing civilization. It is not a war of governments it is a war of gods. It is a war between the god of brass and iron that the Germans worship and the spiritual God who rules the hearts and the aspirations of free men. It must be settled here and now whether the materialistic conception of life or the spiritual shall triumph."

SECOND INSTALMENT

German view of ethics or the German scheme of society was incredible. That any American could possibly believe that the American people could by any means be made to accept the German point A view and see the great war through German eyes was unbelievable. ' -That any American would be willing to undertake to pervert the minds of the American people until they saw the world, not as Americans but as Germans, was impossible. The man who would attempt it by so "doing branded himself not an American but a German. I feel that way now, I felt that wey then, in August, 1914. You can perhaps judge of my amazement when, only a few weeks after Germany began the war, my friend, Dr. Rumely, came to me with the proposal to establish a nationwide propaganda to convince the American peopie that Germany was fighting a just and righteous war ! The European war had been raging for about six weeks when one afternoon 1 cannot fix the date any more closely than that it was some time in September, 1914 the telephone in my Chicago office iingled. "Hello! Hello! This is Rumely speaking, from Laporte. There's a matter 1 want your advice on. I'm coming in to Chicago. Dine with me at the Union League Club at six-thirty." This was the message over the telephone and I promised to meet him. Dr. Rumely ordered the dinner it was more like a banquet. Had he been entertaining the German Ambassador he could not have fivea more care to the selection of the menu or the volume and quality of the food. He ordered a bottle of wine and would have bought cocktails and cordials, too, if I had cared for them. Out of courtesy to my host I ate rather more than was my wont. Over the dinner table he talked rapidly, interestingly and cheerfully about commonplace topics, telling me of things 'hat he was doing at the Interlaken School with an occasional excursion into the realms cf philosophy and science. After he had dined he invited me to his room on an upper floor. "What do you think of the war?" he demanded, abruptly, as we seated ourselves. I had been doing a great deal of thinking about the war, and my answer was as abrupt as his inquiry. "I think this country has got to get Into it sooner or later, and the sooner the better," I replied. My positiveness seemed to take him aback for a moment "Why do you think that?" he demanded. "Because it's our war, and we can't hold up our heads after it's over if we let England and France and Russia fight our battles for us. As it stands now, we get all the benefit and take none of the risk. We are a first class nation now ; we will sink to the position of a second class Power if we do not take a hand in the destruction of Germany !" Dr. Rumely drew a long breath. Then he leaned forward, pointed his forefinger at me, and with the most impressive emphasis exclaimed : "Germany i3 going to win this war!" "Then God help America !" I ejaculated. "If that is true, we shall have to begin preparing now to fight for all we have and are." Dr. Rumely smiled indulgently, as though I were one of his pupils in need of instruction. "I see you don't understand the war any better than most Americans do," he said soothingly. "I understand that it Is a war between two opposing civilizations that cannot both exist on one planet !" I retorted, with considerable heat. "It is not a war of governments it is a war of gods. It is a war between the god of brass and iron that the Germans worship and the spiritual God who rules the hearts and the aspirations of free men. It must be settled here and now whether the materialI istic conception of life or the spiritual j shall triumph. That is why I say it is our war. Dr. Eumely smiled, patronizingly. "Germany will win," he repeated, uttering the words slowly and with unction, as though the thought were pleasing to him. "Nothing can defeat her. She has been preparing for this war for forty years. Germany has been cramped and crowded in and kept from expanding by jealous enemies. Now Germany is greater than her enemies and she will expand and take her place as the great Power of Europe. Nothing can stop her." He drew a mass of papers from his inside pocket. There were letters with German postage stamps upon them and other documents in the German language. "I have many friends on the other side," he said. "Some of them are men in high1

position." He mentioned several names and titles which were unfamiliar to mt and which I do not remember. One of them, only, has stack in my memory, because of later association, the name of Dr. von Schulre-Gaevernits. "I have the most important and confidential information here," he said, indicating the documents. "I am really surprised that you . do not understand the German situation better than you do. Let me tell you why Germany will win why it is of the highest importance for Germany to win." "I shall be very glad to hear the German defence," I replied, smiling. I cannot attempt, writing solely from memory, to give a detailed verbatim report of Dr. Rumely's explanation of the German war aims and objects and the German point of view. The substance of what he disclosed that night in the Union League Club, in Chicago, however, has remained indelibly in tbe recesses of my mind. Event after event, revelation after revelation, in the course of four years of war, has added its confirmation of the accuracy of the information he then and there laid before me. German objectives that were obscure or doubtful even to the well informed until two or three years later, he pointed out on that Bight of September, 1914. Events thai have occurred within the last few week prove that as long ago as the night I am speaking of he was in the confiderce of men who shared the innermost secrets of the German authorities. It was only a few months ago that President Wilson first made clear to the world Germany's purpose to establish an empire of Mitteleuropa. Dr. Rumely described this purpose in detail to me three years before. Indeed, he disclosed this purpose, of an empire stretching from the Belgian coast on the North Sea to the Persian Gulf, as the real and principal objective of the German government. He did not attribute the war to Russian mobilization, as was the fashion at that time among apologists for the Germans, but boldly and frankly declared that Germany had merely been waiting for the time to come when she could realize her dream of the "freedom of the seas" and "a free route to India." "Germany will never give up Belgium," he declared. "Then it was only a 'scrap of paper?" " I interposed. The suggestion seemed to anger him. "You are just another American idealist!" he exclaimed. "America must learn that the weak cannot obstruct the progress of the strong. When a nation achieves the greatness of Germany, it is her right to take what she requires. Belgium could have saved herself by

merely letting the German army througn. Now Belgium must take the consequences that always come to the weak when they get in the way of the strong." Says Belgians Are Part German. He went on in detail to explain that Belgium was part German, anyway that one of the two races that make up the Belgian people had been proved by German scientists to be of Teutonic origin, and therefore part of Germany. I have heard the sam argument since from other German sources, though for the life of me I cannot remember, nor can any one but a German, whether it is the Flemings or the Walloons that Germany claims as subjects of the Kaiser. Then he told of the project for a German empire that would give German commerce a direct route overland to India. The people of India, he said, were ready to rise in revolt against their British rulers; the Irish were already in rebellion (The Ulster "rising" of 1914 was still fresh in everybody's mind.) The British could do nothing they were a decadent race, an ease loving people, addicted to debasing vices, without power of co-ordination or effective organization and without farseeing leaders. It was but a few weeks ago that an English libel suit disclosed the existence of the "Black Book' of the Prince of Wied, containing the names of 40,000 English men and women who, the Germans charged, were degenerates of the lowest type. Doctor Rumely, not only on this occasion -but several other times, long before there was any public t'.isclos jre of these charges, made exactly identical assertions to me, on one occasion even naming some of the men highest in the British government and army. Displayed Hate for England. Lissauer's "Hymn of Hate" had not yet been written; "Gott strafe England' had not yet become the German battlecry. But through all of Dr. Rumely's explanation of the German purpose in the war ran the thread of hatred of i.nd contempt for England that has since be come the dominant note in all German utterances. For France he had nothing but pity. Poor France! She had been standing, still while Germany had forced ahead. That was her crime she was Mt "progressive."

Blind to American Ideals, He

of This Country Let Cat Out of Bag in an Interview with Mr. Stockbridge in Chicago.

"Germany wants the freedom of the seas,", he declared. "What is stopping her?" I asked. "England," he explained. "England controls all the strategic straits and waterways of the world Gibraltar, the English Channel, the Sues Canal, the Straits of Malacca." He named a dozen more. "It is not right that one nation should have, the power to prevent the commerce of the world from moving where it pleases." "Has England ever stopped any German ships from going where they pleased?" I asked. Attack British Sea Power. "No, but ehe could. She has a great navy, with coaling stations ail over the world. No nation can keep such power without some day exercising it" Perfect German logic! If yon own a gun you must kill somebody! When he declared German commerce was being stifled I asked him to explain how Germany had risen in twenty yeans from maritime insignificance to the position of second maritime Power of tbe world, ne changed the subject, saying that I, being an American, could not understand those things. Germany, he said, must expand. Her birth rate was increasing, her population pressing upon her borders. She needed room in which to grow. "Why has emigration from Germany practically ceased for twenty years if her people ar so crowded at home?" I asked. That was another thing which, as an American, I eould not be expected to understand. "That is the -whole trouble," Dr. Rumely went on. "You Americans do not understand Germany. The English have been filling this country with their propaganda for years and you think they are right in whatever they do. The result is that Americans are all taking the English side. Now, Germany is entitled to a fair hear ing, is she not?" I conceded that Germany was entitled to exactly as fair treatment as was Bel gium or any other country. Says British Censor Sun. "My friends," he said, picking up the package of papers, "are sure that if the people of America really understood Ger man war aims they would have more sym pathy with Germany in this war. We are not getting correct news from the other side. The British censors are holding back everything favorable to Germany. The Associated Press is pro-English. Now, I can get the exclusive right to obtain the real news from Germany for distribution in this country. My friends think that would be a very valuable con cession. What do you think about it?" "What would you do with this news after you got it?" I asked. "I would sell it to the American newspapers," he said. "It ought to be very valuable, for it would be authentic and official." As gently and as solemnly as I could I told the Doctor a few rudimentary facts about the newspaper business. I tried to make him see that the war was already costing the newspapers far more than they could possibly get out of it, and was going to cost them still more ; that in stead of being eager to spend money for more news, even "German official" news, they were looking for places whel-e they could cut off expenses. "That is what I want advice about," he said. "You have had experience in such things. How would you go about it to influence public opinion in America in favor of Germany P" The cat was out of the bag! "If you were to come to me with a proposition to do that," I replied, "I would stipulate certain conditions to begin'with. First, you should deposit a reasonable um say a million do!!ars to my credit in some good country where extradition treaties don't run, like Honduras. Then you should furnish me an armed guard and a complete set of disguises, so when the time came, as it assuredly would, when I had to make my getaway between two days, I would have a reaeocabl' chince of making it. In other words, what yon are asking can't be done, and the man who tries it on is going to find himself in trouble." I am neither a prorhct nor the son of a prophet, but events have proved that 1 was right. The Doctor wanted to know why I was so positive. "Because the thing you want to make the American people believe in is something they cannot br-lierc ii: and remain Americans," I said. "You want them to believe that a nation that tears up treaties and invades a country with which it has no quarrel is something to be admired. You want to make the reople of free America sympathize with the master of enslaved Germany." "There you go again," he explained, "talking of things yon do not know anything about Don't you know that the German people are the best governed people in the world? Don't you kuow that there is less misery and poverty in Berlin than there is in London; that the German poor are happier than the poor of New York?" "I know you are not going to get Amer icans to like a civilization where the sol dier is supreme, where women have to

Blamed British for Attitude

step into the gutter to let officers pass. where such things as the Zabern affair can happen," I answered him. "You have never been in Germany, or you would not say such things," he remonstrated. "It is that sort of ignorance about Germany that makes Americana sympathize with Germany's enemies." "It is ignorance of America that makes you think you can change their point of view," I retorted. "You do not know that the state socialism which yon bold to be tbe best government in the world is the exact opposite of the individualism on which America has been founded. Your German government wraps up happiness in packages and parcels it out to the populace ; here we guarantee to the individual not happiness but life and liberty for the pursuit of happiness. You are looking la exactly the opposite direction from Amer ica. You can't make America turn around." The Doctor seemed more amused at my vehemence than angered at my denuncia tion of the German ideals. He came back to the subject of propaganda. "There are certain things in tbe German plan and point of view that ought to be broadly circulated in this country, he said. "Isn't there 6oroe way to get the newspapers to print them?" "Not if they see you first, there Isn v I replied. "As a matter of fact, I'm not worrying any about the effect your propaganda would have on the American people, for I think the sort of things yon ere talking would just make them langh. But if you must get something circulated why not try the Congressional Record? I wouldn't even offer that suggestion if I thought there was the slightest chance that any one In America would take your efforts seriously, bnt such as it is you are welcome to it." Wonld Use Congressional IXecord. I had to explain to the Doctor that If he could get a German member of Congress to read into the Congressional Record whatever German "explanations" he had to offer it could then be circulated free of postage. The idea of making the United States government spread German propaganda free of charge appealed to him. He thanked mo for tbe suggestion and I said good night As I stepped out into the 6treet I looked at my watcb. It was after two o'clock in the n-orning. As I walked eastward toward the Illinois Central station I heard, eomewbere off in the fastnesses of the "Loop." a chorus of male voice singing "Dentschland, Dentschland neber Alles." I began to wonder whether I had not been perhaps a little too sure that nobody would take German propaganda" seriously. Here were these fellows, now, celebrating the fall of Liege, perhapsAmerican born. likely. More than once, though I haven't a drop t German blood in my veins and only a high school smattering of the language, I had joined German friends at a kommers or a turnfest i't singing "Dentschland neber Alles" and thought nothing of it It was a harmless bit of sentiment besides, it went to a tune familiar from childhood as that of one of our most stirring hymns. But was it all sentiment? I began to wonder. A man whom I knew as American born, of American parents, had just revealed himself to me as a German. Might thera not be millions like him? It was inconceivable to me yet I did not get to sleep easily. Friends Scoff at Hsna Atroetty. The next day I went to an old and very wise friend. I told him in detail of my conversation of the evening before. "Curious, isn't it that a man like Rumely should get such an obsession." he said. But be didn't think he could do any harm. He 'elt, as I did, that there could be no possible compromise between the American and German ideals, and that the American people roust instinctively see that and remain unmoved, whatever Oprmany might attempt in the way of propaganda. 1 had rneasy thoughts whenever I turned the subject over in my mind. Finally I wrote some letters to men whom I knew to he just as genuinely American as I was, men who could have no possiblo syKipathy with the German viewpoint. I suggested that an organization be formed tj combat German propaganda in whatever form it might show its head and a little of the creature was beginning to b visible above the camouflage. My friends some of them hold high office eould not tee the need or the danger. They felt, as I had felt, that Germany could .ffcr rir thing to the American people that would not be recognized instantiv as hav ing "Made in Germany" stamped on it. Have you got the German spy hysteria. too?" one friend wrote me. So little did we reckon the possibilities of German propaganda in those far-off days of 1914! But I was not convinced, and it was not long before I was to learn a great deal more about German propaganda and its methods. In the next instalment Mr. Stockbridge will tell how the project of buyingbe New York Evening Mail in the interest of Germany was developed by Sr. Bumely, also interesting details of what happened at breakfast with the Kaiser's American publicity agent and the paymaster f tbe German Embassy.

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