aie SE RORBOWRE | ry, 193 INTRODUCTION — JHIS, the first issue of THE LOWDOWN voted exclusively to an analysis of propaganda all over the world, with particular reference t sts use as an instrument in international conflict The aim throughout has been to present the facts as shyectively as possible, hiding nothing and documenting everything. We ‘rust that no political, economic, or religions has will he charged against the ‘magazine. for certainly. tne has motivated its compositen. = preart SE Be oe social iovesigavon, | ng Fo YAN fa | iB, aa pit ea where all elemansip becomes, reprevensbe. at i when lying and other modes of miszepresentation ‘The misrepresentation, natur be induc fraud; otherwise it is 25 hat e use of i by women and the tall talk of fore the ladigs their heart. «In no other field of the public business does fraudulent propaganda play 80 large 2 part as in domestic and inter: national politics, and in no other form of government 1s j its influence so nefarious as in a dictatorsip. During the . World War, for example, the Allied Powers employed 4 fone of the most complicated and widespread propaganda machines in history to get the United States in on their side. As subsequeat events have shown, there was no real reason for us joining the war, but the atrosity stozies ehiberaiely manufactured by the British and French “ine formation” services, supplemented by a barrage of bogus eatism, also emanating from London and Parisycreated 4 moral atmosphere over here that made it easyajor Pres ent Wilson and his administration to declare war upon. Germany. In brief, the Allies sold us a very bad piece of goats, One of the chief reasons the Central Powers didn’t sell us an equally bad piece of goods was that their ropgranda bureaus were not ay eficient—and besides, he ia ee with Mighly inspired stories we le, to make the Amer: : Sree: cS s0 im any war on the Conifinent. is, have 1S Beas prompily deniex it, but the tad already been done. In anothe instance th srmed the. same sort of slanting to speach by 4 Roosevelt, giving the impression t “. Wisir own ghblic that Uncle Sam stood squarely bein ‘Toh Butt n Wilttever that paragon of al the viru chose tb do. The President was so embarrassed by this flagrant bit of high-tone lying that, for diplomatic rea- sons, he was forced to correct the British by putting the blame for the misrepresentation on the Washington correspondents, ‘The Germans, the Russians, the Italians, in fact, all he other peoples of the European gnd Asiatic Continents, have indulged in similar propaganda. The Germans spread the most picturesque lies about Czech atrocities in a suc-co-siul effort to whoop up their nationals ‘to pity their ficen” in Sudetenland, which never was a part of Linmany. The Russians, ia order to obtain the support si the United States in a future Russo-Japanese contiit, have eaten their own words with regard to the murderous nature of Chiang Kai-shek, hailed him as 3 liberator, com octed pictures of Japanese atrobities in Manchuria, and + (uherwise done ali in their power to arouse in our people {sympathy for China so profound that we would be willing to fight for its defence even though our economic interests there are negligible, In short, Russia is eager fur us to fight its battles, In theig, endeavor to make America the protector of Stalin's régime, she Russians have spread their anti-Japanese. propaganda through Anierican orgunizations"that ostexsibly are purely: cultural and devoted tp the preservation of democracy but actually ar Node agi of Sep ten Ne + Chinese . The Nazi and-Fascisti_are_busy_spreading:hatred_of je is their praises of the Hier and Mussolini govern- with mopey—in the form of cash of German and Ttalign stealn- sti have Wy ee ve show! Propaganda in countries ruled by gi more dangerous than in demi it is without opposition, while is mist combat ther propaganda spends rillions, of francs misinformiing Frenchmen others about French affairs, but it is still possible, much of the time, for Socialists and others to expose it in ppublic—just as it is still possible, mach of the time, for British’ Laborites to dépownce the devious machinations of Chamberlain and tals kroup in the House of Commons. ‘Truth has sonie chance when propagandazean be answered ; it hag no chance when propaganda ig’ the only opinion allowed circulation, loud ‘The agencies of propaganda are various—the press, the radio, the lecture platform, the professorial study, the pulpit. The press can he bought, as in France, and it * can be threatened with extinction, as in Germany, italy, ‘and Russia, if it doesn’t print what itis told to print. The same with the radio. As for the chufth, it has ever been ready to chime in with the wishes of the ruling classes. See is THE LOWDOWN : ‘The Catholie"Church for two thousand years has favored, the totalitarian state, being one itself, and thus it hgs’no! qualms in supporting Franco aga in echoing the philos- ‘ophy,of Hitler and Mussolini. ‘The Protestant Church is litde ‘different. In the United States, durioy the World ‘War, ior example, it proved a .strong agency for. the manufacture and dibsemination of lies about the Gerinans, And the professors, with: all their learning, chave from ‘time immemorial. béen willing to lend their imaginate to their governments in whatever dirty business was af ‘Fhe disgrace. of present-day German biologists and an- thropologists in their theorizing about Aryanism is prob- ably no greater thea the disgrace of American, French, and British biologists and anthropologists, twenty years ago, in their theorizing about, the, Hun, Is it worse fo say that Heine was a fifth-rate poet than that Wagner was a ffth-rate musician? JHE AMERICAN people now more than ever be- fore, are daily bombarded with every form of prop- 5 tapos correspon yay of comment, three times out of five, is fr ‘ho wittingly or unwittingly spread F; ritish, re OF" a Pr fliey Join, Sa), the for nd Demi they indirectly become stooges for Joseph Stalin, tors i natura ey put their rames eri the mailinglist of the Casa Teali- in the for ’a_at Colum ‘tsity they expose themselves to it somet fe Duce’s phil f life. Should they join a German Quai d'Orsay Fapriety, the chances afe that they will sooner or later be ide Be \d to look at the World through the eyes of Dr. Joseph Goebbels. And if they give in to the pleas of a young gitl begging in the subway for money to help the Chinese war sufferers, they probably help preserve the racket of Chiang Kai-shek. And so on and so on. ~ There is no sense in getting overly alarmed about this state of Affairs. Propaganda has always beea with us. The first and perhaps the best way to combat it is to recoghize it and be wary of its.ramifcations and snares. We trust that the following articles will enlighten Amer- icans regarding the work of various propagandists in our midst, and thus help to save them from fighting other people's battles and succumbing to ways of life that are not cansonant with our history, conditions, and psychology. Tar’ Eprrons, Peace: I hope your intentiony’ honorable "cenard. Bnchein,. arte t“Sticke and ton a Brook my Bee But words cam never hurt me Own Nussesy Rawat “The bel 1 The Ht go ot Couns Onn (EN yeits ago the diplomats of Europe, jin private Twdretion Téced forward to 1952 a8 the date fof the next war. In that they were wrong #:.". to “a bertain degree. At the time the world-wide depression oyershadowed all else. There wete disputes enough be- fcen nations, but empty bellies were more important. ‘A. supplementaty, statement of the statesmen of a decade \go still : Pat_was one to the effect Mes he meer IONE fone verlters a ‘ swith propaganda with sciea | z equally dead! Just what the scientists a to do, inthe way feat inyentions of(deathy/is a matter of rumor carefully state sects, ithe bli . Today the of red, jbdiceand “racial: bigotry is an vicious mantifacturingyofmunitions, Wery-propaganda was: largely word and whispering campaigas. Ne power of the radio, the: ear is assal our hours ut of the’ day with special pleading. in one" form or an- fother, and the result, wpfortunately, is aot deagpess but blindness. Blindness to the actual issues at stake. "Phe synthetic creation of the’ Sudeten-Germasy problem in Czechaslavatia provides not aly: an exeellent example, but in view of similar situations lediiere, serves ass Hidustry second only to the less sa ing the Work? warning as well, In this’ case “the:/German -propaganda rnzchine, while no,more subtle than’ fe was twenty years ago, was certainly’ more thorough. “2” From May 21 to June 21, to-ithustrate, the German radio blanketed the Czech citizenry swith mo less than 992 broadcasts whoye’ sole ‘was-to create. disorder. According tox record kept by the journal Branna Ploitika: 1. Je critica the Governmedt, or the’ President 194 times. i} ve Tt slandered the god reputation of Czech officials and courts 172 times. / Te inguted the Czech, Bt agitated for’ the times.” - t “It supported the autonomist demands of the Slow vvaki and the Poles 34 times. - 2 impressiost that, Com- hy 5 "196' times, Germs arty 336 . Teatlempled to create the i munists would rule Cztchpslovakia “31 ‘times. At this writing, swith Czechoslovakia but lately sold down the river by Great Britain's Ciiveden set, the!radio Words Breed: War i By Joseph Hilton: ‘Smyth . . ve , t ‘static and taterwaillings of the Jate spring appear to ‘be of only historical interest; unfortunately, their effects: in, the tieat-fut momentous. Hitlers statement jtorial ‘interests stop -with the: pre- 1 Reich ‘of the Sudeten provinces of . ia has undoubtedly been of needed assistance’: to Chamberlain in his attenipts to explain away diplomatic duplicity, but its honesty i open to That Gere man} is bees 2 fo mtr was von ng 49 : as fit, * In propaganda mahifestly approved by Dr. Henlein on the twelfth of that month beckor oe ih of 2 a ritany:for the Bretgas! or ‘A. Free ; (esreetesice Seatece| 0 : nto in.upper case, oasis of the Bren Peo hhas been awakened throughout the widest circles of the Goebbels, “fratera ‘gench ] style curio. five of the best agitational ‘of Dr. Goebt latly in dealing with the # Wpoextign of Sndetenland, the Bulletin lists the alleged sufferings of Breton “patriots” Ie concludes, 3 moteove, with the categorical statement that today Brit- tany and’ Alsace-Lorraine are united in al demand upon Paris for autonomy. * If Gerstan efforts to enlist sympathy in regions as dit tant ag western France appear ridiculous, the nation's propagandd efforts in the Near East will’ geem equally incredible, They have been obscured by tHe-present crfsis in Central Europe, but ar log ago 03 July 27 the D. Herald of London published a dispatch from its, Jetu- Salem correspondent, in part as follow: Lead) German Josrnatiste from Euyph Palestine, 1 Transidedan, Syria, Lebanon and fraq are believed (0 be meeting {a Jerosslem to xtudy German interesta the Nei East and methods of ‘Arable propaeauda si Jearn that Geronan propaganda in the Near East i about to be largely extended withthe object of yeas fee reac oct eymoaty fr Geo sno Uy i amen Be ese? sone oe ge ‘Powers ‘has no territorial ambitions in the Near East, tnd hn er obec are Sy te sa wie a‘) alone dona £18002 mon is bee +7 iat etd by Boe posapane acs MeaPat there nth Bcaattons, wi idee SPR isin ws SoiooneAccredited German correspondents in the Near East have shown themselves consistently r to feed the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment with *comment"—rather Gian strielly news stories —untavor- able to Britain. A biased point of view might be normally ‘expected of them; but'not to make that partiality too bla- tant these dispatches often take the form of “judicious interpretation” hy the correspondent. An example ap- red im the Voelkischer’ Beobachter on the occasion of anti-British riots in Palestine. The Cairo correspondent telegraphed that “KE, eure, the conditnrs in Palestine bave become more aggravis despite all prophecies, than one should have believed pos- sible a year ago. And, significantly, the crisis has de- veloped out of the uprising of individuals and groups. ‘Thus it is felt, in the political as well as the military field =all assurances to the contrary notwithstanding —that England is up against a front of a united people, the determination of 2 unit which had been promised, once ‘upon a time, atttonomy.”” ‘Germ: fe Jona when raided by the just_beepereiegle en E: ‘on document fou As the pace of German propagan’ in recent weeks, the impression ty such propaganda has been restri ties of the press and the tadio. fan enormous book-reading publi inflammatory speech of September 26, when fie stressed the invincibility of the army in terms thit were more emotional than military, has just been given a factuab basis by 2 reissue of a pamphlet entited.“:Dhe Oryaniza- tion of German Military Power.” ‘This propagands item, sold at the low price of 20 pfennigs through the offices of Dr. Goebbels, is ealeulated, to reassure the German public. It is one of a series de- seribing country by country the world's defence forces and armarnents on land, sea and air. While it is largely statistical and, consequently, fairly persuasive to the German reader, the style of the work is a curious misture of unadorned military fact and senti- rental amour-patrie, The pamphlet is designed, apart from its arlult civilian audience, for wide circulation among the sccondary-schools, as this excerpt plainly in- Aicates : “The great German Army, once agein freed from all restrictions, is he overwhelming expression of the martial character of our country. It was brought back into being by the Fuehrer and his Movement, and built into the fabric of the Third Reich. ... A martial outlook, express ing itself in bravery, a sense of doty, modesty and, above all, in a will to achieve, is the predominating characteristic of the manhood of the Third Reich, .. . Service in defence of the country is a sacred duty to the German people. . To the call of Hermann Goering—‘the German people ‘must be a nation of airmen'—the young people of Germany responded enthusiastically hy locking to the colors in tens WORDS BREED WAR le of thousands. And so the air arm of the Third Reh hae betome a symbol of the victory of movement antl \gf the now German defence ideal, which is inconceivable air arms and air transport.” Thereafter follows an impréssive statistical surve the German army, naval and air forces, quote from Vernon MeKenzie’s In the early days of the clash between Japan and China there was evidence that the USSR. was em= ploying methods ‘of aiding the Chinese which were patterned after the Talan and German activities in Spain. In August (1937) China signed a non-aggres- sion pact with the Soviet, and there were immediate Feports that the agreement contained secret military clauses. By these it appeared that China expected to et from her Communistic neighbor 60 planes, 200 tanks, 1.500 tractors, 150,000 rifles, 126,000 shells, and 60,000,000 cartridges well before the end of the year The Soviet was also expected to furnish technicians in all branches One ofthe most portant of thse branches was rg agands, I was ot long betore the American League Bt Peace and Democracy was ngage! ima vigorous boyeat and money-raking campaign, On nary tery set cor ner in mid-own Manhattan, bewitching Chinese gels ad Claret Chinese sade iegan sling fonda Chap ters of them were setup in twenty-two tes under the Girecion of Philip'A. Jail, who vsted the Communit Army headquarters n China iy 1937, and isan eta abe propagundat for Sovet ChinaTHE LOWDOWN . In the interim, China itself engaged an American press agent.. The whipping up of American sympathy’for en ‘oppressed China continued, although at times the person al forgunes of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and attractive American-schooled wife have somewhat shad- cowed the real issues at stake. Soon, with propaganda “news” releases a var riety of atrocity pictures started flooding the newspaper offices. Most of these emanated from the Trans-Pacific News Service, headed by @ former Shanghai newspaper- man, Few of the atrocity pictures bore close examination —the majority being manufactured by the same process used in the Belgium atrocity stories and pictures released by the Allies more than twenty years ago. One of the ‘0st furid of them was given to the highly reliable Asso- ated Press, Its subsequent publication raised the proper reaction in the gullible American mind. The photograptr = epi sidifer pore sw eget body at flednadl 2 craft, Anchhe 3p- meee ‘i riddle The A Sat at she pittere wae glow: ine; later, however, it was forced ta back dawn and con- http 7 Awww: tr Penwin synnoqarwieckaa caysaa, Horas nepayy CKBHINAY Hr psOT Gapabane. I'S “by it throws fight on the history of most-such pictur {It vwas first placed cn sale, as a post card, in Shang ji in 1919. At that time it was presented ¢s propaganda 3g inst fone of the war lords who was ravaging an interior f pr- ince. A year of so later it was brought out again depi Communist Chinese officers torturing a Chinese prisojer of one of the northern provinces. Tt did not rest for lohg, as it was soon hauled out again as propaganda against the Jepanese when they went into Manchuria. When Manchurian crisis had cened to be news it was pat ava oly to be unearthed again to illustrate the atrocities sitted by the Chinese Soviets when Chiang Kai-shek was attempting to wipe out the Chinese Red Army in 1934. In its most recent appearance it was used for the cus- tomary purpose of enlisting, American sympathies —and arousing anti-Japenese sentithent in this country. s, it js scatcely intelligent; fo astoci clock and ‘round the world, from every nation on the globe 4 craves something from the richest nation" Pos- Ory rer" yp BY Spun it A. rare diglomatic occurrence whee drums play first Sule