s to
influence opinion through speeches, pamphlets, and books, which were
designed to convince the country of the justice of Germany's cause and
the dangers of becoming the catspaw of the Entente. Her plans of intrigue
were directed towards the use of German-Americans or German spies to
assist in the return of German officers from this country, to hinder the
transport of Canadian troops, to destroy communications, and to hamper
the output of munitions for the Entente by strikes, incendiary fires, and
explosions.

During the first weeks of the war a German press bureau was established
in New York for the distribution of pro-German literature and the support
of the German-American press. Its activities were chiefly directed by Dr.
Bernhard Dernburg, who defended Germany from the charge of responsibility
for the war and expatiated upon her efficiency and the beneficence of her
culture in the same breath that he attacked the commercial greed of Great
Britain, the cruel autocracy of Russia, and the imperialistic designs of
Japan in the Pacific. Its pamphlets went so far as to excoriate allied
methods of warfare and to level accusations of inhumanity against the
Belgians. It distributed broadcast throughout the country an appeal
signed by ninety-three German professors and intellectuals, and
countersigned by a few notable Americans, which besought the American
people not to be deceived by the "lies and calumnies" of the enemies of
Germany.

This propaganda left all cold except those who already sympathized with
Germany. Indeed it reacted unfavorably against the German cause, as soon
as the well-authenticated reports came of German atrocities in Belgium,
of the burning of the Louvain library, and of the shelling of Rheims
cathedral. The efforts of German agents then shifted, concentrating in an
attack upon the United States Government for its alleged unneutral
attitude in permitting the export of munitions to the Entente. In some
sections of the country they were able to arouse an opinion favorable to
the establishment of an embargo. In the Senate, on December 10, 1914, a
bill was offered by John D. Works of California providing for the
prohibition of the sale of war supplies to any belligerent nation and a
similar bill was fathered in the House by Charles L. Bartlett of Georgia.
These efforts were warmly supported by various associations, some of
which were admittedly German-American societies, although the majority
attempt