Government emissary waits upon the editor, calls his attention to
any offending article or paragraph, and suggests a correction. If
a newspaper still offends, it is liable to a suspension for a day
or even a week, or it may be suppressed altogether.

But in peace, as well as in war, editors all over Germany were
instructed as to the topic on which to lay accent for a limited
period, and just how to treat that topic. For example, during the
three months preceding the war, Russia was bitterly attacked in the
German Press. From August 1 to August 4, 1914, the German people
had it crammed down their throats that she was the sole cause of
the war. On August 4 the Government marshalled the editors and
professors and ordered them to throw all the responsibility on
Britain, and the hate was switched from one to the other with the
speed and ease of a stage electrician throwing the lever from red
to blue.

How do the editors like being mere clerks for the Government? The
limited numbers of editors of independent thought, such as the
"relentless" Count Reventlow, Maximilian Harden, and Theodor Wolff,
detest such a role, and struggle against it. After sincere and
thorough investigation, however, I am convinced the average German
editor or reporter, like the average professor, prefers to have his
news handed to him to digging it up for himself.

In this connection the remark made to me by the editor of a little
paper in East Prussia is interesting. After the Russians had
fallen back he told me of two boys in a neighbouring village whose
hands had been cut off. He said that he was going to run the
story, and suggested that I also use it. I proposed that we make a
little trip of investigation, as we could do so in a couple of
hours.

He looked surprised. "Why, we have the story already," he declared.

"But I am not going to write it unless I can prove it," I replied.

A moment later I heard him sigh with despair as he half whispered
to a cavalry captain: "Yes, yes, alas, over there the Press is in
the hands of the people!"

Many newspaper readers run more or less carelessly through
articles, and many more simply read the headlines and headings.
The Official Press Bureau, for which no detail is too minute,
realises this perfectly, with the result that German newspaper
headings are constructed, less with a view to sensationalism, as in
some British and American papers, or with a view to condense
accurately the chief