hat, with the exception
of a single newspaper in one of the smaller cities any great American
paper was directly bought by England. Here and there considerable
blocks of American newspaper shares may have been in English hands
and influenced the tendency of certain papers. If, however, it is
true--as was credibly stated in Irish-American quarters during
the first year of the war--that Lord Northcliffe boasted a year
or two before the war of "controlling" seventeen American papers,
it is difficult to believe that this influence of the English
press-magnates was based on hard cash. Rather is it the case that
certain newspapers received their otherwise very costly private
news-service from England on very advantageous terms. To others,
English writers of leading articles are said to have been attached,
without cost to the newspaper--a scheme of which I have often heard in
America, but which is difficult to prove, as all American newspapers
maintain the strictest secrecy as to the origin of their leading
articles. It is, however, common knowledge that with regard to
European affairs the American news service was swayed by this entirely
English organization. Until the outbreak of the war the American
news agencies drew exclusively from English sources. Moreover,
those newspapers which in the United States play a very important
part, inasmuch as they are the fount of most of the new ideas by
which the tone of the Press in influenced, were in a very considerable
degree served from England. On the other hand, the wide field of
cinematographic production was strongly influenced by the French
film. In this way our enemies in the United States had, at the
outbreak of war, a boundless and excellently prepared field for
the propagation of their news, and the representation of their
point of view, but more particularly for their attack on the German
cause. In spite of this, however, they immediately inundated the
Union with propagandist literature, particularly through the agents
of the English shipping lines, who were scattered all over the
country, and the well-known author and politician, Sir Gilbert
Parker, sent from London tons of this matter to well-known American
business men, professors and politicians.

On our side, it is true, and I should like to emphasize this to their
credit, that on the outbreak of war the German-American newspapers
took up our cause unhesitatingly and as one man. Further, they
have, until America's e