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l0 THE VITAL . ISSUE
WEEKLY PUBLICATION FOR TRUE INFORMATION
ready to help all who light for
PRINCIPLES, IDEALS, HONOR and JUSTICE
Published weekly 1:: THE VITAL ISSUE CO. INC., 21 Park Row,
New York, N. Y. "I’;lephone 4301 Cortland. dable address, Efdorl.
FRANCIS J. L. DORL, President and Editor.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Odice of New York.
N. Y., under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
Copyright 1915 by THE VITAL ISSUE C0,, Inc. Permission to re-
print granted upon request.
Subscription price, $2.(X) per year, 1.10 for six months.
Payment to be made in currency postage stamps money or express
order. If by check, add 10 cent: elxchange on New ‘York.
THE VITAL ISSUE can be obtained from apry newadealer in the
U. S. or through the American News Co., New ork City.
VVe cannot accept any responsibility for manuscripts or unsolicited
contributions.
AGENCIES: ‘
Max Von Schuckmann, 2144 Hudson Ave., Chicago, III.
A. VV. Schmitz, 8521 Vulcan St., St. Louis, Mo.
M. van Orden, 47 Panama St., San Francisco. California.
What is my duty?
The demand of the hour.
THE S0-CALLED REVELATION S.
A New York paper has obtained some very
interesting documents and it is advertising itself
as having performed the greatest “scoop” in
ages. It publishes reproductions of numerous
confidential letters written by German Agents and
some diplomatic officials.
Any reader who merely follows the comment of
this paper would think that these men have com-
mitted all of the crimes short of murder; they are
accused of intriguing, spying, blackmailing, con-
spiring and subsidizing sedition. But if the text of
the correspondence is read nothing incriminating is
found, even though it is highly interesting.
The Anglo-Maniac press makes the most of it;
certainly it is a feast for them. Yet if those papers
would practice and would have practiced the great
American virtue of Justice and.Chivalry, they would
not and there would never have been any occasion
for writing these letters.
The Agents of France, Russia and Italy are per-
fectly innocent. Some hotels are filled with them.
They are to drink cafe au lait. The whole regiment
of British officers who are inspecting the deadly
products of Bethlehem are sweet angels to rock
the cradle. They have spent hundreds of millions
of dollars for all the abominations that insatiate
greed will make. For a year this low, dirty busi-
ness has continued, but these gentlemen are feasted.
But when a few German Agents are discovered
making arrangements for the manufacture or pur-
chase of supplies a howl goes up and what was up-
held as fine and right, is promptly condemned as a
terrible crime.
It :0: 4:
It is very much the same as far as the press is
concerned. Some of our newspapers have sunk to
such a low level that they have become a disgrace
to the community. Before the war their columns
were filled with silly, demoralizing stuff and stupid
sensation, rather than helping to educate they were
falling over one another to degrade. The war
brought new opportunities to these fiendish editors
and owners. The sense of discrimination and fair-
ness in many of their readers had been stunned
and promptly they fed out them all kinds of inven-
tion, distortions and lies. The worst cartoons were
too good for them. They strangled-without the
slightest doubt in many cases for a consideration of
British money-all traces of noble impartialty and
stimulated rank passions and prejudice. It is well
known that Germany has no organ or press ma-
chinery here. The absence of it has been bitterly
felt by many real Americans, whereas Great Bri-
tain had perfected during years of work a most
elaborate system. Englishmen and especially Can-
adians fill the columns of many newspapers and
magazines. Has not Harvey who frequently has
been trying to become intimate with President Wil-
son before and after his election and who masquer-
ades under the North American Review recently
said that “the United States has done the most of
all the English colonies” or words to that effect. Few
if any papers protested. ’To that level some papers
and magazines have sunk. It is a disgrace.
No doubt the sense of Justice of the average
American citizen is very high, but he has fallen a
helpless prey to journalistic wolves. Some,indi-
viduals have been trying to correct such a sorrowful
state of affairs, but only with moderate success.
If Germany was anxious to put herself in the proper
light, she can be accused of no wrong. The dis-
grace falls rather on the regretfully large number
of biased newspapers, and while no doubt many are
above reproach, some newspapers have succeeded
in manufacturing so much anti-German sentiment
that the others lack the moral courage or the funds
tovigorously oppose an artificially created public
opinion.
=0: :1: so:
Needless to mention that the.“revelations” are
disagreeable to the sympathizers of Germany. In
the mind of the unthinking public all pro-German
propaganda which is really nothing more than cul-
tivating Justice and Fairness has fallen in bad repute.
But the very clumsiness with which this work has
been handled is the best proof of the upright and
clean German character. They don't know how to
flatter. They cannot do underhanded work. The
English are masters at both, and they know how to
cover up their tracks. They simply appoint J. P.
Morgan their sole agent with unlimited power over
the biggest poodle fund that ever existed. It is
the same old story of the “syndicates” of the elder
Morgan: the powers of ten czars and tyrants over
all funds and absolutely no accounting given. Any
one who ever read a “syndicate agreement” will
stand aghast, but of no avail, not evento the Eng-
lish parliament which recently protested against
the excessive powers which had been granted to
Morgan & Co.
=I=' =i< ’=i= .
As The Vitallssue has at times maliciously and
without proof been accused as “.subsi<lized’,’ .it
might be well to say a word to the public. The
Vital Issue is relying on its circulation and the lit-