The hate campaign was bearing fruit.

In January, 1916, there appeared in Berlin a publication called Light and Truth.  It was a twelve-page circular in English and German attacking President Wilson and the United States.  Copies were sent by mail to all Americans and to hundreds of thousands of Germans.  It was edited and distributed by “The League of Truth.”  It was the most sensational document printed in Germany since the beginning of the war against a power with which Germany was supposed to be at peace.  Page 6 contained two illustrations under the legend: 

    WILSON AND HIS PRESS IS NOT AMERICA

Underneath was this paragraph: 

“An American Demonstration—­On the 27th of January, the birthday of the German Emperor, an immense laurel wreath decorated with the German and American flags was placed by Americans at the foot of the monument to Frederick the Great (in Berlin).  The American flag was enshrouded in black crape.  Frederick the Great was the first to recognise the independence of the young Republic, after it had won its freedom from the yoke of England, at the price of its very heart’s blood through years of struggle.  His successor, Wilhelm II, receives the gratitude of America in the form of hypocritical phrases and war supplies to his mortal enemy.”

[Illustration:  First page of the magazine “Light and Truth”]

One photograph was of the wreath itself.  The other showed a group of thirty-six people, mostly boys, standing in front of the statue after the wreath had been placed.

When Ambassador Gerard learned about the “demonstration” he went to the statue and from there immediately to the Foreign Office, where he saw Secretary of State von Jagow.  Gerard demanded instantaneous removal of the wreath.  Von Jagow promised an “investigation.”  Gerard meanwhile began a personal investigation of the League of Truth, which had purchased and placed the insult there.

Days, weeks, even months passed.  Von Jagow still refused to have the wreath removed.  Finally Gerard went to the Foreign Office and told von Jagow that unless it was taken away that day he would get it himself and send it by courier to Washington.  That evening Gerard walked to the statue.  The wreath had disappeared.

Week by week the league continued its propaganda.  Gerard continued his investigation.

July 4, 1916, another circular was scattered broadcast.  On page 1 was a large black cross.  Pages 2 and 3, the inside, contained a reprint of the “Declaration of Independence,” with the imprint across the face of a bloody hand.  Enclosed in a heavy black border on page 4 were nine verses by John L. Stoddard, the lecturer, entitled “Blood-Traffickers.”  (Printed in the beginning of this chapter.)

The league made an especial appeal to the “German-Americans.”  Germany, as was pointed out in a previous article, counts upon some German-Americans as her allies.  One day Ambassador Gerard received a circular entitled “An Appeal to All Friends of Truth.”  The same was sent in German and English to a mailing list of many hundred thousands.  Excerpts from this read: