Marten secured
subscriptions from many Germans and Americans resident in Germany,
opened headquarters in rooms on the Potsdamerstrasse and engaged
in the business of sending out pamphlets and leaflets attacking
America. One of his principal supporters was a man named Stoddard
who had made a fortune by giving travel lectures in America and
who had retired to his handsome villa, in Meran, in Austria.
Stoddard issued a pamphlet entitled, "What shall we do with Wilson?"
and some atrocious attempts at verse, all of which were sent
broadcast by the League of Truth.
This was done with the express permission of the German authorities
because during the war no societies or associations of any kind
could meet, be formed or act without the express permission and
superintendence of both the military and police authorities.
Anyone who has lived in Germany knows that it would be impossible
even in peace times to hang a sign or a wreath on a public statue
without the permission of the local authorities; and yet on the
Emperor's birthday, January twenty-seventh, 1916, this League
of Truth was permitted to place an enormous wreath, over four
feet high, on the statue of Frederick the Great, with an American
flag draped in mourning attached, and a silk banner on which was
printed in large letters of gold, "Wilson and his press are not
America.
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