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Show I TRICKING THE ' . PEOPLE. I On Saturday night, In tho moving picture Bhows and theaters, the an- nouncement was made that Germany had unconditionally accepted President Presi-dent Wilson's peace terms, and In more than one place the statement was made that Germany had surren- dored. Tho sourco of tho startling news was the morning paper. Immediately Immedi-ately there was a burst of cheers, and, if the news were true, cheers upon cheers would have been tho proper "j Uiing. But the news itself did not sua- tain the wild proclaiming which it re- i ceived. A careful reading proved that j tho Information, at best, was a fore- cast, based on conjecture, and, furthermore, further-more, was nothing more than another cleverly conceived move on the part of Germany to Inveigle the United States into a protracted discussion of peace. Instead of cheers, there should have been hisses. The real feature was not that a peace proposal in new dress had been paraded, but that the desperation of Germany was manifested and ultimate defeat foretold. Otherwise the peace talk was the I peddling of stale news, which helped the German "peace offensive" propaganda. propa-ganda. As soon as the Standard discovered the trick, a bulletin was placed in the window of the business office, notifying notify-ing the people that news of a German surrender was not confirmed, and since then it has been made clear that J the "extra" Issued Saturday night was 1 put out under false pretenses. That J kind of newspaper work is not credit- , able, nnd must bring disappointments. On last Friday word came out of ! Derlin that Maximilian would accept President Wilson's fundamentals as a basis of pcaco negotiations and all the papers printed this forecast. So it is seen that there was nothing of an unexpected un-expected nature in the final realization of that prognostication. Months ago 1 this peace offensive was predicted and the country was warned against It As it gradually unfolds, there should be no surprise expressed, and above all there should be no blowing of sirens or crying of "extra." |