The Pittsburgh Press (April 25, 1941)
NAZIS PASS LIE TO ROOSEVELT ON THREATS AGAINST U.S.
Berlin, April 25 (UP) –
German newspapers today violently attacked President Roosevelt, charging that he has set loose “a flood of lying phrases” designed to obscure “the warning traces of the Balkan adventure.”
German spokesmen and newspapers ridiculed charges that Germany constituted any menace to the United States, asserting that:
Only a 150% lunatic could imagine that Germany really intends to attack the United States.
Excerpts from the addresses of Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of Navy Frank Knox were published prominently in the newspapers – in contrast to the frequent practice of ignoring speeches of American officials.
Newspapers described the speeches as the product of “Roosevelt’s agitation machine.”
The Berliner Börsen-Zeitung said that:
Like Churchill in Britain, Roosevelt in the U.S.A. has now set his agitation machine going full speed.
He puts his most trusted demagogues and agitation apostles on the tribune to remove the warning traces of the Balkan adventure and by a flood of lying phrases again to rob the people of the clear thinking which is noticeably growing in the great crowds attending the isolationist meetings.
The speeches were described as:
…merely repetition of all old attempts to misrepresent Germany’s intentions.
Authorized quarters said:
There is a small clique of people in the United States typified by Hull, Knox, Stimson, Dorothy Thompson, Morgenthau and Donovan who are well known as enemies of Germany.
We do not believe, however, that they represent the opinion of the great masses of the U.S. public and it is megalomania on their part if they claim to do so.
If the dangers of which Hull and Knox spoke really exist at all then they are largely responsible for conjuring them up.