The War in the Ether

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The War in the Ether

By Karl Van Gelderland

The Nation

It has been a major tenet of liberal thought that democracy as an institution need not try to make converts nor send out propagandists to promote its cause since the "truth" as such is bound finally to gain the upper hand over "deception." Having accepted this thesis, the Western democracies ceased to be missionary and aggressive, and post-World War developments found them in a defensive attitude, clinging to the status quo. Only recently the discovery of "thieves at work" shocked France and England and other democracies into a realization that more vigorous measures were necessary against the latest offensive of the fascist world alliance—the war in the ether. This short-wave war has now spread to all parts of the world where ideologies and material interests clash.
Tokyo has announced that it will start construction of at least two powerful short-wave stations at Peiping and Tientsin to acquaint the world with its program of "pacifying" China. Broadcasts will be in Japanese, Chinese, and English. Italy's radio attacks on France and Britain are undermining the authority of those powers in Africa and Asia. Latin America receives daily broadcasts from Rome. General Franco has established short-wave stations in Seville and Spanish Morocco whose mission it is to expose the "rottenness of democracies"—they have referred to the French government as "a bunch of murderers."
Germany, however, stands first in this as in other fields of modern propaganda. Its short-wave messages are skilfully designed to gain sympathy for the Third Reich by justifying its territorial demands and demonstrating its peaceful intentions; to foster united blocs of German minorities abroad; and to carry on the fight against democracy, Jewry, communism, and the world's labor movement. Germany's twelve powerful short-wave stations have been hammering away on the ether for years. Operating with not less than 40,000 watts, combined with directional antennae, these stations can be heard in every part of the world. For their purposes the world is divided into six zones—North America, South America, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Australia—each receiving a program specially prepared for its consumption. One half of the program features German music, folk songs, sketches of present-day life in Germany, speeches by political leaders. The other half repeats most of this in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and other languages. The League for Germanism Abroad, which plays an important role in composing the broadcasts, has announced: "Foreigners of standing, visiting Berlin, appear more and more frequently before our microphones. They give authentic testimony about the Third Reich of a most convincing nature to the people of the speaker's home country." A special department on Weltanschauung seeks to spread those ideas which have been universally recognized as characteristic of the Nazi ideology.
Each one of the six zones is under the direction of a member of the National Socialist Party who has had long experience in that part of the globe. "These men know the conditions in the countries to which their broadcasts are sent; they know the languages well; and they are supposed to answer every letter received from individual listeners." Old German music and folk songs are considered to have a political "cash value" as a means of strengthening the ties of Germans abroad with the mother country.
The program broadcast to the United States on January 5, for instance, contained a number of promotional items sandwiched between folk songs, music from small villages, a violin concert, and chamber music. There were five "news flashes" of fifteen minutes each; a broadcast in memory of a "Pennsylvania Dutch" poet, Henry Harbaugh; a reading by a young poet representing the Hitler Youth; and a review of the news. The news reports with which these programs are packed are not to be confused with the average American presentation. They are chosen primarily to advance the "Berlin line."
German-language publications everywhere reprint items received in the news flashes over the short wave. And since this service is generally free of charge, it is well adapted to bring small newspapers into the same line. (There are 1,700 German-language publications outside of Germany, according to the Deutsche Auslands Institut, Stuttgart, with approximately 150 in this country.) Every month thousands of programs printed in several languages are mailed to all parts of the world explaining the special significance of broadcasts to foreign listeners. That this combination of radio and press propaganda abroad is having the desired effect is shown by a statement in the report of the League for Germanism Abroad: "Eighty per cent of all letters from the United States to the German short-wave stations come from non-German listeners. The average in all zones of letters from non-German listeners amounts to 63 percent."
Our State Department has recently become concerned about the success of European short-wave propaganda in South America. Unable to deal with the situation directly, it let it be known to the Federal Communications Commission that foreign-language short-wave broadcasts from the United States to South America should be encouraged. A year ago Commissioner George Henry Payne, in a speech before the Harvard School of Business Administration, declared that the establishment of a government short-wave radio station was "necessary for defense over the air from the attacks of foreign or unfriendly agencies." A report of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, dated October, 1937, refers to the unscrupulous methods of the fascist powers in their campaign for "spiritual occupation." "German stations," it asserts, "blanket out frequently the most powerful of the three American stations." It adds that German programs are highly favored in South American countries, while programs broadcast from the United States rank third in popularity. These observations find support in a report by Carl W. Ackerman, dean of the School of Journalism of Columbia University, who also refers to the blanketing out of American broadcasts to South America by Berlin and Rome. ("Blanketing out" is a trick well known in Europe, where radio stations illegally use the wave lengths of their opponents across the border and make a clear reception impossible. Radio Strasbourg, a strong French station, for example, sending out news in the German language, is constantly interfered with by Germany; most German-language broadcasts from Moscow are also "killed.")
An attempt to create a foreign-language short-wave system in the United States was made recently by the National Broadcasting Company, when it inaugurated a six-language short-wave program to Europe and South America. A high percentage of broadcasts, however, are given in English, and the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission, which allow performances only "in the interest of public service," bar anything of a controversial nature. The few other short-wave stations which are equipped to reach foreign countries feature educational, religious, and good-will programs, and since most of them are in English, they are rarely understood in South America. Station WIXAL in Boston, an educational station operating in conjunction with the Pan-American Union, had until recently a two-hour program in Spanish once a week—Germany broadcasts to South America for ten hours daily in Spanish, Portuguese, and German. In Europe's fascist countries the people are not allowed to listen to information on the forces active in democratic countries; witness the suppression by Propaganda Minister Goebbels of President Roosevelt's message to Congress on foreign politics, ordered broadcast in six languages.
On February 26 President Roosevelt made the first official move to counteract foreign radio propaganda in South America by appointing a government committee to investigate the whole problem of international broadcasting. The committee is expected to recommend, among other things, a federal short-wave radio station in Washington. With official encouragement of short-wave broadcasting, the old problem of commercial or non-commercial programs will again become acute. According to the FCC regulations, short-wave broadcasts must be noncommercial. Yet it can hardly be expected that the big radio chains, which have made some effort to appease the government by the installation of short-wave stations broadcasting to South America, will operate them without profit as whole-heartedly as conditions require.
When the FCC gave out rights for new frequencies on the short wave a few weeks ago, the National Broadcasting Company was denied its application for new frequencies, while General Electric, operating from Schenectady, was granted new frequencies and enlargement of facilities. The assumption is that General Electric was supposed to be less entangled internationally and to have a lively economic interest in executing the government's programs of "good-will" to South America. Only a few days ago, from the General Electric station, Sumner Welles joined various Brazilian dignitaries in a broadcast to Brazil which stressed the beginning of a "closer cooperation" between the United States and South America.
César Saerchinger, European director of the Columbia Broadcasting System for seven years, puts the entire problem of short-wave propaganda squarely before the nation when he asserts in his new book, "Hello, America": "Nazi propaganda goes out to the world wrapped in Beethoven, and Italy broadcasts propaganda buried in beautiful Italian opera. I think the democratic countries should make more than a half-hearted effort to counteract this by giving as complete and agreeable a picture of our civilization as we can."