XIII. THE GREAT NEWS CONSPIRACY-HOW UNSCRUPULOUS NEWS- 333432 PREFACE These stories were written under fire, at a time when treason stalked through the land. They are human records of the amazing acts of men who schemed and strove and plotted to blind ninety million people. Then these men, with immense cunning, set themselves to work at a game that is old as history. They coined great fortunes for themselves from the mad passions and blind hatreds they had instilled into their fellow-men. We, who tried to expose these conspirators, were villified, threatened, hounded by the most powerful and unscrupulous band that ever organized itself to ruin a country and its people in the interest of a foreign race. Even to-night, as I write these lines, the plots proceed apace (October 22, 1915). Wall Street millionaires are calling on Congress to expend a billion and a quarter dollars in the coming year, most of it on armament. They have sent the war stocks skyward, Bethlehem Steel the leader, with a gain of 59 points in a single afternoon, for they expect huge dividends to be paid on the hundreds of millions that will flow into their pockets from the "National Defense." They have announced that they shall elect Elihu Root, the Wall Street corporation lawyer, as their President. England has deserted her ally, the Serb. The Germans are marching on Constantinople. Some plots have miscarried. Other war plots are brewing for the further enrichment of financiers. Shall we let them succeed, these fearful crimes planned by the men who, for a long year, have hoodwinked us, used us as their pawns-THE WAR PLOTTERS OF WALL STREET? CHARLES A. COLLMAN. |