I speak as one who has seen the spirit of the Prussian governing class
at work from close by, having at its disposal and using to the full
practically every agency for moulding the public mind.
I have watched it proceed with relentless persistency and profound
cunning to instil into the nation the demoniacal obsession of
power-worship and world-dominion, to modify and pervert the
mentality--indeed the very fibre and moral substance--of the German
people, a people which until misled, corrupted and systematically
poisoned by the Prussian ruling caste, was and deserved to be an
honoured, valued and welcome member of the family of nations.
I have hated that spirit ever since it came within my ken many years
ago; hated it all the more as I saw it ruthlessly pulling down a
thing which was dear to me--the old Germany to which I was linked by
ties of blood, by fond memories and cherished sentiments.
The difference in the degree of guilt as between the German people and
their Prussian or Prussianized rulers and leaders for the monstrous
crime of this war and the atrocious barbarism of its conduct is the
difference between the man who, acting under the influence of a
poisonous drug, runs amuck in mad frenzy and the unspeakable
malefactor who administered that drug, well knowing and fully
intending the ghastly consequences which were bound to follow.
The world fervently longs for peace. But there can be no peace
answering to the true meaning of the word--no peace permitting the
nations of the earth, great and small, to walk unarmed and
unafraid--until the teaching and the leadership of the apostles of an
outlaw creed shall have become discredited and hateful in the sight
of the German people; until that people shall have awakened to a
consciousness of the unfathomable guilt of those whom they have
followed into calamity and shame; until a mood of penitence and of a
decent respect for the opinions of mankind shall have supplanted the
sway of what President Wilson has so trenchantly termed "truculence
and treachery."
God strengthen the conscience and the understanding, the will and the
power of the German people so that they may find the only way which
will give to the world an early peace, the only road which, in time,
will lead Germany back into the family of nations from which it is now
an outcast.
From each successive visit to Germany for twenty-five years I came
away more appalled by the sinister transmutation Prussianism had
wrought amongst the people and by the portentous menace I recognized
in it for the entire world.
It had given to Germany unparalleled prosperity, beneficent and
advanced social legislation, and not a few other things of value, but
it had taken in payment the soul of the race. _It had made a "devil's
bargain."_
And when this war broke out in Europe I knew that the issue had been
joined between the powers of brutal might and insensate ambition on
the one side and the forces of humanity and liberty on the other;
between darkness and light.
Many there were at that time--and amongst them men for whose character
I had high respect and whose motives were beyond any possible
suspicion--who saw their own and America's duty in strict neutrality,
mentally and actually, but personally I believed from the beginning of
the war, whether we liked all the elements of the Allies' combination
or not--and I certainly did not like the Russia of the Czars--that the
cause of the Allies was America's cause.
I believed that this was no ordinary war between peoples for a
question of national interest, or even national honour, but a
conflict between fundamental principles, aims and ideas. And so
believing I was bound to feel that the natural lines of race, blood
and kinship could not be the determining lines for one's attitude and
alignment, but that each man, regardless of his origin, had to decide
according to his judgment and conscience on which side was the right
and on which was the wrong and take his stand accordingly, whatever
the wrench and anguish of the decision. And thus I took my stand three
years ago.
But whatever one's views and feelings, whatever the country of one's
birth or kin, only one course was left for all those claiming the
privilege of American citizenship when after infinite forbearance the
President decided that our duty, honour and safety demanded that we
take up arms against the Imperial German Government, and by action of
Congress the cause and the fight against that Government were declared
our cause and our fight.
The duty of loyal allegiance and faithful service to his country,
even unto death, rests, of course, upon every American. But, if it be
possible to speak of a comparative degree concerning what is the
highest as it is the most elementary attribute of citizenship, that
duty may almost be said to rest with an even more solemn and
compelling obligation upon Americans of foreign origin than upon
native Americans.
For we Americans of foreign antecedents are here not by the accidental
right of birth, but by our own free choice for better or for worse.
We are your fellow-citizens because we made solemn oath of allegiance
to America. Accepting that oath as given in good faith you have opened
to us in generous trust the portals of American opportunity and
freedom, and have admitted us to membership in the family of
Americans, giving us equal rights in the great inheritance which has
been created by the blood and the toil of your ancestors, asking
nothing from us in return but decent citizenship and adherence to
those ideals and principles which are symbolized by the glorious flag
of America.
Woe to the foreign-born American who betrays the trust which you have
reposed in him!
Woe to him who considers his American citizenship merely as a
convenient garment to be worn in fair weather but to be exchanged for
another one in time of storm and stress!
Woe to the German-American, so called, who, in this sacred war for a
cause as high as any for which ever people took up arms, does not feel
a solemn urge, does not show an eager determination to be in the very
forefront of the struggle; does not prove a patriotic jealousy, in
thought, in action and in speech to rival and to outdo his native-born
fellow-citizen in devotion and in willing sacrifice for the country of
his choice and adoption and sworn allegiance, and of their common
affection and pride.
As Washington led Americans of British blood to fight against Great
Britain, as Lincoln called upon Americans of the North to fight their
very brothers of the South, so Americans of German descent are now
summoned to join in our country's righteous struggle against a people
of their own blood, which, under the evil spell of a dreadful
obsession, and, Heaven knows! through no fault of ours, has made
itself the enemy of this peace-loving Nation, as it is the enemy of
peace and right and freedom throughout the world.
To gain America's independence, to defeat oppression and tyranny, was
indeed to gain a great cause.
To preserve the Union, to eradicate slavery, was perhaps a greater
still.
To defend the very foundations of liberty and humanity, the very
groundwork of fair dealing between nations, the very basis of
peaceable living together among the peoples of the earth against the
fierce and brutal onslaught of ruthless, lawless, faithless might; to
spend the lives and the fortunes of this generation so that our
descendants may be freed from the dreadful calamity of war and the
fear of war, so that the energies and billions of treasure now devoted
to plans and instruments of destruction may be given henceforth to
fruitful works of peace and progress and to the betterment of the
conditions of the people--that is the highest cause for which any
people ever unsheathed its sword.
He who shirks the full measure of his duty and allegiance in that
noblest of causes, be he German-American, Irish-American, or any other
hyphenated American, be he I.W.W. or Socialist or whatever the
appellation, does not deserve to stand amongst Americans or, indeed,
amongst free men anywhere.
He who tries, secretly or overtly, to thwart the declared will and aim
of the Nation in this holy war is a traitor, and a traitor's fate
should be his.