II

The world has been hurt within these past three years as it was never

hurt before. In the gloomy and accusing procession of infinite sorrow

and pain which was started on that thrice accursed day of July, 1914,

the hurt inflicted on Americans of German descent takes its tragically

rightful place.

The iron has entered our souls. We have been wantonly robbed of

invaluable possessions which have come down to us through the

centuries; we have been rendered ashamed of that in which we took

pride; we have been made the enemies of those of our own blood; our

very names carry the sound of a challenge to the world.

Surely we have all too valid a title to rank amongst those most

bitterly aggrieved by Prussianism, and to align ourselves in the very

forefront of those who in word and deed are fighting to rid the world

for ever of that malignant growth.

Heaven knows, I do not want, by anything I may be saying or doing, to

add one ounce to the burden of the world's execration which rests

already with crushing weight upon the rulers of Germany and their

misguided people. Nor do I seek forgiveness for my German birth by

demonstrative zeal in action or speech.

I was and am proud of the great inheritance which came to me as a

birthright and of the illustrious contributions which the German

people have made to the imperishable assets of the world. Until the

outbreak of the war in 1914, I maintained close and active personal

and business relations in Germany. I was well acquainted with a number

of the leading personages of the country. I served in the German army

thirty years ago. I took an active interest in furthering German art

in America.

I do not apologize for, nor am I ashamed of, my German birth. But I am

ashamed--bitterly and grievously ashamed--of the Germany which stands

convicted before the high tribunal of the world's public opinion of

having planned and willed war; of the revolting deeds committed in

Belgium and northern France, of the infamy of the _Lusitania_ murders,

of innumerable violations of The Hague convention and the law of

nations, of abominable and perfidious plotting in friendly countries

and shameless abuse of their hospitality, of crime heaped upon crime

in hideous defiance of the laws of God and men.

I cherish the memories of my youth, but these very memories make me

cry out in pain and wrath against those who have befouled the

spiritual soil of the old Germany, in which they were rooted.

I revere the high ideals and fine traditions of that old Germany and

the time-honoured conceptions of right conduct which my parents and

the teachers of my early youth bade me treasure throughout life, but

all the more burning is my resentment, all the more deeply grounded my

hostility, against the Prussian caste who trampled those ideals,

traditions and conceptions in the dust.

Long before the war, I had come to look upon Prussianism as amongst

the deadliest poison growths that ever sprang from the soil of the

spirit of man.

When the war broke out in Europe, when Belgium was invaded, I searched

my conscience and my judgment in sorrow and anguish, the powerful

voice of blood arguing against the still, small voice of right.

And it became clear to me to the point of solemn and unshakable

conviction that Prussianism, in mad infatuation, had committed the

crowning sin of outraging and defying the conscience of the world and

of challenging right to mortal combat against might, and that the

cause which the Allies were defending was our cause, because it was

the cause of peace, humanity, justice, and liberty (aye, liberty, even

though Russia, then under autocratic rule, happened to be arrayed on

that side, and even though diplomats and rulers made that sacred cause

the basis and excuse for territorial barter and trade and spoils

hunting).

In accordance with this conviction--a conviction that is unshakable--I

have acted and spoken ever since, but I did not feel that it would be

either right or fitting for me publicly to state and agitate my views

so long as our country was neutral.

Now, America, the never-defeated, has thrown her sword into the scale,

because to do so was indispensable for the vindication of the basic

and elementary principles of right and peace among the nations, no

less than for our own honour and our own safety, the preservation of

our institutions and our very destiny.

To co-operate towards the successful conclusion of the war is the one

and supreme duty of every American, regardless of birth, of sympathies

and of political views. The American of German descent who, in this

time of test and trial, does not serve the land of his adoption with

the utmost measure of single-minded devotion and with every ounce of

his power, perjured himself when he took his oath of allegiance and

proves himself guilty of treacherous duplicity.

Thank Heaven! the number of those lukewarm in their patriotism, or

failing in loyalty, is very small indeed, far too small to affect the

record of Americans of German birth for good citizenship and service

to the country in peace and war.

There is abundant evidence that the overwhelming majority, indeed all

but an insignificant minority, meant what they said when they swore

full and sole allegiance to America, that they will prove themselves

wholly worthy of the high privilege of citizenship and of the

generous trust of their native fellow-citizens, and that they will

not fail or falter under any test whatsoever.

_We will not permit the blood in our veins to drown the conscience in

our breast. We will heed the call of honour beyond the call of race._

We will wear as a badge of honour the abuse and spite of those who

place another cause, whatever it be, above the Nation's cause and who

see hypocrisy or hidden motives behind the plain profession of

unconditional loyalty on the part of the American of foreign birth,

because unconditional American loyalty is not in them.

Yet, it is not enough for us Americans of German descent to do our

duty by our country and fellow-citizens, however fully and

unreservedly, if we do it in resigned and oppressed silence. I believe

we should speak out. We must give voice to our unflinching loyalty and

to our deep conviction of the justice of America's cause.

It is hard indeed for us to arraign publicly the country from which

we sprang and to turn against our own kith and kin, however deep our

detestation of their wrongdoing under the spiritual and actual sway of

the Prussian caste and however sincere our allegiance to America. It

will be easily understood by all fair-minded men that right-thinking

persons will shrink from so speaking and acting as to lay themselves

open to the accusation of being time-servers or popularity seekers,

and to expose their motives to misconstruction.

These scruples are honourable, and they are felt by many whose

patriotic loyalty and devotion are beyond all question. But, to my

thinking, they are stamped out by the iron tread of the times.

I believe that we should speak out, we Americans of German birth,

because we have been misrepresented to our fellow-citizens and to the

world by a small minority of professional spokesmen and pernicious

agitators, by no means all of German birth.

We must protect the German name, as far as it is in our keeping, in

America, if, alas, we cannot protect it elsewhere.

It has always, and rightly, been an honoured name here, and those who

bore it have ever done their full share for the common weal, in the

works of peace no less than in every crisis of the Nation's history.

Let us do what in us lies to preserve the names we bear in honour and

good standing amongst our fellow-citizens.

I believe that we should speak out, because our voices may reach the

ear and the conscience of the German people when no other voices can,

and because they _will_ reach the ear of its rulers. These, I know,

counted upon the moral, if not the actual, support of the German-born

in America to the extent, at least, of preventing our joining the war,

and now, when we have joined, they count upon that support to agitate

for an inconclusive and unrighteous peace.

I believe that we should speak out to convince our native-born

fellow-citizens that our fundamental conceptions of right and wrong

are like theirs, that _the taint is not in the German blood, but in

the system of rulership_, that we are with them and of them

wholeheartedly, single-mindedly and unreservedly; because if we failed

in conveying to them that conviction in the hour of our common

country's stress and trial, there would ensue the calamity of a

spiritual, if not an actual, breach between them and us which it would

take a generation to heal.