EN ROUTE HOME--KAISERISM IN AMERICA
Our party was so numerous that we were compelled to charter a
special train to take us from Madrid to La Coruña, the port in
the extreme northwestern corner of Spain from which the _Infanta
Isabela_ was to sail.
Just before the train started, a Spanish gentleman from the
Foreign Office, who had courteously come to see us off, said to
me, "Do you know you have a Duke as engineer?" "The Duke of
Saragossa is going to take out your train." So we ran forward to
the engine and I shook hands with the Duke who was in blue
overalls.
This Duke of Saragossa, Grandee of Spain, often drives the engine
of the King's train. Why he engineered our train I do not know,
unless it was because of the rumours that German agents would try
to stop my journey home.
At any rate the Duke proved a most competent engineer, guiding us
with velvet touch through the steep inclines and sharp turns of
the Guadarrama mountains. At Venta de Baños his turn at the
engine ended and on my invitation he came to dine with us in the
dining car. He proved a most charming gentleman, speaking English
well. He said that his great ambition was to visit America and
see the big locomotives and the pretty girls. At dinner he was,
of course, dressed in his overalls and carried out the professional
touch by using clean cotton waste instead of a pocket handkerchief.
Arrived at La Coruña in the morning, carriages sent by the
Spanish government met us and the Mayor and the other officials
were most polite. The Mayor accompanied us on board ship next
day, giving to Mrs. Gerard a beautiful basket of flowers entwined
with ribbons of the colours of the City of La Coruña.
We found the _Infanta Isabela_ a clean splendid ship--her Captain
competent and kind. I cheerfully recommend her to any who wish a
safe voyage across the Atlantic during the war.
My stay in Havana was brief and I was soon en route northward
from Key West.
As our train came north through Florida there were crowds and
bands at the stations and at St. Augustine my eyes were delighted
by the sight of Frank Munsey and Ex-Senator Chauncey Depew.
At the station in Washington Secretary McAdoo met me. What a
splendid record of achievement is his since the war, and now with
the burden of all the railways in the country added to that of
finance I suppose in no country at war has one man so successfully
undertaken such gigantic tasks.
President Wilson was ill in bed but next day got up on purpose to
hear my report. I was with him for over an hour.
[Illustration: THE "INFANTA ISABELLA," ON WHICH AMBASSADOR GERARD
RETURNED FROM EUROPE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN HAVANA HARBOR,
MARCH, 1917]
The following day I arrived in New York, being met in Jersey
City by a committee headed by the celebrated lawyer, John B.
Stanchfield; Clarence Mackay, Herbert Swope (whose splendid
articles in the _New York World_ were the first warnings to
America and other countries respecting the ruthless submarine
warfare), United States Marshal Thomas D. McCarthy, State Senator
Foley, James J. Hoey,--a faithful trio of good friends who saw me
off for Denmark only a few months before. I was escorted to the
City Hall where I was welcomed by the Mayor. In a speech on the
steps of the City Hall I said:
"We are standing to-day very near the brink of
war, but I want to assure you that if we should be
drawn into the conflict it will be only after our
President has exhausted every means consistent
with upholding the honour and dignity of the
United States to keep us from war. I left Berlin
with a clear conscience, because I felt that
during all my stay there I had omitted nothing to
make for friendly relations and peace between the
two nations.
"I am very glad to-day to see on the list of this
Reception Committee the names of people of German
descent. It is but natural that citizens of German
descent in the beginning of the war should have
had a sentimental feeling toward Germany, that
they should have looked back through rose-coloured
glasses on that land which, however, they left
because they did not have equality of opportunity.
We read to-day in the newspapers for the first
time that there is a prospect that after the war
the Germans will be given an equal share in their
own government. I believe that in our hour of
trial we can rely upon the loyalty of our citizens
of German descent, and if they would follow me I
would not be afraid to go out with a regiment of
them and without any fear of being shot from
behind.
* * * * *
"The nation that stands opposite to us to-day has
probably no less than 12,000,000 men under arms. I
have seen the Germans take more prisoners in one
afternoon than there are men in the entire United
States Army.
"Does it not seem to you ridiculous that the two
States of New York and New Jersey should have more
chauffeurs in them than there are soldiers in our
army? My companions from the Twelfth Regiment that
have honoured me by coming here to-day, and more
men like them throughout the country, have done
what they can. But they can't do it all. There
must be a public sentiment if we are to maintain
ourselves as a nation. If we had a million men
under arms to-day we should not be near the edge
of war.
"Gentlemen, I have tried in Berlin to be, as the
Mayor has told you, an American Ambassador, and I
thank you because you, an audience of patriotic
Americans, by your presence here set your seal of
approval upon my conduct during the last two and a
half years."
I have never been able to understand why so many people did not
sooner realise what Kaiserism meant for us. But now, at last, the
nation understands that we must fight on until this menace of
military autocracy has vanished and that not until then will the
world enjoy a lasting peace.
Almost as soon as I was settled in New York I was drafted.
Drafted by a public curiosity which insisted on knowing
something about Germany and the war.
And so for me began a new life--that of a public speaker--I spoke
first in New York at a lunch at the Chamber of Commerce--war had
not then been declared and I was compelled to be careful--for
even then there seemed a fear of Germany, a foolish desire to
surrender all manhood to a fat neutrality.
On April 2nd came President Wilson's message demanding war. I was
in the opera house that night. Between the acts extras appeared.
I telephoned Swope of the _World_ who confirmed the news. While I
was receiving this information one of the directors of the
Metropolitan Opera Company came in the room. I told him what had
happened and asked if he was not going to do something--order the
news read from the stage--for example, and the "Star Spangled
Banner" played. He said, "No, the opera company is neutral."
I returned to the box where I was sitting and stepping to the
front called on the house to cheer President Wilson. There was,
for a moment, surprise at such unconventional action, but the
whole house soon broke into cheers.
Conventionalism was gone.
The opera was DeKoven's "Canterbury Pilgrims" and a few minutes
after the curtain rose on the last act Frau Ober, a German
singer, who was taking one of the principal parts, keeled over in
a faint,--rage, perhaps, that the Yankees were at last daring to
cheer, to assert themselves against the Kaiser!
As I spoke in Albany, Buffalo, Harrisburg, Trenton and Boston, in
Philadelphia, Providence and many times in New York and other
places, I noted always an eagerness to learn about Germany, the
war and foreign affairs. We Americans had travelled, but not with
our eyes open--"seeing, we saw not."
The first great, great question we faced was that of universal
service for the war--or the selective draft--again how farsighted
our President then proved himself. What would be our situation
now if we had tried to go to war under the volunteer system? This
question once solved, our President led us with a breadth of
vision, an efficiency, and on a scale commensurate with the size
of the undertaking in which we at last had become partners.
Perhaps we are a little over indulgent, however, in the treatment
of the German enemy alien within our gates. No American singer or
musician could travel about Germany at will, unwatched by the
police, collecting money from Americans to be used in propaganda,
or things much worse, against America. Americans in Germany are
compelled to report twice daily to the police and cannot leave
their homes at night. November 17, 1917--seven months after we
went to war with Germany--I met Hugo Schmidt, a director of the
Deutsche Bank, riding in Central Park. He lived at the German
Club, saw whom he liked and only reported to the police when he
changed his residence. In January 1918, he was finally interned.
Long before our break with Germany, American consuls and
officials were insulted in the street and in opera houses because
they made use of their own language, not at all because they were
taken for British for every one knew that all British had been
interned.
The wife of our naval attaché attended a reception presided over
by a German admiral's wife. She was presented to this high
personage by the wife of a German naval officer, who, in making
the presentation, spoke in English. The admiral's wife rebuked
both the wife of our attaché and the officer's wife for daring to
talk English. I am thankful to say that Mrs. Gherardi immediately
left the house to receive later the officially ordered apologies
of the admiral's wife.
And while Americans did not dare use their own language in Berlin
in time of peace between the two countries yet after the outbreak
of war, newspapers in the United States, printed in German, owned
by Germans and German sympathisers, dared to attack America and
her President.
The autocracy always hope to divide us, to make of us a Russia,
torn by Maximalists and Minimalists, by Militarists and
Bolsheviki and, consequently, impotent for war.
In travelling through the United States in August and September
of 1917, although I was on private business, I made speeches in
many cities, such as Minneapolis, and Helena, Billings, Butte and
Missoula in Montana, Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma in Washington,
Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and surrounding country, Los
Angeles, San Diego and Pasadena and then Milwaukee, Chicago and
Cleveland. In all this territory I found great enthusiasm, great
patriotism and a sincere desire to learn about Germany and the
war. But I found everywhere also the trail of Germany's poisonous
propaganda.
The great majority of our citizens of German-American descent
have been splendidly loyal to their country in this crisis of its
history. But the fact must be faced that there are those who, for
some unknown reason, still sympathise with the German Kaiser in
his war of aggression.
More unfortunately there are politicians in America who seek the
votes of those disaffected, and approach treason in doing so. In
all the history of sordid politics, there is nothing more
nauseating than the effort of these cheap politicians thus to
gratify their personal ambitions.
Their shameful identity is known to all. A generation from now
their own descendants will be applying to the courts for a change
of name.
If, when the test comes, it is found that the votes of these
disaffected citizens count for something in our elections, we
must find some means to disenfranchise them rather than have our
low politicians outbidding each other within the law in order to
get these votes.
Have we not had examples enough from Russia of what the slimy
bribe and the snaky propaganda can do?
In Chicago, where one Thompson is Mayor, there is a censorship of
moving picture films. The chief censor is Major Funkhouser. When
I was in Los Angeles, at the end of September, like all strangers
there, I visited movie-land to see the pictures made.
At the house of my college chum, Dr. Walter J. Barlow, I met the
beautiful and celebrated Mary Pickford.
In conversation she told me about Major Funkhouser, and how he
had refused an exhibition permit for one of her films called "The
Little American." Curious to see the film rejected by Chicago
officialdom, I asked Miss Pickford if she would have it run off
for my benefit. I could see nothing in the film that could hurt
the susceptibilities of any except the Germans with whom we are
now engaged in war!
Later the Fox Film Company informed me that their film called
"The Spy" and which deals with the adventures of an American who
is supposed to go to Germany to get a list of German spies and
agents in America, was refused the right of exhibition in Chicago
by this same Major Funkhouser. In this case the Fox Company
appealed in the courts and obtained from Judge Alschuler an
injunction preventing any one from interfering with the
exhibition of this film. The decision of Judge Alschuler was
affirmed on appeal.
And yet the mass of the people in Chicago are splendidly
patriotic as the record of Chicago for enlistment and Red Cross
and Liberty Loan shows.
When I spoke in the great Medinah Temple under the auspices of
the Hamilton Club, on October twenty-second, I was able to show
to the audience two German text-books used in the Chicago public
schools, stamped with the royal arms of Prussia. The books had
been approved by Ella Flagg Young, Superintendent of Schools, in
1914.
These books were furnished me by my friend, Anthony Czarnecki of
the _Chicago Daily News_ whom I first met in Berlin where he came
to do most excellent work for his paper. In one of these books is
printed the German patriotic song, The Watch on the Rhine ("Die
Wacht am Rhein"). What a howl there would have been if some
public school superintendent had selected for the schools under
her jurisdiction a text-book of English literature with the royal
arms of England stamped on the cover and "Rule Britannia"
prominently displayed inside!
These text-books were cleverly compiled to impress children at a
youthful age with a favourable idea of kings and emperors. In one
of these was an anecdote about Frederick the Great and a miller,
and in another, one about the Emperor Charlemagne and the
scholar, of course, making Frederick and Charlemagne appear as
good kindly people, and giving the impression that all kings and
emperors are beneficent beings. But no word is there in these
books quoting the present German Emperor's statement in which he
puts Frederick in the same class as the four other bloody
conquerors of history, Alexander, Julius Cæsar, Theodoric and
Napoleon, and says that where they failed in their dreams of
world conquest, his mailed fist will succeed. Why was not
Frederick the Great's statement printed in these books, his
admission that he engaged upon the Seven Years' War "in order to
be talked about"?
These books contained quotations from Goethe. Why did they not
contain Goethe's statement, "Amerika, du hast es besser."?
(America, you are better off). Or his prophecy about the
Prussians, "The Prussian was born a brute, and civilisation will
make him ferocious."
The only foreign language taught in the grammar schools of
Chicago is German. Parents are compelled to sign a statement in
which they answer the question as to whether they wish their
children to be taught German or not.
See how subtle this is! Doubtless if a Teuton parent answers that
he does not desire to have his children taught German the paid
agents of the German propaganda stir up feeling against these
Germans who have dared to refuse to have their children taught
the language of the fatherland.
And when a parent has once elected that his children shall be
taught German, not the principal of the school, not the district
superintendent, but only the head of all the Chicago school
system, on the application of the parent, can excuse the child,
during his or her school course, from further study of German.
Worst of all, however, is the Chicago official school speller, a
book printed under the direction and compiled by the school
authorities of Chicago. In this speller there is just one piece
of reading matter and that a fulsome eulogy of the present German
Emperor.
This is an account of an alleged incident of the Kaiser's school
days and the author concludes that the facts set forth (probably
untrue) show that the Kaiser as a boy had the "root of a fine
character in him," possessed "that chivalrous sense of fair play
which is the nearest thing to a religion" in boys of that age and
hated "meanness and favouritism." The Chicago Board of Education
end the eulogy by stating, "There is in him a fundamental bent
toward what is clean, manly and aboveboard."
"Chivalrous sense of fair play and hates meanness!" "Fundamental bent
toward what is clean, manly and aboveboard!" How about the enslavement
of women and girls in France, the use of poison gas, the deportations
of the Belgians, the sinking of the _Lusitania_ and the killing of
women and babies by Zeppelins and submarines.--Sickening!
A number of the books used in the public schools of New York have
so much in them favourable to kings and emperors, have so much of
German patriotism and fatherland, that the hand of the propagandist
must have had something to do with the adoption of these books.
Of course, it is only in the books of the advanced courses that
propaganda appears. It is not possible, however clever the
author, to incorporate much propaganda in simple exercises, or in
such sentences as "Have you seen the sister of my cousin's
wife?" or "The bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account
of the rain."
But the following extracts from books used in the public schools
of New York should not be without interest to those who know that
the impressions given to persons under the age of sixteen or
seventeen are the impressions that often persist through life.
For instance in the "Deutscher Lehrgang, First Year," by E.
Prokosch of the University of Texas, "Die Wacht am Rhein" is
printed with music.
I should be very much surprised to hear that the "Star Spangled
Banner," with music, had ever been printed in any school book in
Germany.
On page 109, of this book, there is an article in German
entitled, "The German Constitution." It begins with the sentence,
"The German Empire is a union State like the United States of
America." How far the German Empire is from the United States of
America in political liberty can be answered by any German
immigrant or Jewish merchant who has voted under the circle
system or been denied access to court because of his religion!
The second paragraph commences with the sentence, "The German
Kaiser is not monarch of the Empire. He only is President of the
Union." I am quite sure that if the Kaiser ever saw this sentence
he would very soon convince the author that he was something more
than the President. The article continues:
"He is the over-commander of the army. Through him is war
declared and peace made, but he can declare war only with the
consent of the Bundesrath."
The Bundesrath had nothing to say about the commencement of this
war. They never voted on the question. The German Constitution,
as a matter of fact, gives the Kaiser the right to declare war
himself, providing that the war is a defensive war. In 1914, the
Kaiser first announced, without presenting any evidence, that
Germany had been attacked, and then declared war on the strength
of this statement, never since substantiated.
The text book writer adds: "The people are represented in the
Reichstag as the American people are represented in Congress." If
the American people were represented in Congress under the same
unfair representation from which the German people suffer, there
would soon be a revolution in this country. The districts which
elect members to the Reichstag have not been changed since 1872,
so that millions of Germans are not represented at all in the
Reichstag.
"Professor" Prokosch remarks: "The Bundesrath is like the Senate
of the United States. It is composed of representatives of the
particular States."
Of course, the only _difference_ is that our Senators are elected
by the people and the members of the Bundesrath are appointed by
the ruling kings and princes of the German states and vote
exactly as they are told by these rulers.
This is only to show how carelessly, if not maliciously,
Professor E. Prokosch of the University of Texas and his helper,
C. M. Purin of the State Normal School at Milwaukee, have handled
the German Constitution, doubtless to give the impression to
school children in America that the German empire instead of
being a despotic autocracy, is ruled in very much the same manner
as our own republic.
Frederick the Great, who admitted that he went to war "in order
to be talked about," who boasted that he had only one cook and a
hundred spies, who was one of the most tyrannical kings of all
history, has a whole book dedicated to him for use in the Public
Schools of New York. Frederick Betz, head of the Department of
Modern Languages in the East High School of Rochester, New York,
is the author of a book called, "About a Great King and Others."
The author in the preface states that the anecdotes which he
prints do not narrate the story of the lives of these famous
Germans, but, nevertheless, give glimpses of what they did and
may help to show why the Germans held them in such high esteem.
The book contains four anecdotes about King Frederick William I,
the father of Frederick the Great, a villainous king who was
prevented from executing his own son only by the protests of the
other kings of Europe.
Then follow forty-nine anecdotes about Frederick the Great, all
of them, of course, revealing him as a good king and a popular
character; eight anecdotes about Beethoven, Mozart, Schiller, and
Lessing, and the remainder of the book is made up of one
anecdote about Queen Louise, one about Field Marshal Blücher,
eighteen anecdotes about Bismarck, three about the Emperor
William I, and three about the present Emperor.
The booklet entitled "German Poems for Memorizing," with music to
some of the poems, edited by Oscar Burkhard, Assistant Professor
of German in the University of Minnesota, contains a number of
German patriotic poems and prints the "Wacht am Rhein" twice,
once in the text and once with music. "Deutschland über Alles" is
printed twice in the same way.
I should like to be present at the trial in the secret court in
Germany of a schoolmaster who dared to teach his pupils to sing
the "Star Spangled Banner" or the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Prokosch and Purin seem to be popular with the Board of
Education, for they are represented by another book called
"Conversation and Reading Book," which is full of stories and
patriotic anecdotes. Charlemagne, Barbarossa and Frederick the
Great are all exhibited as great men to be emulated. There is a
picture of the coronation of Charlemagne which represents the
Pope about to place the iron crown on Charlemagne's head while
the Deity, attended by seraphim and cherubim, floating on clouds
overhead, lends his presence to the ceremony; only another
example of how the Prussians believe that God is the tribal Deity
of their nation who takes a personal interest in all their
ceremonies and wars.
A long article appears in these books entitled, "The Germans in
the United States." It implies that William Penn had no success
until he called in Dr. Daniel Pastorius of Frankfort. Among the
bits of history set forth the author alleges that, in 1760, there
were more than a hundred thousand Germans in Pennsylvania, and
that on account of their importance in this State it was proposed
to make German the official language, the proposition being
beaten by only one vote! The article says further: "The only
reason why the contentious Puritans succeeded in making English
the language of the country and in impressing their character on
its politics was because the German immigrants were poor,
downtrodden people."
But it is when we come to the description of the War of the
Revolution and other wars that the authors really turn loose. We
learn that Washington's bodyguard was composed of Germans and
that Baron von Steuben apparently reorganised the American army,
so that Washington moved Congress to name General von Steuben,
Inspector General, and to make his position almost independent.
The writers say that the siege of Yorktown and surrender of the
English army was in a great part the work of Steuben.
I think that other historians might have something to say on this
subject. The authors fail to tell that Baron von Steuben, a
soldier of fortune, who sold his services to the highest bidder,
was hired to join the American army by a Frenchman, Beaumarchais,
who sympathised with the United States.
Attention is also called to the fact that 190,000 Germans fought
against the South and the authors observe in conclusion:
"If to-day the United States of America is a power
of world political importance, if its industry,
agriculture and commerce betoken a powerful danger
commercially over the old Europe, so have they to
thank the political power and the methodical
perseverance of the Anglo-Saxon immigrants from
England as well as the industry, the bravery and
the cheerfulness of the Germans who have placed
themselves politically in the service of the Anglo
Saxons."
It is noteworthy that of the four books I have set forth as
examples, three apparently have been produced since the
commencement of the World War.
Does not all this show the hand of the German propaganda--the
same hand which sends from Berlin every year a large sum of money
to the German colonists in the southern states of Brazil in order
that the German schools may be maintained there, German ideas
inculcated and the population prevented from losing its German
identity?
From the time of the visit of Prince Henry to this country the
German system of propaganda has been at work smoothing out
traditional differences and feuds between Germans and doing its
best to make Germans from Bavaria, Saxony and Hanover and
Württemberg, and Hesse forget that their countries were conquered
by the Prussians in 1866.
When Prince Henry was here on his trip through the country he
spent very little time with Americans. He was chiefly occupied
with German-Americans and German-American Societies.
Prince Henry's visit to the United States in 1902 was primarily
to attend the christening of the racing yacht of the Emperor
which was being built in this country. One of the members of his
suite was von Tirpitz, then secretary of state of the German
Navy. After having been officially received by President
Roosevelt he visited Annapolis, Brooklyn Navy Yard and West Point
and then toured the middle west stopping at twenty cities between
New York and St. Louis. During the entire trip he continually
asked questions of all the delegates sent with him by the U. S.
Government, such as for instance facts about the shops at
Altoona, the coal mines, farms, factories and handsome women!
At every station he was met by the Mayor of the city and the
German Societies, and greeted with German music. The Deutscher
Kriege Verein, a German Society consisting of military veterans,
always had a place of honour in the celebrations. In many cities
the German-American citizens gave the Prince albums or souvenirs
in which were engraved pretty pledges of devotion to the
Fatherland. For instance in Chicago, the German Roman Catholic
Society presented the following address: "The German Roman
Catholic Staats-Verband of Illinois begs your Royal Highness to
permit it to express its great joy for your visit to the United
States and to assure your Royal Highness of its respect and
regard."
"We extend to your Royal Highness our heartiest
greeting as the illustrious guest of this country
and _the envoy of the wise and noble ruler of our
Fatherland_, whom the world recognises and
respects as prince of peace and as the
representative of a great and mighty nation that
by its own power has united its people and
achieved its present prominent position among
nations of the earth.
"May the Almighty grant that the visit of your
Royal Highness bear a rich fruit, that rulers and
their people may join together and thereby promote
peace, harmony and good-will throughout the world!
May God grant this prayer!"
Everywhere the Prince went he was surrounded by German-American
and German influences. In St. Louis, where the Prince spent about
three and a half hours, the German-Americans gave him a great
reception in the Grand Hall and lunch at the St. Louis Club which
was attended by many Germans. In Chicago, a reception was given
after the Mayor's banquet, in the First Regiment Armory, and
attended by ten thousand Germans. The following day in Chicago he
went to a large luncheon at the Germania Club. In Milwaukee the
officers of the Deutscher Kriegebund gave a reception at the
Exposition where ten thousand German-Americans cheered the
Prince, and also a luncheon at the Hotel Pfister where many
German-American officials were invited.
The speeches throughout had the same tone, those of the
German-Americans expressing their respect for the Fatherland and
those of the Prince spurring on loyalty in the hearts of the
German-Americans. The Prince's speech in the Armory in Chicago is
quite typical. In reply to a speech made by a German-American,
the Prince said:
_"You have left your Fatherland, but if you still have some love
for the Fatherland then I ask you to give three cheers for the
one who has sent me here as the representative of Prussia to
bring this greeting--the German Emperor and King of Prussia."_
In another speech which the Prince began with "Mr. Chairman and
Fellow-Germans," he said: "I would like to say that the Germans
in this country have done a great deal for the literature and
science of this country and I hope they will continue in this
good work." The whole attitude of the Prince seemed to be one of
benevolence to his "Fellow-Germans" and personal interest in
them. Wherever the Prince discovered a German wearing the Iron
Cross in the crowd, he would ask an aide to bring the man up to
him so that he could shake hands and converse with him.
Talking with Prince Henry one day before the war he told me he
regretted that on his trip to America he had seen so little of
the Americans. He said: "You know the Ambassador kept me always
with the Germans and German Societies." I suppose the poor Prince
did not himself know what was the real object of his visit. But
undoubtedly his shrewd trip manager and the clever propagandists
who accompanied him knew only too well.
It is hard to understand why any German-Americans should take
sides with German autocracy. There are many merchants of
Frankfort and Hamburg and Bremen and the great industrial towns
of Germany who do not approve of the cruelties practised in this
war and many of these will leave Germany as soon as peace is
concluded.
Any one had a right to sympathise, to side with Germany, before
our entrance into the war. But now what the lawyers call "the
time of repentance" has gone by, there is no middle course and
every citizen must declare himself American or be thought a
traitor.
It is hard to understand what the pro-Germans in our country
want. They left Germany because of a lack of opportunity there,
because of their dislike for military service under Prussian
conditions, because of the caste system which kept them under the
heel of autocracy and because here every avenue of business, and
social and political advancement is thrown wide open for them and
their children. And I am quite sure that if one of these
prosperous Germans were deprived of the money that he has won
here, given back the rags and wooden shoes in which he landed and
told that he was on his way to Germany, no wild animal in all the
mountains and swamps of the United States would scratch and bite
and kick and squawk more vigorously than he would. These
German-Americans do not want to be sent back to their Kaiser and
their fatherland!
Certainly we Americans will not stop the war nor surrender our
rights nor invite the invasion of our shores because of their
stubborn devotion to a country which they were so glad to
abandon. We must appeal to their sons and their daughters--to
those who have become part and parcel of our nation, to see that
these obstinate old codgers do not persist in an attitude which
may end in creating a prejudice against those of German descent
in America.
Those of us who are of Scotch or Irish or English descent can
urge this with greater insistence because our ancestors were much
nearer, in 1766, to the English fatherland, than German-Americans
are to the German Empire and these ancestors did not hesitate in
that year to turn against Great Britain on a mere question of
commerce--did not hesitate again, in 1812, to face Great Britain
in arms on a question of sea rights; and on account of this we
expect all those of German-American descent to stand unreservedly
by their adopted country,--forced into war by an autocracy that
not only murdered our women and children in defiance of
international law and common humanity but which threatens, if
successful in this war, to invade our shores.
Do these stubborn German-Americans think that if a German force
should occupy America their position would be any better than
that of the other citizens of this country, that they would be
put to rule over the rest of us and allowed to save their goods
and houses from the indemnities that would be put upon this
nation in case of our defeat?
Let me tell them one thing and that is, if by any remote
possibility the Germans did gain a foothold in this country
through the aid of those of German descent here, before we, of
other descent in this country submitted to German rule we would
attend to every traitor!
We did not lure any citizens of foreign nations to our shores.
They came here to escape serfdom and starvation and forced
military service in an army where they could never be officers.
We sent them no excursion tickets when they came here as
half-starved peasants. We opened to them the doors of hospitality
and of opportunity, and we do not propose that they shall pay us
like the frozen snake in Æsop's fables.
Some of our finest citizens came from Germany in 1848 after the
failure of the revolution against autocracy. Where do you think
that General Siegel and Carl Schurz would stand if they were
alive to-day?
The daughter of General Siegel has answered in giving her son, on
whom she was dependent, to the army of the United States, saying,
"His grandfather fought under Lincoln for liberty and he must
take his place to-day in the great fight for freedom."
We are too good-natured, too soft, too easy in this country. Our
great ex-President, that splendid American and patriot, Theodore
Roosevelt, said not long ago of one of our United States
Senators, if that Senator were a German and acted in Germany the
way he acted in America as an American he would be put at digging
a trench. I do not like to differ with Theodore Roosevelt, but
from my knowledge of German conditions during this war, I know
that if this Senator acted as a German in Germany as he has been
acting as an American in America, he would not be put by the
Germans at digging a trench but that with the ten bullets of a
firing squad in his chest he would be filling one!
Are these Germans in America imbued with the belief that the
German Kaiser has been sent by heaven to rule the German Empire
and bend the world under German "Kultur"? President Wilson, in
one of his notes in 1916, referred to the German government as
"the mouthpiece of the people." A German conservative newspaper,
I think the _Tages Zeitung_, commenting upon this said that "the
German Emperor is not our 'mouthpiece' but our truly beloved
Emperor sent to us by God."
Does the German-American ever stop to consider how the
Hohenzollerns obtained possession of the Mark of Brandenburg, the
basis of modern Prussia? Five hundred years ago the Hohenzollerns
were Counts of Nuremberg, then as now a rich trading city.
Sigismund III wanted ready money and this was advanced by the
Hohenzollerns, Counts of Nuremberg, on the security of the mark
of Brandenburg pledged as collateral to the loan which totalled
only $100,000. Later the Counts of Nuremberg foreclosed their
mortgage and took possession of the Mark of Brandenburg and have
held it ever since.
Does a German-American in this country who has placed a mortgage
on his house think when he fails to pay the interest or
principal of the mortgage that the man who has sold him out was
sent by God?
This calls to mind one of the great failures of the war--the
failure of religion in the German Empire. I attended a great
service, in the Protestant cathedral of Berlin, held to celebrate
the five hundredth anniversary of the occasion when the first
Hohenzollern, having foreclosed his mortgage, entered into
possession of Brandenburg. The Emperor sat in an elevated gallery
and across the great cathedral Dr. Dryander, the Court preacher,
mounted the pulpit to deliver an eulogy on the Hohenzollern rule
and the Hohenzollerns.
What an opportunity then if Dr. Dryander, lifting an accusing
finger, had spoken of the rivers of innocent blood sacrificed to
the Prussian Moloch of conquest, if he had demanded in the name
of Christianity that the barbarities of Prussian rule should
cease, that the Belgian workingmen, dragged from their homes to
manufacture shells to be used against their own brothers, sons
and fathers in Prussian factories, should be sent back; if he had
demanded that the twenty thousand women and girls driven into
worse than slavery from Lille and Tourcoing and Roubaix in the
North of France should be given their freedom once more; if he
had spoken of the whole nation of the Armenians, of the Syrians,
of the Jews, massacred by the Turks while the German Generals in
command of the Turkish armies stood by; if he had denounced the
invasion of Belgium, the breaking of treaties, the starvation of
Poland, the horrors of poisoned gas and the cruelties exercised
upon those of the opposing armies unfortunate enough to become
prisoners of the Germans.
But no, Dr. Dryander droned on. No pastor in Germany has dared to
risk his state-paid salary to stand up for Christianity and the
right.
The Prussians cannot get away from the belief that they have a
sort of personal God who takes a direct and kindly interest in
their destinies, especially in the ordering of their bloody
battles. Countless sermons were preached through Germany during
the war, but the most ridiculous was that of a Protestant pastor
in Berlin early in the war. He announced the title of his sermon
as, "Is God neutral?", and in his fourteenthly proved to his own
satisfaction, that the Deity, abandoning neutrality, had declared
Himself unequivocally for the success of German arms!