We submitted to countless outrages (see extract from Senator
Chamberlain’s speech under “England Threatens United States”); we
made it unpleasant for native Americans who determined to send
non-contraband goods across the seas; approved England’s assumption
of dictatorial control of the commerce of Holland and Scandinavia and
held that Germany was equally our enemy as England’s on the ground
that in using her submarines to sink merchant vessels feeding England
she had violated our rights to the free use of the seas.
In thus abandoning cardinal principles which made us a great nation
and recognizing as effective, legal and justified, England’s blockade
of neutral nations, her right to confiscate non-contraband goods,
to search and deprive Red Cross surgeons of their instruments,
rifle our mail, remove American citizens from neutral vessels and
incarcerate them, prevent Red Cross supplies from reaching the civil
population and to do all the things we said she should not do, we
have surrendered to Great Britain rights, powers and privileges that
can hardly be justified unless we are about to dissolve our political
institutions and merge ourselves with England as one people--two
souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.
The point is that future wars will not be decided by the usual
engines of war, but by the starvation of the civil population;
this invests the nation having the largest fleet with a terrible
weapon of annihilation; it makes England the arbiter of nations--it
compels us to compact our own terrible power of destruction, for in
making food the sine qua non of victory, fate has given us a factor
of far-reaching importance. And how will a nation menaced with
extinction by famine retaliate? Will the inevitable consequence be
that the nation so threatened will meet starvation with the subtle
poison germs of =a malignant plague=?
=Brest-Litovsk Treaty.=--It is an approved trick of political
strategy to raise a hue and cry over one matter in order to divert
attention from another, and by this token to accuse one’s enemies
of treachery, baseness and all the sins in the calendar with a
professed feeling of righteous indignation. Thus the Brest-Litovsk
treaty between Germany and Russia, when the former was in a
position to impose her terms as conqueror upon its beaten foe, was
made to appear as an act of unexampled oppression. In the light
of the terms ultimately imposed upon Germany by the Paris Peace
Treaty, it is interesting to examine the cardinal features of the
Brest-Litovsk treaty. Under its terms as revised by the three
supplementary agreements signed in Berlin in August, 1918, several
weighty concessions were made to Russia which insured her routes
of trade and free ports in the Baltic provinces which were given
their independence in accordance with century-long aspirations and
revolutionary movements. Germany dropped her Caucasus claims and
demanded that Russia should recognize the independence of Georgia,
Finland, Ukrania, Poland, Esthonia and Livonia. Russia, desiring
to assure herself of the rich territory with the naptha fields of
Baku, Germany supported the wish on condition that Russia pledge
herself to place a portion of the oil production at the disposal of
Germany and its allies. The total indemnity levied was 6,000,000,000
marks ($1,500,000,000) which Russia undertakes to pay, all sums lost
by Germans up to July 1, 1917, through revolutionary confiscatory
legislation being included. Independent courts were provided for
the adjudication of claims and one-sixth of the indemnity was
shifted to Finland and the Ukraine jointly. This was reputed to
be the oppressor’s toll unheard of in history--no milch cows, no
horses, no surrender of the instruments of industry, no seizure of
strictly Russian territory, independence for all states that had been
struggling for independence through long centuries, no occupied zones.
“=Bombing Maternity Hospitals.=”--Nominally a favorite occupation of
the enemy throughout the war. The following was written by the late
Richard Harding Davis in the Metropolitan Magazine for November,
1915: “So highly trained now are the aviators, so highly perfected
the aeroplane that each morning in squadrons they take flight, to
meet hostile aircraft, to destroy a munition factory, or, =if they
are Germans, a maternity hospital=. At sunset, like homing pigeons,
in safety they return to roost.”
=Creel and the “Sisson Documents.”=--George Creel, a Denver
politician, was appointed head of the Committee of Public Information
pending the war, and was practically in control of the American press
and the propaganda work. Exercising almost unlimited authority and
directing general publicity at home and in Europe, including the
presentation of war films, many of the oppressive measures against
the liberal press are justly charged to his account, at the same time
that numerous measures inaugurated under his direction attracted
widespread notoriety. Among others, the bureau issued to the American
press the notorious “Sisson documents.” They consisted of a series
of documents to prove that Lenine and Trotzky, heads of the Russian
Soviet government, had taken German money and were, first and last,
German agents. The New York “Evening Post” was quick to discern the
forgery--they are said to have been written in London, translated
into Russian in New York by two Russians and sent to Russia, where
they were “discovered.” For pointing out the internal evidence of
their incredibility contained in the papers Mr. Creel charged the
paper with being guilty “of the most extraordinary disservice” to the
government of the United States and the nation’s cause; claiming that
it had impugned the good faith of the government and exposed itself
to “the charge of having given aid and comfort to the enemies of the
United States in an hour of national crisis.” The ultimate end was
that the famous Sisson documents were proved to be clumsy forgeries
and Mr. Creel subsequently claimed for them no more than that they
made a good story.
The Creel bureau cost the government about $6,000,000, and its
affairs were found to be in hopeless confusion, according to
official reports made to Congress, Creel being charged with gross
negligence in handling the government’s funds. In June, 1919, frauds
in the handling of war films, involving huge sums of money and “the
complicity of high officials” were charged in Congress. Mr. Creel’s
connection with the Sisson documents places him in no flattering
light. In reply to a letter of protest against the publicity of the
Sisson documents and the use made of them, he wrote: “Of course, you
are entitled to your opinion, but I warn you it seems to border on
sedition.” While this bureau flagrantly compromised the reputation of
the government and the American people by a piece of wicked fiction,
to deny the authenticity of the Sisson documents was sedition.
=Cromberger, Johann.=--A German printer who as early as 1538
established a printing office in the City of Mexico.
=Custer, General George A.=--Famous American cavalry leader in
the Civil War, and the hero of the battle of the Little Big Horn,
Dakota, in which he and his command were destroyed by the Sioux
Indians, June 25, 1876. Of German descent. Frederick Whittaker in “A
Complete Life of General George Custer” (Sheldon & Co., New York,
1876) says: “George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio,
December 5, 1839. Emanuel H. Custer, father of the General, was born
in Cryssoptown, Alleghany County, Md., December 10, 1806. The name
of Custer was originally Kuster, and the grandfather of Emanuel
Custer came from Germany, but Emanuel’s father was born in America.
The grandfather was one of those same Hessian officers over whom
the Colonists wasted so many curses in the Revolutionary war, and
were yet so innocent of harm and such patient, faithful soldiers.
After Burgoyne’s surrender in 1778, many of the paroled Hessians
seized the opportunity to settle in the country they came to conquer,
and amongst these the grandfather of Emanuel Custer, captivated
by the bright eyes of a frontier damsel, captivated her in turn
with his flaxen hair and sturdy Saxon figure, and settled down in
Pennsylvania, afterward moving to Maryland. It is something romantic
and pleasing, after all, that stubborn George Guelph, in striving to
conquer the colonies, should have given them the ancestor of George
Custer, who was to become one of their greatest glories.”
=Cavell, Edith.=--An English nurse shot by the Germans as a spy at
Brussels in October, 1915, an episode of the war which supplied the
English propagandists in the United States with one of the principal
articles in their bill of charges of German atrocities. Colonel E.
R. West, chief of the legislative section of the Judge Advocate
General’s Department, before the American Bar Association’s Committee
on Military Justice, declared that the execution was entirely legal.
S. S. Gregory, chairman of the committee, and Judge William P. Bynum,
of Greensboro, N. C., before the Bar Association, (Baltimore, August
27, 1919), rendered a minority report of the same import. Col. West
said:
“We have heard much of the case of ‘poor Edith Cavell.’ Yet I have
become rather firmly convinced that she was subject to her fate by
the usual laws of war. Certainly the French have executed women
spies.”
Col. West agreed with the Chairman that it would be only consistent
with the Anglo-Saxon attitude on the Cavell case to exempt women from
the death penalty, but he added:
“I believe that a woman spy deserves the same fate as a man spy.
Otherwise we would open the gates wide to the most resourceful class
of spies that is known.”
In his report Mr. Gregory said: “A careful consideration of the
case of Miss Edith Cavell, one of the most pathetic and appealing
victims of the great war, whose unfortunate fate has aroused the
sympathy and excited the indignation of two continents, has led me
to the conclusion that she was executed in accordance with the laws
and usages of what we are commonly pleased to refer to as civilized
warfare. This being so, it has seemed to me quite inconsistent with
our condemnation of those who thus took her life to retain in our own
system of military justice those provisions of law which were relied
upon by the German military authorities in ordering her execution.
For us to take any other course, it seems to me, is to impeach our
sincerity and good faith in criticising the German authorities in
this regard, and to warrant the suggestion that such criticism is
inspired rather by the fact that they, our enemies, were responsible
for it, as well as sympathy for a good and worthy woman, than any
well-considered judgment in the case.” The three majority members
declared that “they could not concur in the suggestion of Mr. Gregory
that there should be a provision prohibiting the death penalty in the
case of women spies.”
It was proved that Miss Cavell was an English professional nurse
employed only by people well able to pay for her services. She
imposed upon the German officials for a long time in the character
of a devout Christian who was taking a disinterested share in the
relief work for the good of humanity until it was discovered that she
was the head of a widespread organization which assisted hundreds of
English and Belgians to escape from the country and enter the armies
of Germany’s enemies. Her activities are described in the New York
“Times” of May 11, 1919, by her friend and co-agent, Louise Thuliez,
who was condemned with Miss Cavell but pardoned. In court she
admitted all charges and contemptuously shrugged her shoulders when
the presiding judge asked her if she wished to make any statement
that might influence the verdict. She was confined in prison about
ten weeks before her execution. Her case gave rise to much comment
in the press, endeavoring to show that it was a case of exceptional
harshness. The Paris “Galois” admitted the shooting of 80 women spies
by the French. The Germans presented proof that two German women,
Margaret Schmidt and Otillie Moss, had been shot by the French in
March, 1915, on similar charges, and this was admitted later by the
French authorities. Miss Schmidt was executed at Nancy and Miss Moss
at Bourges. (Associated Press dispatch from Luneville dated March
25.) Julia Van Wauterghem, wife of Eugene Hontang, was executed at
Louvain, August 18, 1914, for treason. Felice Pfaat was executed at
Marseilles, August 22, 1916, for espionage. Later the beautiful Mata
Hari was executed by the French.
Miss Cavell’s case is very similar to that of Mrs. Mary Surratt,
the American woman, found guilty in 1865, by a military commission
consisting of Generals Hunter, Elkin, Kautz, Foster, Horn, Lew
Wallace, Harris, Col. Clendenin, Col. Tompkins, Col. Burnett, Gen.
Holt and Judge-Advocate Bingham, of receiving, harboring, concealing
and assisting rebels; she was sentenced to be hanged by the neck
until dead, which sentence was approved by President Johnson.
=Concord Society, The.=--Born during the latter part of the war of
a desire on the part of a few Americans of German origin deeply
impressed by the events of the times to have an organization that
would stand for the promotion of good fellowship and friendship
between them and their kin as individuals, and to encourage the
study of the share of their race in the founding and development of
the United States. The society takes no part in politics or affairs
of state or church. Its sole aim is the fostering of good relations
between all citizens of the German race for social and educational
purposes. The active membership will be limited to 500.
The name is derived from the good ship “Concord,” which brought the
settlers of Germantown to these shores in 1683. This historic event
will be commemorated by an annual banquet of members of the society
in one of the larger cities. All activities on the part of the
society have been deferred until the state of war is finally ended.
Address Frederick F. Schrader, Secretary, 63 East 59th Street, New
York, N. Y. (See “Germantown Settlement.”)
=Christiansen, Hendrick.=--Soon after Hendrick Hudson discovered the
noble river which bears his name, a German, Hendrick Christiansen
of Kleve, became the true explorer of that stream, undertaking
eleven expeditions to its shores. He also built the first houses on
Manhattan Island in 1613 and laid the foundations of the trading
stations New Amsterdam and Fort Nassau. “New Netherland was first
explored by the honorable Hendrick Christiansen of Kleve.... Hudson,
the famous navigator, ‘was also there.’” (“Our Hyphenated Citizens,”
by Rudolf Cronau.)
=DeKalb.=--Major General Johann von Kalb, who gave his life for
American independence in the Revolutionary War, was a native of
Bavaria. Fatally wounded in the battle of Camden, he died August
19, 1780. A monument to his memory was erected in front of the
military academy at Annapolis, which states that he gave a last
noble demonstration of his devotion for the sake of liberty and the
American cause, after having served most honorably for three years
in the American army, by leading his soldiers and inspiring them by
his example to deeds of highest bravery. Kalb was one of a number of
efficient German-born officers who came over with the French to serve
with the French troops under Lafayette.
=Declaration of Independence.=--The first paper to print the
Declaration of Independence in the United States was a German
newspaper, the “Pennsylvania Staatsboten” of July 5, 1776. It is also
claimed that the first newspaper in Pennsylvania was printed in the
German language. Benjamin Franklin at one time complained that of
the eight newspapers then existing in Pennsylvania two were German,
two were half German and half English, and only two were printed in
English.
=Dorsheimer, Hon. William.=--Lieutenant Governor of the State of
New York; born at Lyons, Wayne County, 1832. His father was Philip
Dorsheimer, a native of Germany, who emigrated from Germany and
settled at Buffalo; he was one of the founders of the Republican
party and in 1860 was elected Treasurer of the State.
=Dutch and German.=--In the history of early American colonization
the terms Dutch and German are often confounded, as the English had
little first-hand acquaintance with the people of the continent
save Dutch, French and Spanish. Hence many have inferred that the
Pennsylvania Germans were somehow misnamed for Pennsylvania Dutch,
because the latter designation is the more frequently employed in
describing the most important element of the population concerned in
the settlement of Penn’s Commonwealth. Many of the first settlers
of New Amsterdam were Germans and almost as many Germans as Swedes
were concerned in the earliest European settlement of Delaware.
Peter Minnewit, the first regular governor of New Amsterdam, was
German-born, and it was he who, having entered the Swedish service,
in 1637, with a ship of war and a smaller vessel, led a colony of
Swedes with their chaplain, to the Delaware River region, between
Cape Henlopen and Christian Creek. They bought land of the Indians
and called it “New Sweden.” A second company of immigrants from
Sweden came over in 1642, under Colonel John Printz, likewise
a native of Germany. Among these first settlers of Delaware a
considerable number were Germans. The latter however, are more often
confounded with their nearest of kin, the Hollanders. “At that time,”
says Anton Eickhoff (“In der Neuen Heimath”) “the distinction between
Hollanders and Germans was not as pronounced as nowadays. The loose
political union which had never been very close, between Holland and
the German Empire, was formally severed by the Peace of Westphalia.
But though politically it was no longer a German State, Holland
continued to be regarded as such in public mind. The common language
of the Hollanders and the Low Germans was Plattdeutsch.” Dr. William
Elliot Griffis (“The Romance of American Colonization”) refers to the
confounding of Germans with Dutch. “The Isthmus of this peninsula was
called ‘Dutch Gap,’ after the glass makers who set up their furnace
here in 1608,” he writes. “Most Englishmen then made and uneducated
people now make, no distinction between the Dutch and the Germans,
who are politically different people.”
=Dual Citizenship.=--It was frequently alleged before and during our
entrance into the war that a native German might under the laws of
Germany become a citizen of another country without thereby being
released from his obligations to his native country, and the attempt
was made to make it appear that naturalized Germans could still be
regarded as citizens of Germany, or as possessing dual citizenship.
It is true that the German law
(Reichs-und-Staatsangehorigkeits-Gesetz) of July, 1913, says:
“Citizenship is not lost by one who, before acquiring foreign
citizenship, has secured on application the written consent of the
competent authorities of his home State to retain his citizenship.
Before this consent is given the German Consul is to be heard.” But
this section is under no circumstances applicable to the United
States, because in Section 36 the law says: “=This law does not apply
as far as treaties with foreign countries say otherwise.=” Now the
treaty of the United States with the Northern German Confederacy
which was concluded 1868 (the Bancroft treaty) provides that Germans
naturalized in the United States =shall be treated by Germany as
American citizens=. This provision applies now to the natives of all
the German States, and was so interpreted by the State Department.
=Earling, Albert J.=--President of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul Railway Company and one of the recognized authorities on modern
railway economics. Son of German immigrants.
=Eckert, Thomas.=--General superintendent during the Civil War of
military telegraphy, and assistant secretary of war (1864). Given
the rank of Brigadier General Appointed general superintendent of
the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1866, and in 1881 became its
president and general manager, and also director of the American
Telegraph and Cable Company also of the Union Pacific Railroad.
=Eliot, Prof. Charles W.=--One of the most eminent as well as
bitter enemies of the German cause. Prof. Eliot has attacked German
civilization and German institutions in magazines and newspaper
articles and in a book. Yet in 1913, one year before the war, at a
public dinner, Prof. Eliot paid German “Kultur” this high tribute:
“Two great doctrines which had sprung from the German Protestant
Reformation had been developed by Germans from seeds then planted in
Germany. The first was the doctrine of universal education, developed
from the Protestant conception of individual responsibility, and
the second was the great doctrine of civil liberty, liberty in
industries, in society, in government, liberty with order under
law. These two principles took their rise in Protestant Germany;
and America has been the greatest beneficiary of that noble
teaching.” Yet with all these political and civic virtues, Prof.
Eliot reversed himself like a weather-cock within a few months and
became the hysterical spokesman of the most violent section of the
Anglo-American coterie.
=England Plundered American Commerce in Our Civil War.=--From Benson
J. Lossing’s “History of the Civil War:” “The Confederates ... with
the aid of the British aristocracy, shipbuilders and merchants, and
the tacit consent of the British government, were enabled to keep
afloat on the ocean some active vessels for plundering American
commerce. The most formidable of the Anglo-Confederate plunderers
of the sea was the ‘Alabama,’ which was =built, armed, manned and
victualled in England=. She sailed under the British flag and was
received with favor in every British port that she entered. In the
last three months of the year 1862 she destroyed by fire twenty-eight
helpless American merchant vessels. While these incendiary fires,
kindled by Englishmen, commanded by a Confederate leader, were
illuminating the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean, a merchant ship (the
“George Griswold”) laden with provisions as a gift for the starving
English operatives in Lancashire, who had been deprived of work and
food by the Civil War in America, and whose necessities their own
government failed to relieve, was sent from the City of New York,
convoyed by a national war vessel, to save her from the fury of the
British sea-rover!”
Recent statistics show that while 90% of our imports and 89% of our
exports were carried in American bottoms before the Civil War, they
had declined to 10 and 7½% of our imports and exports in 1910.
=English Tribute to Germany’s Lofty Spirit.=--The following tribute
to the lofty spirit of the German Empire is from the pen of Prof. J.
A. Cramb, “Germany and England,” (Lecture II, p. 51, 1913):
And here let me say with regard to Germany, that, of all
England’s enemies, she is by far the greatest; and by
“greatness” I mean not merely magnitude, not her millions
of soldiers, her millions of inhabitants; I mean grandeur
of soul. She is the greatest and most heroic enemy--if she
is our enemy--that England, in the thousand years of her
history, has ever confronted. In the sixteenth century we
made war upon Spain. But Germany in the twentieth century
is a greater Power, greater in conception, in thought, in
all that makes for human dignity, than was the Spain of
Charles V and Philip II. In the seventeenth century we
fought against Holland, but the Germany of Bismarck and
the Kaiser is greater than the Holland of DeWitt. In the
eighteenth century we fought against France, and again
the Germany of to-day is a higher, more august Power than
France under Louis XIV.