The problem of Alsace-Lorraine is in a very real sense an American
problem. We entered this war to help crush the Teutonic scheme of
world domination and to free the democratic nations of the earth from
the menace of militaristic autocracy. Any issue which involves these
fundamental causes of American intervention in the great struggle must
command the careful attention of every thoughtful American citizen.
Alsace and Lorraine provide just such an issue. In 1871 these
provinces were forcibly torn from France and annexed to a militaristic
autocracy, despite the bitter protests of the mother country and the
impassioned appeals of her unfortunate children. This crime was but
one of many incident to the scheme of building up a world empire
controlled by a Prussianized Germany; but in a peculiar degree it
outraged the democratic sympathies of the world and enhanced the
prestige of autocratic militarism in the opinion of the German people.
As the most recent and most striking fruit of the Prussian policy of
conquest, Alsace-Lorraine is today the visible pledge of the professed
efficiency of autocracy and the supposed decadence of democracy.
The vindication of democracy demands the "disannexation" of
Alsace-Lorraine and its return to democratic France. The security of
the world demands that the Prussian policy of military conquest be
discredited and destroyed by depriving the German people of the unholy
profits of that policy. Justice to the mother country and to her lost
children demands that their combined protests be heard and that the
crime of '71 be rectified. Americans are fighting for the vindication
of democracy, for the security of the world, and for the triumph of
justice. When they fully understand that a peace which should leave
Alsace-Lorraine under German control would be a denial of democracy, a
peril to civilization, and a travesty on justice, our chivalrous
people will refuse to lay down the sword until the lost children of
our gallant Ally are restored to their rightful sovereignty.
No one is more eminently qualified to bring to the American people the
facts in the case of Alsace-Lorraine than is the Honourable Daniel
Blumenthal. Himself an Alsatian by birth, he can speak from the heart
on behalf of his brothers and sisters. Honoured by his fellow citizens
with election to the high office of mayor of the important Alsatian
city of Colmar for a period of nine years, he speaks with the
authority of one who has the full confidence of those Alsatians who
know him best. A member of the German Reichstag and of the
Alsace-Lorraine Senate for many years, he speaks with peculiar
knowledge of the Imperial Government's treatment of the conquered
lands. Condemned to death eight times and carrying sentences
aggregating more than five hundred years of penal servitude, all
imposed upon him by the Imperial German Government because he escaped
from the Empire to tell the world the truth about Alsace-Lorraine, he
comes to us with the highest recommendations which the Prussian
autocracy has power to give. Americans will read with unusual interest
his testimony regarding the lost provinces of France.