As soon as it was a question of the necessity of giving up a part of
the territory, all the deputies of the threatened departments signed a
declaration, February 17, 1871, which, among other passages, contained
the following: "Alsace and Lorraine do not wish to be alienated.
Associated for more than two centuries with France, both in good and
bad fortune, these two provinces, exposed without intermission to the
blows of the enemy, have constantly sacrificed themselves for the
greatness of the nation; they have sealed with their blood the
insoluble compact which binds them to France. Made doubtful by the
claims of the enemy, they assert, through all the obstacles and all
the dangers under the yoke even of the invader, their unshaken
fidelity. Unanimously the citizens in their homes, the soldiers who
rallied beneath the flag, those who voted and those who fought, all
signified to Germany and to the world the immutable will of Alsace and
of Lorraine to remain French."
March 1, 1871, the same deputies signed a new protest which they
deposited at the bureau of the National Assembly in which we find the
following announcement: "We declare once more null and void a pact
which disposes of us without our consent. The claim to our rights
always remains open to each and to all in the form and the measure
that our conscience dictates to us."
When the Alsatians were permitted by Germany to send deputies to the
Reichstag, the fifteen who were elected protested on their side
against annexation February 18, 1874. We find in their declaration the
following passage: "In choosing us all, just as we are, our electors
before everything else wish to affirm their sympathy with France and
their right to govern themselves." These solemn declarations have
never been revoked by any equivalent or contrary statement. Not even
during the actual war and reign of terror established in the annexed
provinces has the German Government succeeded in forcing from the
representatives of Alsace-Lorraine a statement expressing the desire
to remain German. The attempt to make such a manifestation by the
votes of the council-generals, of whom the suspected members had
previously been deported to Germany, saying that the economic interest
of Alsace-Lorraine necessitated the maintenance of the _status quo_,
only served to demonstrate the insecurity of the political situation
of the German Empire in Alsace-Lorraine. What lamentable drivel in
comparison to the dignified and generous language of the magnificent
protests of Bordeaux. It accords well with the philosophy of German
diction which the Baron de Bulach, Secretary of State, jeeringly
dared recommend to his compatriots as a line of conduct: "_Wess Brod
ich ess des Lied ich sing_" (Whose bread I eat, his song I sing).
Nothing, moreover, would be less exact than to think that the
Alsatians lived on the Germans or that their material well-being
depended in any way on the economic life of the German Empire, or that
the prosperity of the country was in all, or even in great part, to be
credited to the Germans.
It is not within the scope of our essay to present a study of the
economic situation of the country, which, if she has been prosperous
in some directions, has often been hindered by the predominance given
to rival interests of other German countries. The project of
constructing a canal from Ludwigshafen to Strasbourg was abandoned
because contrary to the interests of the town of Mannheim. The
canalling of the Sarre and of the Moselle was basely sacrificed to the
interests of the Prussian industries of la Ruhr, which looked with an
enemy's eye on any progress in the industry of Lorraine.
The prohibition of American plants for the replacing of the destroyed
vines, in execution of the law concerning the fight against the blight
of the vine, was dictated by a sentiment of protection for the German
vine-culture against the vine-culture of Alsace-Lorraine. Often also,
the administration took arbitrary measure against certain trades and
industries to injure their interests for the profit of their
competitors, or for some determined political end. The illegal
prohibition made to the French Insurance companies of Assurances to
continue business in Alsace-Lorraine, by which a blow was given to a
number of agents in their enterprises, and the threat made to the
Alsatian Society of Mechanical Construction of Grafenstaden to
countermand the orders from Prussia if the Society refused to dismiss
a director suspected of French sympathy, are convincing proofs of the
antagonism of the government. We mention the flagrant injustice with
which the German interests were always advanced to the detriment of
Alsace-Lorraine in the distribution of contracts for public works.
But, if Alsace-Lorraine in general could prosper economically,
notwithstanding a detestable policy, hated by its population, in what
way, we ask ourselves, could that prosperity be compromised by the
return of Alsace-Lorraine to France? Above all, as France is a
Republic, a form of government which was welcomed with joy by the
people September 4, 1870, and which answers in the best manner to
their time-honoured worldly aspirations. The loss of the market which
Alsace-Lorraine has made for herself in Germany will find a rapid
offset in the reopening of its business relations with France.
Certain great industries, such as the iron mines of Lorraine and those
of potash in Alsace, would certainly increase. But that is not at all
the question. We have to do with a great moral issue for transcending
the material considerations which the German thinks so important and
which in his mind are all-conclusive. Evidence of this is the
following quotation from the _Gazette de Voss_ published July, 1917:
"The act of yielding Alsace would involve giving up valuable beds of
potash and this would be disastrous to German agriculture of which it
is an absolutely necessary ingredient." One sees by this kind of
reasoning the nature of the affection of Germany for Alsace-Lorraine.