w< WAR INFORMATION SERIES No. 6 August, 1917 AMERICAN LOYALTY By CITIZENS OF GERMAN DESCENT [This issue may be had in Germtn trzuisladon] wvv \ S<'ri»'s: No. 1. How tiie War ("ame to America (English, Oeniian, I'olish, BohiMiiian, Italian, Sjiauish, and Swedish). No. 2. National Service Handbook (primarily for libraries, schools, Y. M. C. A. 's, dubs, fraternal organiza- tions, etc., as a guide and reference work on all forms of war activity — civil, charitable, and mili- tary. No. 3. The Battle Line of Democracy. Prose and Poetry of the Great War. No. 4. The President 's Flag Day Speech with Evidence of Ger- many 's Plans. No. 5. Conquest and Kultur, the Germans' Aims in Their Own Words, by Wallace Notestein and Elmer E. StoU. Other issues in i)reparation. II. War Inforination Series: No. 1. The War Message and Facts Behind It. No. 2. The Nation in Arms, by Secretaries Lane and Baker. No. 3. The Government of Germany, by Prof. Charles D. Ilazen. No. 4. The Great War: from Spectator to Participant. No. 5. A War of Self-Defense, by Secretary Lansing and Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis F. Post. No. 6. American Loyalty by Citizens of German Descent. No. 7. Amerikanische Biirgertreue, a translation of No. 6. No. 8. American Interest in Popular Government Abroad, by Prof. E. B. Greene, No. 9. Home Reading Course for Citizen Soldiers. No. 10. First Session of the War Congress, by Charles Merz. Other issues will appear shortly. III. f)nirial Bulletin: Accurate daily statement of what all agencies of govern- ment are doing in war times. Sent free to newspapers and postmasters (to be put on bulletin boards). Sub- scription price, $5 per year. Address requests and orders to COM.MITTEE OX PUBLIC INFORMATION, Washington, D. C. SRlP YRL ')i\3'S'^HW A TRIBUTE TO THE FOREIGN BORN. l'>y WOODHOW WlLSOM. Soino of the best stuff of America has come out of foreign hauls, ami some of th(! best slulT in America is in the men who are naturalized citizens of the Tnited States. I would not be afraid upon the test of "America first" to take a census of all the foreign-born citizens of the United States, for I know that the vast majority of them came here because they believed in America; and their belief in America has made them better citizens than some people who were born in America. • ♦ • I am not deceived as to the balance of opinion among the for- eign-born citizens of the United States, but I am in a hurry for an opportunity to have a line-up and let the men who are think- ing first of other countries stand on one side and all those that are for America first, last, and all the time on the other side. (3) GERMAN-AMERICAN LOYALTY. liy r. KoTZKNAliK. My emotions tell nic oiu' tliin<^ at this awful tiiin', but n>y reason tolls mo another. As a (icrman by birth it is n horri- ble calamity that I may have to fip;ht Germans. That is natural, is it not? Rut as an American by preference, I can see no other course open. For 25 years Germany has sliown dislike for the Ignited States — the Samoan affair.- the Ilonf^konp; eontrotemps. the ]\ranila Bay incident, tlie uniruai-ded words of the Kaiser himself, and, lastly, tlie Haitian controversy in 1014 * * *. And it has not been from mere eommen-ial or diplomatic friction. It is because their ideals of pf»)vem- nient are absolutely opposite. One or the other nnist ^o down. It is for us to say now which it shall be. Because of my ])ii-th and feelinjxs beyond my control I have no particular love for the Freneh and less for the British. But by a stran<;e irony of fate I set; those nations giving their blood for principles which I bold dear, a^rain.st the wrong principles of j^eople I individually love. It is a very nnhappy paradox, but one I can not escape. 1 d<> not want to see the allies triumph over the land of my birth. But I very much want to see the triumph of the iileas they fight for. It sickens my soul to think of this Nation going forth to help destroy people many of whom are bound to me by ties of blood and friendshiji. But it nnist be so. It is like a dreadful surgical operation. The militaristic, \indemocratic demon which rules Germany nni.st b? cast out. It is for us to do it — now. 1 have tried to tell myself that it is not our affair, that we should have contented oui-selves with measures of defense and armed neutrality. But I know that is not'so. (5) The mailed fist has been shaken under our nose before. If Prussianism trinmplis in this war the fist will continue to shalie. AVe shall be in real peril, and those ideas lor which so much of the world's best blood has been spilled through the centuries will be in danger of extinction. It seems to me common sense that we begin our defense by immediate attack when the demon is occupied and when we can com- mand a.ssistance. There is much talk of what people like me will do, and fear of the hyphen. No such thing exists. The German- American is as .staunch as the American of adoption of any other land and perhaps more so. Let us make war upon Germany, not from revenge, not to uphold hairsplitting quibbles of international law, but let us make war with our whole heart and with all our strength, because Germany worships one god and we another and because the lion and the lamb can not lie down together. One or the other must perish. Let us make war upon the Germany of the Junkerthum, the Germany of f rightfulness, the Germany of arrogance and selfishness, and let us swear not to make peace until the Imperial German Government is the sovereign German people. AMERICANS OF GERMAN ORIGIN AND THE WAR. * By Otto Karn, This nation is united in luirsuanci' f)t' a hi^jh pnriiosf. a purpose whicli at this fati'fiil nionicnt is one and tfic samo whorever, tliroufjhoiit th»^ worhl, the language of free men is spok«'n and undeiNtood. It is the purpose of a connnon determination to fit^ht and to bear and to dare everythintJ and never to eoase nor rest until the aocursed thini; which li.xs broufrht upon the world the unutterable calamity, the devil's visitation of tliis a[>{)all- ing war, is destroyed beyond all possibility of resurrection. That accursed thinp: is not a nation, but an evil sj)irit, a spirit which has made the Government possessed by it and executing its abhorrent and bloody bidding an abomination in the sight of God and men. What we are now contending for by the side of our splen- didly brave and sorely tried comrades in arms, after infinite forbearance, after delay which many of us found it hard to bear, are the things which are amongst tlie highest and most cherished that the civilized world has attained through the toil, sacrifices, and suffering of its best in the course of many centuries. They are the things without which darkness would fall upon hope and life would become intolerable. They are the things of humanity, liberty, justice, and mercy, for which the best men amongst all the nations — in- cluding the German nation — have fought and bled these many generations past, which were the ideals of T^uther, Goethe, Schiller, Kant, and a host of others who had made the name of Germany great and beloved until fanatical Prus- sianism, run amuck, came to make its deeds a byword and a hissing. This appalling conflict which h;us been drenching tlie world with blood is not a mere fight of one or more i)eoples against one or more other i)eoples. (7) 8 It goes far deeper. It sharply divides the soul and conscience of the world. It transcends vastly the bounds of racial allefriance. It is ethically fundamental. In determining one's attitude toward it, the time has gone by — if it ever was — when race and blood and inherited affilia- tions were permitted to count. A century and a half ago Americans of English birth rose to free this country from the oppression of the rulei*s of England. To-day Americans of German birth are called upon to rise, together with their fellow citizens of all races, to free not only this country but the whole world from the oppression of the rulers of Germany, an oppression far less capable of being endured and of far graver portent. Speaking as one born of German parents, I do not hesi- tate to state it as my deep conviction that the greatest service which men of German birth or antecedents can render to the country of their origin is to proclaim and to stand up for those great and fine ideals and national qualities and tra- ditions which they inherited from their ancestors, and to set their faces like flint against the monstrous doctrines and acts of a rulership which ha.s robbed them of the Germany which they loved and in Avhich they took just pride, the Ger- many which had the good will, respect and admiration of the entire world. I do not hesitate to state it as my solemn conviction that the more unmi.stakably and wholeheartedly Americans of German origin throw themselves into the struggle Avhich this country has entered in order to rescue Germany, no less than America and the rest of the world, from those sinister forces that are, in President AVilson's language, the enemy of all mankind, the better they protect and serve the repute of the old German name and the true advantage of the German people. I measure my words. They are borne out all too em- phatically by the hideous eloquence of deeds which have appalled the conscience of the civilized Avorld. They are borne out by numberless expressions, written and spoken, of German professors employed by the State to teach its youth. ^ 9 The burtlfii of tliat tca.liint,' is that iiii^lit iiiakrs ri»,'ht, and that the Gpriiian nation luus bfcn diosi-n to cxcrcis.' morally, mentally, and aitinilly the ovcrlonlsliip lace aniojif? the nations of the earth. And I speak in tlie firm faith that, after its people shall have shaken off and mad(^ atonement for the dreadful spell which an evil fate has cast \ipon them, former CJermany is bound to arise a^aiu and, in due couj-se of time, will a^'ain deserve and attain the good will and the high respect of the world and the affectionate loyalty of all those of German blood in foreign lands. But I know that neither Germany nor this comitiy n<>r the rest of the world can return to hajijuness and peace and fruitful labor until it shall have been made manifest, bitterly and unmistakably manifest to tin- nders who bear the blood- guilt for this wanton war and to their misinformed and mis- guided peoples that the si)irit which unchainol it can not prevail, that the hateful doctrines and metluxb; in juii-suanei- of which aiul m comidiance with which it is cnnductfd ar>' rejected with abhorrence by the civili/ed world, and that the overwe(Miiug ambitions which it was meant to serve <'an never be achieved. The fight for civilization which we all fondly believed h.nl bet 11 won many years ago mu.st be fought over again. In this sacred struggle i' is now our privilege to take no mean part, and >\\v glory to bring sacrifices. 8020—17 — 2 10 Our one and supreme job, the one purpose to which all others must give way, is to bring this war to a successful conclusion. To accomplish tliat, let each one of us feel himself per- sonally i-csi)onsiblc, let each one of us work as if our life dependt'd uu tlu' result. And, in a very real sense, does not our national life and our individual life depend on the out- come of this war? Would life be tolerable if the power of Prussiani.sm, run mad and murderous, held the world by the tlii-oat, if the primacy of the cartli belonged to a government steeped in the doctrines of a barbarous past and supported by a ruling caste which preaches the deification of sheer might, which despi.ses libert}', hates democracy, and would destroy both if it could ? To that spirit and to those doctrines we, citizens of America and servants, as such, of humanity, will oppose our solemn and unshakable resolution "to make the world safe for democracy," and we Avill say, with a clear con- science, in the noble words which more than 500 years ago were uttered by the Parliament of Scotland: It is not for glory, or for riches, or for honor that we fght, hut for liberty alon^, which no good man loses hut with his life. NATIONAL SERVICE KNOWS NO HYPHEN. By F. \V. Lkiimann. Judge F. W. Ldinuinn ira.s liifin in rrussia ui 7^J.?. Jle received hu front" or from any other duty to which any other citizen might be called. And so let it be now and ever hereafter. THE SPIRIT OF '48 IN 1917. P>y l-'n \.\/. SicKi.. Franc Sif/ch tin- tidii of Crn. Franc Sitjil, famous an an exile from autocratic (Inntuny in 1848-49 and an one of the hran.st of the hravc in the Civil War, nccdn no introductory note. Mr. Sigel i.d Gorman, descondi-d from CuM-man *'Forty-t'i*j;liti'rs." My Tatlicr. Gon. Vnuiz Si^rol, his brothors, and my matoriiiil <,'i'aii(ira1ln'i- were drivfii I'l'om (Icnnany on ac<'(>unt ol" their paiM icipalion in the revolution •'!' }^\x in Germany. My forebears had all sacrificed the home of their birth iu their devotion to the cause of liberty. Later they fought for the I'nion and the freedom of the slaves. Only one, a maternal uncle, ever revisited Germany, and he, too, returned to fifrht (»n the Union side. None even went back to Germany to live. In Ap)-il, IStil, my father enlisted in the same strupfjlo. lie is freciuently referred to as one who did much for the Nation in its crisis of '61 ; he is at times menticmed in the public jiii'ss iis one whose example miirht well be emulated now by the youth of German descent. ^Vhat durin^r his lifetime was his attitude on Americanism and "(Jerman- Americanism"? If we sons are to follow where he would liave led. where does the path lead? lie was iui educated man. had bcm ^'raduated from a recoj^nized cadet school in Carlsruhe, Haden, became a trained soldici-, ;nid had been at Ileidelbertr. He knew and s])oke En«rlish before he came here, but his Gernuui accent never left him. The l;in<_Miaf?e of our home was German, and I continue that custom in my o\m hom«'. My wife speaks no German, but our boy and I speak nothinir but German together. I well remember that my father told me to speak English Mith him in public, because it was an insult 14 to other citizens to speak in tlu'ir presence a lansrnage that they did not iindei-stand. Once I took him to a public func- tion at my college; the professor of German, my lifelong friend, when he met my father in a roomful of other visitors addressed him in German, thinking to please him. But the reply eame in English, and the professor at once acconnno- dated himself to the change. Franz Sigel knew the Constitution of the United States and what it meant for the rights of humanity long before he came to this country, and he knew it better than many Americans who were born and died here. His passion was the liberty of man. "When he revolted against the Govern- ment o£, Baden he kncAv the goal he was aiming to reach. As adjutant general, under the commander of the Baden revo- lutionists, Ludwig ]Mieroslawski, a Pole who spoke no Ger- man, he himself probably wrote an "Order of the day" dated "Headquarters, Rastatt, June 27, 1849," which hangs on my wall. It is addressed to the revolutionary army in camp at that fortre-ss, and concludes: The limit of our ramp is the boundary between the traitors to and the defenders of Germany » » » Freedom or slavery — let that be the motto that shall resound in the ears of the enemy from the throats of 20,000 detennined men. I have also hanging on my wall, as my father had it hanging on his wall as long as I can remember, a list of 28 of his brothers in arms subsequently captured, condemned, and shot as traitors, entitled "Germany's martyrs to Frop- dom. " The remnant of the revolutionary' army — about 7.000 — escaped under my father's leadership into Switzer- land from the Prussians under Prince "William, afterward the first German Emperor. ]\rany of them and their families emigrated to America. The unilication of Germany under the German Emperor, in 1871, was a realization in part of the hopes of the "Forty-eighters. " That it was not complete may be gathered by what my father wrote in an article in tlie Infrr- vational Mof/azine about four years later. He said of Ger- many that it was a great Empire and that "the hmg-eher- ished hopes of her patriots and martyrs" were "realized, at least in a great measure," and that Germany was "steadily 35 progressing in the path of political, social, and rolit^iotis re- form." Again, in 181)7, a few years before his dcatli, he wrote ; Germany will survive the storms of aiiotlicr century — urcnt <|u«'«- tioiis involving its domestic ami forcij,'!! policieH, its »W)oial nml cm- nomic conilitious, its existing; militarism, tlie stutUH of itH cdiiiiiiuii peoj)le — tlu'so must he settled; tlicy will and can not be avoided \>y foreiijn ojierations, liy new burdens imposed on tho people, •■•■■■ ' v the mere ipso dixit of ])ower. In 11)02 llie articles I'lom wliicii this is laUrii wen- piil)- lislied in ^lannheini, liaden, under the title '* Denkwiirdijf- keiten aus den -Jahren, 1848-1849;" hut tin above pann/rapk is omitlcd. There is i)i"()i)hecy in these words that may come trne. Franz Sigel had not in 50 years forgotten "militarism." the "status of the common peo])le. " (Jermany was iniited. pow- erful, yes; but there were ([uestions "still to be .settled," not to be "avoided by forei^jn operations," by "new bur- dens to be imposed on the people," by "the mere ipse dixit of power." Did he not in old aire dream the dreams of his youtii, even yet not realized.' Did he not .still elicrish for the German people, the "common" people, the hopes of 50 years ago and look toward their idtimate leali/.ation T And is the present not moving toward such realization? Does the life of Franz Sigel show that he had no Impe for the release of the rtcniian iieoplc from the absolutism he combated in youth? AVouid he not now stand true 1o his lifelong convictions, true to the ideals for whieli In- fought on two continents, true to the inscription on his tombstone l)laced there at his written request, "An American Citizen and Soldier"? Would he not array himself on the .side of America in the .stj'Uggle to "make the world safe for democ- racy".' His article on "The American Republic" in the hiin-iiational Magazine, quoted above, conclinled with the words : If there are any utterances sj>ecially apj«ropriate to the preat task before us, th"y are those which breathe the spirit of the sturdy and heroic P^nglish sailor at the battle of Trafalgar — to ai'i'ly the words of Nelson to our own situation — "The American Republic expectt every nuin to do his duty." I know he would repeat these words to-day. 16 lu the fires of the Civil AVar the North and the South were welded into one great union of States. If the fires of the present war will weld the many nationalities in our citizenship into one gn-at cohesive union of nationalities, and burn away the adjectives of nationalism from "Ameri- can/* tht'U will there be a national prolit that will more than balance the terrible sacrifices we shall be required to make. AVluMv do w'e, the sons of men like Franz Sigel and his companions in the struggle for liberty, stand? If we are to be true to them and the ideals lor which they fought, we niu.st stand to-day on the side of America and freedom against the German Government and autocracy. AVe shall not then fight against our blood kindred, but, in the broader sense, we shall fight for them against a Government not of their own creation. AVe shall secure for them the right of self-gdvernment, the right of a people and not of a Kaiser to find its place "in the sun" — the sun of liberty and equaiit}-. If we are to emulate the example of Franz Sigel, what shall we do? Let him answer in the words of the last public speech he ever made, in German to German- Americans : Politically, I am an American and nothing else; but I am proud to be a German. I would consider myself leFs than a man were I to forget the tremendous sacrifices made by the immigrant Germans in defense of their new Fatherland. Shall this blood have flowed in vainT Shall we now attack this America to which wo gave all we had to give? This country is our country; our interests are its in- terests; here we are; here will our descendants be; here we shall stay. The Union, now and forever. PLAIN WORDS BY A PLAIN CITIZEN.^ By Hans Russau, Pipestone, ]Minn. Real war has come to our very doors at last. It was de- nied us to stay out of it. It was not of o\ir seelarer of humanity and justice? Protestation proved useless. Our pleadings for humanity's and civilization's salce were an- swered with this: "Our acts are necessitated by war. We can not recognize any rules laid down to fight by. We are fighting for our existence. We want a place in the sun." It is immaterial as to the spark that ignited the funeral pyre of the best nations of the earth, but it is important to apprehend the party or parties that deliberately touched off this conflagration tliat threatens to devour and destroy every- thing that is good in men ; everything that men have died for ; that cost rivers of blood to attain, namely, humanity and self-government. The desperate wail of Germany that it is fighting for ex- istence is true in part. But it is true only of those that are wailing. The autocracy and its military ramifications that dominate the German people's destiny are doomed. They are battling for their exislence. The common German people have nothing to fear from any source. They have their place in the sun. They are respected and admired evt-ry- where, and ju.stly so. for they are a great people. They have ' l"rr, May 10, 1017. (17) ^ 18 in the past coutributed a large share in the achievements of nee. of learning:, and in every endeavor of mankind for I... enlightenment and betterment of conditions of humanity in general. This they have done not because of their auto- cratic form of government but in spite of it. No matter what opinions may be at the present, in the heat of this strife, judgments are apt to be warped, and criticism unjust. "What ever may be the result of this struggle, even should the Ger- mnn nation be wiped out of existence, no power on earth can rob them of their past achievements; the work of her scien- Xisis, her poets, her artists, her singers, her philosopher, her educators, will live forever, and so will the German people. No one thinks of destroying them. The remainder of the world loves and admires them too much for that. The world is not against them but for them. They want to save them from their ovm self-destruction from autocracy and militarism. The hist important citadel of autocracy is struggling to maintain itself, and threatens to engulf the rest of the world ; to spread its balefulness over the earth ; to trample liberty and self-government into the dust. To prevent the consummation of this is the principal reason that we, the people of the United States of America, have entered this war, reluctantly but determinedly. We do not underesti- mate our adversary. We are well aware of his strength, and we are willing to sacrifice our best in blood and treasure to remove this menace. The present ruling class of Germany must be removed or at least be made impotent of doing any further mischief. Wlien this is accomplished a great stride will have been jiKido toward universal world peace. Under a new liberal, free government, the German people will expand and blos- som into a still greater nation, and all tlie energy and brain power will be expended in the channels of peace instead of war. The world has never seen a parallel to the prepara- tions for war tbat the German nation made in the present one. This could not have been brouglit about in a year or two. It took almost a century to accomplish it, and to make this acme of pprfection of militarism a reality, and — for what? Was it for the defense of the people from outside aggression, or for defending their boundaries? Scarcely. 19 The acts of the German Government belie this assertion. They have been the aggressors always, in .ill the wars, since Napoleon w^as on the rampage. It has simply all been dont for the aggrandizement of the rulers. Successful conclu- sions of all the wars they undertook, more power and con- trol of other people's destiny madi' them dizzy. They began to chant and dream of world control, and to-d.iy we have the result of this dream, and the desperate effort of this Prussian Junkerdpm to consunnnate this dream into a reality. The way this has been accomplished is almost incompre- hensible. It is staggering our minds. A naturally i)eace- loving people has been developed into the most efficient fight- ing machine that has ever been known. The Government has not been a bad government. On the contrary, it is a model of efficiency. The people have i)rospored and been looked after in detail. It has been paternal in its applica- tion. Therein lies the strength of the rulers with the people. But to what end has this been done? It is this — to train and perfect a fighting machine. A disgruntled and dissat- isfied people would not be pliable for such a purpose. The people's mind and body has been trained to one purpose. That purpose was war. Nothing Avas left undone to assure success. The result of this training became apparent to the most unobserving the last decade. The immigrants that came to this country from Germany were of a different spirit than those of a half century ago. They seemed to be ind)ued with a sense of superiority and an everlasting praising of the fatherland that amounted to boasting of what they could do in a military w-ay. We perhaps laughed at them or ridi- culed them, until to-day we are awake to the fact that their boasting was riot empty words. With things that have hap- pened since this war started, we must all be aware what we are up against. It will take our most strenuous elforts to break this foe's spirit and might, if we want to save our lib- erty and free institutions from being wrested from us. Shot and shell alone will not do it miless we kill the last one, for they believe that they are right, and their initial successes in this war have convinced them in the belief that they can con- quer the world, because the.y are challenging the Avorld. We must use other weapons besides powder and shot. Such 20 mesen^ers as our noble President's message will have a more wholesome effect ou the people of Gernuiuy than a billion dollars worth of shells, although tlie two bring opposite re- sults. The one brings hope and the other one death; both \rill break the spell of self -hypnotism of the deluded men in the trenches of the foe. Let some of the aeroplanes drop love messages instead of bombs into the trenches, let them be %vritten in their own tongues, and' the cobwebs will slowly clear from their brains an