The record-union., 1898-05-15
GERMANY's ATTITUDE.
WHY THE GERMANS DISLIKE
AMERICANS.
Envy and Ignorance Stand in the
Way Of a Good Understand
ing Between Us.


man press as between the United States
and Spain is written for the Times
by gentleman whose knowledge of
the German character, policy and ways
of thought has been gained by long
residence among them:
When war breaks out there is no
nation SO powerful that the attitude of
other nations toward the controversary
is a matter of Indifference.
The United States, not a military
power not an aggressive, colony
founding country, unprepared for war
on a large scale by land or sea, needs
especially to know what the real senti-
ments of nations are when it goes to
war. Will given nation remain prac-
tically, as we'll as theoretically, neutral
Can we expect that it will sympathize
with us or our opponent?
Suppose that nation is the German
nation. one with which in its compo-
nent parts, as well as in it's federate
condition since 1871, We have had treat
les and maintained steadily the best of
relations. The mere volume of our
trade with Germany, quite aside from
the leading position she takes in the
world, make her attitude toward US
one. of the highest Importance.
1t is impossible to say that Germany,
as a whole, is for us and against Spain,
or for Spain and against us. The situa-
tion in Germany is far too complicated.
Roughly dividing the Germans into
classes, it might be said that the titled
classes and owners of estates are
against us almost to man, While the
professional, mercantile and manufac-
turing classes are favorably disposed
to us, as favorably disposed as the Ger
man press will permit. Honors, ad-
vancement, and emoluments for MEM
bers of the press, nay, the increase of
readers and advertisements lie for most
German newspapers with the Agrarian
and Colonial parties rather than the
mercantile and commercial, and the
colonial enthusiasts are particularly
active and powerful. The old party
which used to favor the United
States, the Liberal party, has been split
into shreds and lost itself in the Con-
servative and Socialist waves that have
been rising since 1880. 1t can no lon
ger be counted upon to influence the
people materially in our favor.
One reason for the cooling Of friend
ship towardsus among German Liber-
ais is the course of our tariff legisla-
ton, which took UP and exaggerated
the very views which the Liberals used
to combat in Germany. Instead of
making commerce easy, instead of low
ering the bars of commercial inter-
course, the United States has initiated
the narrowest school of German pro-
tectionists and outdone them. Natur-
ally enough, such blows from a quarter
supposed to be particularly open to
broad and farsighted ideas have damp
ened the former admiration for the re-
public and caused thousands of Ger
mans to doubt the efficacy of our form
of government in providing the great
est possible Freedom Of action for the
greatest possible number of men.
This has been the opportunity for the
Agrarians who wish to keep our food
stuffs as much as possible out of the
empire; for such manufacturers as are
feeling the competition Of American ma
chinery and inventiveness and enter
prise, and for the Colonial party, which
regards the purpose Of Americans to
keep America free from European colo
nies with undisguised wrath. AS We
| nave SGeH lately III tlClI uLtCI dISOc tiAN
organs Of bismarck are particularly
loud in their abuseq9of the q United
States. Having no scruples themselves
about seizing lands not their own, they
will not believe that Americans are
fighting to free the Cubans: they be-
lieve that this is mere hypocrisy TO
cloak the forcible annexation of the Is
land, and they hate US as they do the
British, because they consider that we
are only following British precedents
in seizing land which might under other
conditions fall to Germany
The principle that to the strong be-
longs the earth is always to be seen.
more or less consciously expressed. III
the organs of the Agrarians. They re-
vert again and again to Southern Bra
zil as a fruitful country, with cli-
mate suited to North Europeans, where
many settlers of German birth and des :
cent are already building up the coun-
try. and advocate it's seizure. What
blocks the way? Not Brazil, for Ger
many has no belief in the ability of
Brazil to defend itself against German
ships and soldiers. Not Brazil, but the
United States Contingencies might
arise whereby the British would receive
a cuid oro quo elsewhere, which would
suffice to buy their neutrality. But that
Monroe doctrine, which Bismarckian Or
gans are fond of denouncing as shame
less and outrageous, stands like a lion
in the way.
To this more recent cause for irrita-
ton, more recent because 1t is only of
late that the fever for colonies has beset
the empire, one must add the chronic
irritation of German emigration to the
United States. That emigration has. it
is true, fallen off at a tremendous rate,
but there need be no great study Of
the statistics of emigration in the past
to warrant the conclusion that it may
set in again with all its old liveliness.
Let the United States set it's finances in
order, and start again on "spell'' of
good times, and all the stories of dis
aster and poverty and lynchings and
Yankee superciliousness wherewith the
German press regales it's readers year
in and year out will not avail one whit
to stem the tide setting this way.
1t is the great body of German peo-
pie. who have no titles and do not write
for the press-it is the quiet, silent,
solid majority of the German people,
who. in their inexpensive way, keep
Germany on the side of the United
States The only men who raise their
voices in our favor are a few Liberals
and a number of commercial men.
Were it not that Spain has played
havoc with German confidence and in
dulged herself with commercial wars
with Germany, even these voices would
be drowned in the universal execration
of the cold -blooded Yankee" Among
the upper classes the natural instinct