The San Francisco call., 1899-05-12
A GERMAN AMERICANS VIEW
VIGOROUS PROTEST AGAINST
IMPERIALISM
Talking to Stanford Students, the
Professor Bitterly Denounces
the Course of Great
Britain.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, May IL
Dr.. Goebel of the German department
this evening delivered a lecture to the
students on The German-American Pro-
test Against Imperialism" He said;
The question whether the German American
ellis of our country answered by a his
torlcal review OF the essential part which
building OF the republic and in the develop
ment Of American civilization. Thus it is
little known that from the ranks of the early
German settlers came, in 1858, the first pro-
test against slaveholding ever made in Amer
lea. German n-AmeriCans participated. in large
numbers. in the wars OF the revolution and
the rebellion. Their greatest influence upon
American civilization they have eXerted
through their peaceful efforts in the fields of
industry. social life music, art and education.
Who, in the face of these facts. dare call our
civilization an AngIo-Saxon civilization? At
the beginning Of century the leadership in
the highest spheres of human thought and
uvity went to Germany. Thousands of en-
inspiration have gone to the German universi-
ties and not 70 the fossilized institutions OF
Oxford and Cambridge. The only contribution
to our civilization which England in recent
years, claims to have found and which she
is so eager to have us accept is Imperialism
A history of the growth of the idea of
Imperialism was given ana it was shown
how religious and mythic element was
gradually added to British desire for
colonial expansion. For a sober and truly
religious mind there is nothing more dis
gustng than the blasphemOus attempt to
make religion thus the cloak for covering
British selfshness, the true aim of which
always was to rule and plunder her colo
nies. But the uneducated masses, the re-
ligiOuS fanatics and the Weak-minded jim
goes of our country believed this hypO-
critical rant about the GOd-ordained mis-
speaker:
There is but one power which England fears
IN her colonial and industrial trade-Germany
Owing to her industrial jealousy England has
repeatedly been doing her best to stir up a
war between France and Germany. If Ger
many disappeared from the earth tomorrow
an English paper recently said everv Enqiisb
man would on the following day be the richer
for it. 1t is for thi1-same reason that Eng
land has been trying systematically to make
trouble between Germany and the United
States, and she came near succeeding in this
the agents of England and the hirelings of
the yellow press last summer sent from the
harbor of Manila. We have allowed ourselves
to be used in Samoa as the violators Of rights
and treaties and the road to being
considered by the civilized world the rowdy
Eager to show the world the determination
Of the Anglo-Saxon race an American officer
l am deeply ashamed to say, of German descent
has joined the British in a brutal slaughter
of savage people, although the commercial
combined are not half as large as those of
1t is against the dangerous policy Of a
people frenzied by the spirit of conquest duped
and hypnotized by the British idea OF imperial
ism. that we COMMUNICATIONS join the sober
protest against imperialism. We protest
against the mad desire of picking a quarrel
with Germany, not on account of secret politi-
cal sympathies with the old fatherland, for
we should stand up like one in defense
OF this country were Germany to encroach upon
American rights. But we protest against be-
ing made the tools of England's deep-seated
hatred against country to whom we owe a
great part of our civilization. Being the off,
spring of a higher and more humane civili-
zation than the English, we protest against
the brutal and inhuman warfare carried on in
the Philippines and Samoa. We do not believe
In the Mohammedan idea of spreading religion
ana civilization with the Bible in hand
and the rifle in the other We are not arro-
CANT enough to consider ourselves Instruments
In the hands Of divine Providence. Know
ing by experience far better than many native
born Americans the priceless value OF Ameri-
can freedom, we protest against imperialism
as crime committed against the spirit of
American freedom and American institutions
II Is their American patriotism which to-day
unites the German Americans from the At
British idea of expansion and imperialism.