New-York tribune., 1908-04-20
GERuAyY,s LANGUAGE ISSUE

Many sincere friends of the German Empire
aIe expressing doubts Of the practical wisdom
Of the recent legislation Of the Reichstag on the
language question. and are unable to avoid
forebodings Of irritation and embodiment as II
result of il. It has been enacted that, with some
exceptions, no speaking shall be permitted at
public meetings in other than the German Ian
guage. The exceptions are election meetings
and international congresses. and by special
permission other meetings in districts where GO
per cent of the people speak other than the Ger
man language. Therefore, in district where
there are only 40 or so per cent of non German
speaking Danes, Poles, Frenchmen. Czechs or
others. the members of that large minority will
be forbidden to hold public meetings or. at any
rate. 10 speak at them in the only language with
which they are familiar. incidentally. accord
ing TO the reported letter of the law il might
be unlawful for the American residents of Ber-
lin 10 hold public Fourth of July celebration,
unless they make the Eagle scream" in Ger
man,
The purpose of the law is obvious and two
fold. First, it is intended to prevent the pro-
mitigation of anti-German doctrines and the in
citing OF resistance to German domination of
the alien provinces of the empire Next and
more generally, it is meant to be a step in the
compulsory Germanization of the alien prov
inces, in this latter respect being akin to the
recently enacted law for the compulsory ex-
preparation of the landed estates of the Prus-
sian Poles. Theoretically we can and indeed
must appreciate these motives and to a certain
degree sympathiZe with them. Anything like
seditiOn should, Of course be suppressed and
it would doubtless be TO the advantage of the
empire 10 have all its subjects uniformly speak
the German language. But the speeches AMI
votes i'll the Reichstag showed that not few
loyal Germans doubt the practical discretion of
the ways and means adopted for the gaining of
those ends, and are afraid that the direct result
viii be an eXacerbation OF racial animosty and
a widening Of those divisions which the govern
ment is striving to obliterate
Americans would doubtless prefer to have all
aliens coming hither learn the English language
and conduct all their public meetings and print
all their papers in it. but there is no thought of
compelling them TO do so, though such compul-
sion would be more easily defensible than that
which Germany proposes, since it would merely
be requiring people to employ the language
OF the land into which they have voluntarily
lmmigrdted, while Germany proposes to forca
them 10 abandon the vernacular of their native
land while they are still living in that land and
TO accept the tongue Of an alien invader and
conqueror. From time immemorial Polish has
been the free speech Of Posen, and Danish of
Schleswig, and French Of Lorraine. Yet be-
cause Prussia has by conquest extended her
! mother
, tongues must be renounced and the strange
tongue Of the conquerOr must be adopted in
their places.
mat the enforcement Cf the law will be re
sented, II not actually resisted there is reason
10 rear. The history of nations shows that there
Is nothing to which people cling more tena-
clousIy than their mother tongue and that
there Is nothing which they resent and resist
more resolutely than attempt to extingrisb
IT, The language conflicts in Finland I'm Rms
sian Poland, in Hungary against Austria IN
| Croatia against Hungary, and elsewhere are
! disquetng hints Of what Germany NAV encoun
/ ter as sequel to this legislation. We can imsg
Inc the uproar there would be If England vera
10 prohibit the use OF Gaelic in Ireland II nav
be that the alien subjects Of Germany. or soma
OF them, are less demonstrative and passion
ate than the Celts, but they are not inferior IN
| mem IN resolution or in attachment TO tho
language of their fathers, and the tongue I'm
winch the literature, the traditions and the
folklore of their race are enshrned 70 asl,
Il people to relinquish their hereditary speech
Is TO ask them TO sacrifice all the past history
OF their race. 1t would be far better If in some
way the imperial government could make
Poles Danes, CZechs, Frenchmen and all the
rest feel that they were free men under the
German nag, and that their own tongues and
traditions and literature instead of being pro