Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-06-23

he found she could not speak her native
German. The spirit of these girls schools
Is indicated by another story. A little girl,
after listening to her schoolmistress
story OF barbarities perp etrated in Asia
by Alexander the Great, was asked .
Now. what nation did Alexander belong
to-" II suppose he was Prussian," was
the answer.
Able Wetterle. chief prophet of Fran
cophle nationalism. lately praised the
girls schools as the best guardians of
.Alsatian tradition. He might also have
praised the local press. Newspapers like
the Messenger d'Alsace-Lorraine, the Jour
nal d'Alsace-Lorraine. the Messin, Lor-
raine and Wetterles own organ, the
Nouvelliste dAlsace-Lorraine, work ener-
getically for the French cause. Literary
Frenchmen help. The novelist, ex-Boulan-
gist and nationalist. Maurice Barres, is the
chief of these. He regards it as his life
work to preserve the intellectual bonds
between France and Frances lost prov
inces. in order that the reconuuest, which
he confidently expects, may meet no OBJ
stacles. Alsatians are welcomed in Paris.
In the French active army serve 39S Off
GERS from Alsace-Lorraine. The number
OF Alsatians who enlisted in the French
Foreign Legion grew from 316 In 1906
to LILY in 1911. Germans complain that
these soldiers bring over to France infor
nation about the frontier Notifications.
Germany's government is helpless
against the French agitation. II cannot
effectively suppress what Is in theory a
french literary and artistic movement.
Occasionally 1t expels French agent
and three years ago it forbade the i'm
portation OF French orders and decora-
tons. also the playing of THE Marseil-
laise at concerts over which the local au-
thorities had control The present yiceroy
lacks sufficient legal powers to act effect
lively. He is Count Carl Won Wedel, an
Oldenburg grand seigneur. married to q
Swedish countess Of French tendencies.
He was formerly ambassador at Rome
and at Vienna The Wedels play a con-
siderable role in German administration.
and Count Carl is nominated chancellor
every time a vacancy threat tens to occur.
He is a moderate and capable man.
Against him stands the enfant terrible
of nationalism, Able Emile Wetterle.
Wetterle is a ffty-year-old priest. who
studied theology in Spain, Italy and
France; is fanatically attached to France,
first got elected to the reichstag in 1898,
and Is a capable editor. He served two
months in prison for insulting a German
Of Colmar. On the whole Wetterle has
not served his cause well. He Is too
noisy. Had 1t not been for him the Ger
man government would hardly have no
ticed the agitation of the Francophtle
nationalists.
And now Kaiser Wilhelm thinks to stop
all this by annexing the provinces to
Prussia That will never happen. Alsace-
l Lorraine might conceivably be annexed
to Baden, or even to remote Schwarz-
burg Sondershausen; but 1t will never be
annexed to Prussia Wilhelm Ill has no
more power to annex II than have the
sovereigns of these other states Neither
he nor they can initiate legislation. and
neither he nor they can veto It, Neither
would agree to annexation In the bund-
esrat Kaiser Wilhelm a. King Of rrus-
STA commands only II out Of 81 votes.
The other a are controlled by states
which are Jealous OF Prussian predomi-