Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-08-13
HOSTILITY TO THE KAISER.

In the present crisis many German
Americans who belong to the very best
class of citizens in the republic are sub
| jccted to the embarrassment of feeling
| In the public sentiment OF their adopted
| country more than trace of hostility
to the fatherland Governments may
maintain strict neutrality. but neutral
| ity of opinion is impossible to the people
governed. II is true that there Is some
thing in the attitude of American jour
nails and In the talk Of every American
/ street-corner and barbershop that on the
surface seems like antagonism to Ger
show that this is impossible. There IS
hostility here to the Kaiser, as there
is also in many n staunch German heart
However history may unravel the
causes of the greatest war, it seems too
clear for argument to the contrary that
the immediate occasion OF It was the
Kaiser's wariike intention. It is impos-
sble to apologize for the barbarous be-
haviour of Austria in forcing a war
upon her small neighbor. Servia. SO
cold-blooded was this action that IT
seemed from the first that something
bigger must lie behind 1t. Whether or
not Austria acted from the first under
orders from the Kaiser, It is at least
clear that Austria's ultmatum was
seized upon by the Emperor of the Ger
STA and France, The American people
are opposed to war, they regard the
lawful outbreak in Europe as the great
est crime of modern times, and they
are forced by the evidence to regard the
German Emperor as the arch-crimnal.
From the American viewpoint the En-
peror and the drums and bayonets that
surround him are not Germany but
rather the enemy Of all that is most
truly and finely German. The Emperor
is a Prussian and Prussia is not all
Germany or even the leading part in
matters that count Not Prussia but the
territory that Prussia has conquered and
the States that Prussia has overborne
are the home and source Of the culture
the learning. the mechanical skill and In
ventive genius that make Germany great
In the world to-day. Prussia is the evi
genius of Germany, a state descended
part from Germans and part from sterncr
races, a land of big farms which are
poorly hushanded by n pompous aristoc-
racy, a Part of Germany prominent
only because of its ability to bully the
other parts. And the whole Prussier
spirit has been personned by the Kaiser
and the militarist clique which sur
rounded him. 1t was the spirit Of Prus
STA and not the spirit of broad, liberia
Germany that forced the present war.
In George the Thirds time there were
many good Englshmen in England whC
regarded the war AGAINST tyrrany which
the American people We're waging as {
war for freedom loving Englshmen a:
In this war there is ground for the opin
ion that - victory for the Kaiser woult
be the greatest calamity that could be
fall the German people. The real Ger
mans are already bowed, broken ant
Inundated beneath the autocracy anC
oppression Of a government for soldiers
than others. They come to this countr!
to escape It. II they remain in tn
fatherand, they are liable to insult dali!
ground down by unreasonable taxes
Even Germany can not afford to hav
the Kaiser win