New Britain herald., 1914-11-24
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y5fi German Day Dead i.l New York.

Jew. York City
 :. Nov. 21, 1914 4 Editor Herald-GeN~Ean Americans T in New Britain will doubtless be in
 terested to learn of the sudden death | in NAw York city of pr. Ernst Rich
 ard, professor of German culture and
 literature at Columbia and one of the 1 guests of honor at the Herman Day 1 celebration in New Britain a year age
 last August. DE. Richards death came as the result of an operation for ab- scess of the brain. Less than a week l ago he was walking about the campus in fgull vigor; today New York $ Herman population is mourning the l loss of one of it's most distinguishe cd 1 figures.
 kp When the delegation of German Students representing the Corda Fra : tres international collegiate ties came l to New Britain for the German Day exercises they were accompanied by 1 Dr. Richard and his family. He w;ts easily the most commanding person. age in the group of visitors who add 1 ed an unexpected element of dis l tinction to that occasion. Anyone l Who climbed the heights of Scheutzen park on that hot afternoon in August will rem ember the large, powerful man with a full beard, who spoke 50 eloquently in his native tongue, ex- pressing the appreciation of New Britain's welcome to the German stu dents and to Germans in general That was pr. Richard. On the eve- ming of that! same day the distlil- guished German professor was intro- duced to the leading German resi- dents at two private receptions held in honor of the visitors.
 As an exponent of international peace, Dr. Richard might be com pared to Elihu Burritt, and here again, his sudden taking off has a peculiar significance to New Britain. Since he came to this country in 1885 his life had been given up to the cause of peace. He was the founder of the New York Peace society. ne originated the German Peace and he has written and delivered innume1- able lectures against the great evil that involves civilized Europe today.
 One of Dr. Richards original plans for furthering international peace was the temporary exchange of youthful citizens as means of promoting comity between nations. Seventeen he thought to be the ideal age to be- gin the passing of a year or more Tn a foreign home, becoming acquainted with the life and language of the peo- ple His comprehensive system called for an exchange of board and lodging between families of different countries.
 In discussing the plan he once said: This exchange would take place between families of approxt- mately the same walk of life. This would necessitate the maintenance of bureau of exchange in the United States to keep record of the address es, social position religious faith and the like, of the persons of all nations who registered themselves as Willing to exchange their offspring for summer or two" At first glance such a scheme may appear visionary but the fundamental idea is sound. Inter- national prejudices are based on 1g- norance. Dr. Richard knew that the more we know about people the bet ter we are able to judge them and hence the fairer we are in our optn-. ions, His plan is in line with the eX- change of professors between Ameri- can and foreign universities which had worked out with conspicuous success up to the opening of the war.
 pr. Richard was one of the first 10 foresee the opportunity of rela tionships with the growing South 1 American republics and he put special on South American eX- changes to assist this country in de- yeloping it's commerce with that con- tinent.
 American condemnation of Ger l many in this war affected Dr. Rich l ard deeply. Naturally lover of 1 peace he was disappointed in the l war on general principles but the at titude of the United States press to 1 his Fath herland gave him bitter cha grin. On one occasion during the 1 summer session at Columbia he gave l an interview to the student in ] which he rebuked the American i press. He felt that the newspapers 1 were unfair because they did not un- derstand the German viewpoint
 Another blow came to him when the Columbia gymnasium took fire at midnight six weeks ago. In that blaze he lost material on German culture and history of the German notes and manuscripts covering years of patient research. On the morning after the fire Dr. Richard was noticed poking around among the ruins trying to rescue the remains of his papers. In 1911 he publish ed a history of the German civilization which has passed through two editions. He also con- tributed frequently to the German and American magazines.
 Dr. Richard is survived by his wife, a son, and one daughter, who Is acting as a Red Cross nurse in q hospital.
 F.. N. l..
 Doctors With Boards.
 lMaterburN American.)