New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-11-03
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Considering the genuine liking
and admiration we Americans feel for
the German people, based as it is both
upon race kinship and long association
with the German element in our midst,
it is curious psychological problem
why our sympathy from the first day Of
the war should have been so overwhelm-
ingly on the side of their enemies. Our
uuanimity in this respect has been
most remarkable. As one man, North
and South, East and West, IN CONVERSE
ton, in private letters, IN the pulpit,
in the press, we have voiced our con-
demnation of the war-drunk Kaiser ana
che military clique that surrounds him,
and i'm our secret hearts have prayed
for the success OF the Allies.
| believe that | make no extreme
statement when | say that OF all the
Continental peoples, except possibly the
people Of the scandinavian peninsula,
we like the Germans the best, ana GER
tainly we owe more 20 them, ooth IN our
material civilization and IN our es-
thetic and intellectual culture. Ihey
are great people; they touch US on
all sides; they have added immensely
10 the richness and stability of our ma
tional and civic life. We like them as
mechanics, as farm hands, as kitchen
help. as teachers, as neighbors, as CO.
workers i'm all fields. They are sober,
reliable. unassuming, home loving, hu-
man people. Yet we stand at tins
stage Of their terrible struggle wish
ing only for an overwhelming defeat IN
their armies. ! have yet 20 meet a
pro-German anywhere IN the country
or 10 see a prO-German newspaper. In
the little country village IN the cats
kills near where | spent the summer
every farmer and villager and city
boarder that ! met was eagerly wait
ing for news of the defeat OF the Ger
man hosts. When the morning man ar
rived the people gathered at the post
office and waited almost breathlessly
for tidings i'm favor Of the Allies. The
men of German descent, OF which there
were many, had no sympathy for the
Kaiser and his onrushIng hosts. Up
ward of sixty years ago three young
German brothers settled IN this little
Catskiu village as black smiths; and
what steady. honest, efficient men they
proved 20 be, They married American
women and had families. Their sons
are among the substantial and always
reliable business men of the commu-
nifty. [ saw more or less of them al
most daily, and if their sympathles
were al all with the warning hosts Of
the land of their fathers failed to get
an inkling OF II.
This frame of mind in which our ma
ton finds itself is not of our own seek
ing: We have not cultivated II; quite
the contrary. It has been forced upon
us by events over which we had no
control. and il has been lntensihed as
these events have multiplied. We saw
German militarism springlng with a
tigers bound for the blood and LIE
Of neighboring people whose only Of
fence was that they had for genera
tion been making ready TO try TO ward
off such an attack; we saw small
peace loving, industrious, inoifensive
people, whose territory lay in the way
of this fierce onrush of the Germans
trampled and murdered and despolled
their villages and cities burned, theii
farms laid waste, their treasures or art
and architecture consumed, their colo
and silver demanded saw, and stu
see. millions of as worthy and likablt
people as there are in the world home
less. foodless, swept before and tram
pled upon by invading armies like au
tumn leaves. and We heard the cry fol
mercy and succ0r that went up from
them and 10 still rings in our ears. W.
saw the vast military power OF Germany
loosencd, as if II had long been strain