The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-14
PUBLIC OPINION
To the Editor of The Farmer:

/ 49,
To the Editor of The Farmer:
Sir-As every citizen has the right
to sympathize with any Of the belIig-
erent nations, so no German-Ameri-
can blames President Wilson, if he
sympathizes with the country, where
his mother was born. Another right
and privilege of every citizen is to crit
icize, SO long as it is done in a, decent
way and with the intention to do
good.
According to my opinion there are
hundreds of thousands off German
Americans, who have a J grievance
against the present administration.
The reasons for it are:
4. The continuation of neutrality
breaks in favor of the allies. About
1,20e millions Of material has
been sent to the other side to assist
the allies against the central powers.
This is perfectly legal to the dead
letter OF the law, I know very
well. But as they can sell only to
one side of the belhgerents. and as
they have gone SO far as to build
whole rows and even cities of facto-
ries of ammunition, I hold that is VIC
latfng the spirit Of the law. And
President Wilson has said himself in
his proclamation of neutrality that we
should live up ITO the spirit Of the
law IF the export Of war-mat eria1
had been forbidden, the war would be
over long ago and we would have had
no Iusitania case. In relation to the
latter, I only repeat, that we have
q Federal law, which prohibits the
shipping of explosives on passenger
steamers. Tt is natural for a German
American to feel hurt, If he sees, how
our supposedly neutral country sends
immense quantities of deadly material
to the other side, to kill his relatives
and old time Friends, and for mo- 9TH
er motive. than to make a dollar. Is
there humanity in this !? For a
German-American is the Germania
his mother, the Columbia his wife.
Does a married man throw the mem
ory of his mother to the sash-pile on
the day after the wedding? Can a
man not be good husband; If he.
besides loving his wife, has a deep
respect for his mother?
2. The provoking metro politan
press For g months the New York
newspapers have printed insulting ca
Iurnniationsl about everything what is
German. Whenever an accident hap
pened to an ammunition factory, they
are ready 1zincri inmate q German
for it. Hundreds of detectives are
hunting for German criminals.
| How strange, that so far no one has
been convicted In any court of a
crime against these faetorfest Does
that not open your eyes?
Further. the New York papers have
called the German nation repeatedly
a nation of Barbarians. This is in
sulting In the highest degrees for every
German-Ameri can. I personally, state
that the German nation is not only
not barbarous, but the most highly
civilized and cultivated nation on
earth. OF what nationality were
Roentgen, the discoverer of the X
Rays EhrliNh the inventor of Salvar-
san; RehrinE, the inventor of Diph-
iberia antitoxin2 Does the reader
know that of all the go Nobel prizes
20 went to German scientists why
up to the beginning Of the war did
hundreds, of Americans study in Ger
man Universities?
81 The recent speech of President
Wilson at the opening of Congress, at
this occasion he said that certain cItl-
zens of the u s. have poured the
poison of disloyalty into the very ar
teries of our national life, and The
stated that he bIushed to admit it.
According to his deeds, acts and words,
nobody else can be meant as the Ger
1nan-Americans. personally declare
that 1 blushed when read this state
1nent and that highly regretted it.
know positively that the German
Americans are just as loyal to the.
American flag, as any other cltlzens.
As a historian Presi dent Wilson ought
to know, that German efficiency, in
corporated in van Steuben saved the
fighting 8 colonies from entire defeat-
In the civil war 49,, 900 Germans
fought and shed their blood to@save5
the Union Next to the Irish element
it was the native son of the German
irnrni grant, who developed the great
west, built the first transcontinenta
railroad, fought the Indians and Gull
tivated this Immense stretch OF coun-
try. The same spirit of by-gone
days was shown in the Cuban war
and in the recent Vera Cruz affair
The highest test of loyalty can be
seen in the present trying days, when
the President calls this loyal class OF
citizens TRAITORS In view OF all
these facts, is there any sense to ask
for new criminal laws against TINS
class of citizens2 Can anything be
more insulting?
But there are causes. for when the
President should really blush. While
in Prussia. 100000 Inhabitants In one
year only 1.s persons get killed by
or: minal murder, the corresponding
figure for New York state is 6.8, for
California. it is II, for Nevada. g. y This
N cans, that in New York state times
as many murders are committed as IN
Prussia in California and in Nevada
II times as many. In Texas 1000
persons were murdered in 1903 and
1910. Each year about 5000 get
killed in the u. S. by criminals and
only about ESQ rnurderers= executed II
is c0nservatively estimated that So