New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-06-09
OUR GERMAN FELLOW CITIZENS.

No matter how radically you dis
agree with the opinions of your German
American friends, you can scarcely
refrain from admiring the ardent loyalty
to and love of the Fatherland their
course throughout the war has,illustrated,
says the Duluth Herald.
There must be something strong and
great in a country that can attract
such unwavering devotion, and in a
people that can show it so consistently
no matter how trying the circumstances
their loyalty must endure.
Nor must it be thought for moment
that this undying affection for the land
of their birth is in the slightest degree
inconsistent with love of and devotion
to, the country of their adoption as un-
wavering and as undying.
There never has been any evidence
that love for the motherland has made
any of our adopted citizens less loyal
to the land of their adoption, no matter
from whence they come. On the other
hand, it has been made very clear that
the greater their capacity for loyalty to
the land of their birth, the better and
more loyal citizens of this country they
have become.
To be entirely fair to these fellow
citizens, one should attempt to imagine
himself in a situation like theirs. Sup
pose that we had emigrated to Germany,
had established ourselves there, and had
become citizens of that nation. Sup
pose that under circumstances similar
to those that prevailed in Europe, the
United States had become involved in a
bitter, desperate war with virtually every
other power in the western hemisphere.
Suppose that, to our grief and surprise,
we found the general sentiment of our
neighbors in Germany to be against the
land of our birth.
Wouldn't we be sticking up for the
good old U. S. A.? Wouldn't we be
trying to convince our mistaken neigh
bors that they had the wrong view of it,
and that their sympathies ought to be
with the United States instead of with
it's enemies? And if we didn't do these
things would we deserve anybody's
respect?
Maybe we would be misunderstood.
Maybe our attempts would simply irri-
tate our misguided neighbors in Ger
many. But could any reasonable human
being honestly challenge our motives?
Family, that illustrates the position
of our German-American fellow citizens.
1t is one to sympathize with, not to con-
denim. Nobody should underestimate
the capacity for citizenship that is
illustrated by the ardency of their
devotion to the land of their birth.
There isn't the slightest reason for
doubling that when it comes to the
pinch their love for and devotion to the
land of their adoption will be found as
ardent and as consistent. Indeed, the
records of America in peace and in war
dissolve whatever doubt there might be
about that, a thousand times over.
Nor if the remote exigency of war
between Germany and the United States
should come to try their loyalty, to
demand of them the choice between the
land of their birth and the land of their
adoption, is there the least doubt about
what that choice would be with the over
whelming mass of them.
1t would be for the United States, for
the land of their opportunity, for the
land in which their children were born;
and though the. parting might wrench
their hearts, it would be none the less
final, and their loyalty to their last
choice would be none the less complete.