New Britain herald., 1915-12-18
Loving Fatllel.land.
Bridgeport Farmer)

pr. Herman Duesing is entirely cor 1 rect when he demands for foreign porn citizen of this country the right to remember and love the fatherland. The sympathies of the heart are be- yond the control of the intellect. A man does not ask if he ought to love ms mother, or his wife. He must do so, by the nature of his being.
 Dr. Duesing is correct also in his estimate of the civilization of Ger many, of the accomplishments of Ger man scientists, and of the contribu- tlons citizens of German origin have made to this country. Even his re- cital of defects in the American sys- tenn will be received as a catalogue of evils which have attra acted the serious attention of the American people.
 Nor is he wrong in his assertion tn at the right to criticise the government is a privilege of freemen in this coun- try, though he will doubtless also ad- init that should any German indulge in criticism of the Kaiser of the na- ture of his criticism of the president that very severe measure would be taken.
 And since Dr. Duesing prizes this right of free speech he will concede that American institutions are super for at this point
 But in his estimate of the president and in his view of the presidents mes sage, Dr. Duesing is the subject of a too common delusion.
 When the president says there are those in America who have 'poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national 1ife," he does not refer to Germans, but to anybody who has done that thing.
 And in referring to those who are guilty the president says, their num- Der is not great as compared with the number of those hosts by which our nation has bee nenriched out of virile foreign stocks"
 Dr. Duesing is without support in the presidents language, or in his action, in supposing that disloyalty in Germans is especially condemned, or 1 that any class of people are thought 1 to be dlsloyal as a class.
 The president represents the nation. In time like this the thought of every nation turns to the fundamen- ] tals of self preservation. It looks first to it's own we'll being
 The president simply lays down the rule that he will look out for Ameri- 1 ca first and that he will not permit the sympathies of any group of peo- l pie who as an act of heart sympa- thize with any European nation, to sway him from a program of devotion | to America. And he means not Ger man sympathizers, but all who sym l pathize with some foreign state.
 Dr. Duesing is a broad minded, lib- eral man. He is proud of the country
 in which he lives, and of the country from which he came. But let him re- fleet Is it wise to array German sym l pathy against American sympathy In such a contest there can be but
 one result. The foreign policy of the 1 American government will not be dic-
 tated by German sympathy, but by
 American ideals, and by the American instinct for self preservation.
 The president does here what the
 Kaiser does there. But the liberty of
 expression given to. foreign born suo-
 jets is almost limitless here, and
 scarcely exists in Europe. fact l which proves that Americans are | proudly conscious of the patriotism
 of their people and of the solidarity of | their institutions.