Freie Presse fuÌˆr Texas. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1865-1945, 1916-10-13

he refused to attend the urVeli-
ing of a monument to General
Nathaniel Greene. Who was
General Greene? Second in COM
mand to George Washington. Who
was George Washington? He
was a hyphenate of 1776.
Do you know that if you print
ed extracts today from the writ
ings Of Washington, Jefferson,
Franklin, Paine, and their asso-
%ciates, and attempted to smuggle
them into Canada or Ireland or
India, you would probably be ar
rested? Why, there is even a
little pamphlet written by William
Jennings Bryan, to bring which
into India would subject a man
to being cast into Jail.
Sometimes | wish that old Jo-
ham Peter Zenger could come
back to us. Zenger, a German
hyphenate Of the year 1888, was
the first apostle and martyr of the
American free press. He founded
the first newspaper in America
that tried to tell the truth. The
truth, then as now, was unpalat-
able to the English authorities, so
Zenger's paper was ordered to be
burned by the hangman, and Zen
ger was thrown into jail. A trif-
ling inconvenience like that did
not scare a man like Zenger. He
kept on editing his paper from his
cell, giving instructions to the
printers through a crack of the
door. After years of persecution
he established in America the
principle of the free press, free
until it was again fettered by
chains of British gold.
Remember that it was a Ger
man : American h~yphenate who
first secured for America the
liberty of. the press. The hyphen-
ates have been first in a great
many things, their connection
with which in our day has almost
been forgotten. Above all, they
have always been first in every
fight for liberty, in every battle
against oppression, in every war
for human rights.
Do you know that the first pro-
fest against negro slavery voiced
on this continent came from Ger
mantown in the year 1888, and the
arguments we're such that it was
impossible to refute them. 1t took
nearly $50 years for the P%uritans
of New England to catch up with
the humane idealism of Franz Da-
MEL P~astorius and his comrades
who Whittier has called:
"The German-born pilgrims who
first dared to brave
The scorn of the proud in the
cause OF the Save.
Do you knew that the first rebel
against British tyranny on this
continent was a hyphenate, Jacob
Leisler, just as two centuries la
ter, the first men on this continent
to preach the new economic Cos
pei of Socialism were hyphenated
Germans.
Do you know, that the first
Bible printed in America was
printed by the hyphenate Christie
pher Saur in l743, forty years be-
fore any other Bible was printed
in America?
Do you know that fully two
hundred years earlier a German
hyphenate Johann Cromberger,
has established the first printing
Office in the world, in the city of
Mexico?
Do you know that the first book
on education written in America
was written by Christoph Dock in
1854, and that the first kindergar-
ten vas brought over in 1926 by
Friedrich Rapp?
Do you know that the first
American Encyclopedia was COM
piled by Francis Lieber in 1928?
The things of the mind and the
spirit we're always their first con-
Germ, but the German Pilgrims
have been no less conspicuous as
pioneers in the fields of industry
and commerce.
Do you know that Wilhelm Rit-
tenhaus in 1890 created the first
paper mill in America?
Do you know that Thomas Ruet-
ter in 1916 founded the first IRON
works in Pennsylvania?