The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1917-04-07
OUR GERMAN ELEMENT.

Wal ab~A4h7I INC OSin man pSOPiSs Dus
against the olgarchy that has com
mitted ifs innumerable crimes in the
name OF the German people has been
quickly seen for its incalcuiable
worth By the English and French who
are dropping copies of it written in
| German in the trenches of the Teu-
tons on the western front, says the
Macon Telegraph. what its imme-
date effect will be there is not par
ticulsrly important to us just now.
Where it should ring with the dis
apason of iron on iron is in the heart
of every citizen in this country who
is of German extraction.
The present war was not long in
the waging before IL became evident
that not the least of the results of
the inevitable Entente victory would
be the emancipation OF the German
people themselves from the Prusslan
autocracy headed by the House OF
Hohenzollern and the establishment
In the great Rhine country OF free
government serving free people.
English statesmen have stressed that
fact with the clear and untroubled
outlook that has always persisted in
some considerable element In Down
ing street no matter what the passion
| or heat OF the moment But today
when voiced by tho head OF the
American republic that he does not
! HOLLAND therefore America does not
hold--against the German people and
the German nation the crimes OF the
men In the seat of power at the pres
ent time, II takes on tenfold impress
sive meaning For he addresses that
important truth direct to the millions
OF Germans In this country.
Nine out of ten of the American
people who came from Germany or
are OF German derivation, some mil
lions of them, came to the American
republic because they wanted free
country. They fled from the very
bondage which has dragooned the
millions of their blood kin into the
bloody trenches of all Europe, the
tyrannical and iron.shot system that
has brought this Titanic war on the
world. II was to escape the goose
step. the spiked helmet, the ever OBJ
| tanning prostitution to war as an ever
! imminent and inevitable consequence
| that they left the t'atherland and set
| tied in the great American cities and
across the rolling and fruitful prairies
OF that empire that is now tho Mid
| die West and the Northwest. When
| they came there were few so impreg-
mated with the Piussian idea that
they easily and sincerely joined In the
| chorus of resentment and denuneia-
ton OF that in Germany typiiied by
| the Eagles of the lIohenzollern. Seek
| ers after liberty, freedom and the
| clear air of free and untrammelled
| men, we Anglo.Saxon stock on this
side Of the water. from Hudson's Bay
| 70 the Gulf of Mexico. extended to
| them the hand of welcome and even
| OF affection. They made good citi-
| Gems. They seemed to be in the way
Of absorbing thoroughly the Ameri-
| can idea.
The outbreak of the war brought a
startling and disturbing revelation,
The causes of the war, the plain and
direct responsibility for II that rested
on that very upper system from which
they fled, many of them to conserve
their vert personal safety, as best
| typihed by Carl Schurz, seemed be
yond their ken. They came out be
fore us, not as Americans. not as
clear seeing men who could judge
calmly and see the terrible prostitu
ton of the patriotic impulses of theft
brothers back in Germany, but apps
tbs and adherents Of the awful and
lintolerable Prussian idea and anhi
tions. They seemed unable to diff
ferentiate between the interests Of
the common people of Germany and
| the interests OF the Pr,issian junker