Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-09-20
The Duty Of German
Americans to Germany

ITO speak German is to remain
German: to cause others to speak
German is to make them into Ger
mans.-
In this way Ludwig Fulda, one of
the most prominent of modern Ger
man playwrights and journalists sum-
married. his observations in the
United States. That he was giving
expression to more than merely per-
sonaI opinion is evidenced by the
stern measure adopted by Germany
for the purpose of establishing the
use of German in the Polish provinces
and in Alsace-by the DEGREES which
forbade French even on signs and on
tombstones and the orders making it
crime TO impart religious instruc-
ton in the Polish tongue.
The propaganda for the German
language has always been a we'll
recognized phase of imperial Kul-
turpolitik IT was regarded as an
important means for establishing Ger
man influence in foreign lands, for
undermining national unity, and for
keeping German immigrants in solid
blocks which could be used as con-
yenient make weights in favor of
German policies AS one of the lead
ers in the Pan-German movement ex-
pressed il years ago, ''the importance
of Germany in the future will depend
on two things-frst, the number of
persons who are politically subject
- Il
Der of those throughout the world
who speak the German language"
That the Kaiser's sympathizers in
the United States have taken this
course to heart is borne our by the
vigorous efforts which have been made
to establish the German language in
our public schools ever since the Pan
German idea came to active consci-
BUSINESS here some twenty years ago.
During this period the number of
high schol pupils taking instruction
in German has risen from $4,000 to
$4,000. Even more marked has been
the increase in this direction in the
grade schools.
Now that the events of the last few
months have taught Americans to
look upon this apparently innocent
educational movement in the same
light in which it has always been held
by Germans both here and in Ger
many 1t is small wonder that they
will have none of it. German Ian
guage instruction has been abolished
in all grade schools of Toledo; in
Cleveland it has ben eliminated from
the first four grades; in Baltimore
from all grades; in Milwaukee Amer
lean children will no longer have the
advantage of bi-lingual education in
the first and second grades and even
Chicago has torn form its spelling
books the nauseous adulations of the
Kaiser which the opponents of Pan
German policies had caused to be in
serted
That this aversion for everything
German will be intensified with time
is inevitable. The danger is that it
will attach to much that it admirable
and that we could adopt with advant
age. Our civilization will thereby be
made the poorer. One of the great
tragedies of the war is that the evil
ambition of the Hohenzollerns has
laid it's foul hands upon the sacred
heritage of the German people and
impregnated it with the poison of its
contact, so that for centuries it will
provoke the loathing Of the world.
These consequences can in some de-
gree be averted by our citizens of
German birth. 1t rests with them to
prove to us and to the world that a
wide chasm separates the Germany of
Schiller, Goethe and Leasing from the
monster state created by the Hohen-
zollerns and their servants; that the
genius that peopled the woods and
dales with the fairies of childhood
has nothing in common with the
demon that ravaged Belgium. France
and Poland; that the German spirit
is indeed free and not sunk in hope
less servility to unworthy masters.
But not by lukewarm allegiance TO
our country, not by half-hearted sup
port of our cause, not by carping
criticism of things American, not by
secret qualification over the reverses
of our allies, can they bring this
about The Turnverein, the Lieder-
kranz, the Stadtverband, the Nation
albund, The Deutschunterricht must
all be forgotten. The story of Amer
lean liberty, from its foundation in
Magma Carta to the present time,
must displace all these as the subject
of their propaganda; everything that
will contribute to our overwhelming
victory must be the object of their ac-
tivity Through such men, after the
war, will the benefits of German sci
ence, art and literature be transmit
ted. BY such men alone can the
odium which the Hohenzollern dynas
ty has drawn upon all things German
be averted. and the treasures of Ger
many's past be preserved for the
world
Catarrh Cannot Be Cured
with LOCAL APpI LEGATIONS "a thav