The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-05-22
FROM A GERMAN
TO THE GERMANS
Good Letter From q Man Who Knows
Martin, Tenn, Mail.)

was professor of the Milford, Ind.
schools for two terms and is a schol
ar. He is now one of the leading at
torneys of Elwood. He was born in
Germany and writes a forceful let
ter. The same letter appeared in the
Elwood Herald and should be repro.
duced in every local paper. The title
of his article is "A German to Ger
mans" and we produce it as written
By Mr.. Wilkie. He says:
Il know Germany. l was borr
there. I went to school in the Fa-
therland and let me tell you, my good
German friends, that you do not know
what you are talking about when you
will support German autocracy. Ii
you are honest about it you will say
that you and your fathers fled from
Germany just as mine did, to escape
military tyranny.
81 know Prussianism. You may
have been born elsewhere in the en-
pire, but the brutal iron heel of the
government that has drenched the en-
tire world in it's war for power, was
the same power that made every Ger
man, who had little cottage or mud
hut, no matter how poor he was, to
board German soldier free of
charge That soldier was the autocrat
in that home. His word was law
ITO resent this action of the brutal
guest who must have the best of ev-
erything in the house, was to bring
dire punishment upon the head of
that family. There was the filled
knapsack hanging upon the wall and
a loaded gun in the corner and when
call of war did come that soldier
with $50 others knew where to run in
order to form a company ready for
immediate service. That is the type
Of the German organization for you
What have said cannot be denied.
Let me tell you something else.
have been asked so many times, How
can the German people, who are gen.
orally so peaceful, have changed into
such murderers. | tell you that 70:
years and years three has not been 4
minister standing in the pulpits Of
. Germany but has been selected by the
! government. Approved by the powers
he has never preached to the people
without combining the name of Kaiser
Wilhelm with God Almighty.
1.-THE people have heard it preached
to them. 1t became part Of their re-
ligion. God gave them the Kaiser
lit is a part Of their very training al
we'll, for not school teacher or in
structor in the schools of the Father
land but is there subject to the ap
prevail of the imperial German gov
eminent and not session is held bu
the children are taught Germany mus
lead the world, that the Kaiser ant
their God are inseparably connected
tell you that the people have hat
/, so much of this doctrine soaked init
them by this constant effort that the,
+, really believe what has been laugh
: and cannot escape from the virus.
: "My mother carried me here in he,
, arms. She knew what military ty
! ,ranny was, for she suffered until W,
came to the land of the free to liv,
| under the God-given Stars an
Stripes. Often have I heard her sa,
, in her heart broken anguish over tn,
, safety of her brothers who fought i,
} the German legions, oh, why is i
: necessary for a people to fight ant
J keep great armies when we could al
. be so happy.
, Her brothers were killed in battl
but her love went out to this grea
country of freedom which has blesse,
the world and which is ours today
How happy she would be were sh
e only here to know three sturdy grand
a sons in the service to follow Old Glor
e to a greater sphere of freedom thai
;. the old world has ever known. The
[. have taken solemn vow to folloy
2 cur flag until it floats in triumph owe
Dresden, if need be. And their march
s my friends, won't be the march G
e Germans through Belgium with it
D. crimes and its blood and its tears TO
l. they will say to the German people
% "'Come, my brothers, into the en-
e joyment Of the fruits of great free
dom of world of democracy tina