The Little River news., 1918-07-24
Why We Fight
 No. ( Because Germany for Years Sought to Undermine Our Government
 and Our Ideals
By CLARENCE l.. SPEED Secretary of the War Committee of tn, Union League Club of Chicago.

Union League Club of Chicago. We are fighting Germany for the right to live our own lives as we see fit. We are fighting for our laws, our ideals, our homes, our institutions. But how" one may ask, "were all these things threatened by Germany before the war started? It is easy to see how they may be threatened now. for if we are defeated we are lost, but before the war started did Germany menace those things we hold most sa- cred?"
 Let the Germans themselves answer. After you have read the evidence out of their own mouths, you may decide whether or not Germany planned to up set our institutions, our ideals, our very mode of life.
 In 1901 the National German-Ameri- can alliance was formed in the United States. In 1907 1t was incorporated l by act of congress. Its charter is | now being attacked in that same body. One of the objects of the alliance, as
 officially announced, was ''to check na-
 tivistic encroachments." In other
 words, to keep the Germans from be-
 coming Americans. Another object
 was 'to awaken and strengthen the
 sense of unity among the people of German origin in America" | "This alliance" its preliminary | statement of aims concludes, ''is l pledged to bring it's entire organiza-
 tion to the support of any state fed
 eration which is engaged in the strug-
 gle for any of these objects" It was pledged, in other words, to
 have it's members vote, not as individ- uals, but as German controlled units, for or against anthing of which
 they did not approve. l The desire for resisting "nativistic
 encroachments," was particularly ab-
 horrent to American ideals, because
 the effort in this country has always
 3een to keep politics free from racial
 or religious influences. Yet here was
 body, proclaiming itself German in
 origin and thought, seeking to perpetu-
 ate this German feeling in the midst of America.
 From it's very start the alliance | sought to foment discortl with England. | It always spoke of the American press 1 as "the Anglo-American" press, and it carried out a long and well-directed campaign for the introduction of the
 German language into the schools and
 it's use in civil life.
 "The National Alliance" according
 to an issue of it's official Bulletin be-
 fore this nation entered the war, lis
 waging war against Anglo-Saxonism,
 against the fanatical enemies of per.
 sonal liberty and political freedom, it f is combating narrow-minded, benight- | ed know-nothingism, the influence of
 the British, and the enslaving Puritan
 ism, which had it's birth in England"
 "The race war which we will be
 compelled to go through with on Amer
 ican soil will be our world war;" said
 the New York Staats Zeitung in fight
 ing proposal to amend the New York
 constitution to make ability to speak
 and write the English language a
 requisite for suffrage.
 l Ludwig Fulda wrote book. "Amer- I lCdA 1Ahpk CSSlOASs 4HCN WCAC HIT pressions of German who had stud-
 fed this nation with view to seeing it ultimately Germanized. German ization is synonymous with causing to
 speak German" he said, "and speak. ing German means to remain German" Wherever there were signs of dis content, of movement which might tend to disrupt this country, or any other which Germany might find as commercial rival, the German-Ameri- can alliance was sure to be on the job. It gave support to the Irish. American societies. because these soci- cites, before the war, were working for the separation of Ireland from Eng. land, matter in which Germany, at that time, could have no legitimate interest. But Germany, even then,
 was preparing for war, and was doing every possible thing to weaken Its coming enemies. A disOrganized America, one filled with German re- servists, would be in no position to side with her enemies, Germany fig ured. On this subject the much-quoted Bernhardi wrote:
 Measures must be taken at least to the extent of providing that the German element is not split up in the world, but remains united in compact blocks. and thus forms, even in for eign countries, political centers of gravity in our favor. The isolated groups of Germans abroad greatly ben- eft our trade. since by preference they obtain goods from Germany; but they may also be useful to us politically, as we discover tn America, The German Americans have formed political ai- liance with the Irish; and, thus, united. constitute a power in tho state with which the American government must reckon"
 With the outbreak of the war in Flu. rope the actions of the German-Amer. ican alliance became bolder. The cam. paign for membership took on new vigor.
 Can we talk of peace with a Ger.