New-York tribune., 1918-04-28
The Poisoned Tongue
To the Editor of The Tribun .

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: During the present "great orsns;...,
against German in the schools. Gerrar ,,.'
guage newspapers and everything Ce,-s~r .a..-
In general, we frequently hear tho a,"A
tlon: Would Germany permit the ansa,.
language In her schools, or allow newss.
pers In the enemy language on her nasa
stands?" s"s-
AS an aswer to these questions norn.;.
me TO menslon that the descendants of the
french refugees" who went to Berlin dur
ing the reign OF Louis XIV of France arc
still conducting their own French schosa'
and they have four Protestant conarooA Uos'
tions in Berlin where the services o.
French. There is in the German GO, ~
IN Dorotheenstrasse Al, the French nrs,a~ @
atory school and the French high scssl,
Iffanzoslsche Gymnasium) in which astsl
the lower grades are absolved. nothinr ~.
French IS spoken. The lower grades 49,
bllngual. The French churches have +ha,s
own conslstory, located at Friedrichstrassa
ll9. There has never been any thourht ~
suppressing the French schools ne;ths-
during 1864, when Prussia was urss.
the heel OF Napoleon, nor lS7o-'71 tn
schools have given some excellent ,nen ~
Germany; for instance, the former Mir;s.so
OF War, Verdy du Vernois AS far as now
papers in the enemy language are cns
cerned, the German government has pevo,
thought of suppressing them excen+ tbosa
IN the immediate war zone. But there tbo
Gefman governments established its own
Frencn newspaper, the Gazette des Araen.
nes. IL may net De generally known thai
there is a district in Germany faxid. fnoas
the Polish provincesl which is settl0d ~" ,''
Savs who keep up their language and tha;s
customs. These are the Wenden with
language closely akin to the Serbian ~
fact, they call themselves "Serbio.n and
their principal society is called "Nacioa
Serbska." There are about 10000 of tbesa
people and they support half dozen news
papers.
PoHsh newspapers appear not only in thu
territory formerly belonging to the k;na-
dom of Poland, but also in other nsr,s %
Germany where the Poles have settlea in
large numbers, as, fer instance. in Rer,;n
AS far as English and French newsnaners
are concerned l am willing to abide bv tbs
testimony of former Ambassador Gerard
and your responde1t, Mr.. Dreher. who
surely know whether such publications .ro
displayed on the stands in Berlin ana Other
large cities or not. Ny impression is that
they are sold wherever there is demand
for them.
~ NONAoS' lHCiS may US Olner arguments
for doing away with German newspapers
and everything German in general. | am
not convinced, either, that the German
Junkers would hesitate one moment to sun
press all foreign languages if they saw anv
advantage In such a course. Which leads
me to ask: What are the advantages accru-
ing to the United States through the forc-
Die suppression of everything appearing in
the enemy language? l presume The Trib
une knows why the French Canadians have
oeen SO lukcwarm in supporting the war.
They, above all, would have cause to enter
INTO It Fundamentally for racial as we'll as
tor other reasons. But they were deeply Of
tended at the many attempts Of their Eng
iish-language neighbors to interfere with
their language and their customs. The
Americans OF German descent will. of
course, do everything to help win the war, no
matter what happens. It seems to me, how
ever, that it would be poor policy on the
part OF our government TO suppress publ
cations which have done everything in their
power to further the great cause to which
the nation has dedicated itself
And what would The Tribune do if some
cne were to publish Swiss newspaper in
the principal Swiss language for Swiss citi
zens Would these neutrals have to lose
thelf papers, too? WALTER JAEGER
New York. April "a, 1918