Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1918-07-26
LOYALTY
To the Editor of The Herald

We were slow in entering the war
and We have been slow in realizin,
that our part in it would be anvthin,
more than grand final parade. w,
should have begun preparing the da,
Belgium was invaded and been read,
TO declare war when the Lusitanie
was sunk. If we had done so, the
war would now likely have beer
over, and billions of treasure anf
millions of lives might have beer
saved. But President Wilson and
the other pacifists would not listen
10 wise counsel of this kind. Instead
OF leading the people, the President
as regards the war, has moved only
under compulsion of public opinion
when action could be no longer de-
layed. Since we at last got into the
war things have begun to move with
accelerated rapidity, and one now
feels that we shall soon be able ia
do something. While the growth OF
the feeling of our responsibility, not
only to ourselves, but also to our al
lies and the rest of the world. al
though slow, has been a satisfactory
thing to watch, it has unfortunately
been attended by circumstances of a
disquieting nature, tending to fill one
with anxiety for the future. Not
only have many persons in various
parts of the country been suspected
of disloyalty and roughly handled
without cause but acts have been per-
petrated which have lowered us in
our own estimation and hurt us in
the opinion of the world, though the
participants in their blindness may
have fancied that they were doing a
brave and patriotic thing. In ILL
nois some months ago a man of little
influence, who had been put in Jail
for supposed disloyal language, was
taken out by mob and hanged The
purpose was to give the culprit a coat
of tar and feathers, a punishment
which would have been quite severe
enough if the man had been proved
guilty, but he was killed without
trial and while protesting his loyalty
and innocence. The crowd finding
they had not had the foresight tC
provide themselves with the neces-
sary tar and feathers, and not being
in a mood to be cheated out of a
thrilling experience, some one sug-
gested that they hang the man. This
was done, and the great state of Hi
nois has not been able to convict a
single one of the many participants
in the crime.
Another disquieting feature of the
time is the growing prejudice against
the use of other languages than Eng
! fish on the part of those who speak
and read other languages and do not
| feel that they show any disioyalty in
possessing and exercising this ability.
askance and with suspicion when one
| happens to be seen with a newspaper
| iii some language not English and II
be asked why one reads such stuff.
Il was natural that a prejudice
should spring up against the teach
ing of German in our public schools
chiefly on account of the pro-Ger-
man propaganda carried on in oul
schools and colleges; but there was
no sufficient reason for suppressine
religious worship in that language
as has been done in some places
This prejudice against German will
doubtless continue to grow in this
country while the war lasts; yet oul
| English cousins, who seem to be less
hysterical than we, are urging an in
creased study of German in theil
country. But while we find this
prejudice very natural among our
selves, an unfortunate circumstance
is that the prejudice has extended al
Sc to all other foreign languages
The governor of Iowa has recent!
issued a proclamation in which hi
has forbidden the use of any Ian
guage other than English in thu
schools, public and private, in thu
telephone, in trains, in churches, am
on all public occasions, saying tina
the United States constitution doe
not guarantee to imm igrants the priv
iiege of speaking any other Language
than English. If this had been
necessary or useful war measure
nothing could have been objected II
it, though it will expose thousands o
loyal people in Iowa to much an
noyance and Inconvenience. There
/ would have been some sense in issu
ing such a proclamation as regards
i German, on account of the Prussial