New-York tribune., 1918-05-15
The Tied Tongue
To the Editor of The Tribune.

5Vui SOiuiHHS III pIOLcSC HRA|IISL IiC "SSN
ing to be held under the auspices of the
American Defence Society and the Arlerl-
can Relief Legion at the Waldorf Astoria
next Wednesday evening? understand that
the object Of this meeting is to arouse a
popular feeling against the German Ian
guage newspapers in this and other cities.
May say word in favor of these much
belabored sheets?
think l in a position to do this
without laying myself open to the charge
of proGermanism. l was the first, be-
lieve. year ago, to carry on through the
syndicate service of the Vigilantes sys
tematic campaign against certain disloyal
newspapers printed in the German Ian
guage. / subscribed to a dozen or more
of the more prominent Of them, read them
assiduously and hammered them with zcst
in an article r "The Outlook" called "The
Menace of the German American Press"
and in countless editorials sent out by the
Viglantes, for the blatant opposition of
these newspapers not only to the Allies
but to America herself Those newspapers,
at that time were alp that the American
Defence Society says mistakenly that they
are now. They were just as pro-German
as they dared to be.
Toward the end of the summer their
editors began to see light Through the
efforts of The New York Tribune, "The
Minneapolis Journal" and other newspapers
the attention Of the country and of Con-
gress had been drawn to their fagrantly
un-Amcrican utterances. Congress acted,
but it did not suppress the German
language papers. 1t did something far
better. 1t practically collared them all,
putting them under the thumb of the
Postoffice Department Every German
language newspaper thereafter could work
only under government license, revokable
at any minute. From that hour the Post
master General became practically editor
in chief of all the German-language news
papers of the country The editors of these
newspapers had to file translation, to
whose correctness they had to swear, of
every editorial published by them which
dealt with the war. Since then the editors
of the German Language newspapers have
not been allowed to utter peep in criticism
even of the Administration, to say nothing
of the government or of our allies. To
the editors this has undoubtedly been a
hardship, for no man enjoys wearing a
muzzlc. But it has been my personal ex-
perience in what dealings | have had with
the editors of the German language news
papers that they chafed at this restriction
not because it prevented them from giving
expression to pro-German sentiments, but
because it prevented them from voicing lcgit-
mate criticism the conduct of the war; In
other words, like great many other Ger
man Americans who were o-Gcrman be-
fore the war; the editors of these papers
have gradually moved from dutiful to whole
hearted support of America in her war
against Germany. The action of the Ger
man government in Russia and the Lch-
nowsky revelations - which a number of
them printed in extenso--have, of course,
helped along their conversion. | believe
that the majority of them are now abso-
lutely and unqualifedy loyal. 1 believe
that they should be allowed to continue. not
only e:ause it would be unjust to suppress
them now that they have shown them selves
with and for America, but because the
American government and the American
people need the very valuable help that
they can give.
For these papers are doing all they can
to help America win the war; They have
not only printed vigorous editorials backing
the Liberty loans and given them liberal
advertising space, but they have themselves
collected subscriptions among the Ameri-
cans of German origin, with astonishing
success. One small German-language news
paper in Pittsburgh alone took in subscrip-
tons amounting to $350,000. These papers
are, furthermore, supporting every cam
paign to help America win the war; urging
thrift, urging food conservation, urging
contributions to the Red Cross and the
Y. M. c. A. They reach the people, further
more, whom no newspaper printed in the
English language would reach To our
shame be it said that there are hundreds
OF thousands of American citizens of Ger
man origin who cannot read papers printed
in English. If you take from these men
and women their German Language news
papers, you isolate them absolutely from
the rest of the American people. There
Is no way then to bring them into the
war activities. They will drift into group
apart, sullenly returning to that nro-
Germanism from which they are now.
thanks largely to the efforts of the German
language newspapers, emerging. do not
protest IN the least against a CAM
palgn against German language newspa-
pers which are disloyal. If any such pub
lications still exist they should be- sun
pressed and their, editors should be nut in
Jail. To suppress the ones which are loval
is merely to deprive ourselves of valuable
allies
The whole question of the foreign lam
guage press is large one with many
ramihcations Mr.. Roosevelt cannot on the
whole be accused of being pro-Gcrnan He
believes that all foreign language newspa-
pers should ultimately be converted into Enp
lish-language newspapers. He has never pub
licly advocated however, as far as l know.
that loyal German language newspapers
should Immediately be suppressed either by
the government or through popular action.
In recent article in "The Kansas City Star"
entitled "Fair Play for Good Americans !"
| ne writes
We should provide by law SO that after
a reasonable internal every newspaper in
this country should be published in Engl y
The italics are mine.