Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1918-11-14
PatriOteerjng
r.
By BOOTH HARRINGTON
OF The TgiI0nteS

we call them, found that our country
was in the war, they erased the by
phen. The hyphen is gone forever.
In our country there are only
, American citizens" | quote the above
from a recent article issued by the
"Figiantes," and l believe the facts
! to be virtually as stated. But if they
were not. and if the hyphen did ac-
tually here and there remain alive,
would not the mOStr sensible policy
treat it as dead, and at least assume
it to be dead, wherever it showed no
virulent signs Of life? In other words,
men cannot be gOaded into loyalty;
they only accumulate sense of in
jury under the gOad.. And it was
never more important than at this
present time that we should avoid in
justice TO any citizen. Suspicion, ru-
NOR and coincidence of circumstance
should influence neither our judgments
! nor our actions: much less should we
, vent our passion against Germany
upon the person of him whom we
( called the German-American.
| speak from the standpoint OF one
who bitterly opposed the German
American position on the war prior
to the American entrance, April, 1917.
| But the sympathy of the German
American with the German cause,
prior to that date, if rightly cOmpre-
] hended, does not imply sympathy
LOTT trh
to many minds this is either an i'm
possible paradox or symptom OF
credulity imposed upon by almost
barefaced Hypocrisy. 1t is neither.
The German-American, beholding a
war between Germany and the allies,
sided with Germany. He had not
been alienated from Germany, as the
rest of us had been alienated (by the
Revolutionary War; from England
He saw merely contest between for
eign powers and sided with that from
which he sprang. But when his own
country came to actual war with Ger
many the German-American found
himself to be an American. Neverthe-
less, it is hard for him to show his
patriotism when we say to him: "NOW
you dirty German-American, drop
your tricks and speak up Repeat
these words in loud shout, L am an
American and / love the flag and if
you don't shout loud enough Wen
kick you, and maybe Wen kick you
anyhow" Such instruction does not
seem quite statesmanlike, or over
Christianlike, either.
Germans to Germans.
Margaret Deland, lately returned
from France, says that over there, not
long ago, company of German pris-
oners, just captured, were being sent
back from the front, when they en-
countered an American regiment,
largely from Wisconsin, moving up to
the trenches. Many of the Wisconsin
troops were of German origin; some
among them, indeed, could hardly
speak English and the prisoners were
astOnished to be greeted nOiSily and
garrulOusly in their own tongue. They
were even more aStOniShed at the
nature Of the comments which these
strange Germans from America made
upon them. In fact, the episode was
unamiable. Oaths in the German
tongue were frequent and intensive.
The German-speaking men of the Wis
cOnsn regiment cursed the captured
German soldiers with an inhOspitable
frankness very shocking to the pris-
oners, who had been passed in silence
by other American regiments, and
had received cigarettes from bat
talon of English. Words like DUNN
kopf' and "schweinhund" were en-
ployed, with prophetic expletives /;
and the general sense of what the
Wisconsin men said to their German
cousins was as follows: "You dash
BANKED jackasses and dots, we and
our father left your old fatherland
and went four thousand miles to live
in q better place. Now we have to
come all the way back four thousand
miles again yet, to slaughter you, be-
cause you haven't got any more sense
than to believe and obey that old pig
dog Of kaiser. Well send your
kaiser and princes to sheOl, where they
can't do any more harm; and as for
you, dunderheads, you ought to be
hanged for making us all this trou-
Bile Of coming over here to teach you
some sense with our bayOnets !"
May Work Out Own Salvation.
The citizens once called German
Americans will work out their own
salvation if we do not make it too
hard for them. What man can show
enthusiasm for anything, when he is
! threatened with punishment if he is
not enthusiastic? Loyalty is q feel
ing; it is not a spoken word. You
cannot possibly produce a beautiful
feeling in any man by threatening him
or prosecuting him.. Let US not threat
en- at all, and let us prosecute only
when we have evidence. Is it certain
evidence that man is loyal if he
have a son in the American army?