Mexico weekly ledger., 1918-07-11
WHAT AGERMAnAHER
ICAN THINKS OF WAR

Tht following sxucfr fruu TIE a.
dress 81 Eurene H. Aurct q rrumi-
nsnt 81 LCus ~sttarnsy, gives The IN
qualified usW q = Gcmzn-Am1noan
vho h 100 PER cent patnoug Mr. An
rert Is q second cousin q l. n. An
Esrt, 81 this city. and vas born In
Germany His address vas delivered
before the ST. Louis Railway Cub not
long ago The part q his address fol-
lows which deals with his views on he
present war
4 feel that ! can speak very freely
about this matter. because By blood ]
an as much q a German-Amenean a.
those ] erticise Ny mother came from
Austria; my fathers father came from
Germany. They settled out here in ST.
Charles ] look hack n the history Of
my own family, and fecl-and ! trust
that you will excuse me for being per
sonal, because those things that we
know are a great deal more deeply i'm.
pressed upon Us than the things tina.
we read feel that II there is any
part Of the American people that
ought 10 be whole-hcartcdly Ameri-
can, it is the Americans Of German
ancestry, because this country has
done more for the German than IL
yer has for people Of any other ma
tionality. Gratitude, II no other feel
ing should make the German-Ameri-
cans whole-heartedly for this eoun-
try.
MY grandfather was a shoemak-
er's apprentice; he had the energy TO
come over here as a young man, and
he settled in st. Charles. Because Of
the opportunities that this country
gave him, our broad democracy, and
u commercial activities, and the OPP
portunities for education and advance
ment-because of those things, he
was enabled u progress; and he rails
ed a large family, giving my father
some education, along with the rest of
the family.
MY father, by eason Of that edu-
cation, and the opportunities that this
country afforded him, advancedfurther
up the ladder of social and position po-
sition. And then my father from his
point pushed me still higher; and he
gave me every advantage Of educa-
ton and financial assistance that |
could possibly require.
"The result is that I am able to give
my little boy, when his time comes, n
push still further up the ladder, and
there is no position to which he cannot
aspire in this country; there is no place
that your son or mine cannot aspire to
in this country.
Nov that is what America did for
that shoemaker's apprentice who came
from Germany and for his children
and grandchildren. ! wonder where |
would be and what my boy could aspire
to if my grandfather had stayed in
Germany. | need not wonder-I know
the answer.
81 went to Germany four or five
years ago, and as a matter of curios-
ity, ! visited the little village that my
grandfather came from. | found his
brothers children and grandchildren
living in the house that he had set out
from. In the eighty years since my
grandfather left, they had not ad-
vanced one step up the ladder Of edu-
cation, material progress, independ-
ence, or anything else. They were liv-
ing in the same peasant way that my
grandfather had stepped out Of about
the year 1910; they were poverty
stricken; they were uneducated; they
had no opportunities; and in the
eighty years that the successive gen
erations had lived there, since my
grandfather had left, they had not pro-
gressed a single step; peasants they
were eighty years ago; peasants, pow
erty-stricken peasants, their children
and their grandchildren remain today.
And that visit impressed me very
strongly-the contrast between the
two branches of the family, the one
which had come over here and, not be-
cause of his OWE merit but by reason
Of the opportunities afforded him By
this country, had educated his family,
and the other branch which stayed in
Germany living in the same house he
left, and their descendants today at
the point Of progress that he started
out from eighty years age.
The same econtrast is paralleled in
the lives of thousands, hundreds of
thousands Of Americans of German
blood in this country. 1t is no unusual
case, it is almost the universal rule.
When ! think of those things. I
cannot have anything but adherence
for the German whose ancestors came
over here and prospered who fattens
of OF the great opportunities this
country gives him, and then yields but
a half-hearted loyalty to this country,
because Of sentimental gush for the
Vaterland which he OF his f~orefathers
abandoned because they thought this
was a better country 10 live in .