The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-04-30
German Language Newspapers

herman Language newspapers
The suppression of German language news
paper in Evansville at the behest of an outraged
public opinion. provokes a discussion of the
necessity of forbidding the publication of all Sc
cular newspapers and magazines printed in the
language of our foe.
Sixty dailies and between 500 and 600 news
papers, weeklies and magazines are printed in
the German language in the United States. About
five years ago most Of them were losing SUBJ
scribers and facing precarious future. Citizens
of teutonic ancestry were rapidly discarding
them for American periodicals. Few German
American homes could be found in which there
was not an English language newspaper Chill
dren disdained reading journals printed in the
language of their ancestors and adults preferred
American journalism to the kind presented in the
German language press. Owners Of these peri
odcals saw a steady decline in readers, which
none of their appeals could overcome. Financial
ruin was only matter of time.
But the war proved boon to these publish
ers. Thousands of homes that formerly read
only American newspapers, now subscribed for
German language newspapers, and interest in the
foreign language publications was revived to
such an extent that their publishers saw prosper
ity ahead
A typical example of this regeneration is to
be seen in our own city. Prior to the outbreak
of the war, the copies of German language news
papers bought by citizens of teutonic origin was
very small. A few months after the war was in
progress. Fort Wayne and Cincinnati papers
printed in German began to circulate here in
large numbers.
When our country entered the war; few per-
l.: LII
the German language papers be asked to suspend,
but now the demand is heard all over the coun-
try. The reason for this change in sentiment is
found in the passive hostility of the editors and
owners to Americas participation in the war;
True, none of them openly and actively attack the
government, but few of them are absolutely d.
vorced from German Kultur and whole-hearted
in their support Of America. This held true in
the Evansville case and is typical Of the rest.
By featuring German successes and by COW
ertly criticising the policy of our government
not out of constructive motive but out of ar
apparent desire to embarrass our leaders-these
editors are preventing tina. capitalization of
unity and of harmonious effort in our whole pop
ulation, which is so essentially necessary in the
process of forming undivided support of our
government and an aggressive national consci-
BUSINESS to win the war; no matter what the cost
in men and money:
If the German language press at the very out
set had been aggressively active in demanding
the elimination of the hyphen and in welding the
men and women of teutonc ancestry into our ma
tional life, SO that pro-Germanism would have
been an impossibility instead of menacing real
ity, and if every Gernan-American would have
stood shoulder to shoulder with his American
neighbor in patriotism and loyalty, there would
have been no agitation against the SUPPRESSION of
these periodicals.
Few German language newspapers, sad to
say, were enthused with patriotic zeal and fervor
of this kind. Instead of becoming missionaries
in the cause of Americanizing their readers, they
remained cryptic breeders of discomfort and did
inestmable damage to national unity by studi-
ously holding aloof from this mission and insidu-
ously encouraging unrest
But waving all this, the fact remains indis-
putably true that there is no need of German
language newspapers in the United States. We
venture the assertion that there are hardly
dozen persons in Richmond that cannot read an
English newspaper. In the homes were German
newspapers circulate are found American news
papers, and these are read as carefully, dscrim-
inatingly, and with the same enjoyment as are
the papers printed in German. The same condi-
ton prevails elsewhere.
~rHr MEN youth thoughtfully