The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1918-01-03
REQUEST SCHOOL TO
CLOSE DURING WAR
Local Vigilance Corps Asks that
Bethlehem Lutherans Close
Par0chial School


recently organized, has requested
the discontinuance Of the Luth-
eran school during the war. That
the public may know that the re-
quest was made in an entirely
friendly spirit and that in max
ing it the corps makes no accusa-
tions Of disloyalty against the
teacher, Rev. Emil Kreidt, or
against the patrons Of the school
the request in writing which was
handed to the Rev. Kreidt last
Sunday morning, is published be-
low:
Kennewick, Wash, Dec. 20, 1917
Rev. Emil Kreidt, Pastor,
Bethlehem Lutheran Church,
Kennewick, Wash.
Dear Sir:
This communication is addressed to
you in order that the results of this
committees deliberations may be sum-
married. and it's attitude toward the
Parochial School of your church may
be made plain and definite. We re-
quest that the communication be read
to your congregation that they, as well
as yourself, may fully understand our
attitude.
It is needless, scarcely, to call at
hAv1finv, 10 %ha oo% hot poofSor, &c,
passing thru a crucial period in its
existence; that the principles of free
government upon which it is builded
are threatened; and that it is face to
face with the most serious crisis in its
history. The stress and strain which
this crisis lays upon the nation, are
likewise laid upon its citizens as in
dividuals.
Our country is at war. It is at war
because war has been thrust upon it
by the Imperial German government.
AS the nation fights, so must it's citi-
zens fight. As citizens we must aban-
don the ways of peace and accommo-
date ourselves to the ways of war.
We must Danish or discard, tempOrar-
lily at least, from our community life
and from our individual lives those
things which tend to retard or hamper
the business Of making war. We must
eliminate, so far as possible, those
things which do not make for harmon
ious action and united loyalty in our
community. In doing this it falls to
the lot of all of us to make some sac
rifices and to give up some of those
things which we have been permitted
4 fivooo 0f noopoE
The price which all of us, as Amer
lean citizens, must pay for the privi--
leges and blessings we have enjoyed
under the American flag, is unquaE-
fled and unquestioned loyalty to that
flag at the present time. We believe
that you are as DESTROYS as we of fos-
tering and promoting such loyalty in
this community; that you are as desir-
GUS as we of moulding together all
elements of the community into one
harmonious organization for the pur-
pose Of carrying forward the war work
in whatever phase it may be presented
to us. We believe, also, that your 10y
atty and your sense of duty should, and
will, prompt you to cooperate with US
in eliminating anything which in any
way may stand in the way Of this har-
monious welding together Of commune
ity sentiment and effort.
If this unity is to be an accomplish
ed fact in this community, those OF
American birth and blood, on one hand
must not either by word or act dis
criminate against those of German
blood and birth; and on the other
hand, those of German birth or blood
must not hold themselves aloof from
active participation in the war work.
There can be no dividing line drawn
between American citizens along the
lines of birth or blood and it becomes
our common duty to see to it that no
such false and fatal barrier is erected
in this community. The responsible
ity rests neither with the one nor the
other. It is dual responsibility. The
American born must forget the birth
of the foreign born and the foreign
born must help the native born to for
get that he is aught but an Ameri-
can citizen.
Without so much as intimating that
there is anything of disloyalty in your
teachings in the Parochial School, or
that the parents in sending their child
,ren there are prompted by any dis
loyal motives, we are compelled to the
belief that the school will, as the war
progresses, prove a foundation for the
erection of just such a barrier. We
believe it will prove an entering wedge
for the disruption of peaceful and har-
monious action in the community.
We state this belief well knowing
that the school exists by right of re-
cognition under the laws of the state
and nation and that it cannot be abol-
ished by any act Of this committee.
We have also given due consideration
to the frank explanations which you
SO kindly gave to our committee last
evening.
Even tho, as you have explained,
tthe school is not a German school but
a religious one, it exists, nevertheless
in the minds of the majority OF the
people as German school, where the
German language 1.-THE language OF
the enemy is taught; attended only