The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IN INFORM A TON
BURE AU
J. HASKIN, Director
Washington. D. c.

FREDERIC ]. HASKIN, Director,
III Washington. D. C.
QUESTION OF THE HYPHENATE.
| Washington, D. c., May 20.-A few
| days ago. the federal court in New
Jersey cancelled the citizenship pa
pers of a German who had become
naturalized in this country thirtyfive
years ago. The man had made him
self conspicuous by his violent pro-
German and anti-American assertions,
| which showed that whatever citizen
| ship he might claim in theory, his
sympathies were with the Fatherland.
| By this action of the court it will now
| be possible to remove him to our
enemy alien colony in Georgia, where
| he can do no harm.
This is the first case of its kind to
occur in this country, but it is likely
to be by no means the last. Repre-
Sentatives of the United States de-,
partment of justice have been watch
ing thousands of such doubtful citi-
zens for months, and this action of
the New Jersey court has at last sug-
gested a practical means of dealing
| with them.
| The .German-American, as distin-
guished from the American-German.
has been one of our most serious war
!
ization papers has prevented his
| classification as an enemy alien, while,
as a matter of fact, he may be mucn
more disloyal than many an unnat-
uralized German There are unques-
tionably thousands of loyal German
Americans in this country, but our re-
cent discoveries concerning German
methods of propaganda have shown
| that many COMMUNICATIONS are
bitter and dangerous enemies or the
| hot no
| them SO we'll.
IT is known that the German gov
eminent considers its subjects as SUD
jects forever, ignoring any subsequent
allegiance to other countries. lnoeeo,
under the Delbrueck law, we are told,
Germany upholds the retention OF pre-
| tended allegiance to two countries
And the German government mas
made the most of this in its elabor-
ate machinery of propaganda which
| is constantly at work in both enemy
and neutral countries. That is why
| Canada has had to revoke the citizen
ship of German-Canadians naturalized
| in Canada during the past fifteen
years, and why the British govern
ment has had to keep such close
1 surveillance on Germans who had be-
come English citizens.
! The United States has always been
a peculiarly trusting nation. Until the
war, we had a small and modest Sc
lcret service. Once an alien was past
Ellis Island, the government lost track
| of him; no one bothered him or asked
questions unless he broke the laws or
became an applicant for naturaliza
ton. 1t is doubtful if we will ever
again attain such a comfortable state
of well-being fer the insidious charac-
ter of the German propaganda, is fast
undermining our trustful attitude.
| Recent Investigations have shown
that a good many schools in this coun-
try are in the habit of singing
Deutschland Ueber Allies" at the
close of each school day; that there
are nearly five hundred German
schools and church societies in this
country used for the promotion of
pan and that in many
places the German language is given
preference to English. Last year, for
example. one American city spent ap-
proximately $4,000 in teaching the
German language to immigrants, while
approximately 500 was spent in
teaching them English. The records
of another city disclose an expenditure
of $4,000 for teaching German, and
nothing for English instruction. The
fact that the German reichstag in
1912 passed an appropriation of L.
100000 marks to establish the Ger
man language in schools in foreign
countries may shed some light upon
these comparisons.
In the state registration of women
which took place during the winter
and the early spring it was discovered
that German agents had made a tour
of many districts, urging women not
to register for war service, saying
that registration would mean the
communicating of their food or their
transfer to other states or countries
In many cases this form of propa-
Uganda had the desired effect, but in
one case the results were certainly
not as anticipated.
For when they told an Iowa woman
} that her food would be Communicated
she accepted the statement stoically
And when the women of her local
registration committee brought her a
card to sign, she asked them if they
would mind letting her know when
the government would send for her
] supplies, as she was busily canning
everything she could lay her hands
IN, in order to be ready for them
Another example of German propa-
ganda, found where it was least ex-
pected, is furnished by Maurice Kuf-
ferath, Swiss writer, who calls at
tention to an extension of remarks
attached to a Beethoven sonata pub
lished in collection of music called
the Universal Edition of Leipsic'
! The sonata is twenty-four pages long
! while the extension of remarks by one
J Heinrich Schenker fills seventy pages
The German nation Mr.. Schen-
ker says, lis the most capable in the
world. more richly endowed. with tai
ents and faculties than even the
Greeks or the Romans" Concernins
other nations. Mr.. Schenker has vary
ing opinions of an unfavorable nature
which he takes great pains to express
The French he considers "a people de-
void of all sincerity, of all inteIli-
gence, of all culture of life" He calls
England the great criminal among
nations" while Americans, he de-
clares, are "a rabble of shop-keepers
, without culture, whose dull brains are
exercised only over the coarsest buff
. foonery."
During the past year a tremendous
controversy has ragged over the uues-
ton OF suppressing German music.