Omaha daily bee., 1918-05-16

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He has done nothing for them. He has
done much against them.
If any class of people in the whole world
has reason for hating the German kaiser
that class is the German people in the
United States. Up to August, 1914, the Ger
mans in America were respected, honored
and loved. They were ranked among the
first citizens. Their loyalty was without
question. In 1861 they had proved their
loyalty to the union. They had demon
strated that they stood for the principles on
which the republic was founded. They and
their fathers and their grandfathers, their
mothers and their grandmothers had come
from Germany that was rotten with autoc-
racy-a Germany that even then was over
run with and predominated by the blood OF
the barbarian Alpine stocks, which were
supplanting and eliminating the Nordics and
the real Teutons. Failing in the German rev.
olution of 1848 to overthrow this barbarian
element many Of the revolutionists came
to America. The Schurzes and the Sigels
came here. They were the German people
whom we learned to know and trust and love
and cali brothers"
Then an amazing thing happened.
The German kaiser picked quarrel with
the world.
And let US not forget this main point: He
was the same German kaiser in 1914 that he
is in 1918, and was backed by the same Ger
many in 1914 that is backing him in 1918
The German people in America could not
offer the same excuse that has been offered
for the German people in Germany; that
they were under compulsion, that they were
lied to by the German kaiser and the Ger
man government, that they had no newspa-
pers wherein they could read tbe truth. No;
these excuses could not be offered in this
country. All Germans in America had access
to the English language newspapers, the ma
jority of which told the truth, the majority
of which laid bare the crime Of the German
kaiser and the German government. They
also had access to the German language
newspapers The German language news
papers published in the United States should
also have told them the truth.
Did they?
How many German language newspapers
published in the United States told the truth
about the criminal German kaiser and the
criminal German government and the cring-
ing criminal German people in Germany?
Do you or anyone else know how many
of these German language newspapers
printed in this country denounced the crime
of Germany? Do any OF you know how many
of these German language newspapers de-
Tended the sinking of the Lusitania3 Do
any of you know how many of these German
language newspapers denounced Germany
and came out boldly and unequivocally for
the United States and insisted that Germany
should be beaten to standstill after the
United States declared war against Ger
many?
How many of them since April 1917, have
come out with unquestoned loyalty in edi-
torial and news columns throbbng in every
line with the red blood of manhood for the
country that gave to them their being and
made it possible for them to live?
How many of these German language
newspapers were there in America which
took that stand in 1917?
How many of them are there today?
Now, something else has happened.
1t is not an amazing thing; it is a nat
ural thing. 1t is the logical sequence follow
ing as a natural result certain line of ac
ton. 1t is based on that very powerful attr-
butte of psychology-which we ofttimes un-
observation-disclosures as human nature. 1t is
the inward and-to certain polnt--invls-
ible sign of spiritual grace, that later on
becomes an outward and glaring potential
ity. 1t begins with the whispers of dlscon-
tent of righteous force and justice.
An illustration is the tea and the sea Incl
dent in Boston Harbor.
1t is strictly American.
The German mind cannot grasp it.
Thus the German language press in Amer
lea toyed too long with American patience
The Germans fared their offensive German
sheets in the face of Americans the day after
ia American men, women and children had
gone down in passenger ship, sunk by Ger
~,,G f,atr Car
man sheets with insulting defiance before
Americans in the street cars after every fresh
outrage on Americans-deliberate planned
and exultngly executed by the Germans in
Germany. These Germans in Amer
lea read in German; they talked in Ger
man; they thought in German. Today
many are still reading in German talking
in German, thinking in German. Many of
them have made themselves obnoxious to
Americans in their public organizations and
in their private clubs
And who is responsible for this Manner
icanism?
The German language press of America.
This press has fostered Germanism and
not Amerieanism. 1t has brazenly faunted
its disloyal views before all, America. 1t has
without shame or gratitude incited-some-
times openly, sometimes insidiously-its
readers to treason. 1t has persisted in this
course on the assumption that the Americans
were easy going careless and-possibly-of
scant acumen. The German editors and the
German writers In general of these German
sheets know full we'll what would befall an
American or an Englishman who sat in a
Berlin street car reading an English Ian
guage newspaper. They know full we'll what
would befall Frenchman who sat in Ber
lin street car and read a French language
or what would befall an Italian
who read an Italian language newspaper.
They know all that, but, they laugh Ger-'
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