New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-03-29
IN
OFFICIAL BULLE-
TIN--LOOKSQUEER


(New York Tribune)
In another column on this page
we reprint some news from the gov
ernment's newspaper, called The Of
ficial Bulletin" published by the
Creel Committee on Public lnforma-
ton.
1t was not intended to be news.
1t was intended to be propaganda
not for the war, not for anything
to make the world safer for demo-
cracy, but for German kultur in
American public schools!
That is very strange kind of
propaganda for the Committee on
Public Information to be SPREADING
1t appears in the form OF a let
ter from DR.. PhIlander +. Claxton'
United States Commissioners OF Edu-
cation, to the president OF the UNI
vcrsity of South Dakota. DR.. Clax-
ton cannot agree with those who
would eliminate German from the
high schools and colleges OF the Unit
ed States. The German language. he
says, has cultural and scientific value,
! We cannot afford to let it fall into
disuse Besides, we shall need it Tor
commercial purposes after the war.
Emotional r ason Greater
| These, however. are merely the
practical. and intellectual reasons.
There is greater one. 1t is the
emotional one. The German language
should be treated tenderly in 'Ameri-
can schools, Mr.. Claxton thinks, be-
cause I'VE have no quarrel with the
people OF Germany as a people, and
'have in our hearts no hatred or
bitterness toward them"
This, he says, is something Pressi-
dent Wilson has been trying to make
plain :.
Dr.. Claxton undertakes to make it
really plain. He becomes enthusias-
tic with the theme. The fewer
hatreds now the better afterward, he
saws, and reminds us that this has
hetn true of war times with England,
Hc1ico. Spain and among ourselves
Therein he makes out the Germans
to be even as Englishmen and Ameri
cans are. But wait.
May Lead In Peace"
Germany" he says, may even yet
become one of the leading nations
/ for the preservation OF the peace OF
the world"
The letter is in shocking bad taste
That could be passed. 1t is docu-
ment which, coming from the Unit
ed States Commissioner of Educa
ton and published by the Committee
on Public Information, astonishing
ly enrichcs and strengthens pro-
German propaganda in this country
If the Committee on Public lnfoT-
nation is itself in any doubt on TIM
point, then, before rctorting on The
Tribune for its opiniont let the
chairman imagine himself, or any ont
else, shouting to company OF Ameri-
can soldiers as they go over the
top:
Enioin Soldiers Likewise
"Remember, we have no quarrel
with the German people,!
Or:
xii them without bitterness"
Or:
DO it without hatred, for Ger
many may yet become one OF the
leading champions of the worlds
peace"
What utter madness OF course
But, if not to the Americans as they
go over the top, why say it to the
Americans at homer
We now are touching a matter deer
and significant. 1t is nothing less
than the inwardness of our officia
attitud. toward the war.
)! DR.. Claxton says at the end OF hi'
letter that he has reason to think
his sentiments are in harmony with
those of the Administration. Thai
would have been inferred from tht
publication of his letter in The Or
ficial Bulletin"
Our Official War Emotion
So we are through with DR.. Clax
ton and the Committee on Public
Information. We are faced with thu
question of this countrY's official wal
emotion.
Have we an official quarrel witt
the German people!
There has been both the politica
and the intellectual pretence that WI
haven't.
What that pretence has cost u
hitherto in time and spirit we dc
not know.
Now, for the first time. it is begin
ming to cost us lives wholesale II
khaki.
Our quarrel with the German peo
pie is so CHASTITY and terrible tha
it could not be compromised. There
fore we have joined in the unlimited
business of killing Germans.
Democracy's present only problem
is how to become more efficient il
the killing of them. They have fore
ed the hdeous choice upon us.
And for that we hate them