Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-01

A'"'"So a. oib ioiio OpChiy 1o
leader He laughed at their pru-
dence. This openly. Who knows
what were their secret counsels?
He was the voice" One voice.
You see. practically. in German poll
tics, this straight-from- the shoulder
opposition of Wetterle was not suf-
ficiently shaded to obtain favors for
Alsace. Against the great empire he
made only frontal attacks. He never
worke@ bias to obtain practical
ameliorations. That he left to his
brother Alsatian deputies. So 1 say,
it was made up between them.
Wetterfe, never giving way a sstep,
scarcely obtained deputy's results
for his district. He did not seek
them--nor did Ribeauville nor Alsace
expect them. He was the voice cry
ing in the wilderness.
k* X
He was both pessimist and opti-
mist He was pessimist because he
did not believe that Alsace could OBJ
tain a better fate under German rule
He was optimist because he believed
that good would come out of that i'll
and Germany's imperial tendencies
would bring final deliverance to
Alsace.
He lived in preparation for trouble.
He always said: I'm on their black
list and will be arrested the first day
of mobilization" Yet he was notified,
accidentally, on July IS, 1914, by a
boy on the streets Of IColmar. In
stantly he passed into Switzerland.
He was just in time.
For twenty-five years he has been
fighting. His face is worn. He looks
ten years more than his age. He is
the Alsatian hero. Undoubtedly he
played the decisive role, making for
getfulness impossible. Yes, this frail
man probably weighed down the bal
ance in the destinies Of Europe. He
barred the road to every subterfuge
of reconciliation"
In Berlin he was always in danger
After the affair of Saverne he felt
the ground burn under his feet" Ex-
tremely sociable. a grand natural
mixer. he held himself always on
guard, was intimate with none, lived
bitterly alone. because he trusted
none-and none trusted him.
He dreamed Of war, war, war,
especially under the porch of the
reichstag. where the sculptures Ger
maaic lion brushes Alsace-Lorraine
under it's paws. He used to point out
the symboI to the German Deputies
They laughed, "Hoch! Hochw
Now will give more samples of
his talk. We are in his little study,
near the Madeleine, in Paris.
'Alsatians are not Germans." he
bursts out. I'VE belong to the great
Gaulish or Celtic people. and 1t was
we-we-we, who kept the watch on
the Rhine through centuries"
THE song is German" said.
yes, and the song is also modern.
1t was sung for the first time At the
silver wedding of the old kaiser IN
1854. when Bismarck and Moitke were
preparing to steal Alsace for him.
do yOu know how many German
invasions there have been?" he con-
tinued. Memorial, the historian.
counts thirty-four great invasiens of
Gaul, France. Belgium--to cut their
neighbor's throat and take his farm.
In the hrst dawn Of history, the Ala
mans fpresent Baden popuIation) red
the way. Tradition says that they
made straight for our hencoops, to
gather all the eggs and make colossal
cmelets-so great and In such
hurry that they broke the eggs with
their feet. From which the men of
Baden are called by Alsatian peasants
to this day 'gaIhesla. which Is Gaul.
ish for yellow feet
With those bad Baden Badens
came the Boiens fmoAern Bavarians)
whose feet we're 50 big that they cen