New-York tribune., 1919-06-29


| as mere matter Of course.
"Well," said Mr.. Walther, ~ bought
some Liberty bonds and sold War
and Thrift stamps. I sold 5000 of
these stamps right in this room. My
grandson, who was attending the Uni
versity Of Illinois when we entered
the war, wished to enlist. He was
only eighteen, and was his guardian
and could have kept him home, but
did not hesitate to give my consent.
He served in France in the Rainbow
Division and has recently returned"
German-American
Alliance Criticised
During the interview Mr.. Walther
said number Of interesting things.
He criticised the German-American Al
lance, for example, but chiefly on the
ground that it was not free to engage
In political activities.' He said, too,
that It's method Of raising funds--one
cent per capita-was inadequate; When
| pointed out that the brewers had
paid money to the alliance, he made
no denial, but he said that he had
taken none of the brewers money.
Mr.. Walther is a believer in the dual
language idea. He prefers German
regrets his inability to speak Ameri-
cas- language better than he does and
says that he wishes he had learned
Spanish. His views on the subject
of German are surprisingly reasonable.
When he learned of conditions that
have prevailed in Milwaukee for years
until recently-of how the children Of
Greeks, Italians, Slavs, Russian Jews
and other immigrants were comaelled,
when they entered Milwaukee public
graded schools, to study what to them
were two foreign languages-E English
and German-he expressed surprise.
even astonishment and condemnation,
"Who was responsible for that" he
asked.
"The German-American Alliance and
your friend Leo Stern" was the reply.
~ cannot see the reason for such a,
practice" commented Mr.. Walther.
"Those children knew their parents
language, to begin with. BY learning
English they would be able to use
two languages. That would have been
sufficient in the circumstances. So far
as German is concerned, believe that
1t is good for one to know it. For
one thing. 1t is the language of science.
uou 40 Ill
with whom discuss the matter believe,
that instruction in a foreign language
should. begin below the eighth grade
The language Of the country should
always come first"
Praises Germans Love
For the Fatherland
At one point Mr.. Walter, discussing
the Germans love Of the land of his
birth or ancestors, stated that this
feeling was very natural and wholly
creditable, statement with which few
will disagree. He went on to say that
man who lacks tender feeling for
his native or ancestral land is a man
whom people do not respect.
"a man may love both his mother
and his wife," he added, to clinch his
argument
told him that he was expressing in
different words a saying that has been
heard very often in America during
recent years.
Besides" I said, "a man should not
prefer his mother to his wife, and
when the wife discovers that she is
getting too much mother-in-law right
along, she naturally resents it,"
Whereupon Mr.. Walther did thing
quite American. He said something
about the age of the mother-in-law
joke.
Mr.. Walther appears to be sincere.
There is no sufficient reason to doubt
that he believes he is good
American in every way. To some
extent, no doubt. he labors under the
handicap Of association and environ
ment. He has lived in America al
most half century. His associations
have been German in very large meas
ure. He has continued to talk Ger
man a great deal of the time and he
has made a practise of reading Ger
man papers right along. To-day he
feels regret because he cannot use to
bctter advantage the language Of the
country Of which he is citizen. Had
he tried in earlier years to master
Americas language, and to mingle
with Americans of all classes, he
would undoubtedly have caught more
of the spirit Of America, his outlook
and habits Of thought might have been
essentially different from what they
are.
The dominating force in the German
American Citizens League is DR..
Herman Gerhard, a man familiar to
all who have followed the cause of
German propaganda during recent
years. DR.. Gerhard's personality is
very interesting. His life story is In
teresting His views are interesting
A study Of him, a story about him and
an interview with him will be in
cluded in the third and Anal article