Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-30
WHEN WILL GERMAN-AMERlCANS
ESCAPE THEIR FALSE LEADERS?
Pastor Won eosse and other Relics Of the
Alliance Are Opening Old Sores
That Should Be Left to Heal

| SOMEONE has said that an untempered
~ German, left to himself, is merely an
average human, no better and no worse
than his neighbor. A profound change
| occurs, it is held, when you organize your
German in bund, shout at him in the
| language of his progenitors and try the
experiment OF an appeal to the mingled
cruelty and sentimentalism that appear
to be at the root of his national charac-
ter. Then you are likely to have an
amazing demonstration of vanity and
unwisdom.
This dverting theory seems to have
been proved at a meeting held the other
night at turner's hall 1t was organ
lied, sincerely enough, no doubt, to aid
in providing relief for hungry and des-
titute millions in Germany. 1t was the
first big meeting Of avowed Germans held
in this city since the United States en-
tered the war.
There was a matchless opportunity
there for any man able to lift himself a
little way above the fogs of misunder-
standing that have blinded so many peo-
pie in the last few years-for any one
who could begin the work Of interpreta-
ton that must bridge some unhappy riffs
in the friendly life of America. But
German genius for irrational leadership
was revealed again.
Pastor Won Bosse, of Wilmington, who
was president of the German-American
Alliance before that organization was
He doomed like Ludendorff. He strutted
like Hindenburg. He bawled defiance to
any one who has dared to put blame
upon Germany for a war that shook the
world The Star-Spangled Banner was
played in funereal silence. And since
then the Tageblatt has been in furious
effervescence, back again in the mood
that characterized it before its editors
were sentenced to jail terms. This is
all very sad-for Germans.
There was altogether too much of ar
tifcially cultivated prejudice and hatred
everywhere in the world during the years
of the war. Yet Pastor Won Bosse rep
resents a type of man who unconsciously
helped the propagandists of bitter anti
Germanism. The alliance over which he
presided misrepresented in its activities
millions of citizens of German name,
nativity or ancestry whose sentimental
concern for Germany in no way lessened
their loyalty and devotion to America
and American purposes.
Everybody knows now how Doctor
Hexamer's organization was formed
and maintained. 1t was for what a
mentally defective king termed 'infltra-
tion" It's chief support was eXpatriated
Germans whose minds were unsettled by
little cheap flattery at Berlin. There
is nothing to show that the alliance ever
concerned itself with the masses whose
| minds move with the aspiring intelli
gence of democracy in America. 1t
wohshiped a decaying feudalism and
| wept in ecstacy when the kaiser gave
its singing societies cup supposed to be
| silver and made of lead.
1t was Hexamer and Won Bosse and
| their associates who came to represent
| German -Americanism in conventional
| opinion. And a great many German
| families who were outraged by signs Of
| prejudice against them had HeXamer to
thank for it. Now they have Pastor Won
| Bosse.
The larger class of German-Americans
whose dilemma must be reckoned among
| the minor tragedies of the war endured
pain and bewilderment in silence. They
were not of the alliance and they were
not disloyal. Many of their sons fought
and died in the American army in France.
No one has spoken for these Americans
of German descent or origin. Many of
them were old people whose spirits were
torn at the prospect Of conflict between
two countries and two peoples whom
they loved.
All things seem fairer in long retro
spect There is nothing in life that does
not seem more beautiful after it is gone
forever. If there were men and women
who, while they were giving all their
strength to America, still refused to be-
lieve that Germany was living atrocity,
they can be easily understood. They
looked back at mystical and legendary
land, place of peace and tenderness and
imagined perfection. They could remem-
ber nothing but kindliness, hands that
ministered to them and surely could do
no wrong; voices that always were
gentle!
Yet it was not Germany that called to
millions in America, though they may
not have known it. 1t was the days of
their youth and the innocence of life.
If the hand of the world seems raised
against all these things it is natural to
vince. Why didn't PASTOR. Bosse say
as much? Was he talking to the wrong
crowd? Or is he the minority German
of Hexamer's alliance, knowing little
more about his own people than he knows
OF the United States?
If you believe the pastor and the
Tageblatt the world is plotting against
Germany, The world is too tired and