F62 c/ll1te/ct/B. a'cvuAJb^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY JAN 2 5 1955 H S ::m^^ pn H y ' M4Ln^ ?nm y^^juo Cornell University Library D 620.F82 German-American's confession , of Jailh 027 862 832 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027862832 A German- American's Confession of Faith A German- American's Confession of Faith By Kuno Francke Curator of The Germanic Museum of Harvard University New York B. W. Huebsch MCMXV Copyright, 1915 B7 B. W. Huebsch FOREWORD In view of the bitter and ill informed criti- cism which my stand during the present war has evoked from many Germans and German- Americans, I think it a duty both to myself and to the cause which I represent to bring together at least some of the documents in which my course of action is contained. They consist of articles and other kinds of contributions to vari- ous magazines and newspapers between October 1 9 14 and May 19 15, dealing successively with the following topics: the moral and spiritual forces of contemporary Germany, the question of American neutrality, the duties of German- Americans both toward the land of their fathers and their adopted country, the mission of America for the peace of Europe. Slight as are these contributions to the litera- ture of the great world conflict that engulfs us, they are at least inspired by the endeavor to be loyal to obligations old and new. One word I wish to add here regarding the exportation of arms and munitions of war. That this traffic, in spite of its international legality, is as vicious and hideous to me as to anybody, may be taken for granted. That in the present war this traffic, carried on upon a colossal scale by American firms, should bring death and destruction to thousands upon thou- sands of Germans and should seriously injure the cause with whose triumph all my hopes and desires are bound up, is a thought from which I suffer fully as much as any of my German- American compatriots. But it is one thing to condemn individuals carrying on this hideous traffic, and another to hold our Government responsible for it. Only under two conditions would our Government be justified in suppressing it. First, if the nation were a unit in demanding its suppression upon humanitarian grounds. To my regret, this is not the case. The American people is so divided in its sympathies that the arguments for or against an embargo on arms have been made, up to the present, almost exclusively in the interest of one or the other of the belliger- ent powers. The manifest intention of our Government to recognize the claims of human- ity and to work for international good will has, therefore, thus far not received that strong popular support which would enable it to take a pronounced stand in this matter. Secondly, our Government might very prop- erly consider the advisability of prohibiting the shipment of arms, as a retaliatory measure for English encroachments upon American trade. At what point our national interests would require our Government to take such a step, is a question which I feel unable to an- swer. But I cannot help expressing my ardent hope that a wave of popular indignation di- rected against one class of American manufac- turers deriving financial profit from the ruin of Europe will strengthen the efforts of our Gov- ernment to save our whole nation from becom- ing a tool in the hands of English world do- minion. KuNO Francke. May SO, 191 5. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Kaiser and His People ... 3 II Germany's Hope 21 III RUF AUS tJBERSEE 33 IV Neutrality 37 V The Duty of German-Americans . 45 VI The United States as a Peacemaker .53 VII Gebet 67 VIII Germania Martyr 71 I. THE KAISER AND HIS PEOPLE A GERMAN-AMERICAN'S CONFESSION OF FAITH I. THE KAISER AND HIS PEOPLE * WHOEVER or whatever may have been immediately responsible for the terrible cataclysm, which in the midst of harvest time, like a Doomsday of nations, has befallen Eu- rope and all mankind, there can be no question that German ascendancy of the last half cen- tury has been its ultimate cause. It therefore behooves Germans above all others, with fear and trembling, but without flinching or subter- fuge, to search their hearts and to ask them- selves whether they can really go into this con- flict with a clear conscience and with trust in the justice of their cause. Whether German diplomacy under the regime * Reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly, October, 1914. 3 of the present Emperor has been equal to its task, whether its efforts to guard and to Increase the Bismarckian legacy of 1870 have always been guided by Bismarckian foresight and Bis- marckian sense of the attainable, is a question that only history will be able to decide. Cer- tain it is that the guidance of German destiny since the retirement of the great Chancellor has been confronted with well-nigh insuperable diffi- culties. On the one hand, a people brimming over with physical and intellectual vitality, flushed with military and industrial success, eager for activity in every field of enterprise and in all parts of the globe. On the other hand, a formidable array of obstacles against the peaceful and natural expansion of this peo- ple: France, unwilling to forget her national humiliation, unequivocally refusing to acknowl- edge the settlement of 1870 as final, incessantly preparing for the day of revenge, persistently attempting to form threatening alliances against her hated foe; England, nettled by German business smartness, alarmed by German naval strength, trying to isolate and check and hem in the upstart in his every move ; Russia, deeply resentful of the setback received at the Berlin 4 Congress in her march to Constantinople, de- termined to use the Slav upheaval in the Bal- kans as a means of pushing forward to the Adriatic, and thereby throttling German influ- ence in the East. These are the international difficulties under which the new Germany has had to struggle onward. What has been the consequence of this op- pressively difficult situation? How has Ger- many met it? What intellectual and moral forces has this situation brought into play ? No unprejudiced observer of German affairs, I believe, will deny that it is this very difficulty of maintaining her national preeminence which has given to contemporary Germany a feeling of solidarity and of public responsibility, an eager earnestness, a concentrated will-power, a sweep and momentum of constructive imagina- tion such as no other nation of to-day possesses. After centuries of national weakness and ob- scurity, the German could at last feel again that he was a part of a great and progressive empire. Wherever he went abroad — as farmer, as busi- ness man, as colonial administrator, as sailor, as scholar and teacher — he felt behind him this new empire, surrounded by rivalry and un- 5 friendliness, but steadfastly holding its own, steadfastly working at the enrichment of its re- sources, the improvement of Its social conditions, the strengthening of Its manhood. And when he returned to his native land, he would see with joy and gratitude that not only In military or- ganization, but In every kind of public and pri- vate activity, in city-planning. In care for the poor. In Industrial cooperation, in scientific farm- ing and forestry. In research of every kind, in every form of popular Instruction, in literature and the fine arts, Germany was striding ahead of the rest of the world. Seldom has an individual been so perfect an embodiment of a national movement as Em- peror William II is of this new Germany. All his acts and utterances have been inspired by the one desire of developing German character to its utmost. It is impossible to go through the four volumes of his " Speeches and Ad- dresses " without being profoundly Impressed with the indomitable striving for national great- ness incarnated in this man. Richard Wag- ner's Parsifal and the Nietzschean Superman seem combined in him. Every phase of life 6 appeals to him; and in every phase of life he wants his Germans to excel. He admonishes schoolboys to think of what their country will need of them when they are men, to abstain from alcohol, to strengthen their bodies and minds by hard work and hard sport, to strive after that harmony of life which the Greeks possessed and which " is sadly lack- ing to-day." He appeals to school-teachers to make their pupils above all at home in the things nearest at hand, to make achievement rather than knowledge the goal of instruction. He holds up to university students the spiritual heroes of the German past, from Walther von der Vogelweide to Schiller and Goethe, and warns them " not to waste their strength in cos- mopolitan dreams, or in one-sided party service, but to exert it to make stable the national idea and to foster the noblest German thoughts." His own sons he urges to labor incessantly to make themselves true personalities, taking as their guide Jesus, " the most personal of all personalities," to make their 'v^'ork a source of joy to their fellowmen — " for there is nothing more beautiful than to take pleasure jointly with 7 others " — and where this is impossible, to make their work contribute at least something useful. Upon his ofl&cers he impresses the extreme ne- cessity of firmness of character; for "victories are won by spiritual strength." Addressing the large mine-owners of Prussia, he insists that it is the duty of the State to regu- late " the protection which the workingman should enjoy against an arbitrary and limitless exploitation of his labor; the limitation of child-labor with reference to the dictates of hu- manity and of the laws of natural development; the position of woman in the house of the labor- ing man, which is morally and economically of the greatest importance for the family life." Speaking to the professors of the University of Berlin, he points out the need of " institu- tions that transcend the limits of a university and serve nothing but research, free from the demands made by instruction, although in close touch with the university." At a gathering of German sculptors and painters he proclaims that " art should be a help and an educational force for all classes of our people, giving them the chance, when they are tired after hard labor, of growing strong by the contemplation of ideal 8 things. Attention to ideals is one of the great- est tasks of culture, and all our people must work at it, if we are to set a good example to the other nations; for culture, in order to do its task well, must permeate every stratum of society. But it cannot do this if art refuses its help and pushes people into the gutter instead of elevating them." The need of human fellowship and mutual forbearance for national purposes he impresses upon a Westphalian audience by reference to personal experiences: " During my long reign I have had to do with many people, and have suffered much at their hands; often they have hurt me unconsciously, but often also, I regret to say it, very intentionally. When in such mo- ments my anger threatened to master me and I was tempted to avenge myself, I have asked myself, how best can wrath be stilled and charity grow strong? I have found only one answer, and that was based on the observation that all , men are human and even if they hurt us, they have souls given them from on high, whither all of us wish to return. Thanks to their souls, they too carry with them parts of the Creator." And at the Prize Singing Contest at Frank- 9 fort, for male choruses, instituted by him, in the presence of thousands of singers of all classes of society he extols the simplicity of the good old German folk-song against the artifi- ciality and affectedness of modern tone-paint- ings, and he thanks among the singers partic- ularly the " men of the brawny hand, the large number of men who have come from the ham- mer, the anvil, and the forge. They must have sacrificed to this work the sleep of many a night." Perhaps the most impressive, however, of all these utterances and the one most charac- teristic of contemporary German feeling. Is a passage from a speech delivered soon after the Emperor's return from Palestine. " During my stay In that foreign country, where we Ger- mans miss the woods and the beautiful sheets of water which we love, I often thought of the lakes of Brandenburg and their clear, somber depths, and of our forests of oaks and pines. And then I said to myself, that after all we are far happier here than in foreign lands, al- though the people of Europe often pity us. Surely many and varied experiences of an ele- vating nature I have had in that country, partly lO religious, partly historical, and partly also con- nected with modern life. My most inspiring experience, however, was to stand on the Mount of Olives, and see the spot where the greatest struggle ever fought in the world, the struggle for the redemption of mankind, was fought out by one man. This experience induced me to renew on that day my oath of allegiance, as it were, to God on high. I vowed to do my very best to knit my people together, and to destroy whatever tended to disintegrate them." These are the utterances of an individual. But they are typical of what millions of Ger- mans feel, what Germany as a nation feels. Nothing could be more erroneous than to think that German ascendancy of the last genera- tion had been merely industrial and commer- cial. A new idealism, a substantial enthusiasm for good government, for social justice, for beauty and joy, for fullness and richness of in- dividual character, have accompanied it. Can there be any doubt that Germany to- day is the best governed country of the world? How utterly absurd it is to speak of the present conflict — as many American newspapers do — as a conflict between military despotism, repre- II sented by Germany, and peaceful democracy, represented by the strange partnership of Rus- sia, Japan, England, and France. How sad it is to see men like Bergson and Maeterlinck so hopelessly deluded as to Invoke their country- men against " the German barbarians, the en- emy of mankind." Where in Germany is there a parallel to the travesties upon justice to which the decisions of French courts and juries, from the degradation of Dreyfus to the acquittal of Mme. Calllaux, have accustomed the world? Where in Germany is there — or at least has there been until this dreadful War engulfed her — a brutalized proletariat such as is the specter of London and Liverpool? Where in Germany is there anything compara- ble to the astounding corruption of official Rus- sia, made manifest in the Russo-Japanese war? It is certainly not an accident, that neither Syn- dicalism, so rampant both in France and Eng- land, nor Anarchism, the terror of Russian au- tocracy, has gained any foothold on German soil. The enthusiasm for good government, shared alike by Liberals, Conservatives, Cleri- cals, and Socialists, has prevented it. Indeed, the Emperor on the one hand, the Socialist 12 party on the other, are the two most unimpeach- able witnesses to the passionate German zeal for good government. The German Socialists of to-day are some- thing entirely different from what they were thirty or forty years ago. They have ceased to be revolutionary; they have become a party of constructive reform. They contain the in- tellectual and moral elite of the German work- ingmen. They are performing a most valua- ble service in raising the standard of life and the level of citizenship of the whole laboring class. They are devoting their energy, not to Utopian dreams or, as the I. W. W. are doing in this country, to the propaganda of destruc- tion, but to practical tasks of economic organ- ization, such as the establishment of vast co- operative societies and the introduction of com- pulsory life-insurance for all union members, and to educational enterprises of all sorts. As members of the city councils in all the larger German towns, they are exerting a strong and wholesome influence upon city administration all over the Empire, and as the strongest single party in the Reichstag they take an important part in national legislation, mostly with the op- 13 position, but not exclusively so. For it will be remembered that the Socialist party voted for the extraordinary tax bill of 19 12, needed to carry out the military reform of that year. And it seems most probable that the assertion of the German Chancellor that the Socialist party in the present catastrophe is loyally standing by the national defense, is literally true. Indeed, it was a member of the Socialist party who, at the special Reichstag session of August 4, moved the adoption of the government's bill for a war appropriation — a motion which was carried without a dissenting voice. Only in one point have the Socialists unflinch- ingly and unrelentingly arrayed themselves against the present governmental system, and in doing so they are laying bare the one grave defect of imperial Germany : the arrogance and overbearing of the military and bureaucratic class. Closely allied as this defect is with the sterling rectitude and splendid efficiency of Ger- man military and civil officials, it is an anomaly in modern Germany. One effect of the stu- pendous sacrifices to which the entire nation is now being summoned, will be to sweep away the artificial barriers which until now have pre- 14 vented Germany from reaping the full fruit of her otherwise unequalled methods of govern- ment. But It Is not only in good government and social efficiency that Germany during the last forty years has outstripped most other coun- tries: German ascendancy has also manifested Itself with striking rapidity and massiveness In the things that make for beauty and joy and the adornment of life. While Paris architec- turally still retains the stamp of the second Em- pire, London that of the Victorian era, and while in the French provinces and the smaller English towns building proceeds at a slow pace and along old lines, Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Hanover, Cologne, Kassel, Darmstadt, Frank- fort, Nuremberg, Munich, not to speak of many other German towns, have undergone veritable revolutions during the last generation : new city halls, theaters, opera-houses, museums, univer- sity buildings, hospitals, railway stations, de- partment stores, stately mansions and model cottages, have arisen everywhere, and In It all a new and typically German style of architec- ture seems to be developing. Much of it is heavy. But there certainly Is not any longer 15 that academic imitation and formal eclecticism of pseudo-Gothic and pseudo-Renaissance mem- ory; there is abundant evidence of original and powerful imagination, and an unmistakable striving for stateliness, proportion, symmetry, and sweep of outline. And a similar reaching out toward high goals is to be found in the other arts. What other country is there in which the drama, the opera, and the orchestra exert as deep and noble an influence as in Germany, with its multitude of princely or civic theaters, its careful training for the theatrical and musical professions, its well-informed and reverently re- ceptive audiences? In what other country could have happened what Professor Max Fried- laerider of Berlin University told me happened to him some years ago? He was invited by a club of worklngmen in the Krupp iron works at Essen to deliver to them a lecture on some mu- sical subject. He accepted the invitation, and held an audience of more than a thousand workmen and their families — most of them un- doubtedly of socialistic persuasion — for over an hour listening attentively to his presentation of Johann Sebastian Bach. These men are now i6 in the regiments that have been hurled against the forts of Liege and Namur. Finally. Is it a presumption to say that there is more honest striving for fullness of in- dividual character in Germany than in other countries? I believe that there is; and I be- lieve that this also is a part of that eager con- test for ascendancy in which Germany has grad- ually outdistanced her neighbors — outdis- tanced, but not threatened. Is she now to be made to pay for all her efforts at self-improvement? Have these ef- forts not been more than merely national achievements? Have they not been a gain to humanity at large? Must she defend these achievements against a world in arms? If this desperate situation has been brought about by the very best there is in German character, then it must be accepted as part of the tragedy of human greatness ; and the only help left to Ger- many and her Emperor is to cling to the Hora- tian, — Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae. 17 II. GERMANY'S HOPE II. GERMANY'S HOPE * IN accepting the invitation of the Editors of The Harvard Monthly to say a few words by way of comment on Mr. Norman Hapgood's indictment of Germany, I shall avoid being con- troversial. Indeed, I shall confine myself to placing by the side of what to Mr. Hapgood's mind is Germany's disease what to my mind is Germany's hope. It cannot be denied that, superficially consid- ered, there is some truth in Mr. Hapgood's diagnosis of the mental condition of contem- porary Germany as being a case of national Megalomania. If we think of the men that have stood out preeminently as leaders of Ger- man thought and action during the last forty years, the most striking type that presents itself * Reprinted from The Harvard Monthly, November, 1914. The article was called forth by an arraignment of Germany by Mr. Norman Hapgood, published in the same magazine, under the title, " Germany's Disease." 21 is certainly that of a highly sensitive, strained, feverishly active state of mind. Richard Wag- ner, Friedrlch Nietzsche, Emperor William II — perhaps the three men whose Influence has shaped the feelings and the ideals of the pres- ent generation of Germans most conspicuously — each in his own way are types of an excep- tionally developed excitability, of a nervous ten- sion so extraordinary that the acknowledged leadership of these men may indeed appear as a symptom of a too high strung condition of the national temper. Richard Wagner's world Is a world of reck- less self-assertion, boundless appetite, mystic longing, incessant willing and striving. His heroes storm through life regardless of good or evil, Impelled by the one desire of living themselves out to the full and of bringing out what is In them. Nietzsche's philosophy Is an ecstatic appeal to the selfish Instinct, a dlthyram- blc glorification of the primitive craving for power, an Impassioned and contemptuous ar- raignment of everything that makes for humil- ity and kindliness. Emperor William is the most Intense and the most ardent champion of personal rule that has arisen since Napoleon, 22 a man fairly consumed with the ambition of bringing Germany to the front in every sphere of activity, a mind teeming with an endless va- riety of suggestions, ideas, plans, volitions. It would seem, then, that here there are three types of character whose effect upon the na- tional imagination just because of its unques- tionable strength and momentum it is hard for the ordinary observer not to view with alarm. It is natural that they should appear as repre- sentatives of an unsafe, unsound, abnormal view of life. Have these apprehensions been substanti- ated? Has the influence of these men upon German imagination really been baneful? Have these men themselves proved to be as unsafe and erratic as they seem? I think not. Richard Wagner in his autobiography has stated with perfect frankness that his whole life was dominated by the one desire to perform fully the task which his own nature impelled him to perform, and that he was ready at all times to sacrifice everything and everybody standing in the way of this task. But if this had not been so, if he had not magnified his own self, if he had not felt the dominating impulse of self-expres- 23 slon and had not concentrated all his powers upon this one supreme effort, how could he possibly have produced those stupendous edi- fices of sound which are probably the greatest artistic achievement of our time and which will be an unfailing source of wonder, awe, ecstasy and inspiration for all times to come? Nietzsche's self-exaltation, or rather self- apotheosis, his fanatic condemnation of Kantian idealism as utterly foolish and vicious, his in- sistence upon moral nihilism as the only safe basis of true morality, his oracular prophecies of the complete transformation of life to be brought about by his own reversal of all moral values, seem clear indications of a monomaniac temper. But if he had not been possessed by •this one controlling instinct to create new moral values, how could he have lived as he did, de- fying with absolute calm the universal indiffer- ence of his contemporaries, retiring like an anchorite of old into the hallowed solitude of intellectual mountain heights, consecrating his whole existence with undivided fervor to his vision of a new race of men, a race of men in whom the conception of self will be so expanded and exalted that selfishness will indeed become 24 the one cardinal virtue and the only safe law of conduct ? And Emperor William? It is easy enough to point to many of his utterances as evidences of an uncontrolled craving for power or an ex- travagant glorification of his own mission. But the fact remains that this very self-exaltation, this very glorification of his office have given to the career of this apparently erratic man a consistency, an earnestness, a moral enthusiasm and momentum which raise him far above all the other rulers of our time and which have made him the very incarnation of the eager, active, calm and disciplined Germany of to-day. In other words, these three men are a new illustration of the old truth that in order to possess greatness you must be possessed by it; that there is no genius without a certain megalo- mania ; and that the true genius makes this very self-overestimation an incentive for ceaseless self-discipline and self-denying devotion to work, and thereby rises to his own true self. What is the application of all this to the German national mind as a whole? It is this. The German national mind also may be said to be in a condition of an exceptionally height- 25 ened self-consciousness and an exceptionally heightened nervous tension. Indeed, the Ger- man conception of the State and its mission and of the service due to it is something which to members of other nationalities, especially to Anglo-Saxons and Americans, cannot help ap- pearing as extravagant and overstrained. To the Anglo-Saxon and the American, the State is an institution for the protection and safe- guarding of the happiness of individuals. To the German, it is a spiritual collective personal- ity, leading a life of its own, beyond and above the life of individuals, and its aim is not the pro- tection of the happiness of individuals, but their elevation to a nobler type of manhood and their training for the achievement of great com- mon tasks in all the higher concerns of life — ■ in popular education, in military service, in com- munal and industrial organization, in scientific inquiry, in artistic culture. This conception of the State, as embracing all the higher activities of man, goes back to the regeneration of the German people after the collapse of the old Empire under the onslaught of Napoleon. It was born from the stress of need, from the bit- ter necessity to summon all the powers of the 26 nation, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, against the threatened ruin from Napoleonic dominion. But it has outlived the Napoleonic era, it has grown apace with the growth of the German nation in the nineteenth century, and it is to-day perhaps the most powerful Incentive for every kind of activity that agitates the Fatherland. This conception of the State may seem mys- tic, fantastic, extravagant. But the fact re- mains that the best of German national indi- viduality is intimately allied with it. It may be something of an Intoxication, a chimera, a ■frenzy. If so, it is a stern and exalted frenzy, a frenzy which is constantly converting Itself Into tireless effort, unending devotion to duty, unbounded readiness for self-sacrifice, unceas- ing work for self-improvement, patient self-dis- cipline. Mr. Hapgood expresses the belief that " Ger- many has actually led civilization recently in more lines than any other nation." If this Is true (and I believe it Is), the reason for this preeminence lies in the fact that there is no nation which has so high a conception of the State, In which the sense of the obligation of the 27 individual to the common weal is developed to so high a pitch as in Germany. The German schoolboy feels the obligation to make himself an efficient and well-equipped German man. The German youth rejoices in the obligation in common with all other Ger- man youths, from the sons of the Emperor to the cobbler's son, to serve in arms for the na- tional defense. The German city administra- tor feels the obligation of making his particular town a model of healthfulness, decency, and beauty. The German legislator feels the ob- ligation of protecting the masses of the people against the injurious and degrading effects of industrialism and of thereby increasing, national strength. The German government feels the obligation of holding itself above the parties and of thereby making all national legislation a result of compromise, between the parties, for the common good. All classes of the German people feel the obligation of excelling in pru- dence, frugality, foresight, respectability, hon- est workmanship, and of thereby adding to the prosperity and the good name of Germany. It is impossible for a German to think of any one of the many forms of national activity — be 28 they educational, military, administrative, com- mercial, scientific, artistic, and what not — as dissociated from the rest. They are all one; they are all instruments not so much of human happiness as of human achievement. And it is the feeling of their oneness, it is the feeling of solidarity, of the common responsibility of all these various activities toward the higher Ger- man self, represented in the State, which gives to Germany what I believe is her moral su- periority over her rivals and enemies. This higher type of national consciousness is Germany's contribution to the history of po- litical ideals. It is something essentially new. It is the hope in which rests Germany's future. It will sustain her in the gigantic war which, against her will, she has been forced to fight against half the world. Victor or vanquished, she will pursue her way, guided by this hope. 29 III. RUF AUS UBERSEE III. RUF AUS tJBERSEE * Nun soil aus alien Weiten Erschallen ein einzig Wort, Soil iiber die Meere schreiten Mit Sturmeswehen fort. Nun soil aus alien Fernen Erschallen ein einziger Schrei, Auf dass die Volker lernen, Wes Geists AUdeutschland sei. Nun soli aus tiefsten Noten, Aus Qualen dumpf und bang, Aus briinstigen Gebeten Ergliihn ein einziger Drang. O Gott, du kannst nicht dulden, Dass deutsche Art vergeht; Du kannst es nicht verschulden, Dass deutsche Kraft verweht. * Reprinted frpm the Leipzig lUustrirte Zeitung, February 25. 33 Du kannst es nicht erlauben, Dass deutscher Glaube stirbtr Du lasst ihn uns nicht rauben, Den Geist, der nicht verdirbt. O Volk, du ohnegleichen, Umrast von Grimmes Hauf, Aus deiner Sohne Leichen Bliiht dir das Lcben auf. 34 IV. NEUTRALITY IV. NEUTRALITY * MY dear Mr. Bartholdt: I am sorry that I must decline taking part in the conference on Jan. 30 to which you were good enough to invite me. I would beg, however, that the following remarks be read at the conference, so that my position with re- gard to the questions raised by your circular note be clearly understood by those present. And in case there are to be newspaper reports of the transactions of the conference, I would beg that this letter of mine also be pubHshed. I fully believe in the righteousness of the German cause in the present world conflict, and I shall avail myself of every opportunity, as I have done before, to express publicly my fer- vent hope that Germany and her Austro-Hun- *Thi9 letter to Congressman Bartholdt, dated January 28, was sent by me simultaneously to the New Yorker Staats- Zeitung, the New York Times, and the Boston Transcript. But only the two last named papers published it. 37 garian ally will remain victorious in a struggle forced upon them by the aggression of a most unnatural coalition of powers, held together by nothing but irrational fear of German ascend- ancy. I believe that the prominent part taken by England in this coalition is a crime against civ- ilization. For, if successful, it would lead to the ruin of a country which for the last fifty years has excelled all other countries in every kind of public service, social organization and peaceful enterprise, and which is a shining illus- tration of the beneficial effects of good govern- ment upon the development of civic virtue, per- sonal worth and popular prosperity. I deeply deplore, therefore, the gross and ignorant misrepresentations of German achieve- ments and German aspirations of which a large part of the American press has made itself guilty. That none of these misrepresentations is more deliberately ignorant than the assertion that the present war is a war for popular free- dom against German autocracy should be clear to every one who remembers that the most for- midable member of the anti-German coalition is Russia. 38 My sympathies, therefore, In this war are wholly and fervently on the German side. But my German sympathies cannot make me forget what seem to me my duties as an American citi- zen. I believe it would be against my duties as an American citizen if I were to take part in a propaganda the purpose of which will be thought to be to force our Government into a hostile attitude toward England. Your circu- lar letter speaks of England as " America's arch-enemy." It calls for a " new Declaration of Independence " which is to " eliminate all undue English influence from our American life." And it protests " against the continued traffic in arms and ammunitions of war which practically arrays our country on the side of England." I do not wish to emphasize the fact that the proclamation of an embargo on arms and am- munitions of war would be an altogether illu- sory thing. Arms and other implements of war would, if our Government established an embargo on them, be shipped from this country to Havana or to Vigo, or to some other neutral port, and would reach their destination from 39 there without any hindrance. What I do wish to emphasize is that the establishment of such an embargo would inevitably bring our Govern- ment into conflict with England and might drive us into war with England. As a man of German blood I might welcome the help which would accrue to Germany by such a conflict between the United States and England. But as an American citizen I cannot possibly support a policy which would bring the terrors of war to our own country. What I feel bound to support, as an Ameri- can citizen, is a policy which holds itself strictly within the now accepted rules of neutrality, al- though, to my regret, this policy, through cir- cumstances over which the United States has no control, practically turns out to the advantage of England and to the detriment of Germany. There is another point in your circular letter in which, as an American citizen, I feel bound to disagree with you. You say that " an em- phatic protest should be entered against every attempted discrimination against the many miL lions of our citizens who happen to bear non- English names." If by these many millions you mean citizens of German descent, I fail to 40 see what you mean by attempted discrimination against them. That there is a strong anti-Ger- man feehng in this country at the present mo- ment cannot be denied. I believe this feeling to be rooted in a wrong and shortsighted view of the issues at stake in the European war. The necessity of combating shortsighted views of the majority makes the situation for us German- Americans for the moment far from pleasant. But of discriminations proposed or attempted against German-American citizens I am una- ware. Nothing, it seems to me, is more preju- dicial to our position as American citizens than the clamor for recognition which is so often heard at German mass meetings. Nothing would be more fatal to our standing in the com- munity than the insistence on racial contrasts and demands. We have every opportunity in this country to make felt what is best in German character and life. Let us continue to do so; let us continue to have a prominent part in all endeavors for political, civic and industrial progress; let us stand for the German ideals of honesty, loyalty, truthfulness, devotion to work; let us cultivate our language, our literature and our art; let us 41 fearlessly defend the cause of our mother coun- try against prejudices and aspersions. But let us refrain from political organizations which would set Germans in this country apart as a class by themselves. Such an attempt would lead not to the raising but to the degradation of the German name in this country. It would foster hatred instead of sympathy; and only by gaining the sympathy of the majority of the American people can we German-Americans help the cause of our mother country. Yery truly yours, KuNo Francke. 42 THE DUTY OF GERMAN- AMERICANS iV, THE DUTY OF GERMAN- AMERICANS * I HAVE received so many and so widely di- verging expressions of opinion about my recent letter to Congressman Bartholdt that I am glad to take the opportunity, in response to the kind invitation of the editor of The Father- land, of restating my position publicly. I may dismiss with a word, as not worthy of serious consideration, the unfortunately not in- considerable number of letters and editorials representing me as a traitor to my native coun- try, Germany. These accusations need not be answered; they are of public interest only in so far as they show that a natural warmth of feel- ing for their ancestral land may lead Americans of foreign birth to forget what American citi- zenship demands of them. That this danger is not confined to German- Americans is obvious. Many of the sympa- * Reprinted from The Fatherland, March 3. 45 thizers with Great Britain have gone so far In their blind partisanship as to become un-Ameri- can. When a man like President Eliot openly declares that the United States could not allow Germany to vanquish the Allies, when the whole drift of his utterances proves that he considers loyalty to German ideals and sympathy with the German cause as incompatible with loyalty to America, this fact alone is sufficient to show that partisanship for the Allies tempts even recognized leaders of American public opinion into views contrary to American interests and American Ideals. I believe that it is the duty of German- Americans to combat such un-American views eagerly and fearlessly. We must insist that any effort to influence public opinion in such a way as to encourage our Government to depart from the line of strictest justice toward Ger- many, is against American interest. And we must insist that it is against American ideals to expect Americans of German descent to be silent when the country to which they owe the best things that make them good American citizens is maligned and misrepresented as a brutal mili- tarist autocracy. 46 But just as it is our duty as German-Ameri- cans to combat unjust attacks against Germany and to resist all efforts to align our Govern- ment on the side of England and her allies, just as much is it our duty to refrain ourselves from a violent anti-English propaganda and from ex- erting any pressure upon our Government to favor the German side in this war. Our Gov- ernment is confronted by the hard fact that Eng- land, through her fleet, has the power to en- force much more than Germany her own policy regarding neutral shipping. The one decisive move toward changing this situation would be war with England. That the calamity of a war with England would be deprecated by the vast majority of the American people, is beyond dis- pute. I believe that the calamity of a war with Germany would be deprecated also. Under these circumstances our Government must pro- ceed with the utmost caution and avoid any step which cannot be justified by accepted interna- tional usage. This is particularly true with re- gard to the exportation of arms and munitions of war. Many Americans, whether or not in sympathy with Germany, nevertheless regret the shipment of arms which is now going on. Yet 47 they cannot but see that to change accepted neu- trality principles, good or bad intrinsically, in the midst of war, will necessarily be taken as a measure in favor of one or another of the bel- ligerents. The attempt, therefore, to force our Government into declaring an embargo on arms would either, if unsuccessful, needlessly embar- rass the Administration, or if successful, plunge the country into a war which it does not want. Does not this situation contain the clear lines of conduct toward the American Government to be followed by German- American citizens? But the civic duties of German-Americans arising out of the present disastrous war are not confined to these questions of the moment. We must think of what the position and the influ- ence of German-Americans In our public life will be after the war. One of my correspondents expresses the hope that, as a result of concerted political action of German voters, the time will come when the German element in the United States will have some 125 representatives in Congress, as the Irish-American element now has some 170 rep- resentatives. I am free to say that I cannot think of anything more disastrous for American 48' political life than the possibility of having in Congress numerous factions held together by racial instincts foreign to the interests of the whole people. If there is one thing in which American political life may justly claim superi- ority to that of most European countries, it is the absence of nationalist animosities and sec- tional strife. Must we look forward to a time when Congress, like the Austrian Reichsrat, will be split up into groups of Germans, Irish, Czechs, Italians, Jews, British, and other non- descript Americans ? That would be the end of a large national life, it would be the end of American freedom. Germans, it seems to me, of all others have the duty of resisting such a baneful, separatist movement. For the great- est leader whom they have had in this country, Carl Schurz, has been foremost among Ameri- cans to insist again and again on the need of subordinating party considerations to the one question of public service and of the fitness of the individual man for his office. I, too, hope for a stronger assertion of Ger- man individuality in American politics as a re- sult of this war. For how can a man of Ger- man blood fail to be inspired and lifted above 49 himself by the wonderful sight which the whole German people, from the Kaiser to the last man in the trenches, is presenting in its unparalleled heroic struggle against a world of enemies. But I hope this stronger assertion of German indi- viduality will consist in a larger Americanism. Germans have often reproached their fellow citizens of other stock for considering them a kind of second class Americans. And it must be admitted that they have often allowed them- selves in public affairs, through a certkin lack of civic initiative, to be pushed unduly into the background. Now is the time for us to show that we are worthy of the heroic example given to us by our brothers in the Fatherland and that it is just our German inheritance and training which make us American citizens of the high- est type. 50 VI. THE UNITED STATES AS A PEACEMAKER VI. THE UNITED STATES AS A PEACEMAKER * SOME time ago I declined to take part in a movement which seemed to me fraught with evils threatening the domestic peace of this country. I declined to join the propaganda, un- dertaken by German-Americans, for the estab- lishment of an embargo on arms and munitions of war, because this propaganda seemed to me to inject the issues of the European war into internal American politics and to conjure up the danger of a bitter strife between a pro-Ger- man minority and a pro-British majority in the legislative and administrative councils of our nation, our States and even our cities. It seemed to me of the highest importance that at this critical time when we are surrounded by a conflict of nations such as the world has not * An address delivered before the Economic Club of New York on March 30, printed in the Boston Transcript of March 31. 53 seen before, every American citizen, regardless of his descent and racial affinities, should be guided by the one consideration of how this country at least can be saved from the fearful ravages and terrors to which national hatred and national passion have subjected nearly all of Europe. It seemed to me that if ever there was a time for the American people to strive for the unification and amalgamation of all the different racial elements that go to make up our nation, that time is at hand now. For must we not hope that when the bloody strife in Europe has exhausted itself and a reco-nstruction of the shattered countries is undertaken, America will play an important part in helping to bring about a just and lasting peace? But how could Amer- ica play this part, unless we ourselves are a united nation, unless our Government has the support of the whole country in throwing its full weight into the balance to secure conditions of peace which will be based not only upon reason and right in abstracto, but upon a recog- nition of the legitimate and vital aspirations of the nations now involved in war. When the time for such decisions as these 54 has come, the American people, as a whole, I believe, or at least by far the largest part of it, will have recognized that the higher justice in this frightful war, the justice that lies in the de- fense of superior social conditions, has been on the German side; and that, while the spirit of " Deutschland iiber Alles," far from being a claim to world dominion, has led only to zealous work for the inner up-building of Ger- many, the spirit of " Britannia rules the waves " has indeed come to be a means of English world dominion and therefore a menace to the world. American public opinion, I believe, will then be unanimous, or nearly so, in insisting that certain fundamentally just demands likely to be made by Germany, demands conducive to the peace of nations, be supported by the American Govern- ment and by its help be made a part of codified international law. What I have in mind is not so much the ter- ritorial rearrangement which is bound to follow this war. As far as Germany is concerned, the only just solution of this question seems to me the maintenance of the territorial status of Ger- many as it existed before the war. And what- ever the military outcome of this war may be, 55 I hope that the United States will exert its full influence to prevent at the coming peace confer- ence any infringement upon the territorial in- tegrity of Germany and her colonies. It would be entirely in line with the tradi- tional principles, although not the unvarying practice, of American policy to suggest that in the territorial rearrangement of Europe certain countries of mixed population be given a chance by popular vote to decide where they wished to belong. But I do not think that the territorial status of Germany would be materially affected by such a popular vote. For what people has ever demonstrated more clearly its determina- tion to hold what it has than Germany in the present war? There are few parallels in his- tory to the single-minded enthusiasm, the bound- less devotion, the noble heroism with which the whole German nation — including Danes, Poles and Alsatians — has risen to defend its soil, and defend it triumphantly, against a coalition of powers so overwhelming in numbers that the mere thought of it may well make faint even the stoutest heart. Is it conceivable that a people that has fought such a fight should submit for i56 any length of time to conditions of peace which would cripple its national existence? Is it not certain that, if territorial cessions were wrenched from Germany as a result of this war, this would mean the ushering in of a new era of wars in which Germany would try to regain her lost provinces and colonies? In the interest of a lasting peace, therefore, America must support the demand that in the coming peace treaty the integrity of the German Empire be respected. But this is not the principal point which I wish to make. I wish to point out that there is an important question in which the traditional pol- icy of the United States so completely coincides with what it seems to me Germany is bound and entitled to demand at the coming peace con- ference that mere consistency, if nothing else, will force the American Government to support Germany in this case.* In the year 1785, the United States concluded a treaty with Prussia which, in article xxiii, pro- * For the following sketch of the traditional American policy regarding immunity of private property at sea, I am indebted to the account given by my colleague, Professor G. G. Wilson, in the publications of the Naval War College, International Topics and Discussions, 1905 and 1913. 57 vided that in case of war " all merchant and trading vessels employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby render- ing the necessaries, conveniences and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested; and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels or inter- rupt such commerce." In his message of Dec. 2, 1823, President Monroe advocated certain international pro- posals which should look to " the abolition of private war on the sea." In his message of Dec. 2, 1856, President Pierce advocated an amendment to the Declaration of Paris to the effect " that the private property of subjects and citizens of a belligerent on the high seas shall be exempt from seizure by public armed vessels of the other belligerent, except it be contraband." This amendment was lost, ow- ing to Great Britain's unwillingness to accede to it. In 1 87 1 the United States concluded a treaty with Italy, article xii of which provided 58 that " in the unfortunate event of a war be- tween the high contracting parties the private property of their respective citizens and sub- jects, with the exception of contraband of war, shall be exempt from capture or seizure on the high seas or elsewhere by the armed vessels or by the military forces of either party." On April 28, 1904, the Congress of the United States passed a resolution calling upon the Presi- dent to " endeavor to bring about an under- standing among the principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the ex- emption of all private property at sea, not con- traband of war, from capture or destruction by belligerents." At the First Hague Conference, the American delegation, through its chairman, Mr. Andrew D. White, tentatively introduced this principle for informal consideration. At the Second Hague Conference of 1907, Mr. Choate, chairman of the American delegation, formally brought up this proposition for official action, introducing it with the words: "This proposition involves a principle which has been advocated from the beginning by the Govern- ment of the United States and urged by it upon 59 other nations, and which Is most warmly cher- ished by the American people." After long deliberation, this American motion, as Is well known, was lost by a vote of 21 to 11, the United States, Germany, Austria and Turkey voting In the affirmative, England, France, Russia and Japan in the negative. It is clear, then, that from 1785 on to the Second Hague Conference the United States and Germany have consistently stood for the principle of the immunity of private property at sea and that England as persistently has stood out against It. The reason for this difference of attitude Is obvious. It Is to be found in the fact that England with her gigantic navy and with her unbroken chain of fortifications all around the world has been in a position until now and wishes to remain in a position to main- tain her dominion of the sea and her world trade even In time of war, whereas the United States and Germany, with their world trade Insufliciently protected by naval armaments, nat- urally seek protection for their trade during war time In the freedom of the sea. What this English dominion of the sea means 60 both to Germany and the United States, the present war has demonstrated only too clearly. The few commerce destroyers which Germany had on the ocean at the beginning of the war have been swept off the sea ; and English ship- ping, apart from the war zone around the Brit- ish Isles, is going on unmolested in all parts of the world. German over-sea trade, on the other hand, has been entirely blocked; and now England proposes to throttle neutral, and above all, American trade with Germany, in order to starve out the whole of the German civilian population. England has rejected the Ameri- can proposition which Germany accepted: namely, that the German proclamation of a war zone around the British Isles, although it was only an answer to the English proclamation declaring the whole of the North Sea a war zone, be retracted if England were willing to admit foodstuffs for the German civilian popu- lation on neutral ships. She has thereby flatly ignored the American attempt to assert the rights of neutrals on the sea. England has made practically every kind of goods destined for or coming from Germany contraband of war, and thereby has cut off a large part of 6i American trade hitherto considered protected by neutrality rules. She has, In other words, not only gone far beyond the accepted rules of the conduct of war on sea In fighting Germany, but she has also Inflicted serious and avoidable injury on American trade and Is consistently Ignoring American protests against her Infringe- ments of the rights of neutrals. - This Is a situation which, It seems to me, will lead to an entirely new turn of American public opinion. England's dominion of the sea has become so flagrantly aggressive that the Amer- ican people win demand of Its Government to take a definite stand against It. It certainly must cause the public to stop and think once more on the question of an embargo on arms and munitions of war, not as an act of justice towards both belligerents, but as a means of en- forcing neutrahty rules against English en- croachment. And I am sure that American opinion win support the Government If, when the time for peace negotiations has come, it stands with Germany for the immunity of pri- vate property at sea and also for a definition of contraband of war which will exempt from it 62 all articles destined for the consumption of the civilian population. By doing so, our Govern- ment will not only follow what has been the traditional policy of the United States from its very beginning, but it will serve in a striking and effective manner the cause of peace among nations. For the universal establishment of the freedom of ocean trade even in time of war will diminish the occasions for war between maritime nations, it will inevitably lead to the reduction of naval armaments, it will do away with the necessity of the naval supremacy of any one power, it will benefit equally the com- mercial interests of all trading nations, it will restore the feeling of security and permanence of international relations now so severely shat- tered. Who will have the heart to say that a war, even if it was waged and carried to a successful issue for such a principle as the delivery of the sea from the naval domination of any one power, was a benefit to mankind? Its name- less horrors, the moral degradation and physical destruction wrought by it, the seed of vicious- ness, hatred, and ruin sown by it, can never be atoned for by any advantages and blessings that 63 may accrue from it. This, however, we may say: If the United States and Germany at the end of this war should succeed in incorporating the freedom of the sea into the permanent law of civilized nations, they will have benefited mankind, in spite of the war. '64, VII. GEBET VII. GEBET * 1st dies Europas Ende ? — Dann, o Gott, Errette gnadig melnes Volkes Geist Aus Weltenunterganges grauser Nacht. Fiihr' ihn aus Wut und Wahn der alten Welt Verjiingt empor, gereinigt und verklart, Auf dass er strahlend leuchte neuer Zeit, Und himmllsch sich die Erde neu entfalte. Geist meines Volks, du sinkest nicht zu Staub. * Reprinted from The Boston Herald of May 14. 67 PRAYER Translated by Katharine Royce. Is this the end of Europe? — Then, O God, In merqr save the spirit of my folic From the dread night that overwhelms the world. Forth from the rage and wrath of former days Lead it, renewed, enlightened, purified, Until its radiance lights the future times. And the new heaven and earth shall dawn at last. Soul of my folk, thou canst not turn to dust. 68 VIII. GERMANIA MARTYR GERMANIA MARTYR* Mein Volk, nun will es tagen, Nun blicke stolz und f rei ! Nun konnen sie nicht mehr fragen, Ob rein dein Ringen sei. Nun stehst du ganz alleine, Nun hist du gottlich gross, Nun strahlst du im Glorienscheine Von Martyrerheldenlos. Nun steigst du siegumflossen Empor aus blutiger Zeit, Und ringsumher ergossen Liegt Himmels-Seligkeit. •Written on May 21, the date of Italy's entrance into the war; published in The Boston Herald of May 23. 71 GERMANIA MARTYR Translated by Sylvester Baxter My Folk, now dawns the morning, It shows thee proud and free ! No more they ask, with scorning. If just thy struggle be. Now all alone thou 'rt standing — August, divinely great; Thy martyrdom commanding Meet recompense from Fate. Now risest thou, victorious. Above this blood-drenched time. Transfigured in a glorious And heavenly light sublime. 72