Class i 
 
 Book 
 
 foiyrigM . 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 

"OVER HERE" 
 
OVER 
 HERE 
 
 J9 
 
 aE 
 
 By> 
 
 Clement F. Krueger 
 
 DETROIT 
 
Ym 
 
 Copyright 1918 
 
 Clement F. Krueger 
 
 Detroit 
 
 JUN 29 !Si8 
 
 ©CI.A499518 
 
BOTH before and after our entry into the war the 
 writer has been intensely interested and has 
 given considerable time in an attempt to deter- 
 mine the personal feelings of our foreign-born Germans 
 and Americans of German descent. 
 
 I have unearthed a variety of calloused and misguided 
 thought amongst weak and militant pacifists as well 
 as such Germans. I have found some Germans who 
 say they are Americans but they won't fight by the 
 side of an Englishman, and others who won't fight be- 
 side a Frenchman; also some who wouldn't fight beside 
 anyone, and some who would even fight an American 
 if given an opportunity. 
 
 It is these American Germans of questionable loyalty 
 and pacifist doubters that inspired my "I Am An 
 American, But — " and subsequent articles. 
 
 The "buts" belong largely to the professional class 
 or are under their tutelage. There are many, however, 
 who have changed since we declared war. While they 
 may not be considered as entirely anti-German in rela- 
 tion to our European Allies, they are nevertheless pro- 
 American in our own strict relations with Germany. 
 
 I am of the opinion that Americans of German birth 
 or descent are represented by three classes of thought 
 — First, those of the benumbed and indoctrined type 
 whose vision is warped beyond redemption — Second, 
 those of the moderately sympathetic type who are 
 living in the romance of the past — those who have 
 partially forgotten why they left "over there" for "over 
 here" — and have become bewildered by the rush events 
 and the parting of friends. The third and most 
 numerous type who are whole-heartedly for Uncle Sam 
 "from the gong to the finish." 
 
 The rifle squad is the best antidote for the first — a 
 limited amount of patience and clear presentation of 
 facts to the second may show considerable salvage 
 while the culls should find a home in internment 
 camps. Of the third, a highly acceptable class, we should, 
 in common with all other respectable Americans, feel 
 proud. 
 
 The reader should not fail to consider that these 
 articles were written with the first two classes primarily 
 in mind and with a word of caution to "American 
 slackers." The dates of writing in relation to the events 
 at the time should also be taken into consideration. 
 
Table of Contents 
 
 Page 
 April, 1917 — I Am An American, But — - 6 
 
 June, 1917— Kultur Sanctified 28 
 
 August, 1917 — Kruppism De Luxe 38 
 
 October, 1917 — Potsdam and Old Glory - 46 
 
 December, 1917 — Statistics and Gott Mit Uns 56 
 
 February, 1918— Tribalism and Schrecklichkeit 66 
 
 April, 1918 — Kaiser ism Par Excellence - 74 
 
I Am An American, But — 
 
 April, 1917 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 S an American citizen, with part German 
 blood in my veins, I want to offer a sugges- 
 tion as to attitude and conduct for those 
 Americans, of whatever ancestry, who may 
 today feel any restraint against fighting our com- 
 mon foe. To those Americans who feel any com- 
 pulsion against entering the fight whole-heartedly 
 side by side with any and all of our Allies (irrespec- 
 tive of their nationality or creed), as is necessary to 
 secure our common end. In short, those who belong 
 to that class of — "I am an American, but — " 
 
 To be a true and thorough American, ancestral 
 ties are not required — not even local birth is neces- 
 sary to qualify, for the very blood make-up of our 
 land makes ancestral allegiance complicated. To 
 attempt division on those lines would breed quick 
 destruction. We are tied together only by the spirit 
 and inspiration of individual freedom and justice. 
 
 Our present first and second generation blood 
 composition is directly traceable to the living eight 
 million Germans, four and one-half million Irish, 
 two and one-half million Canadians, two and one- 
 half million Russians, two and one-quarter million 
 English, two million Italians, two million Aus- 
 trians, one and one-half million Swedes, one million 
 Norwegians, three-quarter million Hungarians, 
 three-quarter million Scotch, one-half million 
 Danes, one-quarter million Welsh and scores of 
 thousands of minor and mixed bloods. 
 
 We are therefore conglomerate^ incapable of 
 successfully striving for other than a high common 
 goal. Our action must be united — our energy must 
 be untainted by racial bickerings. Remember, we 
 are all Americans now — the classification is not by 
 race but by loyalty and disloyalty to those para- 
 mount principles that brought you or your fore- 
 fathers here. That should be sufficient for us. 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 A common goal is the ideal of our institutions, 
 and the range of American institutions is the range 
 of the world's humanitarian emotions, unglossed by 
 the ghastly hypocrisy of "military necessity'* as now 
 applied to Belgium and preached by the exponents 
 of despotism. Americanism is the universal lan- 
 guage for speaking the desires of the overwhelming 
 majority of mankind. 
 
 Our privilege to respect the Stars and Stripes is 
 not founded on a religion of flag-lust as expressed 
 by a closely-knit government such as Germany. Pa- 
 triotism does not necessarily mean affection for the 
 old racial and tribal instincts as reared, groomed 
 and promulgated by imperialism, but rather do we 
 mean the patriotism for decency, manliness and fair- 
 ness unlimited by the arbitrary boundaries of col- 
 ored maps. 
 
 It has been stated that we have been goaded into 
 this war by munition makers. Such statements are 
 absurd, for neutrality with "long prices" to out- 
 siders without tax would be infinitely more profit- 
 able than war with governmentally regulated and 
 taxed earnings on home production. 
 
 It has been argued by dissenters that we have 
 been blackmailed and tricked into war by Great 
 Britain. One need only review our history. We 
 have had two wars with England and she has had 
 to overcome a more difficult prejudice for us than 
 perhaps any other European nation. For England, 
 the handicaps were certainly greater than for Ger- 
 many. 
 
 Many of the uninformed and misinformed have 
 claimed this to be a Wilson war. Do you recall our 
 thirty-two months of neutrality that forced us al- 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 most weekly to apologize to the world for our in- 
 action in the face of Prussian conduct that assault- 
 ed the decency and respect of our nation? How the 
 President wrote note after note to the laughter of 
 Berlin cartoonists! How we criticised him for un- 
 wonted meekness! How many thought us yellow 
 and a nation of "money-grabbers"! How many, 
 many chances we gave the German government 
 to play fair and abandon its unspeakable aggres- 
 sions! How we loathed to begin war, even after 
 the break! 
 
 No nation possessing intelligence and physical 
 strength ever displayed a greater reluctance or en- 
 dured a greater assessment upon its patience than 
 we in formally accepting the Hohenzollern out- 
 rages as acts of war. If German commerce had been 
 throttled by us and German citizens had been mur- 
 dered as were our own, you could have heard the 
 angry growls of the Kaiser around the world, even 
 the most ardent Prussian must admit that. War 
 would have been but a matter of hours and the open- 
 ing seized by opportunists as an excuse for indem- 
 nities and territory. Yet we demand neither. 
 
 We have tolerated insults and injuries for 
 more than two years. We stood fast until the war 
 was dumped at our feet. We didn't even prepare 
 in advance. We waited, giving Germany the bene- 
 fit of the doubt while she was plotting with Mexico. 
 We worked in a spirit of trust and faith until we 
 were judged cowards. Now we are through with 
 "nauseating apologies." We are out to smash the 
 impudent, putrid Prussian dogma of "Verboten." 
 
 Obviously, therefore, Prussianism can never 
 square with Americanism. It is manifestly as silly 
 to say that America is anti-German for selfish rea- 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 sons as it would be incomplete to consider Shakes- 
 peare merely as the husband of Anne Hathaway. 
 Such an imputation, robbing our purpose of its 
 high and worthy motives, is no more a just expres- 
 sion of our attitude than it would be accurate to 
 say that the influence of Goethe was confined to his 
 home of Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
 
 It is also absolutely unfair for Americans of Ger- 
 man extraction to assume that we do not sense the 
 wrongs, past and present, of our Allies— we do. We 
 have not only had, through unusual channels, un- 
 hampered access to records of diplomatic activities 
 before the war, but we received perhaps a more 
 complete and more accurate presentation of facts 
 and falsehoods during our thirty-two months of 
 neutrality than any other belligerent. 
 
 We are not obsessed by the belief that we and 
 our Allies are "Simon-pure" while our enemies have 
 no rights at all. We do not believe that unscrup- 
 ulousness has been practiced exclusively by only one 
 side of the warring nations. Yet there is that deep- 
 rooted belief that Germany develops her military 
 establishment entirely out of proportion to the 
 needs for her protection; that she preserves it to 
 blast the path for her territorial ambitions. 
 
 It is this universal belief that has alienated one 
 country after another— the belief that settles firmly 
 in the minds of nation after nation that Prussian 
 policies are damaging in the extreme to the march 
 of moral and political progress. 
 
 Expression of partisanship and preferences is a 
 perfectly natural thing. But can anyone disbelieve 
 the sacred cause of Belgium and France in fighting 
 
 10 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 back a ruthless and cruel invader from their soil? 
 Can anyone question the right of these countries 
 in demanding the return of their desolated prov- 
 inces with proper indemnities and guarantees? Can 
 anyone but a benumbed and conscienceless Prus- 
 sian support the unrighteous imperial organization 
 that has wrecked these countries? The moral is- 
 sues are overwhelmingly on the side of the enemies 
 of the Central Powers. 
 
 The United States with all of her admitted de- 
 fects, fights for an adjustment of wrongs on either 
 side. We wish to meet all peoples on a common 
 ground for the establishment of just inter-relation 
 of nations with no exclusions; but the petty tres- 
 passes of one side must not obscure or condone the 
 guilt of the greater violator. 
 
 When the U. S. A. goes into that long-away 
 Peace Conference no nation will enter with a keener 
 sense of fairness and a greater passion for a 
 "square deal" than we. It is certainly safe to 
 say that while we will fight Germany with all 
 our might and power and follow every recog- 
 nized rule to win — and win we must — that the 
 sons of Germany who have been fighting for a false 
 cause and giving their blood and money to a thank- 
 less government will have no greater, no truer, no 
 more real, no more unselfish friend at that confer- 
 ence table than the land of which we are now a 
 part. 
 
 We are pro-Ally only in the sense that we resent 
 militarism, its brutal by-products and its imperial- 
 istic foundations, as a prime and efficient tool for 
 wrong doing as now evidenced by a nationally lust- 
 ful Germany — no more — no less. 
 
 11 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 To those who are inclined to offer as a justifica- 
 tion of war not the Allies' faults but Germany's 
 virtues, we answer with willing frankness that Ger- 
 many has many virtues, among which are valor, 
 progress and the distribution of certain social 
 benefits. 
 
 But, also, let us in turn refuse to admit that 
 whatever her valor, whatever her scientific, her 
 material progress, however great her distribution 
 of social benefits which have made for Germany 
 happiness in the past, these attributes do not carry 
 with them a franchise to kill nor do they carry im- 
 munity from final responsibility. 
 
 While we do not want to deify our own past let 
 us be content merely to point with pride to a nation- 
 al unselfishness in human affairs which aside from 
 months of painful neutrality in the present war has 
 been proven by Cuban independence, unexampled 
 patience in Mexico, disposition of Boxer indemnities 
 and many other acts humane beyond question. 
 
 While our national concept of relations has been 
 generally tolerant and liberal, we have at times 
 been provincial and generous to a point of stupid- 
 ity. In any case we have offered the world an un- 
 paralleled example in individual development, an 
 opportunity which German autocracy consistently 
 denied its own people. Dr. B. Dernburg says that 
 is Germany's cardinal sin. To quote: "We ought 
 to recognize that we are seriously to blame for not 
 having educated our people politically." Autoc- 
 racy has, however, successfully soaked, saturated, 
 honeycombed, corroded, poisoned and embalmed 
 the minds of docile masses — to make quick-war, and 
 find ready excuses for its inauguration. 
 
 Even after minutely schooling her imperial par- 
 rots, Germany's foreign policy has been mishandled, 
 mismanaged, missed, mixed, muddled, marred and 
 
 12 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 massacred. The gropings and shortcomings of these 
 "Dynastic Bullies" in the field of diplomacy suggest 
 Milton, the blind poet, trying to operate a periscope. 
 
 But militarily, the "gory" Kaiser has had greater 
 success — he is in the unique position of being able 
 to shoot in any direction without the slightest fear 
 of hitting a friend. Even with this advantage he 
 must feel some disappointment at least that France 
 didn't crack, that England and her dominions came 
 to the front, that Russia did her best ; all in the face 
 of the mightiest military demonstration the world 
 has ever seen. 
 
 How this "Hunnish" machine started out to Bel- 
 giumize the world! How they were heralded and 
 hurrahed! Hallowed and hallelujahed by their 
 prophets ! But how these disillusioned remnants of 
 the "Kultur Cabaret" returned from the Marne, from 
 Calais, from Verdun, with their world dream shat- 
 tered, defeated, denationalized, decomposed, decom- 
 pounded, defaced, deformed, defunct, degraded, de- 
 moralized, demerited, depreciated, deplumed, dilap- 
 idated, disabled, disarranged, disavowed, disbelieved, 
 disclaimed, disdained, disgraced, disfigured, dis- 
 heveled, disintegrated, and disemboweled. In other 
 words, it was a failure to carry out the schedule. 
 The carefully worked plan for the overthrow of 
 France cracked in the middle. 
 
 This was the beginning of the end for the Hohen- 
 zollern scheme planned by "civilization's traitor" 
 and that chinless, spineless, super-Charlie Chaplin, 
 the Crown Prince. Now that it has failed they 
 shout that they made war in self-defense to soothe 
 an unappeased people and primarily to protect their 
 "divine right." 
 
 That nations' mutual distrusts and suspicions 
 should melt away, that conflicting national inter- 
 ests of many sovereign states were laid voluntarily 
 
 13 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 aside for co-operation against a world recognized 
 enemy, means nothing to the imbecilic "head hunt- 
 ers of Prussia." 
 
 That their answer is only greater, more frightful 
 and more gigantic military preparation as nation 
 after nation aligns itself against them is not the 
 resistance of moral conviction, but a further self- 
 satisfied indorsement of Hohenzollernism. . Here's 
 the single cause that the desire and wish of a 
 few nations early in the war to check this kingly 
 disease now becomes the passion and religion of 
 the world. 
 
 That Germany by her idiotic course has already 
 lost the confidence of the civilized world is attested 
 by diplomatic severance or the active military in- 
 tentions of twenty nations now arrayed against her 
 with nearly the entire balance of the world passively 
 hostile. Even China breaks a precedent of five 
 thousand years. 
 
 She can no more by her unspeakable methods get 
 back into the good graces of the world than B. Holl- 
 weg can justify Belgium's rape when he says: "We 
 are now in a state of necessity, our troops have oc- 
 cupied Luxemburg and perhaps we are already on 
 Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is contrary to the 
 dictates of international law." 
 
 This not onfy understates a case that is a clear 
 transgression of international law by the entry of 
 neutral territory, but also violates the definite neu- 
 trality guarantee previously given by these "Mad 
 Men of Berlin." To every American and other free- 
 man such an alleged justification is unthinkable. 
 To let it go unchallenged would place Germany 
 above the dictates of law. 
 
 Never in the annals of modern history has the 
 world witnessed such excesses and unrestraint on 
 the sea as now exhibited by this "Jesse James of 
 
 14 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 Europe." It has made the world stand aghast and 
 bewildered. The "germ purveyors" have sunk en- 
 emy merchant ships loaded with munitions and 
 those with ballast only. They have sunk United 
 States unarmed neutral ships with non-contraband 
 cargoes. They have sunk vessels irrespective of 
 cargo, nationality or character. They sank our 
 ships in the face of solemn covenants to the con- 
 trary covered specifically by our treaty with Prus- 
 sia as follows: 
 
 "If one of the contracting parties should be en- 
 gaged in war with any other power, the free inter- 
 course and commerce of the subjects as citizens of 
 the party remaining neutral with the belligerent 
 power shall not be interrupted. On the contrary, 
 in that case, as in full peace, the vessels of the neu- 
 tral party may navigate freely to and from the ports 
 and on the coasts of the belligerent parties, free 
 vessels making free goods, insomuch that all things 
 shall be adjudged free which shall be on board any 
 vessel belonging to the neutral party, although such 
 things belong to the enemy of the other; and the 
 same freedom shall be extended to persons who shall 
 be on board a free vessel, although they should be 
 enemies to the other party unless they be soldiers 
 in actual service of the enemy." 
 
 They sank hospital ships. They sank the passen- 
 gen liner "Lusitania" in cold blood as only one 
 tutored in the "Red School" of Prussia could do. 
 They pitilessly slaughtered innocent men, women 
 and children who had not a chance for defense or 
 escape, with the same rhythm and precision as ex- 
 emplified by the "killing crews" of the Chicago 
 Stock Yards. For this manly work, for this cour- 
 ageous, heroic deed, Wilhelm, feeling a high 
 sense of obligation, decorated the "Captain Kidd of 
 1915" with the Iron Cross. 
 
 15 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 They sank the "Lusitania" not only in contraven- 
 tion of international law as acknowledged by the 
 entire world (except pirates) for more than two 
 hundred years, but committed the crime in premed- 
 itated violation of every law of God and man; a 
 crime that could only be planned by beings with- 
 out a conscience. 
 
 A prominent preacher in Berlin then advocated 
 a national Lusitania day. His plea was as fol- 
 lows : "Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to ap- 
 prove from the bottom of his heart the sinking of 
 the Lusitania, and give himself up to honest delight 
 at this victorious exploit of German defensive 
 power — him we judge to be no true German." Here 
 is the mightiest of all tributes to moral degeneracy 
 and unbridled tyranny. 
 
 To completely catalog the crimes and blunders 
 of these "Apostles of Sword Wielding" would make 
 the encyclopedia look like a word of one syllable. 
 But why enumerate? Suffice to say that for the 
 same reason the Berlin preacher claims that he who 
 fails to indorse the killing of non-combatants is no 
 German, so we claim that he here who fails to do 
 his share in ridding civilization of its cancer is no 
 American. 
 
 The Teuton war-lords through duped organiza- 
 tion have filled the Fatherland to overflowing with 
 their viperous slanderings and their unholy teach- 
 ings of "Strafing." Their colossal egoism has 
 carried them to an altitude where they are drunk 
 with the belief that they are super-men, respon- 
 sible only to and sharing their fortunes "fifty- 
 fifty" with the Almighty. Can you honestly believe 
 that the godless theories propounded by these Ger- 
 man plutocrats can ever be reconciled with the act- 
 ual wishes of other great modern peoples of the 
 world ? 
 
 16 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 "Kultur self-revealed" (compiled by Wm. Archer) 
 helps to expose the blood spots and shame on the 
 propaganda records of these "Hounds of Hades." 
 To quote authoritative abstracts: 
 
 "The efficient people must procure themselves 
 elbow room by means of war, and the inefficient 
 must be hemmed in and at last driven into 're- 
 serves' where they have no room to grow .... 
 and where, discouraged and rendered indifferent to 
 the future by the spectacle of the superior energy of 
 their conquerors, they may crawl slowly toward the 
 peaceful death of weary and hopeless senility. 
 
 "He who does not believe in the divine mission 
 of Germany had better hang himself, and rather to- 
 day than tomorrow." 
 
 The Emperor's anti-human confederacy stands 
 solidly back of this hate-breeding cult. Prussia's 
 heresy that she is above morality, that military 
 necessity is a justification for any act, is a stupen- 
 dous insult to the world. We stand challenged on 
 our own ground. We must answer with all free- 
 men that we do not care to become converts to such 
 a salvation of triumphant ego and sin. 
 
 We must fight back and fight to win. Remember, 
 "Americans — but," that our fight, our bloodshed and 
 our heartaches are made in the same spirit of sacri- 
 fice for you, the same as for all other Americans. 
 We protect you now from the matured bestiality 
 which you escaped when you came here. You have 
 taken your oath and you are a part of us. 
 
 You can't believe that a German victory based 
 on and forever backed by sheer weight of gun metal 
 can increase your happiness here. If the masters 
 of the "mailed fist" ruled your home in reality or 
 in thought when this war is over, they would not 
 single out any "Americans — but" for the pleasant 
 
 17 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 reward. You would be classified merely as pawns 
 and tools for their further insidious and sinister 
 intrigue. You, with others, would pay the penalty. 
 The same contempt would greet you as embraced 
 Benedict Arnold when he landed in London. The 
 fate of a traitor would await you from both con- 
 queror and vanquished. 
 
 This is no hysteria. Don't wait until we are 
 overwhelmed. Don't believe the stupid doctrine 
 that "win or lose" for our Allies in Europe will have 
 no effect on us. Recall the shocks that the pacifists 
 got in August, 1914. Even to the "helmet-crowned" 
 masses of Germany, murder on its present scale 
 was unbelievable. If the Allies lose, we lose. If 
 William II wins, then the long buried code of "Na- 
 tional Serfdom" will be resurrected and re-estab- 
 lished. The end is yet far away, but there must 
 only be one end for us. 
 
 Kultur carried by the sword cannot permanently 
 and peacefully colonize, as Kulturized Germany 
 amply proves, but it can play havoc for many years 
 to come. It is an absolute failure as compared to 
 England's colonial progress and mistakes (and she 
 has made many mistakes). 
 
 The German belief that war upon England would 
 see her colonies in rebellion against her is only on 
 a par with her conviction that four hundred thou- 
 sand German-Americans in the United States would 
 revolt upon her declaration of war. To quote the 
 monomaniac (by grace of God, King of Prussia, and 
 by special grace of God, Emperor of Germany, but 
 by grace of the Allies, not Czar of the Universe), in 
 a private Potsdam speech of June, 1908 : 
 
 "Even now I rule supreme in the United States, 
 where almost one-half of the population is either of 
 German birth or German descent, and where three 
 million voters do my bidding at Presidential elec- 
 
 18 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 tions. No American administration could remain 
 long in power against the will of the German voters, 
 who, through that admirable organization, the Ger- 
 man-American League of the United States, con- 
 trol the destinies of the vast republic beyond the 
 sea." This is only additional evidence of "Welt- 
 politik" as enunciated by the sword and dispensed 
 by the human "buzzard" of Wilhelmstrasse. 
 
 The sword as a modern colonizer for any nation 
 is obsolete. We fought the War of Independence be- 
 cause we could not tolerate the arrogance and tyr- 
 anny of that simpleton, George III. We fought 
 along with Molly Pitcher of German blood — her 
 real name being Marie Ludwig. 
 
 We fought the war of 1812 because we resented 
 the seizure of our ships and the impressment of our 
 seamen into foreign service. But nothing in the 
 whole category of wrongs that provoked us to war 
 then could be compared with the deliberate mur- 
 der inaugurated by German submarines. Napo- 
 leon's "Continental System" and Britain's "Orders 
 in Council" were exasperating, but never did they 
 involve the slaughter of neutral innocents. 
 
 We fought the Civil War to prevent the rise of a 
 new State predicated on human bondage. We then 
 included more than 150,000 soldiers of German 
 blood in the army of liberation. But the present 
 day Germans, reversing the principle, have now be- 
 gun their attempt to build up a vast empire of 
 "Mittle Europa" by reducing to political subjuga- 
 tion every region that their armies can annihilate. 
 They have literally enslaved scores of thousands 
 of Belgians, Polish and French. 
 
 We fought the Spanish War because Spain's mis- 
 rule in Cuba became unbearable. But nothing in 
 the history of that once unhappy island can ap- 
 proach in atrocity the Teuton occupation of Bel- 
 
 19 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 gium and France, nor has their allied Turkish at- 
 tempt to exterminate the whole Armenian race 
 had a parallel since the Tartars devastated Eastern 
 Europe. 
 
 If we were right in 76, in '63 and '98 ; if we really 
 did fight righteous and just wars then; if we could 
 secure the full-hearted support of Americans of 
 German blood then, we cannot be wrong now. We 
 fight for the same principles and are entitled to 
 whole-hearted support from such Americans now. 
 
 If Americans of English blood did not hesitate to 
 fight England in 76 for a just principle; if American 
 brothers did not hesitate to fight American brothers 
 in '63 for a just principle; then why should Ameri- 
 cans of German blood hesitate to fight Germany for 
 a great, and just, and world-recognized principle in 
 1917? 
 
 Germany is no longer the land of poets and musi- 
 cians, of Goethes and Schillers, as we were prone to 
 believe, but a nation of "cannon makers." Re-read 
 her political history, her important State documents. 
 Do they ever avail themselves of the words "free- 
 dom" or "liberty"? No. But instead, you will see 
 imperial records of such misguided statements by 
 this self-proclaimed "God" to his own people who 
 once warned the proposed reformers in true Prus- 
 sian style: 
 
 "You have, my children, sworn allegiance to me. 
 That means that you have given yourselves to me 
 body and soul. You have only one enemy and that 
 is my enemy. With the present socialistic agita- 
 tion, I may order you, which God forbid, to shoot 
 down your brothers and even your parents, and 
 then you must obey without a murmur." 
 
 Isn't it perfectly apparent in our twentieth cen- 
 tury that such royal effrontery is only possible 
 
 20 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 where a people have been hypnotized, handcuffed, 
 hobbled, handicapped, hampered, harassed, humili- 
 ated, horsewhipped, hari-kari'd, and bullyragged in- 
 to a state of "political somnambulism" impossible 
 in any modern nation designed without social 
 astriction? If you can, imagine the fate of Presi- 
 dent Wilson using the same words. 
 
 Contrast these imperial frothings to the read- 
 ing of our countless statesmanlike comments on the 
 Declaration of Independence which sparkles with 
 the words "freedom" and "liberty" unknown to any 
 Hohenzollern. 
 
 Contrast Hindenburg's standing order "Give 'em 
 hell with the biggest guns," to Lincoln's immortal 
 words "with malice toward none; with charity for 
 all," etc. Compare Falkenhayn's policy toward suf- 
 fering powers : "To hell with the neutrals, let's win 
 the war," with Lincoln's tolerant message to the 
 people of even an unfriendly power: 
 
 "I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which 
 the workingmen at Manchester and in all Europe 
 are called upon to endure in this crisis. I cannot 
 but regard your decisive utterances upon the ques- 
 tion as an instance of sublime Christian heroism 
 which has not been surpassed in any age or in any 
 country. It is indeed an energetic and inspiring 
 assurance of the inherent power of truth and of the 
 ultimate and universal triumph of Justice, Human- 
 ity and Freedom." 
 
 Imagine the blood-soaked Kaiser using at any 
 time or at any place the statement of President 
 Wilson — "We fight without rancor and without sel- 
 fish objects, seeking nothing for ourselves but what 
 we shall wish to share with all free peoples." 
 
 Do you ever hear the military or political lead- 
 ers of Germany admitting to their people any short- 
 
 21 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 comings in their "forty years" preparatory plans 
 such as Lloyd George has frequently and publicly 
 announced in respect to his own and those of his 
 predecessors? 
 
 No, because they admit no responsibility to their 
 people. But we hear from this mobilized force of 
 "steel and cartilage" that France is decadent when 
 as a matter of unprejudiced fact France has proven 
 herself to be preponderantly soul in make-up. She 
 has shouldered the brunt of the fight without flinch- 
 ing in holding back the almost inundating waves of 
 Prussianism. 
 
 No matter how great and how numerous Ger- 
 many's military victories have been, the deathless 
 dead of France will always speak louder to the 
 world than the vocal Vesuvius of Kultur. 
 
 Modern Prussianism has no more of a chance 
 to permanently thrive beyond the geographical 
 boundaries of Germany than the possibility of re- 
 placing the "Sermon on the Mount" with by-laws of 
 a patent medicine corporation, however modern they 
 may be. 
 
 The "rubber-collar," "round-hair-cut," "hob-nail" 
 diplomacy of the Zimmerman ilk and their Fife and 
 Drum corps politicians can no more win the re- 
 spect of nations than can the "iron fist" policy of 
 the "Potsdam Nero" and his six hell-cat sons. 
 
 The "blood-drinking cast" of Tirpitz, Ludendorf, 
 Falkenhayn and the rest of that political menagerie 
 which bows to them can no more secure a lasting 
 peace against a crystallized world opinion guided 
 by the thoughts of freemen than could the South 
 under slavery. 
 
 The "Kultured Killer of Cavelle" has tried all of 
 his experiments on civilization. He has sniped, 
 gassed, Zepp'd, bombed and sub'd, but civilization 
 
 22 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 refuses to yield. It asks in return that Kaiserism, 
 Kruppism, Militarism, Prussianism, Ruthlessness, 
 Hohenzollernism, Despotism, Imperialism, Feudal- 
 ism and Absolutism must inevitably go. 
 
 It is true that the Sewers of Journalism have 
 sometimes been clogged with grossly exaggerated 
 and useless allied rot, about naval victories which 
 were in reality nothing more than "hail-sail-sunk- 
 junk." 
 
 It is equally true that there have been altogether 
 too many land suicides dictated by makeshift 
 policy such as the Dardanelles, but on the other 
 hand, we have also been drenched by geysers 
 of "nebulous bunk," about German "guaranteed- 
 money-back" efficiency and invincibility. 
 
 We believe her efficiency and her frugality are 
 truly wonderful — we unhesitatingly commend her 
 for it. She has shown us many things which we are 
 more than eager to learn, and copy. 
 
 America makes no claim of holiness in this 
 war because of her own initiative in inventing the 
 steamboat, the submarine, the ironclad, the tele- 
 phone, the electric light, and countless other things 
 useful to civilization. The Chinaman doesn't get 
 an option to legalize the misuse of gunpowder be- 
 cause he invented it. 
 
 We make no comparison with Germany's invent- 
 ive genius because that's on a par with the vain 
 boyhood boast of, "I bet my father can lick your 
 father." So don't let the avalanche of writings about 
 superiority of German inventions, of German re- 
 sourcefulness, German dyes, etc., becloud the real 
 issue for which we went to war, namely, the tangi- 
 ble, visible ritual of liberalism. 
 
 Without comparing the intellect of nations, isn't 
 it manifest that plutocracy does not recognize the 
 
 23 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 right of majority, which must be embedded in the 
 fundamentals of liberty? Civilization and freedom, 
 as we know, rest upon the "consent of the govern- 
 ed." To abandon this truth now would be to nul- 
 lify the accomplishment of hundreds of years of 
 struggle and force us back to the standards of feu- 
 dal days. 
 
 Isn't it patent to you that Germany's fallibility 
 in essential points of political and social construc- 
 tion is forcing the world to pay an unwarranted 
 tax in blood? The world can get along without 
 Germany, but Germany cannot get along without 
 the world. The blood toll which she has collected 
 from others will in turn later compel her to pay 
 a tremendous premium in breaking down the world's 
 accumulated unfriendliness for her inherited polit- 
 ical intolerance and habitual arrogance. 
 
 As further evidence of bureaucracy's injustice to 
 its own people, one need only single out the Lusi- 
 tania — the most rabid of Kaiser lovers must ack- 
 nowledge it. Here is a mere incident in the war 
 program with no possible military advantage; yet 
 to the world an event of great moment; the cause 
 of a greater enlistment of nations to Germany's al- 
 ready plentiful roll of enemies. 
 
 For peaceful humanity, the Lusitania will ever 
 remain the red landmark in the history of butcher- 
 ies. To Kruppism belongs the glory of the most 
 fiendish act ever committed by a so-called modern 
 nation. 
 
 Such victories piled upon victories by such a gov- 
 ernment; such defeats piled upon defeats of its en- 
 emies will never make for a tranquil Germany in 
 the face of a shuddering but hostile world. The 
 sword of that government has placed an embargo 
 upon the greatest greatness of that great people. 
 
 24 
 
I AM AN AMERICAN, BUT 
 
 A canvass of the world's opinion shows a univer- 
 sal agreement that "ruthless, truthless, useless 
 Kaiserism" with all of its power, with all of its 
 might, shall not override the balance of the world, 
 however imperfect it may be. Germany has been 
 disfranchised and to prevent her demise she must 
 permanently give up the damnable, wicked system 
 that has placed her so prominently in the pillories 
 of international disgrace. 
 
 A man who has seen the feelings of the entire 
 planet pass through the convulsions of bewilder- 
 ment, sufferance, dislike, hatred and bitterness, but 
 still holds aloof, and cannot in his soul fight this 
 ravaging institution of cannibalistic ulcers, does 
 not subscribe to the ideals of Americanism. 
 
 A man who by any mental contortions can sanc- 
 tion the savage creed that has piled the bleached 
 bones and the rotted flesh of eight millions of hu- 
 mans upon the "Crimson Shrine of Kultur" sinks 
 to the godless faiths of by-gone centuries. 
 
 The nation in which you happily live; the land 
 to which you or your ancestors were proud to come ; 
 is entitled to your undiluted loyalty and support, 
 whatever your blood or your race. You cannot 
 escape your most sacred obligation. Your duty is 
 plain, and single, not dual. You should not remain 
 deaf to the world's rallying call of republicanism. 
 In the language of our President : "The world must 
 be made safe for Democracy," and incidentally safe 
 for these United States. To indorse it, your an- 
 swer must be "yes" with full liability and with no 
 mental reservations. Your actions must be posi- 
 tive, not negative. There is no room for "but" or 
 qualification. 
 
 He who accepts the hospitality of our Flag and 
 still belongs to that class of "I am American — but" 
 is in a state of ethical bankruptcy and should be 
 
 25 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 across the sea wearing the iron halo of the Kaiser's 
 vultures, instead of betraying the land that gave 
 him a home. 
 
 This, above all, is the time to show your colors. 
 We almost forgive the "moon-chasing" idealists on 
 the grounds of "conscience," but the men that were 
 willing in 1916 to fight Britain for "mail searching" 
 then "flopped" pacifist in 1917 and are now willing 
 to leave us practically defenseless against a "life- 
 taker" implant their own seeds of suspicion. You've 
 got to play to win and it will be better for you and 
 the rest of the human race to win than to lose. The 
 trend of modern times speaks forcibly for itself. 
 
 This is no time to preach hate, for a nation that 
 must be prodded to fight by constant injections of 
 hate is lost. When the U. S. A. substitutes hate 
 for the love of justice, then it ceases to be "The 
 Country" and becomes merely "a country," sinking 
 to the level of Prussia. Yet we must know equally 
 well that this is the wrong time to ostentatiously 
 praise an enemy whose wrongs have been so over- 
 whelming. We shall continue to fight under the 
 inspiration of right and we have ample precedence 
 that right will ultimately win. 
 
 As surely as the Magna Charta, in the thirteenth 
 century, dimly registered restraint against kingly 
 brigandage; as surely as the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, in the eighteenth century, definitely re- 
 corded the rights of people to govern themselves ; as 
 surely as the French Revolution put the damper on 
 rampant Bourbonism ; just so surely is the Kaiser 
 wrong today and in this twentieth century will the 
 world Allies hang crepe on the "Triple K Doctrine" 
 of Kaiser, Krupp and Kultur. 
 
 2t, 
 
Kultur Sanctified 
 
 June, 1917 
 
KULTUR SANCTIFIED 
 
 CERTAIN Prussian bureaucrat of note has 
 this to say of German Kultur: "We are in- 
 deed intrusted here on earth with a doubly 
 sacred mission, not only to protect Kultur 
 but also to impart Kultur in its most august purity, 
 nobility and glory to the whole of Humanity." 
 
 Now this may be the sincere view of Germans 
 but other peoples refuse to resurrect the left-over 
 ideas of the Eighteenth Century. They see Kul- 
 tur revealed to the world as a religionism based 
 upon the uplift of war, the degeneracy of peace and 
 super-eminence of military idolatry envenomed 
 with all the elements of a blazing hell. 
 
 Kultur is an artificial state of mind; it is unnat- 
 ural in development; it is hothouse grown; it is 
 oxygen nourished; it is highly mechanized; it is 
 physically strong but spiritually weak. 
 
 Its godhead is Kaiserism; its high priests 
 are Hohenzollernism, Militarism, Kruppism, Jun- 
 kerism, Prussianism, Ruthlessism, Imperialism, 
 Despotism, Feudalism and Absolutism. 
 
 It has built many channels through which to dis- 
 tribute its poisonous spawn, among which are Au- 
 tocracy, Bureaucracy and Plutocracy. Autocracy 
 issues its personal orders according to caprice — 
 Plutocracy wields the sword and Bureaucracy pre- 
 scribes the formula of intoxication for the "rabble." 
 Then the triumvirate unfurls the banner of "For- 
 ward for God" and in unison shout for victory. 
 
 The objects of Kultur are definite and literal; 
 Kultur aims at the domination of its people within 
 and of nations without. Its ambitions have no lim- 
 it. To satisfy its desire it hoodwinks its followers 
 
 29 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 within while to its neighbors without it flaunts 
 frightfulness and argues with cannon. 
 
 Kultur covers its devilish political intent by jock- 
 eying the ballot of its people and preventing honest 
 political development within while with "saber rat- 
 tling" diplomacy it attempts to bullyrag those with- 
 out. 
 
 In these Twentieth Century days of individual 
 freedom Kultur boastfully shouts of its authority 
 and superiority — derides the imaginary incompe- 
 tence of all others — permeates its own land with 
 palatable falsehoods and challenges the fidelity of 
 entire nations to freedom. 
 
 Kultur's declarations are so clear that it immedi- 
 ately divides the whole human race into a majority 
 and a minority, making it obvious that there must 
 come a decision without a compromise; it must 
 either expand and conquer or shrivel and die. 
 
 Kultur gave a wonderful exhibition of its results 
 from laborious calculations — of enemy guns — of 
 strength of forts and of unequal facilities for mobil- 
 ization. It planned a brief campaign which was to 
 be so heinous — so smashing — so compelling that 
 nothing was to be left before the tyrannical sweeps 
 of the soulless Hun save only the glory of the two- 
 headed eagle. Such methods had become an ap- 
 proved commercialized art, tediously studied and 
 learned since the days of the Great Fritz. Predicat- 
 ed as it was on finesse, Germany was confident that 
 Kultur would win. 
 
 But Kultur first miscalculated when it pushed 
 aside the greatest of all factors — the human side. 
 It erred in detail when its ostrich-like chancellor 
 declared the Belgian treaty "a scrap of paper." It 
 
 30 
 
KULTUR SANCTIFIED 
 
 deceived its own people when it allowed its official 
 paper to say : 
 
 "Germany will see to it that never again will 
 Belgium serve as a base of attack for English 
 troops." But no one else was deceived, because no 
 one except those of low mental displacement ever 
 believed that England contemplated attacking Ger- 
 many through Belgium; if so, with what? for did 
 not the distinguished von Bernhardi voice the gen- 
 eral staff's opinion when he said (see "Germany and 
 the Next War") : "The militia of the English col- 
 onies with self-government do not come into ac- 
 count for a European theatre of war. In Europe, 
 we have only to reckon with the regular army of 
 130,000 men which is stationed in England itself." 
 
 He who can thrive on such undiluted rot can no 
 doubt believe that Kultur's noble ally, the Unspeak- 
 able Turk, is murdering hundreds of thousands of 
 Armenians to make secure the principle of "freedom 
 of the seas." 
 
 Kultur's plans were crippled when Italy broke 
 old associations with Bismarck's pet alliance. It 
 failed to perceive its effect upon other Latins as it 
 failed to see Canada and Australasia as a source 
 of supply for allied man power. It was unbeliev- 
 able that neutrals might join the Allies, for were 
 not the "weak spined" neutrals accurately cata- 
 logued and reported on by Kultur's sleuths? Hadn't 
 organizations been cultivated in every near and far 
 nation of the globe which, according to German in- 
 telligence, could hold the foreigner to a false neu- 
 trality? 
 
 Kultur blundered when it reckoned that revolu- 
 tions in Ireland and India would wreck the British 
 Empire. It could not believe that England and 
 her dominions would raise vast armies, for they 
 were democracies. It laughed when England first 
 
 31 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 sent its "handful of men" to France, and called it a 
 "contemptible little army" and the drafted citizens 
 a "uniformed mob." Yet this untrained, despicable, 
 miserable, uniformed gang at Calais, Ypres and 
 Neuve Chapelle held back the trained, the proud, 
 the undefeated Supermen of Kultur. 
 
 Now Kultur sings the same old refrain to its 
 seventy millions of war worshipping peons about 
 America. It belittles the registration, the Liberty 
 Loans, the offensive power of the army, the ability 
 and intelligence of the nation. 
 
 But America surely will do her duty. She took 
 her step after months of deliberation and analysis 
 and will yet be the powerful factor which will up- 
 set the Hohenzollern "apple cart." And above all, 
 America gives the final moral stamp of approval to 
 the Allies' cause of freedom. 
 
 Kultur must fail for all time in this war. Its 
 military branch was successful in Eighteen Hun- 
 dred and Seventy, but with proper antidote it will 
 never repeat. It crushed France then in six months 
 — physically, but not spiritually. Now the land of 
 Kultur, infinitely superior in industrial power — a 
 nation immensely increased in population — an army 
 numerically greater and faultlessly equipped has 
 failed at Verdun as it did at the Marne in Nineteen 
 Fourteen. 
 
 Kultur fails to keep fresh enemies out of the 
 field. It has overrun Belgium, France, Serbia, 
 Montenegro, Roumania and Russia. Yet it has 
 been unable to make a lasting peace with a single foe 
 except only the "bullet riddled" corpses who fill the 
 scarlet trenches that mark the boundary line of Hun- 
 nish sway of Kultur. Some States dead in body, 
 through sheer exhaustion or treachery may be forced 
 to peace, but the rankle of a Prussian peace cannot 
 
 32 
 
KULTUR SANCTIFIED 
 
 be stilled by Prussian force. The dead man is the 
 only man who definitely accepts a Kulturized peace. 
 
 Kultur has been indicted by the Anglo-Saxons 
 of England, Canada and Australasia; by the Lat- 
 ins of France, Italy and Roumania; by the Celts of 
 Ireland, Scotland and Wales; by the Slavs of Rus- 
 sia, Serbia and Montenegro ; by the Malays of Japan, 
 Korea and Samoa; by the Mongolians of China, 
 Thibet and Siberia; by the Chino-Indians of India, 
 Siam and Burma. 
 
 Kultur has been condemned by both the Gentiles 
 and Jews of Europe and America — by Mohammed- 
 ans and Sun worshippers of Africa — by Buddhists 
 and Brahmans of Asia, by Confuscianists and Shin- 
 toists of Malaysia — and more it has been repudiated 
 by the millions of people of German blood who now 
 happily live in America and pay allegiance to the 
 Stars and Stripes ! 
 
 A chronology of events disprove Kultur's alleged 
 altruistic aims. It can't be that these sword-wield- 
 ing troubadours are right and that France, Britain, 
 Serbia, Montenegro, Russia, Belgium, Japan, Arabia, 
 Italy, Portugal, San Marino, Monaco, Roumania, 
 Greece, Bolivia, Panama, Cuba, Brazil, China, Siam, 
 Liberia, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, 
 and the United States are everlastingly wrong. Are 
 also the states of Chile, Uruguay and Argentina, 
 who have declared for benevolent neutrality, wrong? 
 No. Germany stands before the universe an exile 
 from the family of nations. 
 
 Kultur came upon the world like an avalanche 
 with all the advantages of secret and painstaking 
 preparation. It is on trial before the world and it 
 will lose. It will lose because the military brag- 
 garts place all of their trust in the immense strik- 
 ing power of their machine-like organization — be- 
 cause it is unimaginative — because it disregards 
 
 33 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 human factors — because it makes might primary and 
 subordinates the sense of right. 
 
 Kultur was built upon the supreme confidence of 
 the few, backed by steel and brutality, while the 
 Allies built upon human faith, tempered with dis- 
 organization, disasters and mistakes. But Democ- 
 racy won! It won military victories at the Marne 
 and at Verdun, but its greatest victory was that 
 moral triumph America! More mistakes will hap- 
 pen and more defeats will come but final victory 
 for Democracy is inevitable. 
 
 The military cannibals miscalculated. They pro- 
 ceeded on the assumption that a highly mechanized 
 state assembled on usurped authority that denies 
 allegiance to its people could bully Belgium out of 
 existence, eat Christmas dinners in foreign capitols, 
 scoff at honest, well-meaning neutrals, pulverize the 
 resistance of democracy, officially intimidate their 
 own unimpressionable masses, inoculate peaceful 
 souls with hate, lash and brutalize everybody and 
 still fake "free thinkers" into believing they are try- 
 ing to humanize the Christendom. 
 
 But the ineradicable record of Hohenzollern bur- 
 glaries is too clear an index to the workings of a 
 rampant Kultur. It stands convicted before the en- 
 tire planet. It is so filled with an over-weening sense 
 of security that its vision can never soar above the 
 shell-swept trenches until it is too late to redeem 
 its people. Kultur is marked and it has got to pay. 
 Never before in the historic annals of mortal man 
 has such a phalanx of sovereign states filed such a 
 ghastly bill of particulars against an international 
 outlaw. 
 
 If Democracy represents truth, decency and jus- 
 tice — then it will forever be in conflict with Kultur. 
 Give Democracy time to feel its irresistible sense of 
 duty and it will do more than stop its enemy — it 
 
 34 
 
KULTUR SANCTIFIED 
 
 will crush it. The fight for the right of existence 
 will be long — terribly long — but by the law of com- 
 pensation, morality and fairness will win while sel- 
 fishness and savagery will lose. 
 
 Kultur will yet do many things under the black 
 flag of terrorism that will shock our finer chivalry. 
 Remember its scope is a range of inhuman acts 
 from oppressions to murders, from slavery by Bel- 
 gian deportations to the red zenith of human slaugh- 
 ter — the Lusitania — but Democracy and America 
 will surely and ultimately smash the gospel of mili- 
 tary paganism as preached by these helmet bedecked 
 potentates of Potsdam. The German masses them- 
 selves must some distant day see the light of that 
 powerful Twentieth Century electromotive force — 
 Democracy. 
 
 WHEN 
 
 the old wrecks and the crippled young of Germany 
 see no end to the long meatless days to come — when 
 the hordes of wornout fathers come back home 
 from foreign lands and later must give up the loot — 
 when the weary mothers realize that their boys have 
 polluted the soil of once friendly lands — when the 
 sonless and broken-hearted families reassemble, not 
 in a moment of fury generated by strife, but to re- 
 view calmly the war's terrible toll — when they find 
 out that their lauded ally on the south is a political 
 corpse — when they find that bullying espionage 
 cannot promote friendship — when they find that the 
 once reverenced general staff has sunk to the last 
 imaginable stage of deceit — when they find that ab- 
 dication of personal liberty to despotic cliques can- 
 not absolve them from final accounting — when they 
 find that irresponsible individualism is not the meas- 
 ure of national loyalty — when they find that their 
 unrepresentative Reichstag is only a scoreboard for 
 royal pillage — when they find that the ancient be- 
 
 35 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 havior of Attila is not a modern pattern for con- 
 duct — when they find their government has mort- 
 gaged the future glory of the nation — when they 
 find that the Hohenzollern dynasty is not divinely 
 anointed — when they find that the war's sponsors 
 are arch-infidels — when they find that their ruler 
 has been a traitor to international obligations — 
 when they find that their Fatherland is no longer 
 respected for industry and thrift — when they find 
 that their greatest sacrifice has been made to feed 
 the kingly greed of national vandalism, and when 
 they find that an embittered world has made Ger- 
 many the by-word of disrepute for generations to 
 come — 
 
 THEN 
 
 will Kultur receive its death blow, its cremation and 
 its burial — and the United States of America must 
 fight through to the end of the ceremony, 
 
 FOR 
 
 we believe in Democracy! We love America! We 
 have a passion for Peace! And for the guaranty of 
 Democracy, America and Peace, we must have Vic- 
 tory! 
 
 56 
 
Kruppism De Luxe 
 
 August, 1917 
 
KRUPPISM DE LUXE 
 
 RUPPISM is the modern expression of its 
 brutal antecedence of might. It has been 
 resorted to by races since the beginning of 
 time — since the cave-man first wielded the 
 club to cow his neighbor. But as imperious might 
 has been consistently opposed by the increasing 
 "might of reason" each epoch happily brings us 
 nearer the goal of justice. 
 
 Of the great states today, Prussia is still the most 
 ardent devotee of Kruppism, It clings to its last 
 remnant with the fervor of a maniac. It has in- 
 doctrined its people with the technique of Kruppism 
 until it has sapped the idealism from German life. 
 It is the great physical horse-power of the Hohen- 
 zollerns and in this war makes its supreme effort 
 to prolong its life. 
 
 A prominent German once attempted to portray 
 the beneficent use of Prussian might by counseling 
 "Let us bravely organize forced migrations of the 
 inferior peoples. Posterity will be grateful to us. 
 We must coerce them. This is one of the tasks of 
 war; the means must be superiority of armed force." 
 
 Prussia by armed force assumes the role of the 
 "superior" by self appointment. Another emi- 
 nent kid glove artist said, "Germany is precisely — 
 who would venture to deny it? — the representative 
 of the highest morality, of the purest humanity, of 
 the most chastened Christianity." 
 
 This very zeal that glory can only be found on 
 the battlefield of force is the real reason for driving 
 so many Germans from their Fatherland to new 
 abodes beyond the sea. Here is a people who by 
 ethnic instinct loved "home ties," yet the rigors of 
 the maintenance of militarism forced millions to 
 break from the moorings of their homeland and seek 
 relaxation in distant lands. 
 
 39 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 Germany, with fewer people per square mile than 
 England, and wealthier per capita than most Euro- 
 pean countries, has produced an exodus that re- 
 mains unequalled in recent history. Germans left 
 in continuous streams, bringing along their wives 
 and children — not young men — not old men — not 
 men in the prime of life, but young, middle and 
 old. Almost invariably came females in equal num- 
 ber with males, showing no thought of returning. 
 The very vastness of this emigration is eloquent 
 proof of a heartless system and the lack of liberal 
 vision. 
 
 Ransack the dismal chronicles of iron-woven 
 Prussia and for every Cromwell in England you 
 will find a stubborn Frederick in Prussia — for ev- 
 ery Garibaldi in Italy you will find a tyrannical Bis- 
 marck in Prussia — for every Washington in Amer- 
 ica you will find a ravenous William in Prussia. 
 Even the most statesmanlike of the Prussians 
 yielded not an iota of his traditional prerogative. 
 
 Our merciful and beloved Lincoln said, "Popular 
 opinions and sentiments are the only true sovereign 
 of a free people." Compare this mental attitude to 
 the merciless avowal of the great Prussian hero, 
 Moltke, in declaring "The real ballot box is the sol- 
 dier's cartridge box, the real representative of the 
 nation is the army." Germanic history shows no 
 Gustavus Adolphus — no Joan of Arc. 
 
 The whole Prussian plan is set up under the mar- 
 tial myth of coercism and victory followed by gain- 
 ful plunderings. First Prussia beat up the second 
 rate states with the "iron mitt," later the Hohenzol- 
 lerns clashed with the fanatical Hapsburg, but al- 
 tered not the method. 
 
 If consistency be a virtue, then the Prussian lead- 
 ers have reached the superlative. Prussia picked 
 
 40 
 
KRUPPISM DE LUXE 
 
 quarrels with equal readiness and equal gains on 
 all four sides — none has been immune. 
 
 It fought its neighbor on the north ; and it fought 
 its neighbor on the south. It fought its neighbor 
 on the east; and it fought its neighbor on the west. 
 All were fought in fifty years. 
 
 It stole Poland in the east and annexed Alsace in 
 the west. It detached Bavaria in the south and 
 grabbed Schleswig in the north. Each was the act 
 of an imperial mountebank, each was the result of 
 a Hohenzollern plot. Each deal disregarded the 
 rights of peoples, each was executed with the same 
 "lead pipe." Each transaction was screened by the 
 same old cry of "self-defense"; each job brought 
 home the "loot." Each territory suffered spiritual 
 death, each got "Prussianization." They all got the 
 "loaded fist" and none received autonomy. 
 
 When this job was done she sent her pernicious 
 agents to other fields. She adroitly manipulated 
 commercial undertakings in Asia and the Americas, 
 purporting a legitimate aspect to cover the political 
 meaning of her ulterior intent. The welfare of these 
 people of whom the Germans were guests came 
 second, the glory of the two-faced eagle first. The 
 falsehearted "sop" about friendship was pure fraud 
 — witness the classic perpetrated by Count Lux- 
 burg. 
 
 The moth-eaten claim of the German govern- 
 ment, that war in 1914 was made in defense of its 
 people, is the blackest lie ever printed on the soiled 
 yellow pages of her white book. 
 
 As long as the lies hold out and so long as the 
 system can lie, so long will the liars continue to 
 shackle the poor devils in the trench. For a long 
 time to come the system of lies will work and the 
 poor devils in the trench will fight, 
 
 41 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 Before we efface these calculating assassins from 
 the land and from the water we shall meet with 
 many gloomy days. But when we face the blue 
 days that will certainly come, don't cringe, but take 
 for your bible that splendid courage shown by the 
 Frenchmen when the Hun was plunging twenty 
 miles a day toward Paris. Look back to the trying 
 days of Valley Forge, when our own patriots' only 
 weapon was faith in God, right and final Victory. 
 
 Remember that while U-boat piracy calls for 
 precious tons of steel, and while many thousands of 
 skilled operatives are drafted from a limited source, 
 that millions of tons of shipping not yet built must 
 yet go down to feed these jackals of the sea. 
 
 But mournful as the consolation may be, the 
 course of events is slowly shaping itself, so that the 
 land fatalities of the Allies, enormous as they may 
 seem, will soon be carried jointly among four great 
 powers while the Potsdam troop must dig deeper 
 into its own "damnpot" for the fodder that some 
 day must fade. 
 
 To hurry up this progressive drain Uncle Sam 
 must "buck up." The scandalmongers and the 
 forces of discord must be promptly imprisoned; the 
 doubters of our cause must be quickly converted or 
 join their brothers in detention camps. All classes 
 of thought, from the I. W. W. pests to those exas- 
 perating wavers of the olive branch, must unite ; for 
 the alternative of victory is too terrible to contem- 
 plate. 
 
 The so-called "intellectual" who preaches that 
 this war after all is merely a struggle between Eng- 
 land and Germany, each with a set of vassals at 
 variance over a policy of "island grabbing and coast 
 clutching" does his country infinite wrong to the 
 point of being a traitor. 
 
 42 
 
KRUPPISM DE LUXE 
 
 He who insists that the mere distinction between 
 the quiet happiness of English dominions and the 
 orderly efficiency of German colonies represents the 
 total difference between the motive of the Kaiser 
 and the cause of the Allies fails to visualize the big 
 things — the big stakes for which the human race 
 bleeds. 
 
 There have been religious wars — there have been 
 commercial wars and there have been dynastic 
 wars, but all these wars were comparatively local- 
 ized, involving but a people and sometimes a race. 
 But here is a war that has stirred the whole of man- 
 kind. It involves in its settlement all peoples and 
 all races and affects the very root of future life and 
 progress itself. 
 
 It is of no consequence whether through your 
 arteries flows the blood of a Teuton or the blood 
 of a Saxon — the blood of a Latin or the blood of 
 a Slav — the blood of a Nipponese or the blood of a 
 hybrid — your obligation still remains. Any man, 
 whether of single or mixed blood, is untrue to him- 
 self and damns his posterity when he refuses to 
 take part in this rebellion of civilization — a rebellion 
 against that revolting barbarism — that turning back 
 to other days now symbolized by militant Prussian- 
 ism. 
 
 Only a crusade for peace and justice could carry 
 such an appeal as to force a score of the mightiest 
 and most enlightened nations to unchangeable res- 
 olution — a resolution, doleful as it is, to keep on 
 throwing the lives of fresh millions into the world 
 arena, until we are all emancipated. 
 
 To preserve the memorials which are the model 
 of a stricken but liberty-loving world we must 
 mobilize our every resource, human and mate- 
 rial. We must utilize our every resource to fight 
 through a length of time no man can measure — 
 
 43 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 until Germany, Germans and Germanism see that 
 the rights of man cannot be permanently infringed 
 — until they realize that animalism cannot replace 
 humanitarianism — until they definitely know that 
 the setting aside of individual life itself is impossible 
 — until we have wiped out forever the mad gangrene 
 of Kruppism that has besmeared the shores of five 
 once peaceful continents and festered the soul of 
 the Prussian state. 
 
 11 
 
Potsdam and Old Glory 
 
 October, 1917 
 
POTSDAM AND OLD GLORY 
 
 HERE comes a time to certain generations 
 of men to make a definite choice; a choice 
 of very life itself against the intangible 
 thing — the life of generations to come. 
 Such a time has arrived for this mottled racial 
 make-up of America and the choice has been made. 
 We prefer to hand down to our children the heri- 
 tage of Old Glory rather than the spread-eagleism 
 of Potsdam. We have chosen war to humiliation 
 and disgrace — we have chosen war with its horrors 
 in preference to the commands of Wilhelmstrasse. 
 
 Some have said that this war was based on 
 materialism, and on such a basis Old Glory is ill- 
 fitted for a place on either side. While the war 
 may have had its origin in the appetite for things 
 called material, its developments certainly betray 
 an overwhelming preponderance of conviction that 
 victory by one side to bring artificial happiness for 
 a certain one hundred and fifty million of people 
 would bring irreparable disaster to the remaining 
 billion and one-half. On the basis of fulfilling the 
 desires of the greatest number of people involved 
 in this war the philosophy of Potsdam must fall 
 before the insistence of Democracy. 
 
 Working on the belief that the self seeking Wil- 
 helmstrasse clique inspired this dreadful war with- 
 out consulting its people, our President has clearly 
 defined the American view when he says : "We fight 
 for the liberation of all peoples, the German peoples 
 included." We, as Americans, believe this to be 
 unqualifiedly true. 
 
 If this be true then an impassable abyss forever 
 separates the logic of the Democratic world from 
 the whims of the ruling Teutons and their support- 
 ers. The world is out to defeat Prussia, the idea 
 and Germany, the People, if necessary. Let us not, 
 however, overstretch the theory of "the good Ger- 
 
 47 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 man people" and "the bad German Kaiser." We 
 certainly suspect a very considerable part of the 
 "rabble" as well as all the ruling classes of Prussia 
 stand shoulder to shoulder with their emperor, and 
 the plain people of the German Empire, driven by 
 the mania of enthusiasm for their Fatherland, will 
 have to suffer in proportion to their devotion to the 
 modernized jungle law of their Potsdam. 
 
 You may extol the many accomplishments of 
 Germans as individuals — you may respect old Ger- 
 many, the nation — but in this fight, it should matter 
 not the degree of your affection and respect for the 
 old Germany as a nation. We must fight the idea 
 of its autocracy, an idea that represents a difference 
 of opinion so far removed from the trend of the 
 balance of mankind that to let it live means a con- 
 stant menace to the happiness of the world. 
 
 We can see the fountain head of the Hohen- 
 zollerns loudly claiming divine partnership and 
 brilliantly painting Germany the super nation ; Ger- 
 many far in advance in Science and Medicine — 
 Germany's acknowledged leadership in solving 
 many vexed economical and industrial problems — 
 Germany, who, when the war broke out, had no 
 paupers — Germany, who gave greater protection to 
 her working men and working women than any 
 other nation — Germany, who sent her educators 
 around the world. 
 
 All this may be the single or collective expression 
 of Germans, as individuals, but if it is only express- 
 ible under a system of Kaiserism, then it is a sad 
 commentary on Germans as a race. Potsdam can 
 rave and it can rant from its topmost pinnacle of 
 blasphemy, claiming exclusive association with God 
 — it can expound and it can paint, but the hostile 
 nations and the quivering neutrals see only the 
 overshadowing self expression of Potsdam itself in 
 
 48 
 
POTSDAM AND OLD GLORY 
 
 Zeppelins, liquid fire and chlorine gas. To them it 
 is not understandable that German goodness must 
 be eulogized by the compelling mandates of cannon. 
 
 The Berlin gangsters place a discount on the 
 accomplishments of the German race because the 
 free utterance of a people can be throttled at will 
 by the wish of a crafty despot; a despot that is 
 loathed throughout the world. 
 
 Because the scientists are made to design un- 
 canny instruments of slaughter — because the land 
 of no paupers can overnight be made a land of 
 poverty — because a nation of industry converts 
 itself into a nation of gun-makers — because a coun- 
 try of educators turns its efforts to hymns of hate 
 for the making of wrongful mistrusts — because the 
 talent of leaders is turned to malignant plottings 
 of destruction. 
 
 Can this quick reverse be the self-imposed judg- 
 ment of seventy millions of humans? If freedom 
 resigned, could this Prussian hydrophobia startle 
 mankind until more than twenty nations enroll 
 themselves against it by taking up arms or by ostra- 
 cizing its ministers? 
 
 Yet Potsdam claims for its mimics all of the bene- 
 fits of Democracies. It claims for Germany the 
 purest and most chastened of governments. And 
 can anyone say that a nation is not governed by 
 its people when it is endowed with a written con- 
 stitution for each state and the whole nation — where 
 a congress must be held under these constitutions 
 at stated periods — where all males of twenty-five 
 years of age and over have the right to vote at fre- 
 quent elections — where suffrage is such that a vote 
 can be denied no subject except by loss of citizen- 
 ship through imprisonment? 
 
 Ordinarily, this would mean democracy as we 
 know it — but let us analyze the constitutions them- 
 
 49 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 selves as to source of authority — as to limitation 
 and extension of power — as to the participation of 
 the people themselves in the direction of power 
 conferred by such instruments. Let us see how 
 under such a constitution Bethmann Hollweg, once 
 Imperial Chancellor, can say with impunity as he did 
 to the Reichstag: "Gentlemen, I do not serve Par- 
 liament." Why, after the Reichstag's vote of cen- 
 sure, he did not resign as is customary in France, 
 England and Italy, but said: "That even children 
 knew the difference between France and Germany." 
 Yet this man is called one of Germany's liberals. 
 What a mocking reflection on the intellect of the 
 German people themselves — the very people who 
 the Kaiser says are the most capable in the world! 
 Isn't this a great satire on the people's intelligence? 
 
 If these people are so free, why is it that Friedrich 
 Naumann of the Reichstag in 1914, taunted to the 
 point of humiliation, complains: "We on the left 
 are altogether in favor of the parliamentary regime, 
 by which we mean that the Reichstag cannot for- 
 ever remain in a position of subordination. Why 
 does the Reichstag sit at all? Why does it pass 
 resolutions, if behind it is a waste paper basket 
 into v/hich those resolutions are thrown? The prob- 
 lem is to change the impotence of the Reichstag 
 into some sort of power. The man who compared 
 this house to a hall of echoes was not far wrong." 
 
 Why was it that Dr. Frank in the Reichstag just 
 before the war said: "Many millions among us feel 
 it a burning shame that while Germans achieve 
 great things in trade and industry, in politics they 
 are deprived of their rights." 
 
 To Mr. C. D. Hazen, Professor of European His- 
 tory, Columbian University, we are indebted for 
 his enlightening comments on the government of 
 Germany and Prussia. It will serve well to review 
 
 50 
 
POTSDAM AND OLD GLORY 
 
 some of the undemocratic features which he points 
 out, condensed as follows: 
 
 "The Emperor declares war with the consent of 
 the Bundesrat; the assent of the Reichstag is not 
 required. If the Emperor feels that a prospective 
 war is defensive, he need consult neither house. 
 The chancellor is solely responsible to the Emperor 
 — not the Reichstag. There are 61 members of the 
 Bundesrat, of which 20 come from Prussia. Its 
 delegates are not elected by the people, but are ap- 
 pointed by the princes of the 25 states. They vote 
 by unit according to instructions from the royalty 
 and can veto any and all legislation initiated by the 
 Reichstag. 
 
 "The Reichstag cannot make or unmake minis- 
 tries. It cannot make war. It inaccurately repre- 
 sents the people on account of its basis for election. 
 Some members are elected by a few thousand 
 voters; others by hundreds of thousands. A voter 
 in some districts counts for only a thirteenth of the 
 voter in certain other districts. A common Berlin 
 deputy represents on the average 125,000 voters, 
 while the Junker from the East represents 24,000 
 voters. The Reichstag can be dissolved by the 
 Bundesrat. 
 
 "In Prussia the voters are divided according to 
 wealth. There are three classes, each electing a 
 third of the so-called representatives. The first, or 
 wealthy third, is elected by a few men. The semi- 
 wealthy by an electorate approximately twenty 
 times as large and the third, or masses, by a num- 
 ber of voters a hundred and sometimes a thousand 
 times as large. The suffrage is so manipulated as 
 to defeat popular representation. In 1900 the social- 
 ists, who actually cast a majority of the votes at 
 that election, got only seven seats of nearly 400. 
 The system gives enormous political power to the 
 
 51 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 rich. In 1908 the number of people voting in the 
 three divisions were: first class, four per cent; sec- 
 ond class, fourteen per cent; third class, eighty-two 
 per cent. The first class chose the same numbers 
 of electors as the third. In one district the vote of 
 one man composed the first class all by himself." 
 
 Mr. Hazen continues: "This system would seem 
 to be outrageous enough by reason of its monstrous 
 plutocratic caste. But this is not all. This reac- 
 tionary edifice is appropriately crowned by another 
 device — oral voting. Neither in the primary nor 
 the secondary voting is a secret ballot used. Voting 
 is not even by a written or printed ballot, but by 
 the spoken word. Thus everyone exercises his 
 right publicly in the presence of his superior or his 
 patron or employer or his equals or the official rep- 
 resentative of the King. In such a country as 
 Prussia where the police are notoriously ubiquitous, 
 what a weapon for absolutism! The great land- 
 owners, the great manufacturers, the State, can 
 easily bring all the pressure they desire to bear upon 
 the voter, exercising his wretched rudiment of polit- 
 ical power." 
 
 This is the cant the plutocrats sing in place of a 
 real people's constitution. The very structure of 
 Germany is the inevitable nemesis of its dumbly 
 trusting people, who may now, later or never, long 
 to be free. 
 
 But whatever may now or ultimately be the re- 
 lation of the German people to their government, 
 every right thinking American, irrespective of for- 
 mer ties, must after these past three years see that 
 we entered the war with a clear conscience, that 
 we entered not to please or displease either side 
 in Europe. That we entered not to please or dis- 
 please a majority or a minority at home. The much 
 discussed point of the questionable "beginning" of 
 
 52 
 
POTSDAM AND OLD GLORY 
 
 the war was solved by the appalling logic of Pots- 
 dam itself. 
 
 The concrete horrors and wasteful realities of 
 war with its gruesome results have taught our 
 people the more to cherish peace — even those muni- 
 tion makers and others who "profiteered" counseled 
 only preparedness — but NOT war until the right 
 course was clear. But Potsdam finally drove it 
 home here in America; it piled up case after case 
 against itself that not only were the "profiteers ,, and 
 the "pacifists" but even the formerly indifferent 
 masses literally driven to the only solution — war. 
 
 Here is a great democratic peace-loving nation 
 whose written histories, consciously or otherwise, 
 have taught us not to love England, whose records 
 show it was committed to peace and justice since 
 its birth, yet who when the time came buried its 
 prejudice for England and joined side by side to 
 fight the Prussian — not for the rectification of 
 boundary lines, not for "profiteering," not for com- 
 merce, not for indemnities, but for uprightness and 
 honor. 
 
 We must finish the fight with all we possess 
 — not alone for uprightness and honor, but protec- 
 tion and security for ourselves and the unborn to 
 follow. 
 
 This group of men, typified by Potsdam, can prac- 
 tice hypocrisy and follow the path of shame them- 
 selves, but no nation can follow the lead of such 
 men indefinitely without coming to the fateful end. 
 
 The end must come and it will come when this 
 "caste" is overcome; and to beat it brings no dis- 
 paragement to the valor of the German people as 
 they have given ample evidence of their readiness 
 for untold sacrifices the same as have other peoples, 
 but they have been duped. 
 
 53 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 Remember, France found her freedom in defeat; 
 England found freedom by the sword of Washing- 
 ton and his "despised colonials"; and a torpid Ger- 
 many will yet see liberty through an array of gun- 
 power never before massed since the world called 
 itself civilized. 
 
 Such an ending may dawn only after many pain- 
 ful years, but already the smug pretense of the 
 Kaiser is broken — his military fortunes will soon 
 pass the crest — his ability to strike back will wane — 
 he must soon see the receding tide — the wanton 
 wastage of reserves — that his debauched alliance is 
 unnatural — that imperial insanity cannot circum- 
 vent independence. 
 
 We no longer hear the insufferable boastings of 
 invincibility — the cry of "on to Paris" — of "on to 
 Verdun." He cannot but heed his justly deserved 
 result of the most sneaking campaign of falsity that 
 ever disgraced a nationality. He cannot but per- 
 ceive that the prophetic failure of the submarine 
 to get a quick decision will cost him the certainty 
 of an American army in France within two years. 
 That American conscription within six weeks after 
 the war is the final sign of the times — that the 
 deadly earnestness of appropriated billions of dollars 
 unequalled in the history of parliamentary govern- 
 ments is the determination of the greatest republic 
 — that equity cannot forever be trampled under foot 
 — that so long as he fights so long will his country 
 be denied intercourse with the world; and until he 
 yields, just so long will the oncoming millions from 
 around the earth never cease. 
 
 But whether routed in four years or forty, those 
 recurring spectres of the Lusitania, of Belgium, 
 Poland and France with their "scraps of paper" will 
 be a part of the unsavory verdict which must be 
 
 54 
 
POTSDAM AND OLD GLORY 
 
 written into all the future histories of mankind as 
 the last legacy of the Hohenzollerns. 
 
 History down through the ages echoes and re- 
 echoes the struggle of races for freedom and of 
 men for liberty. For the thing called Liberty man 
 has suffered as no animal could endure. We here 
 in America made sacrifices of our highest and in 
 Russia they have seen sacrifices of their lowliest. 
 For Liberty we have seen great souls, like Lincoln, 
 sacrificed to the bullet of a lowly assassin. For 
 Liberty we have seen the simple souls of Russia 
 suffer the bleak steppes of Siberia from the "all 
 highest" Czar. The great and the small have given 
 their very all for the enthronement of these ele- 
 mentary sanctities of individual liberty and of the 
 right to live free. 
 
 It is today the same old fight except that the 
 forces of Democracy increase as time goes on. 
 America, the haven of Huguenots and Quakers, of 
 Armenians and Jews, of Poles and Germans — Amer- 
 ica, the haven of oppressed and unhappy millions 
 from around the globe, you of all the champions of 
 right should now stand out in bold relief. 
 
 America, the place where men and women, when 
 shorn of all but life itself, instinctively turn for 
 comfort — for the new chance — the land of happiness 
 — the land of promise — the place where men come 
 when they divorce the old teachings of kings to 
 accept the new beliefs of a free people — the very 
 ideal of ideals. America, the land of a hundred an- 
 cestries — America, the magnet of the world — you 
 should be the freest giver and the staunchest fighter, 
 that Old Glory may bring to us all that Liberty, 
 that Equality and that Fraternity for which men 
 have struggled and died since man became man. 
 
 55 
 
Statistics and "Gott Mit Uns" 
 
 December, 1917 
 
STATISTICS AND "GOTT MIT UNS" 
 
 HE London Post says: "It is within the 
 ability of America to vanquish the whole 
 power of Germany sooner or later." Now 
 that is perfectly true, but we shall be a 
 terrible disappointment to our Allies and shall our- 
 selves suffer a dreadful reaction unless we lift our 
 duty from the conversational stage and substitute 
 concerted action. Procrastination with its calam- 
 itous results can only be eliminated by a keener 
 sense of responsibility of the individual citizen 
 himself. 
 
 This idea of buying a Liberty Bond, giving to the 
 Red Cross, hanging up a Food Conservation card, 
 sending cigarettes to the soldiers and then with a 
 feeling of relief talk about "business as usual" 
 doesn't discharge our obligation. It won't win the 
 war. The mind of the public must be renovated, 
 taught and stimulated. That requires individual 
 effort and individual effort means greater produc- 
 tivity. A man does not begin to comply with his 
 duty until he is really inconvenienced — until he 
 makes a sacrifice that really hurts. 
 
 It devolves upon America to become the main- 
 spring in this war as well as the moral leader. Our 
 inventory of American material resources, and facil- 
 ities, staggers the world. Our gold, silver, copper, 
 iron, coal and oil output comparatively reduces Ger- 
 many to a pygmy. Our miles of railroad, trolley 
 lines, telephone and telegraph lines, with passengers, 
 tons of freight transported and millions of messages 
 transmitted so far overshadow Germany's facilities 
 that if placed under proper organization Germany 
 would crumble in months instead of years. To se- 
 cure that organization is largely up to the individual 
 himself. 
 
 It is this glittering inventory sheet that we all too 
 readily turn to when we want to win the war by 
 
 57 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 comfortable fireside methods. We are apt to sink 
 to mere vain boasting and believe that mere enthu- 
 siasm can supplant calm and necessary organization. 
 If an exhibition of imposing statistics is the recipe 
 of success we might as well tear a page from an 
 encyclopedia and mail it to the Kaiser. 
 
 Now the cold facts are if the lords of the Hohen- 
 zollern oligarchy made peace today they would be 
 the victors. Unless their conception of the use of 
 arms is completely and absolutely wrecked they will 
 have won the war irrespective of territorial align- 
 ment. With even a remote chance left for future 
 success they will go on infecting new subjects on 
 the outside while impregnating the younger genera- 
 tion at home with the same battle fever of their 
 fathers. 
 
 They will see to it that this pestilence does not 
 die out, for that would be autocracy's calamity. 
 The "Weekly Paper for the Youth of Germany" is 
 already striving to influence the next "crop." Not 
 long ago it carried the following article — "War is 
 the most august and sacred of human activities. 
 For us too the great joyful hour of battle will one 
 day strike." 
 
 An analysis of the siftings of Prussian preach- 
 ments cannot fail but show that if Prussia is balked 
 in this war but left substantially intact that she will 
 not be modest about starting another at a time and 
 place that meets her convenience. It is not impos- 
 sible that her "whole-hog or none" politicians have 
 profited much by their mistakes and that in the next 
 war will so manipulate it that the Allies of today 
 will never again present a firm front. 
 
 All this can only show to us that the job must be 
 finished now. With Russia out it places a greater 
 burden on America for immediate action. Russia 
 is out for good — she will never fire another gun. 
 
 58 
 
STATISTICS AND "GOTT MIT UNS" 
 
 It looks as though Germany, after annexing what 
 she wants, will seek to break Russia up into small 
 states incapable of any joint action. In future wars 
 "Blind Man Bluff Bolshevikism" with bombs and 
 vodka will never be a match for Prussia or a mili- 
 tary help to the present Allies. Her only contribu- 
 tion now can be newspaper headlines for dull days. 
 
 The complete Russian disintegration is the neces- 
 sity for greater effort on our part. Nineteen Hun- 
 dred Eighteen will be a blue year for the Western 
 Allies. We must do twice the work contemplated 
 in one-half the time. Every individual should coun- 
 sel his friends to stop talking about an early peace, 
 or a German revolution, or that "Germany has 
 learned her lesson." That kind of talk uncon- 
 sciously renders a negative service to the nation. 
 
 Our leaders know that there will be no early peace 
 — that Austria cannot be detached until she herself 
 or Germany herself is pummeled to a frazzle — that 
 there will be no German revolution — that the so- 
 called "good effect" of the Russian riot on Germany 
 is only "piffle" — that "Germany has learned her les- 
 son" is the craziest kind of a fable — that the mon- 
 strous sacrilege of "me and Gott" is still rigidly 
 imbedded in the "die Deutsche militar," and that 
 the "Deutsche militar" will reign supreme until 
 entirely delaureled. No nation ever overthrew a 
 victorious monarch, besides Germany is a land of 
 hero worshippers. 
 
 Germany will fight on until whipped — the talk 
 about Austria refusing to send men to fight in 
 France is buncombe; Austrians will go to France 
 and they will fight. War correspondents' reports 
 to the contrary express only hopes. Teutonic 
 newspapers always freely feed their publics on hy- 
 perboles and we have given good subjects for their 
 propaganda. We had organized draft resisters in 
 
 59 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 our Western States, we had strikes in all large 
 cities, we had food raids in New York, we had rail- 
 road transportation disorganized in nearly all states. 
 
 None of these was a barometer of the nation's 
 desire for a discontinuance of the war or indicative 
 of the desire for a patched up peace. But they got 
 good circulation in Germany. Don't forget when 
 you pick up the morning paper and see that Teutonic 
 munition makers are on the strike that there are 
 German editors headlining our own ship building 
 strikes in Philadelphia and Seattle. 
 
 Remember that for every one fairy tale about 
 twenty-five thousand Germans deserting their army, 
 Berliners are reading two stories about Oklahoma 
 draft riots. Note that when we hear of a "rumpus" 
 in the Austrian Reichsrathe that the editorials of our 
 yellow journals are being copiously quoted in 
 Vienna. Whenever the Berlin Vorwarts reports an 
 uprising in the Reichstag against the pan-German- 
 ists that the Central papers from Hamburg to Con- 
 stantinople are featuring the traitorous attitude of 
 our congressional "Benedict Arnolds" whose names 
 no true American paper cares to print. 
 
 So let us beware of being misled by this printers' 
 and reporters' camouflage; it is entirely irrelevant 
 to the great issues involved. Let us dismiss entirely 
 from our minds the idea that some new and terri- 
 ble invention will quickly vanquish the submarine 
 and that some fantastic aerial torpedo will blow 
 up Berlin. Germany must be beaten in the good 
 old-fashioned way, and that means individual un- 
 derstanding, co-operation and centralization of exec- 
 utive work. 
 
 Germany had her opportunity to join in the 
 political spirit of the times but willingly turned 
 down the chance and stuck to "club-law" tactics. 
 It is only medieval Germany who imputes any 
 
 60 
 
STATISTICS AND "GOTT MIT UNS" 
 
 desire for conquest upon the Allies while it is nearly 
 the whole of an enlightened race that accuses 
 Germany of the intention of unjust annexations and 
 domination, and produces the proof. 
 
 Who is it that even before the war of Nineteen 
 Fourteen would have rejoiced at the liberation of 
 Palestine? The world. Who would have, even before 
 the war of Nineteen Fourteen, looked upon the lib- 
 eration of Palestine with distress ? Germany. Who 
 is it now outside of the Turk who looks upon the 
 freeing of Jerusalem as a disaster? Germany. 
 Who is it now that hails with joy the deliverance 
 of Jerusalem? The world . . . That's the real 
 symbol of Justice and Right for which we fight. 
 
 Who is it that has always readily shipped cannon 
 and munitions to any country that could purchase, 
 regardless of the cause in which they were to be 
 used? Who is it that specializes in cannon build- 
 ing and produces more munitions in peace than any 
 nation in the world? Who is it that goaded neutral 
 America, who had nothing to do with the conditions 
 that made for war, and forced her to belligerency? 
 Who deliberately insulted a nation that had com- 
 mitted no hostile act and had laboriously main- 
 tained neutrality? 
 
 Who is it that claims our country that tried in 
 Nineteen Sixteen to bring about peace between the 
 antagonists was too "money loving" to fight? Ger- 
 many. Who is it that said only six months later, 
 in Nineteen Seventeen, that our sole inspiration for 
 war is love of money? Germany. This is the nation 
 which we are now invited to meet at the Russian 
 conference and make peace. 
 
 Let us not be fooled about this military party's 
 desire to reform as will be the Russian political 
 kindergarten at Brest Litovsk. It is trying to dis- 
 pose of one nation at a time and if it whips either 
 
 61 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 France or England this year what will happen to 
 the other next? 
 
 We Western Allies must pool our fortunes — we 
 must have inseparable unity — we must have the 
 allied armies under a single military head who must 
 have absolute authority over all forces to resist the 
 unprecedented "drive" that the Kaiser must and will 
 make. Such a command is vital on the West Front 
 — for here the drive will be against the British or 
 French and here the war must be won — the same 
 front where all the big wars of late history have 
 been won and lost. We have got to quit thinking 
 in terms of abstraction and generalities and get 
 busy. 
 
 We are fighting to save the United States of 
 America and our institutions. Would any but a 
 flabby intellect believe that a revengeful and 
 enraged Germany, flushed with a European victory, 
 would stop her policy of subjugation short of this 
 side of the Atlantic? No "word force" could keep 
 her "kultur" away from our shore. If she stopped 
 it would only be to assimilate her gains and after a 
 war breeding peace start afresh. 
 
 Many honest thinking Americans feel this only 
 the belief of an alarmist. Remember we all thought 
 such a world war impossible, but it happened. We 
 knew it was within the power of Germany to pre- 
 vent the war but she didn't. We couldn't believe 
 the Germans would invade Belgium, but they did. 
 We didn't believe she would sink a Lusitania, but 
 she did. We didn't believe she would deport men 
 and women, but she did. We didn't believe that 
 Zeppelins would deliberately bombard London from 
 the air, but they did. We didn't think they were 
 Huns, but they are. 
 
 Those that are willing to know, now see the 
 brazen manner in which the Junkers have lauded 
 
 62 
 
STATISTICS AND "GOTT MIT UNS" 
 
 the coarse methods by which they have exploited 
 their own people and propose to exploit others. The 
 lying faces that have been blackened by soot of 
 burning cities reduce to mockery the fine profes- 
 sions of their peace-time oratory. 
 
 Germany of Nineteen Eighteen is not the Ger- 
 many of Nineteen Fourteen. She's worse. She's 
 "red eyed," "blood shot" and hungry. She will 
 undergo no transformation through half victory. 
 We cannot as a single nation expect more mercy 
 from such an aggregation than meted out to collec- 
 tive Europe. Our own domestic task becomes in- 
 creasingly difficult as our final blow must be deliv- 
 ered a long way from home though from a selfish 
 standpoint we should consider ourselves fortunate 
 that we can fight the Boche in France instead of 
 bringing desolation here to America. 
 
 We are fighting the War of Independence all over 
 again, only transplanted to a foreign land. This is 
 a renaissance of what we fought for at Lexington 
 and Yorktown only on a grander scale. The victory 
 must be straight, clean cut and positive. We must 
 have, not a victory by negotiation, but a military 
 victory that will stand out as a precedent for the 
 future, and we must go on record now for all time 
 with our friends in Europe that we mean to "go all 
 the way." 
 
 The domineering Prussian will not be beaten by 
 starvation, bankruptcy, or revolution but on the 
 battlefields of France and Belgium. He cannot be 
 decisively beaten alone by our European Allies, but 
 he assuredly can with American help — not with half 
 our power but with all our power, not in weeks, not 
 in months, but in years. 
 
 The London Post is right, but we must put our 
 statistics on the shelf and mobilize our brain for 
 a big job, for we shall soon be the mainstay, the 
 
 6S 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 anchor around which the varying fortunes of a 
 hopeful world must hold during Nineteen Eighteen, 
 Nineteen Nineteen, Nineteen Twenty and beyond. 
 The more earnest our preparation, the more prompt 
 our action and the less our professional optimism — 
 the quicker our realization of our requirements — the 
 sooner will we put the unrepentant Kaiser under the 
 hammer and send his cannon-loving Prussians to 
 their military heaven. 
 
 64 
 
Tribalism and Schrecklichkeit 
 
 February, 1918 
 
TRIBALISM AND SCHRECKLICHKEIT 
 
 E as terrible as Attila's Huns." Thus nobly 
 spoke Wilhelm Hohenzollern eighteen 
 years ago to his drugged perverts, the Ger- 
 man army. In pursuance of that revered 
 Prussian principle, "unfailing obedience," his army 
 has not been found wanting. Neither has it failed 
 to earn in the great war the ripened fruit of his 
 terroristic methods — the sincere hostility of two 
 hemispheres. 
 
 A codex of the war adoring tenets of "Schreck- 
 lichkeit" discloses no greater irony to an anti-Prus- 
 sian world than the saying of one J. Rump (a Ger- 
 man pastor) : "From all sides testimonies are flow- 
 ing in as to the noble manner in which our troops 
 conduct the war." Herr Lehman (see "On the Ger- 
 man God") tells us, "Germany is the center of God's 
 plans for the world." 
 
 Here we have the Kaiser's conception of "noble- 
 ness" — his peoples' testimonial of its sanctity and 
 we ourselves are notified of its lofty mission. 
 "Schrecklichkeit" is merely the German's appeal 
 for the overthrow of rationalism and the substitu- 
 tion of organized tribalism. 
 
 This godless king of Prussia has halted at no bar- 
 rier to instill into his beloved bondmen the divinity 
 of himself, the vindication of his dastardly means 
 and the imagined predestined goal of his race. 
 
 He has animated professors and illiterates, barons 
 and squatters — merchants and mongers — highbrows 
 and lowbrows — somebodies and nobodies — clas&es 
 and masses. To mold his national personality he 
 has whipped them all into a deadly sameness that 
 sticks like a thorn into the breasts of white men, 
 yellow men and brown men. He has changed the 
 very corpuscles of German character from red to 
 yellow. 
 
 67 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 Whether or not this philosophy of the Teuton be 
 accountable for the actual start of the war, it cer- 
 tainly contributes to the base manner in which it 
 is carried on and the projected attainment of its 
 iniquitous intention. 
 
 The state of the German mind today is not the 
 result of the call to arms in nineteen fourteen in 
 the fake name of "defense," but the result of decades 
 of mental preparedness. The docility, the never 
 questioning obedience, the will to unify for any 
 cause, good or bad, without a murmur, is the result 
 of a deliberate educational plan. Since the heyday 
 of Metternich, it has fostered a most damnable con- 
 ception of national life. It is this blind, unthinking 
 unification that would probably today elect Herr 
 Hohenzollern president if there were a German 
 Republic. 
 
 Germany is far behind the Anglo-Saxon in giving 
 freedom to its people. As a matter of fact the An- 
 glo-Saxon didn't wait for someone to give him free- 
 dom. He went out and got it himself. It was only 
 early in eighteen hundred that Germany released 
 some five million serfs who wanted emancipation. 
 These five million men were then freed by legal 
 method only later to be remade by the Kultur 
 method into a "seventy million nation of political 
 crudities and grave diggers." 
 
 Freedom in intellectual development for the mass- 
 es in Germany has never been. Their elementary 
 instruction is essentially one of undeviating direc- 
 tion. Discipline of the individual is paramount, yet 
 the state can practice indiscipline with impunity. 
 Every child is taught that his life is the property of 
 the state. Any tendency toward self-reliance is 
 discouraged, smothered and entombed. 
 
 It is this atavism — this keeping the school goers 
 in the narrow shadows of the past — that has en- 
 
 68 
 
TRIBALISM AND SCHRECKLICHKEIT 
 
 abled the leaders to turn out seventy million fight- 
 ing male and female serfs while the Allies with 
 humanized governments can for a long time pit 
 against them only a small percentage of their men. 
 
 But educationally the "low percentage" statis- 
 tics of Germany's illiterates is deceptive. The mere 
 faculty of reading and writing is not the dimension 
 of a nation's intelligence. The development of a 
 human automaton, whose education is administered 
 in the form of a capsule, cannot qualify a people to 
 properly discharge civic and national duties. It 
 does, however, qualify them for a condition of sub- 
 servience to a ringleader that is the ideal of an auto- 
 crat. It allows the master to effect a provokable 
 circumstance, as we have seen in this war, and then 
 "pitchfork" his automatons into the ring. 
 
 Germany is wedded to the idea of "Superiority," 
 the God-given right to dominate and to impart her 
 "superiority" to others regardless of the means. K. 
 A. Kuhn says: "Must Kultur rear its domes over 
 mountains of corpses, oceans of tears and the death 
 rattle of the conquered ? Yes, it must ! Either one 
 denies altogether the beneficent effect of Kultur 
 upon humanity and confesses oneself an Arcadian 
 dreamer, or one allows to one's people the right of 
 domination — in which case the might of the con- 
 queror is the highest law of morality before which 
 the conquered must bow." A people lured on by 
 such Darwinian, pristine fantasy sooner or later 
 will lose its balance and find itself at the watershed 
 of ruin. 
 
 A nation that can sink to such unfathomable bom- 
 bast is just the nation that would try to derail civ- 
 ilization for some such bureaucratic concoction. 
 Tacitus tells us (96 A. D.), that the Germans then 
 believed that the Deity accompanied their soldiers 
 in war. Today Germany relies upon no outside 
 
 69 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 historian to record the triumvirate of God, Kaiser 
 and Kultur, but with unshrinking modesty admits 
 the accompaniment of God in German affairs — a sort 
 of close corporation — probably with Count Luxburg 
 chairman of the records committee. 
 
 Here in America we have seen the elevating ef- 
 fects of German propaganda — how many of her 
 commercial concerns were but clearing houses for 
 spies. As a matter of cold fact, Germany has been 
 secretly fighting us for a generation, by seeking to 
 divide our national council. 
 
 We finally were up against the humiliating reve- 
 lation of Bernstorff, Dumba, Papen, Boy-Ed and 
 other of the highest, lowest and middle of accred- 
 ited representatives to our government. They vio- 
 lated all diplomatic precedents and stooped to the 
 most despicable spying. If we should criticise, it 
 would be that our government had been far too len- 
 ient with such unprincipled "gum shoe" rascals. 
 Diplomatic code protected them, but diplomatic 
 code did not protect us. 
 
 Observation seems to indicate that the public 
 will demand to see the professional spies treated as 
 criminals and hanged — the general run of near-Ger- 
 man sympathizers should be interned and after the 
 war deported. The German newspapers should be 
 closed out immediately — throw out all the German 
 professors— eliminate the German language from 
 the High School and College. Let us clean house 
 and give ourselves the benefit of the doubt when 
 making a decision. 
 
 Let's get off the "soft pedal" and take an inven- 
 tory of our unassimilated Americanism. Whatever 
 it shows should be rooted out, interned now and 
 "kicked out" as soon as possible. To let it stay 
 would simply be to absorb "traitorism" into our 
 national life. A little drastic action will be a fine 
 
 70 
 
TRIBALISM AND SCHRECKLICHKEIT 
 
 guide for any foreigner in the future. Let him learn 
 to be one hundred per cent American or stay away. 
 
 Let us forget about the convenience and comfort 
 of the "near patriots" who just keep one step back 
 of the dead line. Let us not take them into our con- 
 fidence, because they are not worthy of it and would 
 abuse it. Most of them can be "spotted" — they are 
 the type that would make a doormat out of these 
 United States while blustering about their loyalty 
 — yet if they openly could do it they would lead a 
 parade of the Kaiser's hyenas up Fifth Avenue. 
 
 Remember, a man can't be a traitor in March and 
 become a patriot in April. If Germany as a nation 
 is outlawed, then German sympathizers in Amer- 
 ica should be outlawed politically and commercially. 
 
 Now that we are in the war we must prepare to 
 hear from Germany's officially inspired papers a 
 wave of slander that will outdo her best. The fact 
 that the previous feats of her loathsome campaign 
 have brought her in return a significant feeling of 
 dogged bitterness teaches her nothing. 
 
 The campaign of portable hate must and will com- 
 plete the cycle. First they despised the "degenerate 
 French" — then cursed the "shilling changing" 
 Briton — then it was "God punish Italy" — now their 
 newspapers call us the "Ruthless Yankees." This is 
 quite a tribute to the mental calisthenics of the Ger- 
 man machine-made mind; also an excellent compli- 
 ment to us to rise in estimation from contempt to 
 hate. 
 
 It will do us no harm to overlook her hate, but 
 her putrid spy policy cannot be overlooked because 
 it flaunts the very rottenness that distinguishes 
 her from others. Germany does not only hang pur- 
 posefully to the discards of present day nations, but 
 she has emulated — yes, deified the impieties of the 
 
 71 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 ancients, while the head of the clan stands before 
 his people glorified and unashamed. 
 
 We hear a great deal about the "good German 
 people" but it continues to grow upon us that there 
 is a goodly percentage of these "good German peo- 
 ple" that "out-Kaiser" the Kaiser. Upon the out- 
 break of the war thirty-five hundred professors and 
 lecturers of Germany signed the following mani- 
 festo : "Our belief is that the salvation of the whole 
 Kultur of Europe depends upon the victory which 
 German 'militarism' is about to achieve." 
 
 This optimistic chorus of incomparable egoists 
 — this never-flagging tribalism — this flaming primi- 
 tiveness — this sanctified immoralism with its result- 
 ing monotony of butchery has brought to a focus 
 the repulsiveness of her institutions. From the 
 priceless bits of "no man's land" to the valueless 
 wastes of Australia — from the ice-cooled rivers of 
 Mongolia to the mushy swamps of the Congo — 
 comes a broadside of anti-Germanism that will girdle 
 the Teutonic peoples for a generation. 
 
 We have our faults — we are not moralists — we 
 have no concern as to the conduct of the Empire's 
 internal affairs except as it bears on our unques- 
 tioned right to live undisturbed. If the German peo- 
 ple want to be led by a mad dog, that is their busi- 
 ness; but when they unchain the mad dog and its 
 litter of "hell pups" then it becomes our business. 
 
 If the "Systems" people expect to re-establish 
 political fellowship with other peoples, let them de- 
 militarize the mad dog and its mad pups — any other 
 way will doom them to war until Kingdom come. 
 
 If the German people will not reform their habits 
 then the pro-Ally world will have a right to assume 
 that their nation is committed irretrievably to its 
 evil philosophy and that the success of "Schrecklich- 
 
 11 
 
TRIBALISM AND SCHRECKLICHKEIT 
 
 keit" would be "carte blanche" to continue its vile 
 sins of the past. 
 
 We believe that the ever accumulating evidence 
 is already ample to show that an early reform will 
 not come from within — the system's penetration 
 seems complete from the steel heel to the spike of 
 the helmet. We don't believe that the inbred caste 
 of Wilhelm will ever see the light of anything but 
 the flash of gunpowder. The reform must come 
 from without — and through years of war — it must 
 come through sea control and through the final mil- 
 lion shells that the Allies will hurl at the Father- 
 land after the last Prussian gun has been forever 
 stilled. 
 
 Every American wants peace, but he doesn't want 
 it until we have made an omelet of the hellish 
 breed that stands for "Verboten" — until it is laid 
 bare, naked and nude before all mankind in homage 
 to liberty. 
 
Kaiserism Par Excellence 
 
 April, 1918 
 
KAISERISM PAR EXCELLENCE 
 
 AISERISM is the earthly apex in the devel- 
 opment of a caste system whose objects 
 are illegal and whose inspiration is solely 
 material. It has uncanny faculties for 
 measuring length, breadth and height, but lacks 
 psychology and is therefore unable to measure 
 mankind. It classifies all things human as imper- 
 sonal. It sets into operation all of its machinery 
 from duplicity to "spurlos versenkt." (Sink without 
 trace). It hurdles and plunges and will stop only 
 when beaten. 
 
 Kaiserism is wrong in the motive it seeks and is 
 universally damned for the method it uses. To 
 Kaiserism and the Hohenzollern goes the glory 
 for the final kingly attempt to wreck the ideals that 
 underlie democratic civilization in favor of the dic- 
 tatorial standards of two hundred years ago. Al- 
 though Kaiserism feels that it speaks but modestly 
 of itself when it says, "The German soul is the 
 world soul, God and Germany belong to one an- 
 other," we know what it would do if it got the 
 chance. 
 
 You of the Hohenzollern breed have brought im- 
 measurable shame upon the once respected German 
 people. We well know that it will not only take 
 years of patience and courage, but lives without 
 number and incalculable treasure to bring you to de- 
 feat and erase the awful memories of the grim, gall- 
 ing, gory acts of Prussia, Prussians and Prussian- 
 ism. 
 
 Peace dedicated by your philosophy of brutal 
 might is beyond the pale of endurance. You are 
 as incapable of making a decent peace as you are 
 competent of conducting this war with newly in- 
 vented horrors. Estoppel now in any guise would 
 mean victory for your demented ruffians and defeat 
 for all that is held dear to Democracy. The world 
 
 75 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 is yet unready to trust the German word as uttered 
 by you — a word from you is a dubious and precar- 
 ious thing — the honor is gone — the sacredness is 
 gone — it savors of diplomacy long discarded. 
 
 You made your boast, you heralded your machine- 
 like efficiency — you made your strike but you miss- 
 ed — you belittled everything except yourself and 
 you miscalculated everybody, including yourself. 
 
 We are not misled — we know your machine is 
 highly militarized and powerful, but we are work- 
 ing by "common consent" with our Allies — we do 
 not propose to fight you moderately or inefficiently. 
 We do propose by the cogent arguments of men, 
 guns, money, ships and food to carry our message 
 to Potsdam — charged not with exalted patriotism — 
 not with political ignorance — not with mistaken con- 
 ceptions — not with execrable cruelty — not with 
 flagrant wickedness — not with shameful acts — not 
 with bomb plotting — not with things cowardly and 
 contemptible, but with a sense of plain duty and 
 unwavering determination. 
 
 We hold no illusions about American soldiers 
 getting to Berlin or a war of short duration. We 
 know that your military machine yet manifests great 
 staying power ; it makes desperate assaults but they 
 are the result of fear that defeat must ultimately 
 come one year, five years, or ten years hence; you 
 cannot stay forward; you must in time go back- 
 ward; you cannot win your Ides of March 
 must come. 
 
 It is true that your Crown Prince said that he 
 would make short work of France and of Russia 
 and would then be ready for England and the Unit- 
 ed States of America. Then all your plans were 
 in the "blue print" stage, all was confidence .... 
 all was aggression ... no thought of defense. 
 
 76 
 
KAISERISM PAR EXCELLENCE 
 
 On the theory of "safety first" you subjugated 
 your own people politically, promised them a quick 
 decision war — that they would be home before the 
 year was over — but before the Fall of nineteen four- 
 teen you raised the old "stock" cry of self-defense. 
 
 To the world you picture the boastful and "loud- 
 mouthed" bully of the street who looks with con- 
 tempt upon his "easy mark," picks the quarrel, 
 makes his rush and misses his punch. With his 
 bluff gone he is actually fighting in self-defense, be- 
 wails his "tough luck," looks for sympathy and 
 yells that "the other fellow" started it. 
 
 Kaiserism, your plighted word has brought world 
 distrust upon yourself. We will surely avoid your 
 fake move for peace. We all feel it is incumbent 
 upon every American and every Ally to not "do his 
 bit" but to "do his damnedest" in destroying such 
 a double dealing government conducted by the most 
 infamous personnel that ever cursed the destinies 
 of the Christendom. Kaiserism, you shall not go 
 unpunished; an outraged world will fight you to a 
 definite end; the old stigma must be wiped out. 
 You have got to go down in your own inferno. 
 
 You told your subdued masses that the world 
 was jealous of you and aimed to destroy your busi- 
 ness in foreign lands. Did you ever explain to 
 them how you took advantage of foreign hospital- 
 ity — in Brazil, for instance, where you had over 
 three hundred thousand of your people — with many 
 organizations, sustained by your money grants, and 
 playing your dirty game? Did you do this to pro- 
 tect yourselves against the aggressions of Brazil? 
 Did you fear they would attack you? Is this a part 
 of your defense plan? 
 
 No, the world did not resent the financial and 
 commercial structures reared by you in other lands, 
 but it did and does resent their being used as a 
 
 77 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 base for political operations. The "second story" 
 system of your spies has aroused an ever increasing 
 feeling against everything German — no longer will 
 generosity be imposed upon and sit blindly by 
 through your corruption and treachery. 
 
 You expected to crush France in a few weeks. 
 You stated publicly to your subjects and soldiers 
 from your palace balcony in August, 1914, "Before 
 the leaves have fallen from the trees you will be 
 back in your homes." Were you right? 
 
 You stated to Ambassador Gerard that "there is 
 no international law." The whole world disagrees 
 with you. Were you right? 
 
 Your trained chimpanzee, Zimmerman, said: 
 "Give us only two months of this kind (submarine) 
 of warfare and we shall end the war and make peace 
 within three months." Were you right? 
 
 This same chimpanzee stated: "The United 
 States does not dare to do anything against Ger- 
 many because we have five hundred thousand Ger- 
 man reservists in America who will rise in arms 
 against your government if your government should 
 dare to do anything against Germany." Were you 
 right? 
 
 It is true that you took President Wilson's elec- 
 tion to mean that you could again cut loose with 
 your piratical "rough stuff." Were you right? 
 
 It is true that you expected England and Japan 
 to stay out — your brother Henry said so. Were 
 you right? 
 
 It is true that you were sure that Italy and Greece 
 would help you, for was not your sister the Queen 
 of Greece, was not Italy a member of the Triple 
 Alliance? Were you right? 
 
 You planned that your territorial and money 
 bribes to Mexico would dismember our country; 
 
 78 
 
KAISERISM PAR EXCELLENCE 
 
 you tried to array Japan against us. You did this 
 when we were at peace with you; you thought we 
 would sit idly by; you thought it would work. 
 Were you right? 
 
 One of your vomiting mouthpieces last year 
 stated: "That public sentiment of America was 
 incapable of raising an army large enough to make 
 any impression." Here you measured us by your 
 estimation of physical strength — to you justice was 
 secondary — we have already enlisted voluntarily 
 more than a million men and will call many more. 
 Were you right? 
 
 We forgive you for these mistakes of your judg- 
 ment, for one steeped in the art of intrigue, of car- 
 nage and slaughter as you, cannot be right; but 
 we do not forgive you for the deluge of blood which 
 has swept all — for the long black lists that you daily 
 send home to mothers — for your insane despoila- 
 tion of France — for your unparalleled deeds of 
 shame in Belgium — for your indecent attacks upon 
 things heretofore considered inviolable. 
 
 We further condemn you, damn you and curse 
 you, because you recognize not the law of the land, 
 not the law of the sea, not the law of men, and be- 
 cause you obey only the passionless, pitiless, soul- 
 less impulses of aboriginal might. 
 
 You have searched the archives that antedate 
 modern times to find a precedent for your brutish 
 compaigns. You found it when you went back and 
 back and back to the red records of the Hun, the 
 Tartar and the Turk. 
 
 For more than three long, inhuman, never-to-be- 
 forgotten years you fed the ocean sharks with baby 
 flesh — you defiled the womanhood of five nations- — 
 you paved Europe with men's bones. You have 
 undeniably expressed your devotion to the ideals 
 of Attila, of Tamerlane and of Genghis Khan. 
 
 79 
 
OVER HERE 
 
 You have for 300,000 hours, for 13,000 days, for 
 1,900 weeks, for 480 months, for 40 years, through 
 light and dark, looked impatiently forward to "der 
 Tag." The day that you felt that you were ready 
 while the world was not — the day when your paid 
 obstructionists had completed their fabric of prop- 
 aganda — the day when your murder tools were 
 sharp to the razor edge, when by one titanic, irre- 
 sistible drive you could put the stamp of Kaiser, 
 Kaiserists and Kaiserism indelibly upon the world. 
 
 You mustered into your organizations Kings, 
 Vassals, Dupes, Clowns, Parasites, Bootlickers, 
 Liars, Spies, Crooks, Gunmen, Thugs, Peons, Serfs, 
 and Slaves. Every known trick, every subterfuge, 
 every misrepresentation, every plot, every machina- 
 tion and every blackmail were resorted to as read- 
 ily as your factories turned out your hellish can- 
 non. 
 
 You sang of international amity while you plan- 
 ned universal dominion — you talked of lofty inten- 
 tions while you made new maps — you chanted of 
 brotherly love by day while you held your grave- 
 yard rehearsals by night. You nursed excessive 
 nationalism but denied the rights of others to sa- 
 lute their flag. You stated that "in the midst of per- 
 fect peace the enemy surprises us." You were in- 
 deed so taken by surprise that before you could re- 
 alize how the enemy had taken advantage of you, 
 you had wrecked Belgium and were leaning against 
 the gates of Paris. We have seen in your words 
 and acts the most ferocious satire yet evolved by 
 man. 
 
 You have made war for dynasty's sake and for 
 war's sake — you have violated treaties, you have 
 broken agreements and you have disregarded most 
 sacred rights. You forced Belgian civilians to screen 
 your armies — you sacked Brussels — you burned 
 
 80 
 
KAISERISM PAR EXCELLENCE 
 
 Louvain — you requisitioned from the helpless, mate- 
 rials for which you agreed to pay in gold, then you 
 forcibly collected a tax and paid them in their own 
 gold, then further levied a national indemnity to 
 get back the gold, and when this gold was gone you 
 deported the ruined peoples to your war loving 
 country to make shells to kill off their own patriots ! 
 
 You used poison gas first at Ypres, you dropped 
 bombs on London — you shelled defenseless coast 
 towns — you sank merchant ships — you sank hos- 
 pital ships — you sank passenger ships — you sank 
 life boats. You brained harmless public officials — 
 you bayoneted peaceful families — you shot more 
 than two hundred old men and women in a single 
 day. 
 
 You have devastated farms — you have made 
 deserts of happy places — you have committed arson 
 — you have killed nurses — you have robbed wound- 
 ed of their food — you have murdered school chil- 
 dren — you have treated prisoners like swine — you 
 have driven mothers and babies from shelter — you 
 have conspired to wreck neutral factories — you 
 have fomented strikes — you schemed to divide our 
 country. You have ordered your death dealing 
 hordes to wilfully stamp out peaceful neighbors — 
 the stench of your spies is upon every land — you, 
 after meditation, have driven the Caucasian race in- 
 to the wildest orgy of blood and the maddest "life 
 taking" crusade known since the world began. 
 
 These are only parts of our sickening list. One 
 need only to look at your great slave markets in 
 Belgium, France and Poland to know that you are 
 calloused to the manliness and civilization of your 
 western enemies. You have linked the evils of the 
 thirteenth century with the science of the twentieth. 
 Therefore any peace offered by you is an insult to 
 humanity. 
 
 81 
 
t&o* 
 
 OVER HERE 
 
 You who have maimed and murdered — you who 
 have stolen and robbed — you who have faked and 
 lied — you who have sunk to the foulest depths of 
 hell, now stand over the fresh graves of ten million 
 men and stretch out your hand covered with undried 
 blood and say "Kamerad, I am ready, peace." 
 
 You want peace in the face of the accusing stare 
 of double rows of skeletons that you have stretched 
 across a continent and back again — no, not yet — 
 for to that mighty symphony of these ten million 
 dead are inseparably joined the billion living who 
 are calling for Justice first, and then for Peace. 
 
 Recklessly and consciencelessly you plod on in 
 the delusion that your mad course will win. You, 
 faithless to the most sacred of covenants — blind to 
 even ordinary standards of honor — deaf to the 
 shrieks of drowning babies — numb to the pleadings 
 of deported thousands — dead to the commonest of 
 instincts called human — you who have professed 
 that unnumbered murders and nameless miseries are 
 a reasonable price for your satanic Kultur — you who 
 have ghoulishly piloted the anti-human machine 
 that wilfully filled multiplied thousands of shell 
 holes and hell holes of Europe with human scrap 
 repudiate the hope of mankind — you who have dar- 
 ed to bring back into life the things that man had 
 hoped and prayed were dead, now want peace with 
 honor. 
 
 Again you are amuck. You will get peace when 
 you and the incurable derelicts that personify your 
 filthy, black-hearted system of blood-dripping Kul- 
 tur are forever dead — when Democracy has steri- 
 lized the breeding ground of your Hunnish, sabre- 
 scarred, ring-nosed, gang-driven, Christless hordes 
 of pro-Kaiserism. 
 
 82 
 
 18 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: , 2001 
 
 Preservationlechnologies 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPE* PRESERVATION 
 
 111 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 (724) 779-2111