Yale University Library

39002003576353

ilMAN IRACY
IN AMERICAN
EDUCATION GUSTAVUS OHLINGER

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THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
IN AMERICAN EDUCATION
GUSTAVUS OHLINGER

THE
GERMAN CONSPIRACY
IN AMERICAN EDUCATION

BY
GUSTAVUS OHLINGER
CAPTAIN u! S. A.
Author of "Their True Faith and Allegiance," etc.

NEW StWW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

Copyright, ioiq,
By George H. Doran Company

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE
During the years 1904 and 1905 the
writer was brought into frequent contact
with German officials and into professional
relations with German courts, particularly
the German consular courts of China.
It was during this period that the Chi
nese government was pressing its demands
for a relaxation of the laws excluding its
subjects from the United States. Its efforts
in this direction gathered popular support in
all parts of the Empire — a strange circum
stance in view of the traditional apathy
toward public policies which the Chinese, un
til then, had maintained. But on this ques
tion the entire nation became aroused. Be
fore long, walls were plastered with posters
demanding a boycott of American goods,
and circulars urging this retaliatory meas
ure were passed from hand to hand. Goods
of American origin were immediately

vi PREFACE
spotted and labelled, and then left to lie un
called for in the godowns.
During a visit to Tsingtau, the capital of
the German Kiaochow Protectorate, the
writer had occasion to go through the print
ing establishment maintained by the Ger
man government for its official publications.
There, to his astonishment, he found the
presses busy turning out boycott literature.
In the meantime German merchants were
taking advantage of the embarrassment of
American trade to introduce their substi
tutes. This incident is characteristic. The tech
nique of German propaganda consists in
seeking out the differences to which race, re
ligion, language, industrial or economic con
dition may give rise, in inflaming such dif
ferences into bitter animosities, and then in
profiting either from the disintegration pro
duced within an opposing nation, or from the
quarrels among political or commercial com
petitors. The rivalries among the liberated nation
alities of Europe, the possible misunder
standings and differences among the peoples

PREFACE vii
who have fought the war for freedom, will
undoubtedly, in the future, furnish fresh op
portunities for German propaganda. Against
this propaganda, and its resulting disintegra
tion and dissension, we must still stand
guard. G. O.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A Part of the Higher Strategy ... 9
II Conditions Favouring the Conspiracy . 21
III The Undermining of American Education 42
IV German Propaganda through American
Universities  < . . . 92
V New Ideals in American Education. . 104

THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY IN
AMERICAN EDUCATION

THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
IN AMERICAN EDUCATION

A PART OF THE HIGHER STRATEGY
Again and again during the past year there
has been presented to the American public sen
sational evidence of the conspiracies set on
foot in the United States by Germany's ac
credited diplomatic and consular officials as
well as by her less conspicuous hirelings. The
plots having for their object the dynamiting of
the Welland Canal, the destruction of the Port
Huron tunnel and of the Vanceboro bridge, the
blowing up of factories in Detroit and other
cities, the sinking of ships at sea by time bombs,
the organisation of armed expeditions against
Canada and India, the forging of American
passports, the inciting of revolution in Ireland,
9

10 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
the fomenting of strikes in American indus
tries and the corruption of American public
opinion — all these have been laid bare in con
vincing detail. The history of diplomatic in
tercourse offers no parallel to these outrages
upon our peace and security perpetrated by the
representatives of a power which, at the time,
was protesting the friendliest intentions.
These plots, however, recede into the back
ground when viewed in relation to the far more
dangerous and insidious conspiracy which Ger
many, through her agents, sympathisers and
dupes, has prosecuted against American edu
cation. Bridges, canals, factories and ships
are mere physical properties, easily replaced.
Our public education, on the other hand, repre
sents infinitely higher values. In our schools
are transmitted the traditions of the past ; there
the ideals for the future are formulated; there
are generated those moral forces which bind
us together and vitalise us as a nation. They
are the repositories of our national spirit, and
national spirit cannot be made to order. It is
born of the travail of history, of the sacrifices
of countless thousands in the past, of the work
of those rare geniuses that flash upon a nation's

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 11
horizon as infrequently and mysteriously as
comets from an unknown stellar system. Once
perverted or destroyed, it cannot be restored.
With it, there succumbs the nation, and the
nation's institutions and achievements pass into
history. The plots engineered by Kaltschmidt,
Koenig, von Igel, Consul General Bopp, von
Papen, Boy-Ed, Ambassador Bernstorff and
their retinue of lesser malefactors have fur
nished the press frequent opportunities for sen
sational headlines. But the activities of these
men are insignificant when compared with the
insidious and far-reaching conspiracy against
our education.
In a very practical sense our schools are the
citadel of our national strength. Napoleon
declared that in war the moral is to the physical
as three to one. Neither numbers nor equip
ment can take the place of the moral qualities
of determination and discipline. Prior to the
French Revolution, the wars of Europe were
waged by comparatively small armies, made up
of professional soldiers and hired mercenaries.
The paltry thousands commanded by Marl
borough, Prince Eugene, Wallenstein and
Frederick the Great could be welded into fairly

12 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
intelligent and effective unity by the will and
prestige of a great commander. The profes
sional soldier was stimulated by the same de
sires for reward and success that inspire the
efforts of men in every other occupation; the
mercenary was incited by the lust for booty.
But with the development of the nationalistic
state, the art of warfare passed into a new
stage. To-day wars are waged by nations, by
entire races. The professional soldier and the
mercenary have disappeared. It is no longer
the will of a great commander, the prestige of
a successful general, motives of self-interest
or of professional pride that furnish the moral
factors for combat. The civilian who enters
the ranks leaves behind him his private inter
ests, his volition, to a large extent his individ
uality. Their places are taken by the collec
tive interest and personality of the nation.
The soldier becomes the embodiment of the
national soul and through him the state finds
expression. The morale of the soldier, there
fore, depends upon those traditions, views of
life, and instincts, which he has acquired in
common with the other members of his nation,
— those' things which the state has imparted

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 13
through collective education. As a recent mil
itary text-book expresses it:
the spirit of good infantry is first of all
given by the first moral education of the
man; it may depend on an ideal ; on a fanati
cism; it is a function of the public spirit of
the mass of the population.
Collective education given by society is
the only means which will assure to the army
the cohesion necessary to march to victory.
The task must be assumed by the mass of the
people — in the home, the school, the work
shop. The spirit of duty and discipline must
be cultivated by the mass of the people or it
will not exist in the depths of their being.
Strangely enough, the Germans, though the
latest to experience the effects of the movement
towards national unity, have been the first to
put into practice the change which it has neces-
sita "^.d in the military art.
Germany's educational system was designed
to meet the requirements, as she analysed
them, of national wars and national armies.
She adapted her schools to the respective roles
which she intended the different elements of
her population to play in the national scheme.
The Volksschulen, often cited erroneously as

14 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
corresponding to our public schools, were pro
vided for the great mass of the population.
Here, between the ages of six and fourteen,
they had instilled into their minds the precepts
of the divine sovereignty of the Kaiser, of the
beneficence of this rule, and of obedience to au
thority. They were impressed with the im
mense advantages inherent in their form of
government and with the superiority of their
Kultur; they were told again and again that
their advancement and prosperity had aroused
the jealousy and hostility of neighbouring na
tions, and through constant iteration they were
accustomed to regarding military preparation
as necessary and war as inevitable. Day by
day they were put through a mental goose-
step until their minds were fashioned to a
single pattern and they were made into docile
and efficient subjects.
These were the privates in Germany's mili
taristic organisation.
For those who were to fill the lower admin
istrative ranks there were provided the Mittel-
schulen. Finally, for those destined for com
mand, there were the Gymnasia, taking boys
between the ages of nine and eighteen, and

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 15
then the universities. Here Germany trained
the oligarchy of thinkers and experts which
prescribed what the rest of the population
should know and believe, and what their tasks
should be. The line between the V olksschulen,
on the one hand, and the Gymnasia and univer
sities on the other, was drawn as rigidly as
that separating the enlisted personnel from
the officers in the army.
In this manner the minds of the nation were
regimented and the moral forces for Ger
many's military machine provided.
Just as Germany planned her own educa
tional system with reference to her military
power, so she sought, as a part of her higher
strategy, to enhance her superiority by insinu
ating herself into the moral and intellec
tual life of foreign countries. German
schools and churches abroad she set down
as important outposts of her power. If, in
addition to supporting these institutions, she
could introduce her agents into the native edu
cation, there disseminate doubt as to the valid
ity of native traditions and with regard to the
adequacy of established institutions, replace
national spirit by a shallow cosmopolitanism,

16 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
and foster an admiration of Kultur to the dis
paragement of national achievements, — then
she could sap the very sources of moral re
sistance. It would be an easy matter to fit
the people with a coat of Kultur cut to her
own measure and according to her own pat
terns. This accomplished, political domina
tion would come in due course, either through
voluntary submission, or after a short war in
which every moral and material advantage
was with the aggressor.
The evidences of this programme, a definite
part of Germany's higher strategy, are writ
large over the parochial schools, the public
schools and the colleges and universities of
America — they are as unmistakable as the gun
emplacements which Germany built within the
territory of her friendly neighbours. The
purpose of both was the same — military con
quest and political domination.
The first organised effort in this programme
of Kultur politik took place in 1881. In this
year there was formed "The General School
Alliance for the Preservation of Germanism
in Foreign Lands" (Allgemeiner deutscher

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 17
Schulverein zwr Erhaltung des Deutschthums
im Auslande). "Not a man can we spare," —
so read its declaration of principles, — "if
we expect to hold our own against the one-
hundred-and-twenty-five millions who already
speak the English language and who have
pre-empted the most desirable fields for ex
pansion." It declared its purposes to be
the preservation and promotion of German
ism among the thirty million people of Ger
man blood dwelling outside the boundaries
of the Empire, and the strengthening of
the ties binding them to the Fatherland, in this
way making them valuable and loyal elements
in Germany's national life. The "Pan-Ger
man Alliance" {Alldeutscher Verband) was
inspired by the fanatical belief in Germany's
destiny as a world empire, the School Alliance,
by the ambition to make the German language
the world language and to impose Kultur upon
every race. One ambition was merely the
complement of the other ; the cultural work of
the School Alliance was an important means
for the achievement of the military and polit
ical objects of the Pan-Germanists.
The School Alliance established schools and

18 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
libraries in foreign lands, kept in touch with
those already in existence, and, where neces
sary, rendered financial aid. It maintained a
teachers' bureau for the purpose of supplying
German-trained educators wherever needed.
A few years ago the Alliance was merged into
the "Society for Germanism in Foreign Lands"
{Verein fur das Deutschthum im Auslande)
and its activities were widened and pursued
with increasing energy. The German govern
ment assisted with an annual subvention of a
million marks. The society now undertook to
segregate the German immigrant populations
from the native populations in foreign lands,
to give them solidarity socially and econom
ically, and to organise them into political units
which would influence the policies of the gov
ernments under which they lived in favour of
German schemes. To facilitate the creation
of a state within the state, the society pro
cured the enactment of the notorious Delbriick
Law. A German could now, even after natu
ralisation in a foreign country, remain to all
intents a German subject. Such a man readily
perverted his acquired citizenship, together

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 19
with the rights it afforded, to the purposes of
his old allegiance.
Not content with its own people, the society
carried its propaganda into the native popula
tions of foreign countries. "German schools
abroad," so it declared, "should not only pre
serve German nationality among the children
of German immigrants, but should impart Ger
man Kultur to the youth of the countries where
they operate." In these terms German schol
ars and technicians, who were called to educa
tional positions abroad, conceived their mis
sion. Nowhere did the Verein operate so actively
or so successfully as in the United States. For
years it maintained its secret agents in our
midst, working in favour of German language
schools and pulling wires for a German polit
ical party. German teachers laboured inces
santly to convert the so-called "Anglo-Saxon"
section of the population into janizaries of
Kultur. "The spirit of German Kultur," — so
said one of these propagandists occupying a
high position in an American university, —
"must finally seize upon the entire educational
system of America. We must practise Kul-

20 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
turpolitik in the highest and noblest sense."
"Not only North America, but the whole of
America must become the bulwark of German
ic Kultur," exclaimed a prominent Pan-Ger
man as far back as 1906. "It should be the
task of Germans in America not to rest until
'Americanising' means the same thing as 'Ger
manising,' " echoed the self-constituted leaders
of the German element in the United States.
Reviewing in 1909 its work in America, the
Society for Germanism in Foreign Lands was
able to set down that "had this annual meeting
brought nothing more to the Verein than the
inspiring report of Germanism in North Amer
ica, the expressions of common interests and
the promises for future co-operation, those
things alone would have been of immense sig
nificance for our cause."
The war between Germany and the United
States began nominally on April 6th, 1917.
In reality Germany had begun her scheme of
subjugation at least twenty years ago.

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 21

II

CONDITIONS FAVOURING THE
CONSPIRACY
Conditions in America have, from the be
ginning, been exceptionally favourable to Ger
many's plans.
In 19 10 there were in our population no less
than twenty-five millions of people who were
either wholly or partly of German descent.
Included in this number were three millions
who were natives of Germany. Among the lat
ter were over half a million reservists — men,
that is to say, who had received at least one
year of training in the German army and with
whom the German government, through her
consular officials, kept in constant touch in an
ticipation of the occasion that would require
their services.
Of all the immigrations to the United States,
that from Germany has continued over the
longest period, and, next to the immigration

22 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
from the British Isles, Has contributed the larg
est number to our population. The varying
character of this immigration has reflected
pretty accurately the conditions in the home
land. Beginning in 1683, and during a large
part of the eighteenth century, there came
the sectaries seeking religious liberty. They
brought with them religious enthusiasm and
sentimental attachment for the language and
customs of their old home, but they were en
tirely devoid of pride of country and of na
tional consciousness. It was community of
religious beliefs, rather than race or origin,
that led them to establish themselves in Penn
sylvania, New York, and North and South
Carolina in self-sufficient, compact communi
ties. In the first half of the nineteenth century
there followed the political idealists, the prod
ucts of the political upheavals of 1820 and 1832
and of the revolution of 1848. They sought
America as a refuge where they might work
out the national aspirations thwarted by the
narrow particularism of their petty princes.
These men, graduates, most of them, of Ger
man universities, brought with them an intense

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 23
pride of nationality and at the same time a bit
ter hostility for the political and social condi
tions which they had left behind. There was
nothing in the institutions of the Germany of
their day to command their allegiance. What
they hoped for was an ideal Germany in Amer
ica. Under the influence of their intense na
tionalism, their fellow-countrymen in the
United States began to organise themselves
into societies on racial lines, preserving
thereby those things which, to their minds,
made up the Germany of their dreams. In
1849, there was organised the "National Sang-
erbund." The Turners formed a national or
ganisation in 1850; and so it was with many
other associations in which intellectual gym
nastics and national poetry and literature were
cultivated. But the great waves of immigration, which,
gathering volume in the 70's, finally reached
their flood in the 8o's, came from entirely dif
ferent impulses. What these millions sought
was neither religious freedom nor political lib
erty, but economic opportunity. No longer as
outcasts or as refugees did they enter our
gates, but as representatives of an empire of

24 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
whose achievements they were proud and of
whose future they vaguely hoped to remain a
part. They combined attachment for their
language and traditions with intense national
consciousness and pride of country. As Ger
man power and prestige in Europe increased,
so every year arriving immigrants manifested
an increasing racial solidarity which tended to
make the processes of assimilation increasingly
difficult. They clung more and more tena
ciously to their language and customs; they
drew together into their own societies,
churches, and groups in which the German
language was used and in which the intellectual
outlook was obtained through a German lan
guage press.
The new spirit was strikingly manifested in
Wisconsin some twenty- five years ago. In
1888 William Dempster Hoard was elected
governor. He discovered that forty-seven
thousand children, constituting fourteen per
centum of the total school population of the
state, were not attending school at all ; further,
that in one hundred and twenty-nine German
Lutheran schools the pupils were receiving no

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 25
instruction whatever in English, the language
of their country.
This led to the enactment in 1889 of the so-
called Bennett School Law. It required the
attendance of all children between the ages of
seven and fourteen years upon some public or
private day school. The law further provided
that no educational institution should be re
garded as a school within the intent of the act
unless there were taught therein reading, writ
ing, arithmetic, and United States history
through the medium of the English language.
The law immediately became the object of
the most bitter attacks, and a political move
ment was inaugurated looking to its repeal.
Churches having parochial schools organised
to defeat Governor Hoard at the polls. Their
opposition accomplished what nothing else had
succeeded in doing since the days of Luther —
it united the German Lutherans and German
Catholics in one political party for one pur
pose. Governor Hoard was defeated and the
Bennett law was repealed. Since then certain
of the German element in Wisconsin have fre
quently made the boast that their state is the
most German of any state in the Union, — a

26 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
statement which has been fully endorsed by
the action of the Pan-German League in list
ing Milwaukee in its roster of German Cities.
From the beginning, America has been hos
pitable to foreign customs and ideas. The ties
of tradition which bound the colonies to Eng
land were severed, for the most part, by the
Revolutionary War. The process was com
pleted by the War of 1812. Later on, the diplo
matic difficulties of the Civil War — the rec
ognition of the Southern States, the "Trent
Affair" and the "Alabama Claims" — served to
accentuate in American life a surviving preju
dice against the country from which we inher
ited the institutions we prize most highly. For
fifty years the sport of "twisting the lion's
tail" continued to be the favourite device of
every demagogue and cheap politician who
wished to attract attention. The further the
new immigrants pushed into the wilderness
and out onto the prairies, the less was there of
local tradition in their way, and the conditions
for the preservation of their language and for
maintaining their national traditions became
the more favourable. In this way Wisconsin,
Nebraska, and Missouri received a German

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 27
population which fostered, without opposition
or unfavourable influences, the German lan
guage, German schools, and a German press.
The severance of English traditions had a
marked influence upon the educators and lead
ers of thought in America. There was no
longer any attraction of sentiment or tradition
to draw them to Oxford or Cambridge.
Young and ambitious scholars felt free to roam
where their tastes and their enthusiasms at
tracted them. Following the lead of George
Ticknor, Edward Everett, and George Ban
croft, American scholars began to visit the
Universities of Gottingen, Berlin, Leipsic and
Halle. Previous to 1850 about one hundred
Americans had enjoyed the advantages of
these institutions. During the latter half of'
the century the number increased rapidly every
year until it was asserted recently that there
was not an instructor or a professor in any
college or university in America who had not
either studied in Germany or had not come
under the influence of some one who had drunk
at the fountain of German learning. "For
forty years," says President William W. Guth
of Goucher College, "Germany has so influ-

28 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
enced our own scholars and given many of
them such a twist mentally, that they have been
unable to see how favourable they have been to
ideas and opinions purely German."
The thousands of professors and instructors
who had enjoyed the advantages of German
universities were destined to affect profoundly
American sentiment. Their impressions of
Germany were received through the glamour
of student days, — at a time, too, when the phi
losophy of Treitschke and of Nietzsche, and
the applications of Bernhardi had not, as yet,
been solidified into a national creed. Germany
for them was still the land of romance and of
poetry, the land of the universities and of pro
found scholarship. The old watchwords,
Wissenschaft , Lernfreiheit, and Lehrfreiheit,
still resounded in their ears, though long since
silenced in the land that gave them birth ; they
failed to recognise in modern Germany the
Frankenstein that had created in the state a
monster devoid of all ethical principle and
moral restraint — a monster which was even
then destroying the fairest children of the Ger
man heart. Even those who, like Benjamin
Ide Wheeler, listened to the lectures of Treit-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 29
schke failed to appraise the work and influence
of this mighty artificer. The real Germany,
as he confessed four years ago in the Father
land, was still the Germany of the universities,
— the Germany of the army, of the govern
ment, of law and order, was merely the outer
shell which made the inner life possible; he
recounts an interview which he had with the
Kaiser in Potsdam in June, 191 3, and concludes
with the statement that "whoever is responsible
for bringing about the war or letting it come
about, bears before the high court of humanity
a heavy indictment. . . . But whoever it was
and whatever it was, and however the blame
may be apportioned among various men and
organisations of men, this much can now be
asserted beyond the shadow of a doubt — the
war came about against the interests, against
the desires, and against the efforts of the Ger
man Kaiser."
These scholars Germany prepared to use as a
support for her policy. In 1902 Prince Henry
made his memorable visit to the United States.
Four hundred Kommilitonen, former students
of German universities, banqueted in his
honour in New York City. Amid toasts and

30 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
speeches, mighty salamanders and telegrams of
congratulation to the Kaiser, their Kommilito
of Bonn University, the "Union of Old German
Students" (Vereinigung alter deutscher Stu-
denten in Amerika), came into being. From
that time on its annual banquets and Kommers
served to strengthen and keep alive the impres
sions of student days. "These Americans who
have attended German universities are perma
nently inoculated with the German virus," ex
claimed Carl Beck, the first president of the
Union. "They have only good things to tell
of Germany. Even for German immoralities
they have words of extenuation — yes, they go
so far in their courtesies as even to imitate our
faults!" Then came the exchange professorships. In
1904 Harvard entered into an arrangement
with the Prussian Ministry of Education
whereby one of its professors and one from
Berlin University should, every year, enter for
three months the teaching staff of the other
institution. Soon thereafter the Kaiser of
fered to extend the scope of the agreement to
other universities in America and Germany.
Columbia took advantage of the offer in 1905.

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 31
James Speyer endowed still another exchange
professorship at the University of Berlin. In
19 1 2 Jacob H. Schiff presented the German
Department of Cornell University with one
hundred thousand dollars as a foundation for
the promotion of German Kultur in America.
In 191 1 Wisconsin citizens of German descent
raised a fund of thirty thousand dollars and
gave it in trust to the regents of the state uni
versity "for the maintenance of a professor's
chair, to be known as the Carl Schurz Memo
rial Professorship, which is to be filled from
time to time and for such lengths of time as
will be found advisable by visiting professors
of recognised character and standing from the
universities of Germany." The University of
Chicago also instituted an informal exchange
of lecturers.
It is more than doubtful that the exchange
professorships contributed in any way to schol
arship. Even in Germany they were regarded
as a sort of court hobby, a good publicity enter
prise. In most American universities, it is
said, they proved absolute failures. But they
did aid German purposes. Such men as Eu
gene Kuehnemann, Eduard Meyer, Moritz J.

32 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
Bonn, and Hermann Oncken stepped aside
from their purely academic duties to spread the
tenets of Pan-Germanism among their coun
trymen in America. The American professors,
falling victims to the attention they received in
Germany, became infected with the virus of
modern Germanism and upon their return
spread the infection among their colleagues.
How else can one account for the strange men
tal twist that caused such a profound student
of constitutional history as John W. Burgess
to tell his countrymen that "there is no longer
a British constitution according to American
ideas of constitutional government. ... In
this only true sense of constitutional govern
ment the British government is a despot
ism. . . . The Russian economic and political
systems have more points of likeness with the
British than is usually conceded" ? How other
wise could he have been brought to tell Ameri
cans that "down to August i, 1914, German
diplomacy, backed by German militarism, had
been able to keep the peril from the east and
from the west apart and to give to Continental
Europe such a period of peace and prosperity
as it had never before enjoyed, but on that

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 33
eventful day British diplomacy triumphed over
German diplomacy and sealed the union by
British determination to destroy the naval and
commercial power of Germany" ?
Among the men who had been appointed to
lectureships in her universities Germany found
her most effective apologists. Their testimony
was given again and again through the subsi
dised pages of the Fatherland, on the lecture
platform, and through the publications of the
"German University League." Their names
were used repeatedly in the movements engi
neered by German agents for Germany's ad
vantage. They appeared on the roster of such
camouflaged organisations as the "Friends of
Peace," the "American Independence Union,"
the "American Embargo Conference" and the
"Printers and Publishers Association."
Members of the German departments in our
universities, as time went by, confined them
selves less and less to the teaching of German
language and of German literature. As Pro
fessor H. C. G. von Jagemann expressed it,
"They conceived their true function to be not
merely to teach the German language, or even
German literature, however important these

34 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
might be, but to give their students a true con
ception of what Germany stands for in modern
civilisation, what her ideals have been and
what she has contributed to the world's best
intellectual possessions."
Carrying out this conception, learned socie
ties were founded, such as the "Germanistic
Society of America," with headquarters in
New York, and the "Germanistic Society of
Chicago," both having for their expressed ob
jects the "promotion of the knowledge of Ger
man civilisation in America and of American
civilisation in Germany" — and both ignoring
the latter object and devoting all their efforts
to spreading German ideas. So marked did
this tendency become that Professor John F.
Coar refused election to the board of directors
of the New York Society unless some attention
was given to familiarising men in Germany
with things American.
To more adequately foster the German
spirit, "German houses" "were established at
Wisconsin, Columbia, and other institutions;
German clubs were founded, like that at Cor
nell, expressive of "the newly awakened na
tional consciousness of the Germans in the

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 35
United States." At Cornell, the club dis
tributed war literature, conducted discussions
of war topics, and corrected misapprehensions
as to "the righteous German cause." All these
societies were finally amalgamated into the "In
tercollegiate League of German Clubs." The
league came completely under German influ
ence when, at its 191 5 convention, it reduced
its advisory board from twelve to three mem
bers and appointed as these three an exchange
professor of violent pro-German tendencies,
now under indictment for treason, an
other professor from New York University,
also violently pro-German, and a member of
Germany's subsidised and official propaganda
board. It was an easy step from the attitude ex
pressed by Professor von Jagemann to active
propaganda for German policies which came
to characterise the class rooms of many Ger
man departments. From this many instruc
tors proceeded to active participation in what
became known as the "German movement in
America." American universities offered little to coun
teract this growing obsession of Germanism.

36 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
For years the elective plan — a plan which per
mitted a student to choose his college course
pretty much according to his inclinations and
his private advantage — had been running riot.
The State was thus neglecting a most potent
resource of its own life. To secure the con
tinuity of that life, to protect it against hostile
machinations, and to insure its development by
evolution rather than by revolution, the State
should, in justice to itself, demand that every
one who profits by the education which it af
fords study the history and nature of its own
being. It has been well said that "the roots
of the present lie deep in the past, and nothing
in the past is dead to the man who would learn
how the present came to be what it is." A
student who has made this study appreciates
the painful processes by which humanity has
advanced; he realises how history records no
short cuts and no magic formulae for improv
ing the condition of men; he understands how,
in our institutions to-day, imperfect though
they may be, there are nevertheless embodied
the fervent hopes, the sacrifices, and the lives
of thousands in the past. With such a his
torical background he is less inclined to barter

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 37
his birthright for any chance mess of pottage
brewed by a political or an economic quack, or
by a foreign propagandist, however savoury it
may be. Without such a retrospect our young
men fall easy victims to any plausible vagary
that ignores history and whose only postulate
is a pious wish.
To a business man who has been permitted
to view our universities from the outside, it
would seem that the inherent weakness of the
elective system has been largely responsible
for the marked obsession for all things German
which has characterised our universities in the
past. It was responsible also for another ten
dency, a tendency towards a shallow, supercili
ous cosmopolitanism. The man who knows
least about his own country, and who, for that
very reason, knows nothing about any other,
is always prone to advertise his utter useless-
ness as a citizen in any community by loudly
proclaiming himself a citizen of all. So we
had the cosmopolitan movement in our univer
sities beginning with the founding of a cos
mopolitan club at the university of Wisconsin
in 1902. A year later a similar club was es
tablished at Cornell. The idea spread to other

38 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
universities and in 1907 an association of cos
mopolitan clubs was formed at Madison. In
1913 an international congress was called at
Ithaca, New York, for the purpose of "bring
ing together the representatives from all the
students of the world in order that the spirit
of international brotherhood and humanity
may be fostered among them and in order that
the students of the world might be united into
an all-embracing world organisation" — thus
Louis P. Lochner.
In this environment of unhistorical thinking
and shallow cosmopolitanism, pacifism readily
took root. Pacifist societies, such as the "Colle
giate anti-Militarism League," flourished. Such
men as President David Starr Jordan, Pro
fessor H. W. L. Dana, Dr. John H. Holmes,
and Scott Nearing posed as the leaders. They
drew unto them an assortment of callow youth
intent on advertising their mental aberrations
on the soap box, on the platform and in the
prisoner's dock, just as certain fakirs in the
Orient take an unctuous delight in displaying
their deformities to an adoring entourage. It
was entirely within the logic of events that
Henry Ford, the multi-millionaire manufac-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 39
turer, who, as he said, "never read history, and
had no time or interest for anything in the
past," and Louis P. Lochner, the secretary of
the "Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs,"
should join forces, the one in financing, and
the other in piloting the "peace ship." To
gether they assembled the picturesque cargo
of long-haired men, short-haired women and
shallow sentimentalists, and exhibited them to
the countries then at death grips for the preser
vation of their historical heritage, — a piece of
comedy equalled only by the tragedy implied
in its utter lack of sympathy and understand
ing. The entire peace movement in America, no
less than its aberration of pacifism, was viewed
with feelings of contempt in Germany.
Eduard Meyer, professor of ancient history in
the University of Berlin, who visited Harvard
as exchange professor in 1909, and who on
other visits had become widely acquainted in
the college faculties of the country, sneered at
us for "cherishing the delusion that Hague
conference's and similar mummeries, the hallu
cination of world brotherhood, could furnish
the panacea destined to bring about the millen-

40 THE GERMAN CONSPHtACY
nium of universal peace." He attributed the
peace movement in America principally to
avarice and self-interest, the anxiety of Ameri
cans to escape the burdens of taxation and
personal service involved in preparedness for
war, and also to a "certain effeminate senti-
mentalism which prevails among the educated
classes — a feeling which is aided by the circum
stance that the education of the youth in the
primary and secondary schools is almost en
tirely in the hands of women."
At the same time the peace sentiment, to
gether with its morbid manifestations, were
exploited to the utmost for Germany's advan
tage. To render ineffective the strong pro-
ally sentiment which developed upon the spoli
ation of Belgium, it was necessary to render
America innocuous. Under cover of pacifist
sympathies, pamphleteers in the pay of the
German embassy assailed the National Secu
rity League and the Navy League. That
German troops might slaughter Belgians and
Frenchmen and Britishers in safety and with
out fear of retribution, German agents de
claimed against the inhumanity of the munition
traffic. Their dupes and pacifist allies in the

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 41
pulpit and on the platform, piously admonished
"thou shalt not kill" and spread Germany's
propaganda for an embargo. The convention
of the Friends of Peace in Chicago in 1915,
which attracted educators and clergymen from
all parts of the United States, was engineered
by a self-confessed spy, now interned; a simi
lar convention in San Francisco was directed
by a hireling of the German consulate.

42 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY

III
THE UNDERMINING OF AMERICAN
EDUCATION
In spite of the favourable conditions in
America, the German conspiracy would not
have succeeded except for the efforts of the
exceedingly able men who, in ever increasing
numbers, came from Germany to occupy
chairs in our universities, important positions
in industry, banking, and in the editorial offices
of German language newspapers, and to fill the
pulpits of German churches. These men had
drunk deep of modern German philosophy and
were completely obsessed by Pan-German am
bitions and by Germany's manifest destiny of
world power. The great mass of the popula
tion of German descent had little in common
with them and little interest in their schemes —
they were satisfied with America and with its
opportunities and were willing to forget the old
country. Left to themselves they would in a

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 43
few years have become assimilated in our popu
lation. The second generation invariably be
came most eager and whole-hearted in their
Americanism. Even the opposition to the
Bennett Law, in Wisconsin, had little immedi
ate political significance. It was rather expres
sive of the attachment of a population, largely
of German birth, for the language of their
fatherland. The German names which have
appeared in every casualty list of our armies
are convincing testimonials of the genuine pa
triotism of the great majority of our citizens
of German descent.
What came to be known as the "German
movement in America" — a movement which
aimed at the consolidation in one compact bloc,
racially, economically, and politically of the en
tire German element in the United States, and
the definite relation of that bloc to the German
advance to world power — did not have its ori
gin among the laymen. An attempt had been
made as far back as 1885 to strengthen and
perpetuate German schools through an organi
sation known as the "National German-Ameri
can School Alliance." This, however, encoun
tered opposition from the beginning. Most

44 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
German-Americans, while they favoured the
propaganda for the German language in parts
of Austria and Hungary, could see no reason
for such a movement in the United States, and
the school alliance disintegrated.
Those responsible for the German movement
were not the laymen, but the intellectuals, pri
marily the scholars occupying positions in
American universities. As far back as 1886
an instructor in Johns Hopkins University had
urged a union of all Germans in the United
States for the maintenance of Germanism and
the preservation of the German language.
The idea was discussed and kept alive in aca
demic circles, but it was not until some time
after the Spanish- American War that the oc
casion seemed opportune for its realisation.
The action of the German Admiral Dieder-
ichs in dogging Admiral Dewey's movements
in Manila Bay naturally aroused intense re
sentment in the United States. This was in
tensified when it became known that early in
1898, when war with Spain seemed inevitable,
the German ambassador in Washington had
attempted to form a coalition of European gov
ernments for the purpose of extorting a prom-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 45
ise from the United States not to violate the
integrity of the Spanish colonial empire.
In contrast with the popular resentment to
wards Germany was the rapidly developing
entente with Great Britain. The administra
tion of distant colonial possessions, inhabited
by foreign races, placed the United States in a
situation analogous to that occupied by Great
Britain, and an increasing sympathy between
the English speaking nations became manifest.
We, too, were taking up the white man's bur
den. Anglo-Saxon brotherhood was celebrated
in prose and verse; Anglo-Saxon leadership
and prestige were acclaimed. Cecil Rhodes
realised the spirit of the times in providing Ox
ford scholarships for the best, all-'round prod
ucts of American universities; thus the bonds
between the two great nations would be drawn
closer year by year.
A most serious threat was presented to Ger
many's plans. With an Anglo-Saxon entente
making its power and influence felt in every
part of the globe, the opportunity for world
power would be forever lost, — the only alterna
tive was downfall.
The intellectuals among the German element

46 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
in the United States affected to see in the
Anglo-Saxon entente a reflection upon their
Teutonic character ; in this light they presented
it to their countrymen through the press and
from the platform. It was the policy of "im
perialism" that had brought the two branches
of the Anglo-Saxon race together, and against
"imperialism," not as a policy, but in its racial
aspect, they directed their attack. They joined
forces, but from different motives, with those
who opposed imperialism on constitutional and
humanitarian grounds.
This was the beginning of the Lrerman move
ment in America. "In this manner," says
Professor Julius Goebel, "the feeling of unity
among German-Americans was made to blaze
out brilliantly, and the way was prepared for
the organisation of the 'National German-
American Alliance.' "
Organisations of every kind have always
been a feature of German life in America.
The National Sangerbund, the National Turn
er Alliance, the German-American Teachers'
Alliance, organized in 1870, have already been
mentioned. In addition there have been asso
ciations of German veterans and reservists,

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 47!
many mutual aid and benefit societies, societies
of Swabians, Bavarians, and those coming
from other states, and innumerable other or
ganisations. In 1899, most of the Pennsylvania organisa
tions became federated in an alliance. This
suggested a national organisation and, in 1900,
delegates from German societies in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Minnesota as
sembled in Philadelphia and formed a tem
porary association. On October 6, 190 1, a
permanent organisation was perfected, known
as the "National German-American Alliance,"
and this achievement prominent Germans, both
in the United States and in the Fatherland,
have proclaimed as of the utmost consequence
for the future of Germanism in America.
The organisation immediately entered into
friendly relations with the Pan-German
League (Alldeutscher Verb and) and with the
General School Alliance (Allgemeinerdeutscher
Schulverein sur Erhaltung des Deutschthums
im Auslande). It became the mouthpiece of
Pan-German ideas in America. The Propa
gandists of world dominion in Germany
boasted of the superiority of their Kultur, de-

48 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
nounced the Latin races as suffering in the last
stages of decadence, described the British as
hopelessly addicted to sport and besotted
through wealth and luxury ; the Germans were
the one race singled out by Providence to res
cue civilisation. In the same way the leaders
of the National German-American Alliance
extolled the superiority of the German ele
ment, painted in lurid colours the lust for
money, the hypocrisy, the contempt for law
and constituted authority, the cowardly sub
mission to public opinion, and the superfi
ciality of American life ; it was their patriotic
mission to impress their characteristics upon
the decadent American, or Anglo-American,
section of the population and save the country.
In Germany they preached that decadent civili
sations, in the divine order of things, must
give way to Kultur; in America, that moribund
Anglo-Saxonism must be replaced by the Ger
man spirit. As Professor Voss of the Univer
sity of Wisconsin expressed it, "It is the beau
tiful and profitable task of German-Americans
to prepare the way in this country for the Ger
man spirit and the German conception of life."
In Germany they taught their people that they

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 49
were surrounded by enemies: Great Britain
was stimulated by commercial jealousy and
France by the revanche; in America, that the
Anglo-American section of the population was
envious of their success and of their sterling
qualities and that they must band together in
order to resist the encroachments and the en
mity of the so-called "nativists." Germany at-
tenipted to bring about an entente with Ireland ;
she sent her agents to the Emerald Isle, and
Irish school children were taught to declaim
against the tyrant of the seas and to acclaim the
day when that tyranny would be broken by a
rising naval power, and Ireland would be given
her freedom ; in America the leaders industri
ously cultivated the Irish element and flattered
their anti-English prejudices. In 1907, the Na
tional German-American Alliance formed a
working agreement for common action with
the Ancient Order of Hibernians and, in con
junction with this organisation, opposed and
defeated the arbitration treaties with Great
Britain negotiated under the direction of Presi
dent Taft. Every effort of Germany to bring
about closer co-operation with Ireland has re
acted in renewed efforts for closer co-operation

50 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
on the part of leaders of the German movement
in America with those of Irish descent. In
Germany, England was proclaimed as a com
mon enemy; in America, the Anglo-Saxons.
The organisers of the alliance went into
every state and community of the land. They
went to all the singing societies, gymnastic or
ganisations, social clubs and church brother
hoods of every denomination. Distinctions of
religion were of no moment — the supreme
unity was their common Germanism. Local
organisations they banded together into city
alliances, the various city alliances they feder
ated into state alliances, and the state alliances
they bound together as constituent members
of the National German- American Alliance.
The work received a tremendous impetus from
the visit of Prince Henry and from the numer
ous banquets, celebrations and speeches of
which it was the occasion. The Germanic
Museum at Harvard added its impetus. Was
not this collection of casts and sculptures rep
resentative of the glories and achievements of
their race, and did it not call upon every man
of German blood to claim his part in his racial

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 51
heritage and to preserve to the utmost his
racial individuality?
The work was pushed until a state organi
sation had been completed for every state and
also for the territory of Hawaii. In 1916, the
alliance claimed a membership of two and a
half million and the control of over two and
a half million votes. In 1907, posing as an
"educational and patriotic organisation," it
hoodwinked Congress into giving it a special
charter of incorporation. From that time on
the legend "Incorporated by Act of Congress"
appeared on all the literature of the organisa
tion. In this way the government of the
United States was to become a party to its own
undoing. With this organisation, and assisted by am
ple funds provided by the brewers and liquor
dealers of the United States, the leaders aimed
to consolidate all those of German descent into
one racial, political, and economic bloc. "The
National German-American Alliance aims to
bring about this unity of feeling in the popu
lation of German origin in America, and if it
only approximates its aim, namely the cen-

52 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
tralisation of the German-American element,
it will nevertheless have accomplished as great
a work as was performed in 1871 by the Iron
Chancellor." They aimed to perfect, as they
said, in their new home a secure support for
German Kultur, thereby to enhance the glory
of their race — "and' the sooner the Germans in
foreign lands come together for defence and
offence, the more easily and the more purely
will Germanism be preserved." They urged
the German immigrant to become naturalised
and to acquire the right to vote at the earliest
opportunity, but at the same time, they im
pressed him with the thought that he should
become American only in a political and geo
graphical sense and that in all other things —
in feeling, in sentiment, and in language — he
should remain German. The idea is well ex
pressed in a speech delivered by Professor
Goebel of the University of Illinois, to the
"United German Societies of New York," on
May 27th, 19 1 2. This speech later appeared
in a volume of Professor Goebel's speeches and
essays, published in Germany in 19 14. He
says;

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 53
A few years ago there appeared, under the
title "The Melting Pot," a drama in which
the author, a well-known Zionist, Israel
Zangwill, announced as the final conclusion
of all wisdom, that America was the great
Melting Pot in which the different races and
Nationalities, with everything that distin
guished them — their languages, their inheri
tances, their views, and their customs —
would be thrown in order that in that Melt
ing Pot they should be transformed into
"Americans." For us German-Americans
this preachment of this play denotes a mix
ture of empty phrase and unhistorical think
ing. It represents the very opposite of what
we are striving for, and this idealof the
Melting Pot must be opposed and defeated
by us the more decisively the more enthusi
astically it is taken up by the thoughtless
rabble. ... We do not need to permit our
selves to be remoulded and transformed in
to "Americans," but we are Americans in a
political sense, and in that sense alone, when
we take our oath of allegiance and unite
ourselves to the great body of our German-
American racial kin. . . .
Thanks to German resistance, the Roman
Empire perished under the hallucination
that it could suppress or even annihilate the
individuality and the peculiar life of differ-

54 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
ent races in order to subject them to the yoke
of a common language as of a common state
and political organisation. The open or
concealed attempt to submerge our German
racial individuality — that is, our speech, our
customs, and conceptions — in the slop
kitchen of a national Melting Pot has its ori
gin in the same hallucination and will also,
though it may be in a different manner, be
bitterly avenged.
In this way was the spirit of the Delbriick
Law implanted in America by a man holding a
chair in an American university and supported
by American taxpayers !
How was this solidarity of the German ele
ment to be achieved? Primarily by conserv
ing the German language, for, as Fichte said,
"What the root is to the tree, that the German
language is to Germans." "Racial individual
ity and speech are inseparately related," de
clared the Alliance. "If we wish to preserve
the former for ourselves and our descendants,
then we must cultivate and guard the latter as
a priceless possession."
For the older people, those born in Germany,
this could be effected by fostering the German

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 55
language press, German churches, and the Ger
man stage. But in view of the fact that Ger
man immigration practically ceased in the year
1900, it became necessary to do something
more in order to preserve the Germanism of
America from extinction. With the cessation
of the stream of immigration, it became neces
sary to make sure of the second generation,
and also to win adherents among the other ele
ments of the population. "We must assure
ourselves of the youth of the land," declared
the president of the National Alliance to a
convention of the Pennsylvania branch — "not
only the German Americans, but the entire
youth." The rising generation was thus marked for
German propaganda and the means of reach
ing the youth was obviously through the
schools, both private and denominational, and
the public schools of the land. "For the
preservation of Germanism in the United
States nothing is more necessary than the
preservation and creation of German schools,"
declared the Alliance at its convention in 1903.
"The mission of the German schoolmaster in
America is not fulfilled by far, it is only be-

56 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
gun." What was ultimately hoped for these
schools was expressed in an article in the offi
cial organ of the Alliance, the "German- Amer
ican Annals," edited by professors of the lead
ing universities of the country :
Only through the preservation of the Ger
man language can our race in this land be
preserved from entire disappearance. The
principal aim should be the founding of in
dependent parochial schools in which the
language of instruction would be German,
with English as the foreign language . . .
and when these schools have once shown that
they can offer as much as the public schools
and that they are under the direction of
trained, thorough teachers, then activity
could be taken in the direction of securing
for them financial support from the state,
as in the case of public schools.
But the leaders of the German movement
did not await the slow process of establishing
the prestige of German schools and securing
for them state aid. They undertook to operate
directly upon the public school system. "Strict
control of the public schools is necessary," they
declared, and early in the career of the Alii-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 57
ance, the following programme was laid down :
i. The teaching of the German language in
all elementary schools, beginning, preferably,
with the first grade; such teaching, moreover,
to be given in such a manner "as to produce
familiarity with Germany and with the Ger
man race in America" ;
2. "A dignified place in the curriculum for
German history";
3. "The rewriting of American history so
that not only descendants of the Anglo-Saxon
race, but those also of the German and of other
races who have contributed to the civilisation
of the United States may come into their
rights, and so that contemptuous expressions,
such for instance as those applied to the Hes
sian mercenaries, may be eliminated from
school text books" ;
4. Instruction in the geography of Germany.
To carry out this programme the National
German American Alliance always maintained
standing committees on German language and
schools and on historical investigation. These
committees of the national organisation in
cluded in their membership professors from
the leading universities of the country. The

58 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
state alliances and the city branches organised
in a similar manner, usually with an educator
from the state university or from some local
school in charge.
In addition to this, every city alliance was
ordered to get into touch and to co-operate
with the German- American Teachers' Alliance
(deutsch-amerikanischer Lehrerbund). This
organisation was national in its scope, had
branches in all the larger cities, and included
most of the teachers of the German language.
Every year it held a convention, widely known,
both here and in Germany, as the "German-
American Teachers' Day" {deutsch-amerikan
ischer Lehrertag), attended by instructors
from all parts of the country. The 1912 con
vention was held in the city of Berlin. Spe
cial arrangements and inducements were of
fered by the Hamburg-Amerika and Nord-
deutscher Lloyd steamship companies; the
delegates were given every attention, and sent
home feeling that they were part of the Greater
Germany which would some day dominate the
world, not only in thought and speech, but in
politics. They had become valuable agents in
the dissemination of Germanism. The Pan-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 59
German League regarded them as part of its
world embracing plan.
Local branches of the National German-
American Alliance were now ordered to sup
port the Teachers' Alliance in every way — to
aid them in organising new branches, in secur
ing better teaching conditions, in boosting the
attendance in German classes, in introducing
instruction in the German language and in
widening its scope wherever possible. In this
respect the two organisations worked conven
iently hand in hand.
In those communities where the introduction
of German was left to the local school board,
the procedure was to send questionnaires to can
didates for the board, ascertain their attitudes,
and then to actively campaign for those who
gave satis factpry answers. This was done in
Chicago in 1916; the result was a board almost
unanimously in favour of the German lan
guage, and a special supervisor of German in
struction was engaged. In Detroit, even after
the break in diplomatic relations, the city alli
ance interrogated candidates and prepared to
enter the local campaign. In Indianapolis
they succeeded in electing one of their own offi-

60 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
cers, the first vice-president of the national or
ganisation, to the school board, and he later
became its president. This worthy was at the
same time the paid propagandist and organ
iser of the brewers and liquor dealers of Amer
ica. His activities in promoting Kultur, in
furthering the free and unrestricted consump
tion of beer and whiskey and in advancing the
education of the youth of Indianapolis seemed
to dovetail together very conveniently. In
Milwaukee, another vice-president of the na
tional alliance was made assistant superin
tendent of schools. His attitude was expressed
in his report to the Wisconsin Alliance : —
The Alliance should exert its utmost in
fluence in regard to educational matters; it
is the duty of every branch to work for the
introduction of German study in our public
schools.
In fact, in Milwaukee, Germanism had
pretty much its own way about everything —
the teaching of German was a regular part of
all school work beginning with the first grade ;
no child was excused except on special request
from his parents. In Cincinnati, according to

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 61
its records, the local alliance had the situation
well in hand :
In the session of the German-American
City Alliance of Cincinnati the matter of
German instruction came up for thorough
discussion. It was asserted that in many
schools only one hour of German instruction
is given a day, whereas formerly there was a
full half-day of instruction in German. This
condition could be used by those who are
not in favour of German teaching as an ar
gument for abolishing it altogether, on the
ground that it is too expensive to keep spe
cial instructors just for one hour of instruc
tion a day.
It was asserted in this connection that
after the war there would undoubtedly come
a strong movement for the abolition of Ger
man instruction throughout the land, since
the Anglo-American population has learned
from the things that have taken place in this
country with reference to the European
war, that the preservation of the mother
tongue on the part of the immigrant is pre
cisely the thing which is the strongest fac
tor in preserving old country individuality
and opinions.
It was said that for that very reason even
now we should be devising means for meet-

62 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
ing this movement against German instruc
tion when the time comes. More especially
should every German see to it that in his
family German is spoken and German books
and newspapers are read.
A warning was given against making any
concession whatever to the enemies of Ger
man teaching, since in that event it would
slowly, though certainly, perish; nor could
the prohibition movement have made the
progress that it has, had not the liberal ele
ment continually made concessions to it.
The Superintendent of Schools was highly
praised in the discussion of the subject. It
was said that he was a thorough-going
friend of German teaching and that he fa
voured it at every opportunity, so that in
Cincinnati at least there seemed to be as yet
no danger to it.
This probably accounts for the fact that a
full year after the United States had entered
the war this same superintendent, at a meeting
of the Americanisation committee appointed
by the governor of the state, found himself un
prepared to vote either in the affirmative or in
the negative, on the question of the elimination
of German instruction from the public schools.,
Even greater vigilance was exercised in

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 63
other localities where officials of the alliance
regularly inspected the German classes. One
of these men, shortly before the United States
entered the war, visited the schools of Omaha
and reported that he was more than pleased
with what he found — the children were acquir
ing a typical Berlin accent, sang a number of
songs to his entire approval and finally ended
in rendering "Die Wacht am Rhein" with an
enthusiasm and vigour which would have done
credit to the children of the Fatherland, even
a number of negro boys joining in the song
with all their might and main ! To encourage
pupils, medals were provided and in cities hav
ing German theatres local organisations were
called upon to furnish free seats for students
of German.
Where state legislation was necessary to fa
cilitate the introduction of German, the alliance
was equally active. Questionnaires on the pro
posed measures were sent to all candidates.
This was done in Ohio in the election of 1912.
In this manner the state alliance of Nebraska
secured the passage of the Mockett Law, re
quiring the teaching of a foreign language, be
ginning with the fourth grade — the foreign

64 THE GERMAN CONSPHtACY
language intended being, of course, German —
whenever the parents of fifty children in at
tendance upon the school requested it. Imme
diately after the passage of the law, members
of the alliance in Nebraska City circulated pe
titions requesting German instruction. The
petitions were presented to the school authori
ties, but they hesitated to comply for the reason
that it was found that less than one-third of
the signers of the petitions intended to have
their children take advantage of the instruc
tion, and that, as a consequence, the expense
entailed would be out of proportion to the num
ber receiving the benefit. The members there
upon obtained a writ of mandamus compelling
the school board to introduce the subject, the
case was carried to the Supreme Court, and the
constitutionality of the law and the issuance of
the writ were upheld.
In fact, nowhere did the educational pro
gramme of the National Alliance make such
progress as in Nebraska. In 1910, an effort had
been made to have the legislature enact a law
requiring every child to attend the public
schools at least three months in the year, and
placing the parochial schools to some extent

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 65
under the supervision of county school super
intendents. Lutheran and German Catholic
clergymen joined with the state alliance in op
posing what was regarded as an attack upon
Germanism, and the bill was killed in com
mittee, only one legislator out of nine having
the courage to stand for Americanism!
Parochial schools continued to grow until
recently it was found that in nineteen school
districts they had crowded out the public
schools entirely.
The German language newspapers, some six
hundred in number, gave the propaganda un
divided support. Ever since the early 90's
their steadily dwindling circle of German read
ers warned them that their circulation must be
replenished from the rising generation — and
Herman Ridder was frank enough to confess
that his interest in German language instruc
tion arose out of his interest in the circulation
of the Staats-Zeitung.
Of course the propaganda never revealed its
real purpose when presented to state legislators
or to school boards. It always came before
them in plausible pedagogical disguises. It
was said that the study of German improved

66 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
the student's mastery of English. As an Eng
lish essay published by the National Alliance
declared, it was
a most valuable aid to the acquirement of
perfect English. . . . This every educator,
who deserves the name of such, will ac
knowledge as a correct statement of the prin
ciples of teaching and the experience of our
Cincinnati schools has justified these views.
. . . This has been appreciated by parents
who are not of foreign descent by sending
their children to the German classes. . . .
Our German citizens, and particularly of the
intellectual classes, will not send their chil
dren to schools from which a study is elimi
nated that promotes the knowledge of Eng
lish, because good and pure English is almost
an obsession with them.
And circulars expounding this educational
theory were circulated by the thousand. One
of these curious documents appeared over the
name of a well-known educator of American
birth, a professor in the University of Penn
sylvania. The author introduces his subject
by observing: In the recent reports of the Bureau of
Education in Washington, treating the sub-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 67
ject of the teaching of modern languages
in American schools, colleges and universi
ties, there is ample evidence of the necessity
of directing the attention of our school
boards and college administrations to the
perilous conditions of the educational meth
od, now running riot in American educa
tion}
He postulates that "the first and funda
mental discipline of all education is the mastery
of that language which is the means of daily
intercourse," but deplores that
while the necessity of the study of English
is theoretically recognised, English is one of
the most poorly taught subjects in our Amer
ican schools from the kindergarten to the
university. The cause of this is that in spite
of our educational progress, we are still un
der the ban of the tradition of incompetent
teaching and confused notions of the real
purpose of public education. Any trained
scholar must blush when he goes into the
elementary schools and observes the lack of
knowledge and method displayed in the
teaching of English. The writer can re-
'The author is responsible for the italics in this and in
the foUowing excerpts.

68 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
member the time when the great aim in the
study of English was to commit to memory
the thirty-two rules of Smith's English
Grammar, while it seemed not to occur even
to the teacher that these rules were intended
to be put into practice in speaking and writ
ing the language. The result was that the
pupils left the English class with the same
slipshod habit of incorrect speaking with
which they entered,
and his conclusion is that the remedy is the
study of German — a remedy which one might
be inclined to commend to the author himself
in view of his samples of mixed metaphor and
confused syntax. Another pamphlet, pub
lished in English under the name of the super
visor of German in the public schools of Cin
cinnati, contains the following :
So, then, numerous authorities — many of
them Americans — testify that the instruc
tion in German is not only in nowise a hin
drance to the progress of the scholars, but in
striking wise a furtherance.
And after speaking of the success attending
instruction in German in Cincinnati, the author
says:

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 69
Such successes can be achieved, of course,
only on condition that the instruction be ade
quate; that is to say, that the instructors be
equal to their task, and that there be such
a thing as aimful supervision. And even
this kind of instruction is, alas, gauged only
too often by ignorance and prejudice, if not
the sheer lust of cavilling and undermining.
Another educator from the Central High
School, Philadelphia, exclaims :
I, for my part, acknowledge that I should
not exactly relish being charged with the
task of manning or womaning {venia sit
verbo) all our many public schools with
thoroughly competent language-teachers. I
fear I could not do it even with the help of
Diogenic lanterns. Am I wrong, or are we
placed between the Scylla of maintaining an
undesirable status quo and the Charybdis
of a possibly forthcoming halfness?
Happily, America is about through with the
"forthcoming halfness" produced in elemen
tary schools by the forcible introduction of the
German language. These examples should
serve as warnings of the huddled deformities
of style which the continued study of German

70 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
would have eventually introduced into the lan
guage of the country.
The leaders of the German movement in
America have always contended that history
text-books used in the public schools were re
plete with falsifications ; that they showed most
astounding omissions; that they purposely
slighted heroes of German descent and over
looked the part the German element had played
in the development of the country. They criti
cised, too, the omission of German history from
the school curriculum. "Only with a back
ground of German political history, and above
all of the history of German Kultur, can a
proper understanding of American history be
attained; only through the knowledge of the
history of Germany can there be awakened in
the German- American youth the well justified
pride in their descent," so the Alliance declared
at one of its conventions. Year by year, as ra
cial consciousness was intensified, they took
deeper umbrage at these supposed affronts to
their worth and insisted that the entire in
struction in history called loudly for thorough
going reform.
This feeling gave rise to the formation

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 71
throughout the country of German historical
societies — a definitely related phase of the Ger
man movement. The "German- American His
torical Society," a national organisation, was
incorporated in 1901, and began to affiliate
with itself existing societies. Its purpose
was the investigation, collection, and publica
tion of material relating to the history and
culture of Germans in America, and to provide
that due recognition be given to their e'fforts
and achievements. The National Alliance en
couraged the work, and urged its members to
form affiliated historical societies in every
county and city. "It is absolutely necessary,"
it decided, "to have a history of the United
States written which will convincingly show
the part Germans have had in the develop
ment of the country as compared with the other
elements of the population in order to give the
American people a proper conception of the
subject. The Alliance should undertake to
have such a work published, and should see to
it that it is used as a basis for the teaching
of American history in our public schools."
Professor Goebel, in his book, "Germanism in
North America," published by the Pan-German

72 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
League, urged that an outline treatise of Ger
man-American history be prepared, and its in
troduction in the public schools undertaken.
To effect the desired reforms a delegation
from the Alliance appeared before a commit
tee of the American Historical Association in
1909 — it was felt that this committee had an
important influence on the text-books used and
the courses of instruction. But the represen
tations of the Alliance were unavailing.
Other plans for meeting the situation had
therefore to be devised. In those districts
where Germans were in the majority, the text
books could be controlled through the election
of the members of the school board. But this
would not accomplish the result principally de
sired — the enlightenment of Americans in
those districts where the Americans were
numerically stronger.
The school committee therefore hit upon an
original plan. "To reach an American one
must get at his pocket book," the chairman re
ported. The Alliance could best accomplish
its purposes by allying itself with some ener
getic publishing house that had put out a book
most nearly approaching the German point of

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 73
view. The alliance could endorse such a book,
and through its numerous branches advertise
it, bring it to the attention of school boards,
and secure its adoption. Requests for the in
sertion of other desirable matter could then
be made of the publishers from time to time.
Such a course was actually pursued in the case
of Bourne and Benton's "School History of
the United States," induced, no doubt, by these
gratifying paragraphs : —
They (the Germans) came in such num
bers that they almost succeeded in making
Wisconsin a German state. Some parts of
the West became a New Germany, just as
Pennsylvania had been in the eighteenth cen
tury. To-day a large majority of the people
of Wisconsin are German immigrants or
their descendants.
Some Special Debts to the Germans. —
The Germans were better taught than most
of the native Americans, because a new sys
tem of schools had been established in Ger
many. The skilled workingmen and the
farmers were well trained. As citizens they
helped to make better schools in the United
States. Furthermore, American students
began to go to Germany for higher educa
tion. In still other ways they deeply influ-

74 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
enced American life. ^They had a taste and
love for music and painting and sculpture
that few Americans had at that time. Wher
ever they went they became the teachers of
these arts. In a multitude of ways — by sing
ing societies, gymnastic organisations, open-
air celebrations, fairs and frolics and festi
vals — they added to the wholesome pleasures
of life.
The book was endorsed by a number of state
alliances and an active propaganda was un
dertaken in its behalf.
At the same time a covert threat was exer
cised upon all publishers of text books through
the request that they submit copies of their
publications. They were made to appreciate
the financial loss they would incur if they
ignored Germanism in their presentation of
history. Professor Samuel B. Harding, of the
University of Indiana, relates an interesting
incident in this connection. Early in 191 5, he
prepared a chapter on the present war for use
in a text book. He read it before the histori
cal society of the University. Within two
weeks there were forwarded to him by his pub
lishers letters which they had received demand-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 75
ing that the chapter be omitted from the book,
and practically threatening a boycott, not
only of that particular book, but also of the
firm as well. A letter from the educational
committee of one of the state alliances threat
ened to bring the matter before the annual con
vention of the National German-American
Alliance at its session in August, 191 5.
The most insidious of all forms of German
propaganda was that conducted through text
books used in the public schools and the fact
that much of this propaganda was produced
unconsciously and innocently by American-
born scholars is convincing evidence of our
shortcomings in not insisting upon education
in political and institutional history. A na
tive American teacher in a Chicago high school
produced a reading book for beginners in Ger
man. In it he contrasts the spirit of modern
Germany with that of America in this wise:
In our country where every youth in his
first year in school learns that he may be
president some day — where parents permit
their children to look down upon their modest
callings, where the higher professions are
overcrowded, manual labour despised, the

76 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
farms deserted, we often find in the serving
class a weak, discontented lot of people.
In sharp contrast to them were the people
who served us in Germany. They knew
what they had to do and did it without feel
ing that it injured their dignity.
The author then goes on to tell of the punc
tilious attention given by the hotel porter, the
chambermaid and baggage-hustler at the sta
tion — and all for a few pfennigs ! The service
of the chambermaid especially appealed to him.
One could throw one's soiled linen on the bed
or on the floor, ring the bell, and she would at
tend to it all. In twenty-four hours it would
be back, and no distinction would be made be
tween Sundays and week days ! How the au
thor longed to kidnap one of these neat Ger
man girls and take her to America ! At night
one would find the bed curtains drawn, the
covers laid down and the nightgown ready.
But as conditions in his own country flash upon
his mind, the author's conscience smites him:
In my heart I thought how foolish she
would be if she came to America. How
much she would lose! And what would be

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 77
the gain? More money— and of what use
would that be to her ?
"This system suits me," exclaims the writer
finally in ecstasy, after recounting the comforts
of life in Germany. "And the prices ! Com
pare them with what would be demanded in
New York. A bum wanted a dollar for carry
ing three small handbags three blocks for us
to the station !"
And he recounts how they refused his prof
fer, and when a little nearer to the station
another individual offered to perform the serv
ice for fifty cents. This also was refused, and
then, when within a block and a half of their
destination, another man offered to carry the
baggage for twenty-five cents. He carried it
a short distance and then turned it over to a
boy to whom he gave a nickel for completing
the task, keeping twenty cents for himself.
And this incident the author gives as typical
of America — a country where those who per
form the actual labour are not the ones to re
ceive the compensation.
The glorification of the Kaiser is the pur
pose of another reader entitled "Wilhelm der

78 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
Siegreiche," or "William the Victorious."
Note this specimen of adulation :
Such was his first thought when the trum
pet blast of victory first fell upon his ears.
Many rulers have shown themselves to be
great in misfortune, but only a few of them,
like Emperer Wilhelm, great while lucky.
True to his convictions, he could pray to the
Highest War Lord, who leads the army of
stars, because He had manifested Himself
to him through many expressions and to
kens. And as a Christian and a hero paying
heed to these tokens, the Emperor had ac
quired a keen ear for God's words, a keen
ear for hints which always made him follow
the right path.
1 "Im Vaterland" — a book which the author,
a publisher of text-books, confesses was "made
in Germany" — provides for American school
children a song, to be sung to the tune of Amer
ica, which runs in translation as follows :
Hail to thee in victory,
Leader of the fatherland,
Hail, Kaiser, to thee !
Feel in your brilliant throne,
The highest and greatest joy,
Darling of the people,
Hail, Kaiser, to thee!

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 79
Not horse and trooper,
Make secure the exalted height,
Where our prince stands!
The love of the fatherland;
The love of the freemen,
Support the ruler's throne,
As a rock in the sea.
Glow, holy flame,
Glow, and never die,
For fatherland!
We all stand ready now,
Courageous for one man,
Gladly we'll fight and bleed,
For throne and empire!
Be, Kaiser, long here with your people.
Pride of humanity!
Feel on your throne
The greatest and highest joy !
Darling of thy people,
Hail, Kaiser, to thee!
"Writing and Speaking German" — a text
book prepared by a Cornell professor, and os
tensibly merely a collection of exercises for
translation — devotes an entirely disproportion
ate amount of space to the Kaiser. His child
hood, his student days in the gymnasium of
Cassel, and then at the University of Bonn, all

80 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
are idealised. This selection, which the stu
dent is expected to translate into German, con
cludes :
Although the German Emperor is a sol
dier through and through, it would be a mis
take to consider him a monarch anxious for
war. On the contrary, Ke seeks with all his
might to preserve the German people from
the horror of war. The best proof of his
peaceful disposition is the fact that Ger
many has had no war for forty years.
The universities are treated in the following
manner :
The development of the German univer
sities during the nineteenth century since
the founding of the University of Berlin in
October, 1810, just a hundred years ago,
presents a splendid picture. The universi
ties have had an inestimable influence on
the German civilisation and even upon the
political history and the economic progress
of the country. Their representation is in
ternational and they occupy the first place
among the scientific institutions of the world.
Students and professors from all countries
go to Germany to attend the universities and
bring the methods and ideals of the German

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 81
university back with them to their own lands.
The instruction at the American universities
is based largely on German investigation and
a large part of the professors at many of our
colleges have spent at least one semester at
a German university.
Another exercise is an apology for German
militarism :
On three sides Germany has open bound
aries over which strong armies could easily
march, if it were not ready for war at any
time. No other great power of Europe is in
such a dangerous position. A strong army
is a necessity and now a powerful fleet seems
to be just as necessary if Germany is to
maintain its place among tlK great powers.
Germany, however, desires quiet and peace
and would not begin a war without reason.
Indeed, the world has to thank Germany that
peace has reigned so long in Europe. . . .
As we have seen, Germany is forced by
its position in the middle of the powerful
European states to have a great army. . . .
In order to maintain its position, Germany
dare not give up this army, and it stands now
at the beginning of the twentieth century as
the first military power of Europe, and as
we have already seen, the third sea power.
At the beginning of the twentieth cen-

82 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
tury, Germany still maintains its leading
place in the field of art and science. Its
laboratories and hospitals serve the other na
tions as models, its universities and conserv
atories are world- famed and are attended by
students from all parts of the world. But
now we may no longer think of Germany as
a land merely of thinkers and dreamers, a
land of poets, composers and scholars. Ger
many is no longer one-sided. It has now be
come an industrial and political power and
we may confidently expect in the future
progress in all fields of human activity.
The German arguments for colonial expan
sion are put forth as follows : —
The great problem of Germany in the
twentieth century is the founding of new
colonies and the development of its trade
with its new colonies and with foreign lands.
The German territory has now become too
small for the German people. The sixty-
eight million Germans need more land than
they now possess in Europe. Therefore the
present colonial policy of Germany is not
merely a game; it is a necessity.
And finally the author throws a sop to
American sensibilities by proclaiming that "the

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 83
German Constitution is in many respects simi
lar to the Constitution of the United States."
Why, we may ask, the lugging of all this for
eign matter into a text-book on German com
position? It has no appropriate place in such
a work. Can it be said that in view of the
attitude taken by the National German- Ameri
can Alliance on school text-books, and in def
erence to their plans for endorsing and se
curing the adoption of such books as met with
their approval, it behooved a writer to insert
such material, and a publisher to give it promi
nence? Of one thing, however, we may be cer
tain — after a student has laboured over these
exercises, translated them into German and
discussed them in class, his mind is so thor
oughly saturated with ideas favourable to Ger
many that it is ready to react to the crudest
form of propaganda.
The propaganda found its way even into an
English speller. It is seldom, indeed, that space
is found in such a work for pieces of com
position. Nevertheless the books used in the
fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades
of the Chicago public schools gave space to
two prose selections: one of a dozen lines de-

84 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
scribing the aptness of the natives of Central
Australia in identifying the tracks of birds and
animals and another which reads as follows : —
THE KAISER IN THE MAKING
In the gymnasium at Cassel the German
Kaiser spent three years of his boyhood, a
diligent but not a brilliant pupil, ranking
tenth among seventeen candidates for the
university. Many tales are told of this period of his
life, and one of them, at least, is illuminat
ing. A professor, it is said, wishing to/ curry
favour with his royal pupil, informed him
overnight of the chapter in Greek that was
to be made the subject of the next day's les
son. The young prince did what many boys
would not have done. As soon as the class
room was opened on the following morning,
he entered and wrote conspicuously on the
blackboard the information that had been
given him.
One may say unhesitatingly that a boy
capable of such an action has the root of a
fine character in him, possesses that chival
rous sense of fair play which is the nearest
thing to religion that may be looked for at

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 85
that age, hates meanness and favouritism,
and will, wherever possible, expose them.
There is in him a fundamental bent toward
what is clean, manly and aboveboard.
One may well imagine the indignation that
would have been aroused by any similar refer
ence to King George or to Edward VII ! But
so completely had we been hypnotised by the
prestidigitations of Kultur that these intru
sions in our school books were not even no
ticed until after war had aroused us from our
trance !
But Germanism did not stop with the grade
schools nor with the high schools. It included
the institutions of higher learning. Here, too,
its objects were two-fold: first, to retain for
Germanism the allegiance of those of German
descent, and, second, to bring the rest of the
population into submission to Kultur. A
pamphlet published and circulated in 1916 by
the German University League of New York
— a league including in its membership not only
native Germans, but native Americans, hold
ing prominent positions in American universi
ties — deplores the baneful influence of Ameri-

86 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
can institutions upon the youth of German
descent :
They went to Anglo-American schools
and colleges, and they succumbed; not
only intellectually, but — much more serious
ly — racially. It is a very sorry sight to-day
to find that many unknown thousands of
German descendants, and particularly those
that had enjoyed greater privileges, have
been estranged from the German cause; yes,
there are many Germans that are not only
indifferent but opposed to the German spirit
of to-day, that do not understand and
neither feel any longer the inspiration of the
German idea in the world. They have
learned to think Anglo:American.
Thereupon the writer exclaims :
There is room for a true German Uni
versity! Hundreds of Americans yearly go to
German universities, and thousands more
would welcome its opportunities ; so the sym
pathy of Americans would be assured for
such an undertaking, but, what is most im
portant, with it an organ would be created
that would give the German element an even
chance to develop, to develop from a second-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 87
class citizenship to a first-class one, perhaps
the first-class citizenship of this great coun-
try. But not enough, a university will never
accomplish that alone; what is needed as
much, if not first, is an educational system
from bottom up — German schools, genuine
German gymnasien — not compromises, but
all of them genuinely German, with German
as the principal language all the way
through. A university cannot be what it
ought to be unless it is fed by correspond
ing preparatory schools; and you cannot
turn out German scientists without German
gymnasien and kindred schools.
Professor Julius Goebel is more modest in
his suggestions :
More than ever before our race, which
has finally come to a self-conscious life, re
quires a central point, a common hearth of
German Kultur from which light and
warmth would radiate. For the accomplish
ment of this high aim, I see in my mind an
institute for German Kultur, fashioned
somewhat after the model of the Berlin
Academy of Sciences. This could be the
meeting place for prominent German-Amer
ican and Imperial German scholars, on which

88 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
the exchange of the cultural possessions of
both peoples could take place in a fructify
ing manner. Here there should be culti
vated in addition to German-American his
tory, the past cultural relations between
Germany and America — German language
and literature, German history, German eth
nology, German history of art and German
philosophy. From this place the results of
the investigation would be spread by letter
and by word of mouth to the most distant
circles of the nation. For, although it would
be the principal task of such an academy to
bring on behalf of Kultur new life to our
German-American race, still it would have
to impart no less vigorously German Kultur
to the Anglo-American portion of the popu
lation. In this manner only could the sound
thought at the basis of the exchange profes
sorships be made fruitful and be made to
materialise. The project for a university modelled along
the lines of those in Germany, in which the
German language, literature and culture
would be given prominence, was brought for
ward at several conventions of the National
German-American Alliance. While favour
ably discussed, the time did not seem ripe for

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 89
the undertaking, and the Alliance therefore de
voted itself to influencing existing institutions.
The first step, of course, was to secure greater
recognition for the German language. As an
entrance requirement it should be placed on
the same footing as Latin. This reform was
actually brought about in 19 13 in the Univer
sity of Nebraska. Latin came to be required
only of medical students. "The teaching of
German," so the school committee of the Na
tional German-American Alliance reported, "is
therefore making great headway in the high
schools of the state at the expense of Latin."
In 19 1 3, at its St. Louis convention, the
National German-American Alliance organised
a committee for the "establishment of rela
tions with American universities for the pro
motion of German Kultur," and appointed on
the committee members of the faculties of
Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. Question
naires were sent to five hundred and forty-six
colleges and universities in the United States
for the purpose of ascertaining the number of
students taking courses in German, the num
ber of these that were of German descent, and
what contributions to German-American his-

90 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
tory had been made by instructors or students
in the German departments.
But the most ambitious part of the commit
tee's programme was a huge Bismarck celebra
tion, staged at the leading state university of
the Middle West. Curiously enough, this
strangely exotic affair was planned for the
year 1914 — the Bismarck centennial did not
oqcur until 1915. However, the university out
did itself in honour of the German statesman.
Never had the campus witnessed so imposing
a demonstration in honour of any hero, for
eign or domestic. The great university audi
torium was loaned for the occasion — a thing
that had never been done before — members of
the faculty turned out en masse, the state
schoolmasters, then in session, adjourned for
the event. German societies from all the cities
of the state attended, music was furnished' by
the university glee club, by members of the con
servatory and by the assembled maennerchors,
a member of the National German- American
Alliance acted as chairman, and the guest of
the occasion, the cynosure of all eyes, was the
Imperial German Consul-General from Chi-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 91
cago, who delivered an address on "Germany's
Economic Development since 1871."
Before the end of the year the offices and
staff of the consulate general in Chicago were
being used to hire thugs and purchase dyn'a-
mite to destroy by wholesale lives and prop
erty in the state which supported that univer
sity. And when the hirelings of the Chicago con
sulate general were finally caught, and the
facts disclosed in the course of a long trial in
the district court, many who had joined in
doing honour to Germany's representative be
thought themselves of the strangely ironical
fate that had decreed that the famous Bis
marck celebration of 19 14 should fall on All
Fools' Day!
This incident does not apply solely to the
one university involved; on the contrary, it is
characteristic of the ascendancy which Kultur
had acquired in all our institutions of learning
and throughout our entire educational system.

92 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY

IV
GERMAN PROPAGANDA THROUGH
AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES
Immediately upon the outbreak of the
world war the forces of Kultur in America be
gan their mobilisation. In the bewilderment
of those first August days before war had even
been declared between Great Britain and Ger
many, — while Americans were anxiously in
quiring the meaning of it all, the issues in
volved, who and what was responsible for the
world catastrophe — was it Serbia, or Russia, or
the Czar or could it be the Kaiser or the junker
party in Germany, or was it British commercial
jealousies — the National German- American
Alliance came forth as the one body fortified
for the emergency and fully decided as to the
course it should pursue. The president of the
Alliance at once sent an appeal to "all those
who had studied in German universities" to in
augurate a propaganda "on behalf of the Ger-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 93
man cause." He closed the appeal with the sig
nificant words:
I have learned from a responsible source
that in the event that England is defeated an
attempt will be made to draw the United
States into an alliance with England. There
fore, it is important at the very outset to
show what a colossal power the citizens of
German descent are able to wield.
A flood of light would certainly be shed upon
the subsequent propaganda in the United
States if the "responsible source" indicated by
the head of the Alliance were disclosed.
The time had come to use the educational
prestige which Germany had been cultivating
for so many years. In September "the Univer
sities of the German Empire" sent their ap
peal to the "Universities of Foreign Lands"
in protest against the reports of German bar
barities. Then came the "Appeal to the Civi
lised World" signed by the professors of Ger
many, with the reiterated "it is not true."
"It is not true," the appeal read, "that Ger
many brought on the war. ... It is not true
that we ruthlessly violated the neutrality of
Belgium. ... It is not true that either the life

94 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
or the property of a single Belgian civilian has
been touched by our soldiers except out of most
bitter necessity. ... It is not true that our
troops were guilty of brutalities in Louvain.
... It is not true that our warfare is violating
the rules of international law. ... It is not
true that the war against so-called militarism
is not a war against our Kultur, as our enemies
hypocritically assert. . . . Believe us! Be
lieve that we will fight this war to its conclu
sion as a civilised people, a people to whom the
heritage of a Goethe, of a Beethoven, and of
a Kant is just as sacred as its hearth and lin
tel!" The Jena professors, Haeckel and Eucken,
sent an open letter to their colleagues and ad
mirers denouncing Great Britain for fighting
on the side of Russia, declaring, that Russia
was responsible for beginning the war in that
she refused prompt and adequate punishment
for a miserable assassination, imputing to
Great Britain envy as her motive and ridiculing
as a hypocritical pharisaism the British claim
that the violation of Belgian neutrality had
brought them into the war.
Finally, the gymnasium instructors issued

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 95
their manifesto: "It fills us with indignation
that the enemies of Germany, with England at
their head, ostensibly in our favour, make a
distinction between the spirit of German
science and the spirit of what they call Prus
sian militarism. In the German army there is
no different spirit from that which prevails in
the German people, for both are the same, and
we also belong thereto. . . . Our belief is that
the entire culture of Europe depends for its
welfare on the victory which German militar
ism will win through the valour and faithful
ness of pur men and through the sacrifice of
the free and united German people." The only
trouble with all these declarations was that
they proved too much — the identification of
German science and Kultur with Prussian mili
tarism has proved to be only too accurate —
German education, German science and Kultur
were long since made part of the military ma
chine, and submission to one meant, ultimately,
complete and hopeless submission to the other.
However, ubiquitous German agents in the
United States quickly herded German sym
pathisers and the dupes of Kultur into organ
isations with high sounding names.

96 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
It has been found that whenever a move
ment offered possibilities of usefulness to Ger
many, a German agent has been on hand to
offer gratuitous service, advice, guidance, and
even financial assistance. This was true of the
organisation known as "Labour's National
Peace Council" and its connection with the no
torious international crook and spy von Rin-
telen ; of the "Friends of Peace" and their or
ganiser, Albert Sander, who turned out to be
a German spy; of the San Francisco organisa
tion known as the "Friends of Peace and Neu
trality" and their secretary who happened to
be in the pay of the German government; of
the "American Embargo Conference"; of the
"Women's League for Strict Neutrality"—
and many others. And this was true of the
organisation of university men now formed.
In November there was held in New York a
gathering of old German students for the pur
pose of devising ways and means of assisting
their colleagues in the war. It was the general
opinion that something more must be done than
merely to raise funds for the relief of suffer
ing — the righteousness of Germany's cause
must be presented to the American people.

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 97
So there came to be formed the German
University League with professors from Co
lumbia, Chicago, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Brown
and many other institutions on its board of
trustees and in its list of sponsors. The aca
demic world of America was to be the field of
its propaganda. In Germany it related itself
to "The League of German Scholars and Ar
tists" — in America it affiliated itself with the
Inter-Collegiate League of German Clubs. No
sooner was the organisation perfected than a
German agent was on hand offering his serv
ices as secretary free of all expense — and the
man continued as the executive head of the
League until his arrest and internment in De
cember, 191 7.
Through pamphlets, lectures and corre
spondence, the League aimed to enlist the sym
pathies of university and college instructors.
But it went further than this. Like other pro-
German organisations, it sought to create the
impression that it represented, more truly than
the administration, the American people, and
thus to turn the sharp edge of our diplomacy.
When on April 18, 19 16, this government had
denounced in the most vigorous and uncompro-

98 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
mising terms of which the English language is
capable, the torpedoing of the Sussex and Ger
many's entire submarine warfare, the League
took upon itself to neutralise the effect of the
note by sending a wireless message to Rec
tor Dr. Ulrich von Wilamowitz Moellendorf,
of Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin. This
is what these self-constituted spokesmen for
the American people said :
We, citizens of the United States, Trus
tees of the German University League of
America, wish to express to your magnifi
cence our strong desire to see peace pre
served between the United States and Ger
many. Knowing both countries well, we
fear that Germany may interpret the mes
sage of our President as a provocation, some
thing surely not intended. On the contrary,
we are convinced that the majority of the
American people wish to have the relations
of amity maintained, which have always ex
isted between your country and our country.
To help in avoiding the calamity of a mis
interpretation we ask you to bring this view
to the attention of the German people.
In this way it contributed its part to the im
pression that prevailed in German official cir-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 99
cles that the United States would not dare to
take a firm stand for fear of an insurrection
of its German and pro-German elements.
Early in the war the Germanistic societies
were summoned to do their share. The so
ciety of Chicago issued several pamphlets fa
vouring the German cause, and its work was
duly acknowledged in the Fatherland. The
New York society, however, failed to respond,
and the pro-German members were urged to
oust the delinquent officers and turn the or
ganisation to some account. American ex
change professors were called upon to uphold
Germany's cause, and several of them toured
the country in that behalf, speaking under the
auspices of historical societies, neutrality
leagues and branches of the National German-
American Alliance. Kuno Meyer, Professor
of Celtic Philology, at one time suggested as
an exchange professor at Harvard, laboured
for the German cause among those of Irish
descent; Moritz J. Bonn, who had held the
Jacob H. Schiff professorship at Cornell and
the Carl Schurz Memorial professorship at
Wisconsin, and Eugene Kuehnemann, who had

100 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
held the same professorships, devoted them
selves unremittingly to propaganda work.
Professors of German birth in American
universities made no secret of their partisan
ship and many used their class rooms for prop
aganda purposes. They even carried their par
tisanship into their social relations. A former
student visiting his Alma Mater called upon
one of these gentlemen under whom he had
studied in his college days. He was met by
his former instructor with the typically Prus
sian rebuff that "he was not in the practice of
receiving people whose sympathies were
against Germany." These professors were in
certain cases used also by the German govern
ment to report the attitude of their colleagues.
A professor at an eastern university happened
to write to a former colleague in Germany ex
pressing his disapproval of German policies
and of Germany's conduct of the war. Several
months later his letter, having passed through
the Berlin foreign office and through the Ger
man embassy in Washington, was presented
to the President of the University by a mem
ber of the German department and the demand
was made that the offending colleague be dis-

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 101
ciplined. With shame be it recorded that the
president of the University summoned the pro
fessor in question and warned him against giv
ing expression to "unneutral" sentiments.
But the common sense of our people proved
more trustworthy in its judgment than the
brains of our intellectuals. The rape of Bel
gium and the crime of the Lusitania could not
be excused or condoned by any sophistry. As
time went on public sentiment swung more and
more strongly to the side of the Allies. Any
hope of a benevolent neutrality on the part of
America vanished. "Is it for this," the Kaiser
is reported to have exclaimed, "that I permit
ted myself to be bored by the lectures of those
tiresome American professors !"
The disappointment in academic circles was
keen. "Right here," declared Eduard Meyer,
"we thought we had won firm ground, both by
the efforts of the Kaiser and of German diplo
mats, and by the ever increasing and more in
timate personal relationships which were per
mitted by our government in every possible
means through the exchange of professors,
through the visits of numerous German
scholars, orators and artists, through the

102 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
friendly reception accorded to the thousands
of Americans who visited Germany every year,
as students in the universities and schools of
music, as merchants and tourists. It seemed
that the ground was prepared for such a rap
prochement through the opposition between
England and America dating from the days of
the Revolutionary War." And his conclusion
is that: "We can compel the Americans to
respect us through our successes, but more we
cannot do and we must not try to do it, if we
respect ourselves and if we do not wish to
injure again our prestige in the world, as we
did in the last decade through our efforts for
the favour of America and of other foreign
nations in altogether too great a measure. For
this reason also the exchange professorships
which were introduced by the government
against the desire of the universities over a
decade ago at Harvard and at Columbia should
be discontinued, since these universities have
made their unfriendly attitude so plain ; and if
ever again the attempt is made to introduce
these exchange professorships, we hope that
no German scholar will lower himself to the

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 103
extent of accepting an invitation to lecture at
one of these institutions."
Herman Oncken, some time professor at the
University of Chicago, was equally emphatic
in expressing his chagrin. But he warned his
academic colleagues that America would yet
experience how Germany, changed from her
winning ways, would emerge from the war "a
proud and a hard nation."
Eugene Kuehnemann, after travelling
seventy thousand miles, visiting one hundred
and thirty-seven cities, and giving one hundred
and twenty-one addresses in English and two
hundred and seventy-five in German, returned
with Bernstorff to Germany. He confessed
that even in America the majority were in
capable of enlightenment — the only hope for
the country lay in its population of German
origin.

104 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY

Vj

NEW IDEALS IN AMERICAN
EDUCATION
For the present, America has shaken off the
toils of the German conspiracy. In the light
of our awakening, text books have been ex
amined and condemned: Chicago tore from
her speller the offending allusion to the Kaiser
whose perjured adulation so long disgraced
her school rooms. New York placed most of
the text books of German instruction upon the
index. From the universities there has been
a steady exodus of those whose efforts were
in the interest of the German cause rather than
in the interest of education.
But let us not delude ourselves into thinking
that German propaganda has been extirpated.
Before the hot blast of public indignation it
went under cover, merely to await its oppor
tunity. That opportunity has now come.
With the signing of the Armistice the strain

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 105
of war has been relaxed, and public opinion,
until recently concentrated upon attaining an
overwhelming victory, is again disintegrating.
The nation followed unquestioningly the lead
ership of the President in the prosecution of
the war against Germany — now that hostili
ties have been suspended, the terms of peace
are slipping into the arena of public debate
and into the field of practical politics. The
pro-German agitator, the German agent, the
spy, the radical socialist, the Bolshevist and
others who use camouflaged theories only to
mask their true purposes, are again lifting
their heads. Again politicians are cautiously
placating the "German vote" for private gain.
Unless the nation maintains its vigilance and
is as single-minded in its peace aims as in the
prosecution of the war, the sacrifices of the
last four years may prove to be merely the in
troduction to an even greater tragedy in the
future. Every college campus in the country has
been turned into a drill field. But the citizen
soldier must be trained in mind and morale
as well as in physique, and our education must
take account of this, its largest responsibility.

106 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
We must insist that every boy and every girl
be brought up with a knowledge of the origins
and nature of our society. This has been our
obvious failure in the past. Over the princi
pal gateway of the nation's capital are in
scribed the words : "He that would bring home
the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth
of the Indies with him ; so it is with travelling.
A man must carry knowledge with him if he
would bring home knowledge." Had the thou
sands of young men who during the past forty
years have entered German universities heeded
this counsel, they would have realised that the
threat against democracy did not begin on
April 2, 191 7, that it did not begin with the
assassination of the Lusitania, nor with the
rape of Belgium; they would have divined the
truth from all that they saw in Germany that
the threat of autocracy began with the suppres
sion of the liberal movement in 1848, and that
from that date the threat became more men
acing year by year. Instead, they fell into the
goose-step of Kultur, without realising whither
the march was directed. They brought back
valuable knowledge of the methods of minute

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 107
research but their capacity for broader vision
was hopelessly atrophied.
Instruction in the German language may be
appropriate for the technician and the scientist,
but it should never again be permitted in the
elementary or high schools. We may well take
a leaf from the science of philology as de
veloped in Germany; a nation's life, so German
scientists have taught, is embodied in its speech.
Applying this conclusion we find that the ideas
which are fundamental in our institutions can
not be translated into modern German. Let
any one who doubts this statement attempt to
render into the Kaiser's language the second
paragraph of the Declaration of Independence ;
he will find no equivalents for such expressions
as "liberty," "pursuit of happiness," "the con
sent of the governed." Nor can he find in the
German language a means for adequately ex
pressing the concluding sentence in which the
authors pledge to each other "their lives, their
fortunes and their sacred honour." When
Professor Gneist wrote his work on "Self-Gov
ernment" he searched for a German equivalent
for that concept. He could find none, and
finally in despair entitled his monumental

108 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
treatise with the English expression, and
wherever the idea comes up in the discussion,
the English words are used without any at
tempt at translation. And to-day, when em
perors, kings and princes are fleeing before the
wrath of their subjects, the Marseillaise is
being sung in Berlin and in Vienna ! The ideas
of individual liberty developed through the his
tory of England, France and America have so
long encountered a blank spot in the German
brain that there is in the language no medium
for their expression. No man of German de
scent can become thoroughly American while
retaining allegiance to the German language;
no man of any race can become an American
at heart until he seeks to make the English
language not merely the language of his busi
ness, but also of his fireside.
All this is said with a due appreciation for
the treasures of German literature. But the
associations of the German language with the
atrocities of the war are such that the world
can never again enjoy the German classics until
the memories of the present generation shall
have been effaced. And this is not the least
of the tragedies for which the instigators of

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 109
the war must answer ! When finally we have
placed the German language on the road to ex
tinction as a political and commercial medium,
then we will return and bring our tribute to
Schiller, Goethe and Lessing, well knowing
that those great spirits, if present with us to
day, would require that we do that very thing.
And here we come upon the question of the
foreign language press. Even with the best of
intentions on the part of editors of individual
newspapers, still the interests of this press as
a whole are opposed to the progress of Ameri
canisation. It is urged that foreign language
publications perform a valuable function in
mediating between the immigrant and his new
environment and in preparing him for citizen
ship. Let this be granted. But if the immi
grant makes any progress whatever in Ameri
canisation, if he acquires a knowledge of the
English language, then he prefers the broader
outlook afforded by the American press. The
foreign language newspaper loses his patron
age. For this very reason the foreign lan
guage press is constantly insisting that the im
migrant retain his native language. It has
opposed every measure which would require a

110 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
knowledge of English as a requisite for nat
uralisation or for the exercise of the franchise.
In this respect the German language news
papers have been the most rabid offenders.
The position of the foreign language news
papers is precarious at best. It is only by the
utmost exertions that they can maintain their
circulations. They are constantly faced with
financial difficulties. This condition renders
them particularly susceptible to temptation and
they fall an easy prey to politicians, propagan
dists or other interests that can offer a bonus
for whatever influence they may possess. Wit
ness the eagerness with which four hundred
foreign language editors in April, 191 5, sub
scribed and published Dr. Albert's plea for an
embargo on munitions, all at exceedingly lib
eral advertising rates! Witness their con
stant diatribes against prohibition "on moral
grounds," and at the same time their itching
importunity for a share in the brewers' slush
fund! The task of Americanisation must no longer
be left to the foreign language press. It must
be assumed by the American press and by every
other agency of our public life. We may justly

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 111
demand that the man who comes here to make
his living, to acquire property and to enjoy
the protection of our laws shall become Ameri
can not merely in a political sense, as the lead
ers of the German movement in America have
always insisted, but that he become American
in language, thought and spirit. One of the
conditions for the settlement of Europe's tur
moil is to be the self-determination of nation
alities. While we are demanding self-determi
nation for Jugo-Slavs, Poles, Lithuanians,
Czecho-Slovaks and Finns we have at least the
right to demand self-determination for Amer
ica. And it is only through Americanisation
that we can create the unity of spirit and the
morale which will be needed to weather the tur
moil of the coming years when Central Eu
rope, breaking from the past, will become the
whirlpool of Bolshevism and of every other
frenzy which refuses to recognise organic de
velopment. Already the waves have broken
over our borders ; they will rise higher and lash
with greater fury in the future.
Our American life has often been disparaged
as superficial. Our education has tended to
make it so. We have too long proceeded upon

112 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY
the erroneous assumption that our history be
gan with the Declaration of Independence, or
with the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, or
even with the discovery of our continent. We
have wilfully separated ourselves from the tap
root of our existence, which reaches far back
into the fertile soil of English literature and
English history. Many of our German-trained
educators have felt the need of a deeper nour
ishment, and mesmerised by the prestidigita
tions of Kultur, have attempted the violent
process of grafting us upon a German stock.
We know now that we could not have survived
such a process. It would have resulted in chok
ing out everything that is American and in pro
ducing a ranker and a more noxious growth of
Kultur. We must go back to the sources of
our history; we are the descendants of those
who landed on the Isle of Thanet ; King Alfred
and the Barons of Runnymede belong to us ; we
claim our share in the glories of English dis
covery and in the defeat of the Armada;
Hampden and Pym and all who stood forth for
liberty we claim as ours.
And while we derive our precepts of prac
tical individual right from England, let us

IN AMERICAN EDUCATION 113
never forget that our idealism had its birth in
France and that the roots of our being extend
into her sacred soil. We see before us the sil
very armour of Joan of Arc, the white plume
of Henry of Navarre; we claim kinship with
the ragged armies of the Revolution which
shook every despotism of Europe with the bat
tle-cry of "Liberty, fraternity and equality."
We have strayed far in the exuberance of
our youth, but in these serious times we are
returning as prodigals to claim our inheritance
in the greatness of our parent countries, Eng
land and France !

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