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' the combined forces of corruption.
10
THEE FATHERLAND
. Fair Play for
Germany and Austria-Hungary
Edited’by
GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK
FREDERICK F. SCHRADER
A weekly -‘published and owned by The Fatherland Cor oration, 1123
Broadway, New York LI" '. Telephone, Farragut $717. Qable Address,
Viereck. New York. President, George Silvester Yiereck; ice-Ifrcsident.
Hayo Hans liinrichs; Treasurer, Curt I.‘ Reisinger; sst. "lrcasurer,
lValter “’. Stake; Secretary, A. M. Grill. Terms of Subscription,
including postage, in the United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year. ‘In
Canada, $2.23 per year; $1.25 for six months. Subscfiption to al foreign
countries within the Postal Union, $2.25 per year. Single copies, 5 cents.
Newsdealers and Agents throughout the counlr supplied by The Inter-
national News Company. Manuscripts, address: to t e Editor. if accom-
Eanied by return postage, and found unavailable, will be returned.
ditor, however, accepts no responsibility for unsolicited contributions.
European Representative, LOUIS VIERECK, Sucdwestkorso 8, Berlin-
Friedenau.
Copyright, 1914, by The Fatherland Cor oration. Entered at the Post
Office, New York, N. Y., as Second Class A atter.
WHO'S TO BLAME ?
THE five resolutions adopted at the recent confer-
- cnce in Washington constitute a platform on
which every American can stand. In fact, no man
who refuses to stand upon it is an honest American.
With studious moderation the representatives of our
German-American population, meeting with their
fellows in Washington, restrained their natural
prejudices and their just indignation. If the resolu-
tions adopted were to reflect German-American opin-
ion they would be ten times more emphatic. There
is-‘not’ a plank in the platform that would not receive
the indorsement of Lincoln or Washington if Lin-
coln or Washington were alive. Evidently it is the
mission of the Gerrnan-Americans to bring their
adopted country, misled and misrepresented by its
newspapers, back to authentic Americanism.
"The German-American has always stood for the
spirit of righteousness in American politics. Inde-
pendent, free of party ties, he has fought his battles
singly. For that reason he was often defeated by
The German-
Americans have learned this lesson. They will
henceforth light as a unit. You may, if you choose,
call us hyphenated Americans. We are not sure that,
as American patriots, we welcome the drawing of
ethnic distinctions within the United States. But
‘who is to blame if the German-American element
consolidates, except the Tory editors of obscene
sheets of the stripe of Harper's Weekly and Life and
the pro-Ally dailies? Their sneers and insults have
at last neutralized the centrifugal forces so deeply
rooted in the character of the German.
We are tired of playing the part of Cinderella in
American politics. We claim our seat at the banquet
table. Ifgyou say that we are not Americans, then
yougwillvhave to change your conception of Ameri-
can. We refuse to be strangled by the dead hand of
THE FATHERLAND
the past reaching from the graves of the Pilgrim
Fathers into the living present. We shall rewrite
the word American, to the extent of our power, in
terms of our own ethnic complexion. The word
American means what we, all the Americans now liv-
ing, choose to make it. All races now within our
borders will make their contribution. They will re-
fuse to dissolve their racial characteristics and ideals
in a solution of colorless New England Puritanism.
Whatever may be the action of others, we German-
Americans shall see to it that in the equation of the
future our worth shall be written down in the proper
proportion.
We are better Americans‘ than Dr. Eliot who at-
tempts to drag our country into war with Germany.
We have never sought to draw the United States into
war with England. We are better Americans than
Mr. George Haven Putnam, once of England, and
other camp-followers of the British cause who seek
to introduce British snobbery into American life.
We have suffered much without complaint. But our
paticnce is at an end. Day after day our contem-
poraries have brutally violated the President's in-
junction of neutrality. If you had neither love nor
gratitude for Germany, you should at least not have
sought to betray the United States into the hands of
England. If your sympathies were honestly with the
Allies, you should at least have observed a decent
regard for our feelings, the feelings of those whose
immediate kinsmen were dying like flies in battle,
slain perhaps by American dum-dum bullets and
American rides.
You have called our brothers by the vilest names.
blown to you from the gutters of London. You have
spat upon the memory of our mothers. You have
trampled upon the graves of our fathers. You have
sown the storm, you shall reap the whirlwind. You
have refused to listen to our reasoning. You were
deaf to our pleas. Now the ballot shall speak for us.
We shall go into the arena of politics. We shall try
to beat you at your own game. One hundred and
seventy members of Congress are of Irish extraction.
There is no reason why they should not be joined by
one hundred and severity of German extraction.
There is no reason why we should not labor forthc
election of men of our own blood who are in accord
with our principles, which are also the principles of
true Americanism.
We have no interest in the German Government.
In fact, the German Government has often treated us
shabbily. The German Empire as such is nothing to’
us. We owe no more allegiance to'it than the Ger-
mans of Switzerland, Austria, Russia, or the Flemish
population of Belgium. With us itis neither “Rule
Britannia” nor “I-Ieil Dir im Siegerkranz,” but
“Amerika ueber Alles.” For that very reason we
shall not permit America to be the pawn of Great
Britain. The men of Forty-Eight, our forefathers,