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THE FATHERLAND
Emperor, the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs are passionately pacific.‘
But little more space is available for additional citations, of whicli
not even the most interesting or important have been more than
casually referred to. In conclusion the writer will cite a report of
Baron Beyens to his government. dated April 24, 1914, three months
before the war, in which he comments on the official visit of the
King iind Queen of England to Paris and the then-prevailing re-
lations between France and England:
“For us the most interesting point in connection with the visit
of the sovereigns of Great Britain is to know whether the British
Government would be as inclined to-day as three years ago to range
itself by the side of France in case of a contiict of the latter with
277
Germany. We have had the proof that a co-operation of the British
army and the dispatching of an expeditionary corps to the con-
tinent have been considered by the military authorities of the two
governments (England and France). Would it be the same to-day,
and would we still have to fear the entry of British soldiers into
Belgium in order to help us to defend our neutrality by first com-
proiizisiizg it?” .
These are not the words of German apologists. This intensely
interesting correspondence registers the conviction of five profes-
sional students of contemporary international history, living in the
three chief capitals of Europe with the advantage of being detached
and unprejudiced with regard to the facts. And their convictions
are identical. ' -
AN OCTOGENARIAN’S REVENGE
By George Sylvester Viereck '
EAR old Boston has taken its vengeance. When the epoch of
Emerson and Longfellow and Lowell had passed away, they
still claimed over in Boston to possess the intellectual leadership of
the country and called their city “the hub,” even when everybody
outside of Boston saw quite clearly that the old seat of culture was
deserted and that New York had become the literary centre. But
at last Boston has shown again that it is the leader. In the hour in
which the spirit of the country is filled with emotion ag’3i"5t Ger‘
many, Boston rises to truly gigantic heights of hatred. New York
must yield the laurels to the band of pilgrims’ sons who are Perhaps
not many but whose voices are clamorous. Even among the vener-
able octogenarians, who seem to dominate America, what is the one
Choate in New York against the ancient twins, Charles W. Eliot
and Henry L. Higginson in Boston. Theirs is indeed true. leader-
ship. But the .case of Higginson deserves special attention. It
throws such unique light on the morality of those war-loan discus-
sions. Many houses, and Higginson's banking house among them.
have undertaken the great loan for England and France. But for
Higginson that is not enough ammunition for the Allies. ‘He takes
the lead in the glorious movement to Put “V9my‘HV9 mlmons Of
American savings into the support of half bankrupt Italy. But even
that is not enough. He feels that he must help those loans ‘by a
fervent spgech against Germany, and it is this speech at the dinner
of the Boston Credit Men's Association which deserves a hearing.
Who is the man who now takes the lead in the abuse of Germany,
the Germans and especially of the German S0"9"‘"“““t? F”5t' his
OWN wife is a German, brought up in Karlsruhe, that lovely un-
Drotected town in which the aviators of the Allies have recentl)’
killed twenty-nine women and children. We desl>i5C 3 ma“ who
defiles his own nest, but what about the character of the man who
soils the nest from which his mate came? But furthermore,‘ Henry
L- Higginson has one great merit which no friend of America W1"
den)’- He has created and supported the Boston SymPh0"Y .O':‘3he5‘
tra. This secures for him a certain national gratitude, as it is the
leading orchestra of the country, and has contributed tremendously
‘O American culture. The conductors of this orchestra have l;ieen
Gericke, Nikisch, Bauer, Fiedlcr and Muck, C'9"m““5 from the rst
day to the last. The leading members of the orchestra to-daily ante
Witek, Noak, Roth, Koessler, Habernicht at the desk of the vio H11: ,
Warncke, Malkin, Barth at the desk of the celloist, and ISO 011- “
short, it is a German orchestra which has won the ltriumrghs in
which Higginson's credit rests. He shows his 8F3f““d5H Yh it e
meanest abuse of the Germans. But he is more speC15C- 9 3 95
the German.Government. VVhat has the German Goveniment evetr
d0ne to him? Mr. Higginson knew that the success of his.con<I:g;
at a critical time seven IYCMS 380 depmded upon Sficfiiriilg 0 al
Muck as conductor, but Muck was under contract wit t earl id
opera in Berlin. He appealed to the Emperor, and by :1 SD90
Of Courtesy and as a special Sign Of
German Government and the Empewf
ggears’ leave for the purpose of help:
oston. however, at t at .
Mr. Hlgg'lIl:1l;:)nEI?;I::g:l:fllY. Mr. Higginson waited for t'(IiC:1i::r:t“l;‘a:
hotel hoping to be able to meet the Emperor. Then an, ha rined
born his hatred for Germany. He finally departed deep K-C dfbt of
at his failure to meet his benefactor. Now he P3)’5 ‘5
decided to give Itfuck 3 “Y0
3 Mr. HlQE1“50“5 913"‘ ‘”‘
time was too busy W 5“
friendship for America, the,
gratitude and shows his real character by denouncing the Emperor
and his government as faithless and treacherous.
It is hard to read his speech with a serious face. He says we dis-
like the German form of government “because we don’t propose to
give up our individual liberty, to be told what we are to eat, what
we are to drink, and in a word, be dominated by the State in every
feature of our lives.” It is true the German Government looks into
the question of eating, inasmuch as it would not tolerate the amount
of adulteration of food which some American communities can
stand. But if a Bostonian stands up and says that he wants indi-
vidual liberty and not to be told what he is to drink, there ought to
be hearty laughter from Munich to Maine. Has Mr. Higginson
really never observed in the many years he lived over there, that
there is endlessly more individual freedom just in these habits of
life and personal ways which he mentions, than in the uniformized.
standardized American society where every one must wear the same
hat and the same collar? But probably Mr. Higginson feels that
Americans, even in war-time, would not be deceived by such ab-
surdities, and so he comes with at least one great political argument.
To quote the Boston Transcript, the noble brother of the New York”
Evciziiig Post: “He urged that the United, States amend its nat-
uralization laws to prevent a German or any other alien from becom-
ing a citizen of this country unless he should be released by his
native government from loyalty to it,” and “Major Henry L. Hig-
ginson would not admit any more Germans to citizenship in this
country unless their native government should absolve them from
allegiance, and though under existing conditions he realizes that the
German Government would not do this, he stands for the suggestion
just the same." The whole article in the Traiiscript had the head-
line “WOULD CUT OFF GERMANS."
Now every one who knows the international situation knows that
France and Italy are the two countries which not only allow but
solemnly uphold the principle of dual citizenship while Germany
clearly rejects it. -France and Italy hold that the man who is born
on their soil can never lose his native citizenship, and if he becomes
naturalized in America, he remains a Frenchman or an Italian
nevertheless and has to serve with the army of his country if he
happens to be on his native soil when a. war breaks out. Germany .
takes exactly the opposite ground. A German who has become nat-
uralized in America has lost by virtue of that act his German citizen-
ship. It is true that the German law allows in exceptional cases
dual citizenship with special permission of the home government;
but this permission never applies to the United States of America,
because the naturalization act there includes a direct renouncing of
the native allegiance. Those exceptional permissions are given espe-
cially in semi-civilized lands where the commercial man goes for a
limited time but is at a commercial disadvantage when he does not
take up citizenship for the period'of his stay. There are millions
of German-born American citizens to-day, not one of whom is at
the time a German citizen, while French and Italian-born American
citizens are by the law of their native land at the same time French-
men and Italians. To present this international dual citizenship as
if the Allies had nothing to do with such a doubtful practice, but’
as if the Germans were the sinners is a distortion of the political
truth from which other men would shrink even when the aim is to
stir up courage for the buying of bonds in the war loan.