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9 THE FATHERLAND
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.
A Symposium of Our Readers.
IN the last two issues of Tm; FATHERLAND we have reprinted
extracts from letters sent in to us by an aroused and in-
dignant people. Out of the vast amount of mail we received
it was only possible to select at random a few and then re-
print only parts of each. Still, with every mail come these
letters, letters from all over the world, letters that breathe a
fierce sincerity and which speaks volumes for the lovers of
the old fatherland. It is expressions like those contained in
these epistles that prove the value of the work T112 FATHER‘,
LAND is doing. ,
"At the present -time,” writes Mr. P. N. H. O’York, of N N’
Orleans, “there are but two nations who menace the peace
and civilization of the world, namely, England and Russia. It
matters not to the world at large whether Baden be annexed
to France, Normandy to Germany, except as it would pC1’P9-t11-
ate animosity between the two noblest and most Cultured
nations of the earth. France and Germany, the two most
advanced countries in the world, are destroying each other at
the instigation of Russia and England. The English and
Russian power should be annihilated, and this 93:1 be done
by liberating the Celtic nations in the West and the Moham-
medan peoples in the East." We regret that we have not -the
space to public Mr. O’York's entire letter, for it presents a
very comprehensive plan for the destructionof England and
Russia. .
From the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mr. Paul
Walthoff sends into us a reminder of Elbert Hubbard's gen-
eral-all round insufiiciency. "Now, although I do not think,”
states Mr. Walthoff, "that this fellow, per se, deserves any
attention, whatsoever, I yet do believe that you ought to
reprimand him in the columns of your courageous publication,
so as to give warning to those who either for fear of his
slandering pen or deluded by his lying assertions have become
advertisers in his nasty sheet.”
The American widow of a German, Mrs. B. K. Heller, has
a pertinent word to say about German "barbarity.” "How
anyone who knows anything of the German people,” declares
Mrs. Heller, “can for one moment believe the tales of Ger-
man atrocity scnt to our papers from England and France, is
beyond all understanding. Ask any American if he ever knew
a German who did not possess a big heart, a kindly nature,
devotion to his family and a love for children, and the answer
will be ‘no.’ Yet they can believe these tales of bar-barism.”
Mr. Otto Mengering, a prominent citizen of Syracuse, con-
tributes an interesting note which throws a new light on the
Russian “investment” of Koenigsberg. “I have learned," he
remarks, “from Mrs. Fritsch, of Koenigsberg, that the Rus-
sians have never been near Koenigsberg, and that the city has
never been within range of the Russian guns."
The unjust attitude of most American newspapers cuts deep
and is felt keenly -by natives of German extraction. Typical
is the letter forwarded us by Mr. Arnold H. E. Schramm, of
Santa Barbara, Cal. “Recently I wrote," he informs us,
“about the vulgar outbreak of that professional reformer, Rev.
Chas. Parkhurst, and since then have read many more out-
bursts of blind passion on the part of people from whom one
would expect more iairmindedness. What can we expect
from the average man when people like Chas. W. Eliot, An-
drew Carnegie. ctc., show themselves so prejudiced. The
hostile attitude of most of-the editors of our daily papers may
be due to the editors’ desire to pander to what they believe
to be the maiority of their readers. But is it not possible
that with some it may be a case of having been personally
influenced?”
ENGLAND PROTECTOR OF THE POORI
MORE questions proffered to lnlr-minded Americans,
who like to use their own brains.
l. Who gives her children the better education, England
or Germany?
2. Who has lived at peace with her neighbors for forty-
four years, England or Germany?
3. Which provlnce has had the rawer deal, Alsace-Lorraine
or Ireland?
4. Just when did England become the champion of the
oppressed? Was she so in the Opium War on China?
The Boer War? The late allalr in Persia?
5. Just when, in the phrase so often heard in these days,
did blood become “thicker than water?”
Was blood thicker than water when England sent the
Iroquois to burn and torture women and babies on the
borders of the struggling Thirteen Colonies? When Amer-
icans rotted alive in the prison-ship oil the Brooklyn shore?
When Buford?s men were killed or mutilated living during
a truce?
Was blood thicker than water when Englishmen burned
defenseless little Washington in the War of l8l2?
Was blood thicker than water when Confederate priva-
teers were allowed to fit out in English ports, when Beecher
was hissed of‘! the stage at Liverpool, when Carlyle sneered
at our “nigger war?"
Doesn't blood usually begin to thicken about the time
that the goodwill of this big nation of ours becomes useful
to the nation across the sea, whence many (but not all!)
of us derive more or less remotely our descent?
’ THE POLES.
IT is just two years ago when the Tsar begun to Russlanize
the Polish schools as he has Russianized the German
schools in the Baltic provinces. And in Finland he swept
away all the old privileges, that had been sworn to by every
Tsar, himself included. The Poles are evidently not in-
clined to place much confidence in the promises given them
under the stress of war losses; and the great Polish societies
and the editors of’ the Polish papers in the United States
would rather trust the Germans than the “little father.”-
Ncw Yorker Herold. v
-,.‘s-
TEIE flow of lies and blatherskite in the New York WIDE?’
. which began with the outbreak of the war has cor.-
tmued unabated during the past week, and always in the samc
v direction because from the same sources, that fountain head
of falsehood and calumny, London. The Wagner method 05
describing things that never happened which set the New
York Sun and the New York Times by the ears during 1113
Dalkan War has been brought nearly to perfection, and 15
now so well understood that very few attach any importzmcc
to the headlines and believe only about one-tenth of what
they read in the text of what is printed.-‘Gaelic American.
WHEN the English occupy a country,” runs an
international saying, according to a write!‘
in Colliers, “they build a customhouse; the Germans a
fort; the French a road.”
We should like to know what reputable authority
ever said this, for he must have been an ass in view of
the uniform policy of conquest by the English in Egypt.
Africa and India, and by French in Morrocco and Africa
generally. On the other hand, Germany has succeeded
better in conciliating the natives in her own possessions
than either of her foes.