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Show HOW AMERICA WAS FORCED INTO THE WAR (Following is the fourth of a series of six articles prepared by the war committee of the Union League club of Chicago.) Article A Because Germany, for Years, Sought to Undermine Our Government and Our Ideals. We are fighting Germany for the right to live our own lives as we see fit. We are fighting for our laws, I our ideals, our homes, our institutions. institu-tions. "But how," one may ask, "were all these things threatened by Germany before the war started? It is easy to see how they may be threatened now, for if we are defeated we are lost, but. before the war started did Germany menace those things we hold most sacred9 Let the Germans themselves answer. an-swer. After you have read the evidence evi-dence out of their mouths you may decide whether or not Germany plannned to upset our institutions, our ideals, our very mode of life into the war April 6. 1917. The evidence, given here from German sources, all dates back to before that time. In 1501 the National German-American alliance was formed in the United States In 1907 it was incorporated by act of congress. Its charter is now being attacked In this same body. One of the objects of the alliance, as officially announced, was "to check nativistlc encroachments." In other words, to keep the Germans from becoming be-coming Americans, Another object was "to awaken and strengthen the Benfe of unity among the people of German origin in America." Still another was "to combat Puri- tan influences, particularly in the form ol restrictions upon the liquor traffic." "The alliance," its preliminary statement af aims concludes, "is pledged to bring its entire organization organiza-tion to the support of any state federation fed-eration which is engaged in the struggle strug-gle for any of these objects " It was pledged, in other words, to have its members vote, not as individuals, indi-viduals, but as German controlled units, for or against anything of which they did not approve. The desire for resisting "nativistic encroachments" waa particularly abhorrent ab-horrent to American ideals, because t-be effort in' this country has always been to keep politics free from racial or religious influences. Yet here was a body, proclaiming itself German in origin and thought, seeking to perpetuate per-petuate this German feeling in the mldtt of America. From its very start the alliance sought to foment discord with England. Eng-land. It always spoke of the American Ameri-can press as "the Anglo-American" press, and it carried out a long and well directed campaign for the introduction intro-duction of the German language into j I the schools and its use in civil life. It did not want its members to be-i be-i come Americanized even sufficiently. to speak to their brothers in the land . of their adoption in the language of . this country. , "The National alliance," according to an issue of its official bulletin be-I be-I fore this nation entered the war, "is waging war against Anglo-Saxonism, against the fanatical enemies of personal per-sonal liberty and political freedom; it is combating narrow minded benight-ed benight-ed know-nothingism, the inlluence of the British, and the enslaving Puritanism Puri-tanism which had its birth in England." Eng-land." Again, in another issue of the bulletin, bul-letin, it says: "Our own prestige depends de-pends upon the prestige of the fatherland, father-land, and for that reason we cannot allow any di -paragement of Germany to go unpunished." "The race war which we will be compelled to go through with on American soil will be our world war," said the New York Staats Zmiung in fighting a proposal to amend the New York constitution to make ability to speak and write the English language a quiroment for suffrage. Ludwig Pulda wrote a book, "American "Amer-ican Impressions." They were impressions impres-sions of a German who had studied this nation with a view to seeing it ultimately Germanized. "Germaniza-tion "Germaniza-tion is synonymous with causing to Speak German," he said, "and speaking speak-ing German means to remain German Ger-man " This may throw some light on the effort to perpetuate the subsidized German language pres in this country. coun-try. If immigrants from Germany spoke and read English. the were likely to become Americans The National alliance called upon all of its hundreds of local societies to work for the enactment of laws making the teaching of the German language in the public schools compulsory. com-pulsory. At the same time it was helping to support and encourage hundreds hun-dreds of schools in this countrv in which the instruction was entirely In German. Had there been an etfort made to make fDe teaching of the language lan-guage of this nation compulsory in those schools., you can imagine the outcry against "personal liberty" that would have been raised. Wherever there were sign nf discontent, dis-content, of a movement which might tend to disrupt this country, or any other which Germany might find as a commercial rival, the German -American alliance was sure to be on the job. It gave support to the Irish-American Irish-American societies, because these societies, so-cieties, before the war, were working for the separation of Ireland from England, a matter in which Germany, 'at. that time, could have no legitimate legiti-mate interest. But Germany, even then, was preparing for war. and was) doing every possible thing to weaken I i coming enemies A disorganized! America, one filled with German reservists, re-servists, would be in no position to side with her enemies. Germany figured. fig-ured. On this subject the much "quoted "quot-ed Bernhardl wrote- "Measures must be taken at least lo the extent of providing that the German element is not split up in the world, but remains united in compact blocks, and thus forms, even in foreign for-eign countries, political centers of gravity in our favor. The isolated groups of Germans abroad greatly benefit our trade, since by preference prefer-ence they obtain goods from Germany; but they may also be useful to us politically, as we discover in America, The German-Americans have formed a political alliance with the Irish, and thus united constitute a power in the state with which the American government gov-ernment must reckon " Can tbero be anything more doliber-ate doliber-ate than this statement of Germany's aims to mold American political institutions in-stitutions in favor of the fatherland? How far they had succeeded is shown by the actions of some members of our congress and senate just before and after war was declared. With the outbreak of the war in Europe the actions of the German -American alliance became bolder. The campaign for membership took on new vigor. An address was issued calling upon Americans of Oerman origin to como to a consciousness of their unity, to hold fast to their language and to the customs and culture or their fathers. fath-ers. Efforts were made to scare the American public into believing that war with Japan was imminent, though Japan was engaged in fighting Germany Ger-many So serious were the plots to embroil us with England that arrests were made here of persons who actually planned a German - American invasion of Canada. Mexico was so stirred up by German intrigue that when the war started many persons actually belioved our troops would see their first and perhaps hardest fighting on the Mexican Mexi-can border, and the first mobilization was toward that threatened lino. An enormous Negro uprising was actually planned, and emissaries were sent here to foment It by Germans who had made themselves believe that the southern statos, with their large Negro populations, could be made to rebel. The utter ridiculousness of the plan does not detract from the fact that1 Germany, by every moans In its power, pow-er, was trying to disorganize our government gov-ernment and overthrow our institutions. |