The Hanover College Triangle
"Use Discrimination in Display of Loyalty," Hanover College Triangle, 30 March 1918, p. 1, 4.
The Hanover College Triangle
"Use Discrimination in Display of Loyalty," Hanover College Triangle, 30 March 1918, p. 1, 4.
A number of the American people in this country are acting in an improper and injudicious manner in reference to everything that happens to bear a German name, or that has any reference to Germany or to any prominent person in German history.
The actions of all our people should be such as to make the Germans feel that this is their country and that the American people are their best friends. There are 10,000,000 or more people in the United States who are either natives or Germany or of German descent.
No efforts should be avoided to discover and ferret out all German spies and those who are enimies of our government, and to inflict upon them the severest legal punishment, but it is unjust to cast suspicion upon all those who bear a German name, for there is no doubt but that a large majority of them are loyal to our government.
What good can be accomplished by changing the name of a street or building simply because it may bear a German name? Such petty actions have a tendency to cause Germans to believe that anything German is hated and not induce them to feel more friendly or loyal to our government.
President Wilson has often asserted that the present war is not being prosecuted against the mass of the German people, but that is waged against the Kaiser and his followers because of the despotic, autocratic, and undemocratic government maintained by them and their murderous, inhuman, and barbarous acts and policies in the conduct of the war. The war is also being prosecuted to protect all civilized countries from being overrun and dominated by the despotism and militaristic rule of Germany.
It is wrong for Americans to foster or encourage feelings of hatred toward everything that may bear a German name and to create a prejudice against all persons of German origin or descent. If American parents entertain such feelings and are continuously expressing the same in their homes their children, who will soon be following their conduct, will ignore, ostracise, and very probly impose upon their associates who are of German blood, and such actions will cause German parents to resent such conduct and a race prejudice and hatred will result. The proper spirit on on this subject was manifested at the Dr. Bohn meeting at Indianapolis last Saturday night. Let Americans so conduct themselves as to cause all loyal Germans to believe that they and their government are their true and honest friends, and that it is to their interest to regard the United States government as their only protector and the only place where they can obtain equal privileges in governmental affairs with all others.