THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION (Established by order of the President April 4, 1917.) Distribute free Except As Noted, the following I. Red, White, and Blue Series: No. 1. How the War Came to America (English, German, Polish, Bohemian, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish). No. 2. National Service Handbook (primarily for libraries, schools, Y. M. C. A.'s, clubs, fraternal organizations, etc., as a guide and reference work on all forms of war activity-civil, charitable, and military. No. 3. The Battle Line of Democracy. Prose and Poetry of the Great War. Price, 25 cents. Special price to schools. Proceeds to the Red Cross. Other issues in preparation. II. War Information Series: No. 1. The War Message and Facts Behind It. No. 2. The Nation in Arms, by Secretaries Lane and Baker. Hazen. No. 4. The Great War: from Spectator to Participant. No. 6. American Loyalty by Citizens of German Descent. III. Official Bulletin: Accurate daily statement of what all agencies of government are doing in war times. Sent free to newspapers and postmasters (to be put on bulletin boards). Subscription price, $5 per year. Address requests and orders to COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION, Washington, D. C. A TRIBUTE TO THE FOREIGN BORN. By WOODROW WILSON. Some of the best stuff of America has come out of foreign lands, and some of the best stuff, in America is in the men who are naturalized citizens of the United States. I would not be afraid upon the test of "America first" to take a census of all the foreign-born citizens of the United States, for I know that the vast majority of them came here because they believed in America; and their belief in America has made them better citizens than some people who were born in America. * * * I am not deceived as to the balance of opinion among the foreign-born citizens of the United States, but I am in a hurry for an opportunity to have a line-up and let the men who are thinking first of other countries stand on one side and all those that are for America first, last, and all the time on the other side. (3) GERMAN-AMERICAN LOYALTY. By C. KOTZENABE. My emotions tell me one thing at this awful time, but my reason tells me another. As a German by birth it is a horrible calamity that I may have to fight Germans. That is natural, is it not? But as an American by preference, I can see no other course open. * For 25 years Germany has shown dislike for the United States-the Samoan affair, the Hongkong contretemps, the Manila Bay incident, the unguarded words of the Kaiser himself, and, lastly, the Haitian controversy in 1914 And it has not been from mere commercial or diplomatic friction. It is because their ideals of government are absolutely opposite. One or the other must go down. It is for us to say now which it shall be. * * Because of my birth and feelings beyond my control I have no particular love for the French and less for the British. But by a strange irony of fate I see those nations giving their blood for principles which I hold dear, against the wrong principles of people I individually love. It is a very unhappy paradox, but one I can not escape. I do not want to see the allies triumph over the land of my birth. But I very much want to see the triumph of the ideas they fight for. It sickens my soul to think of this Nation going forth to help destroy people many of whom are bound to me by ties of blood and friendship. But it must be so. It is like a dreadful surgical operation. The militaristic, undemocratic demon which rules Germany must be cast out. It is for us to do it-now. I have tried to tell myself that it is not our affair, that we should have contented ourselves with measures of defense and armed neutrality. But I know that is not so. The mailed fist has been shaken under our nose before. If Prussianism triumphs in this war the fist will continue to shake. We shall be in real peril, and those ideas for which so much of the world's best blood has been spilled through the centuries will be in danger of extinction. It seems to me common sense that we begin our defense by immediate attack when the demon is occupied and when we can command assistance. There is much talk of what people like me will do, and fear of the hyphen. No such thing exists. The GermanAmerican is as staunch as the American of adoption of any other land and perhaps more so. Let us make war upon Germany, not from revenge, not to uphold hairsplitting quibbles of international law, but let us make war with our whole heart and with all our strength, because Germany worships one god and we another and because the lion and the lamb can not lie down together. One or the other must perish. Let us make war upon the Germany of the Junkerthum, the Germany of frightfulness, the Germany of arrogance and selfishness, and let us swear not to make peace until the Imperial German Government is the sovereign German people. |