i\il'lvii>iiu^iiiHii!lpfciuii!\t.. ' '^^ ■-- ^^ iVA^ »Ho^ \cf .<* <^. ^y ^. - •^^ '... *> .0 <^ 0^ -•'"'^""'■■iiiiiWMl'iiiii i ill''-' ii*iiiwiiiiiiit[ni'ni>>rii-iir'ri-" • klSfaUB i Timely Topics 44 THE HYPHEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY" An address by Mr. GEORGE S E I B E L. Reproduced from the ieto'l^te ^M|-JAti0. Monday, September 4, 1916. ^«^^s^s$^^s$.^^MMMms ^ — 1 — Timely Topics "THE HYPHEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY" I wish to call attention to the following address, delivered by Mr. George Seibol, Editor of the Pitts- burgh "Volksblatt & Freiheits- ^reund", at Johnstown, Pa., on German Day, August 31, 1916. During the past two years a new disease has made its appearance in the United States, a malignant malady, which no one has ever suspected before. It originated in something that seems to be harm- less enough — a mere mark of punctuation. Of course, those who are familiar with the history of medicine have heard of the dangerous comma bacillus, dis- covered by Doctor Koch. He had some idea of the perils which lurked in the printer's case, yet even he couldn't have realized what a dire menace was hid in the seemingly innocuous hyphen. It remained for a famous Doctor from Princeton to discover this, and his horrifying discovery was verified by the researches of an- other wise man — the peerless navi- gator of the River of Doubt, the eminent founder of the Ananias Club, the mighty hunter of the Whiskered Bird, the discoverer of the Ten Commandments. It is not necessary to mention his name. L(>t us try to forget him along with Harry Thaw! The hyphen, however, is danger- ous only in certain combinations. You may be an Anglo-Saxon, or a British-American, or Scotch-Irish, or a score of other things with hyphens, and the hyphen will be a mark of distinction and a badge of honor. But if you are a German- American — that is, during the past two years — the hyphen is as dread- ful as the brand of Cain. Formerly, when a careless workman smoked a pipe in a powder factory and was blown up, people said it served him right. Nowadays, when hundreds of careless and unskilled \\orkmen all over the country, raked up from everywhere to manufacture munitions, blow up themselves and the factories where they work eighteen hours a day, the cry is at once raised "Hunt the Hyphen!" If somebody with a German name, having heard that an American nurse in Germany died of blood-poisoning because she had no antiseptic rubber gloves, attempts to smuggle some sheet rubber into Germany, he is at once hailed before a tribunal for the violation of American neutrality. He or she is bitterly attacked in scurrilous articles on the front pages of papers which circulate especially in the circles that year after year swindle the United — 2 — Gift Carnegie Inetitutioii — Of WMiumn p i^ — States Government by smuggling silks and furs from Europe, though they could well afforfl to pay the duties. But it makes a great deal of difference \\'hether a British- American hyphenate smuggles furs and silks into America or whether a German-American hy- phenate tries to smuggle rubber into Germany. The one is only cheating the American people, but the other is disobeying the British Foreign Office. It would take a day to tell you all the horrors aiid jerimes com- mitted by these wicked Hyphens. Why, do you know, some have even had the audacity to say that they would not vote for the re- election of President Wilson! They don't cai'e, it seems, how bad the "London Times" might feel if King George's American viceroy shovihl be deposed. These wicked Hyphens are utterly devoid of human sympathy. Some of them even had the temerity to criticise this same President Wilson when he refused to attend the unveiling of a monu- ment to Genei-al Nathaniel Greene. Who was General Greene? Second in command to George Washing- ton. Who was George Washing- ton? He was a hyphenate of 177G. Do you know that if you printed extracts to-day from the writings of Washington, Jefferson, Frank- lin, Paine, and their associates, and attempted to smuggle them into Canada oi' Ireland or India, you would probably be arrested? Why, there is even a little pamphlet written by William .Jennings Bi-yan, to bring which into India would subject a man to being cast into jail. Sometimes I wish that old Johann Peter Zenger coidd come back to us. Zengei', a German hyphenate of the year 1733, was the first ai)ostle and martyr of the American free press. He founded the first newspaper in America tlsal tried to toll the truth. The truth, then as now, was unpalat- al)le to the English authorities, so Zenger's paper was ordered to be burned by the hangman, and Zenger was thrown into jail. A trifling inconvenience like that did not scare a man like Zenger. He kept on editing his paper from his cell, giving insti-uctions to the printers through a crack of the door. After years of persecution he established in America the princi- ple of the free press, free until it was again fettered i)y chains of British gold. Remember that it was a Ger- man-American hyphenate who first secured for America the liberty of the press. The hyphen- ates have been first in a great many things, their connections with which in our days has almost been forgotten. Above all, they have always been first in every fight for liberty, in every battre against oiipression, in every war for human rights. Do you know that the first pro- test against negro slavery voiced on this continent came from Ger- mantown in the year 1688, and the arguments were such that it was impossible to refute them? It took nearly 150 years for the Puritans of New England to catch up with the humane idealism of Franz Daniel Pastorius and his comrades, whom Whittier has called "The German-born pilgrims who first dared to brave The scorn of the proud in the cause of the slave." Do you know that the first rebel against British tyranny on this continent was a hyphenate, .Jacob Leislei'? Just as, two centuries later, the first men on this conti- 3 — nent to preach the new economic gospel of Socialism were hyphen- ated Germans. Do you know that the first Bihle printed in America was printed hy the hyi)h(Miated Christoph Saur in 1743, forty years before any o,ther Bil)le was printed in America? Do you know that fully two hundred years earlier a German hyphenate, Johann Cromberger, had established the first printing office in the new world, in the city of Mexico? Do you l;now that the first book on educatiori written in America was written by Christoph Dock in 1754, and that the first kinder- garten was brought over in 182G by Fred eric h Rapp? Do you know that the first American Encyclopedia was com- piled by Francis Lieber in 1828? Tlie things of the mind and the spirit were always their first con- cern, but the German Pilgrims have been no less conspicuous as pioneers in the fields of industry and commerce. Do you know that Wilhelm Rit- tenhaus in 1690 erected the first paper mill in America? Do you know that Thomas Ru(»t- ter in 1716 founded the first iron- works in Pennsylvania? Do you know that another Ger- man, Kaspar Wuester, in 1738, founded the first glass factory in America? Do you know that a hyphenated Pennsylvania Dutchman, Thon^as Leiper, in 1806, constructed tlie first railroad in America? Do you know that a Gcrmaii built the first steamboat tluit I^lowed ovu^ western waters, and another German as her captain made the first trip to New Or- leans? Do you know that the first sus- pension bridge was flung, a hyphen of steel, across an Ameri- can river by the hyphenated Jo- hann August Roebling, as if he wished to impress upon the world the fact that the hyphen unites, it does not separate? Do you know that a hyphenated German-American is "the foremost electrical engineer of the United States, and therefore of the world"? I am quoting the words of the President of Harvard Uni- versity in conferring a degree upon Karl P. Steinmetz. How many of our giant enter- prises were fovmded by these des- pised hyphenates! I shall name only four. The great United States Steel Corporation sprang from the furnaces of Andreas and Anton Kloman, started about 1850; the family of the man who may be re- garded as the father of the modern Department Store, John Wana- niaker, was originally known as V/annemacher; the ancestors of the founder of the Standard Oil JMisiness were called Roggenfelder; nnd all over the world, in 57 languages, you will see the praise of the 57 varieties associated with th(> hyphenated name of Heinz. Even so in the contiguous realms of beauty and of truth, in the radiant creations of art and the stupendous achievements of science, the Germans in America have done their share and need not be ashamed. Do you know that the Capitol at Washington, the most majestic structure in the new world, is the work of a German hyphenate? Do you Iviio.v that the most beautiful building in the new world, the Library of Congress, is also tiie work of two hyphenated Ger- mans? Do >'ou know tliat the two largest telescopes and the two most important observatories in — 4 — the United States were the gift of two hyphenates, Lick and Yerkes? A German - American, Ileinrich Schliemann, (hig up the hiu'ied grandeur of Greece and raised the miglity men of Homer from tlie world of shades. Do you know that Johann Eeh- rent, in 1775, huilt the first Am(>ri- can piano? Do you know that you can't huy an unhyphenated i)iano w'ortli i)laying? The Germans have given us the singing society and the sympliony orchestras, two great agencies to upHft and civilize the human family. But in more utilitarian fields of humanitarian endeavor we also owe to them some of our most admirable institutions. It was a German Barliarian, Henry Bergh, who founded the societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals and children. It was a German Hun, Arthur von Briesen, who started the first Legal Aid Society, the precursor of hundreds, in the new world and the old, that Iiave helped to bring justice to the poor man. But there is another fi(>l(l in which the Germans of America- have not been so prominent — the f^eld of politics. They have a con- stitutional incapacity which they will have to overcome, for the sake of democracy. Politics in a demo- cracy is the art of asking for some- thing and getting your neighbors to think they are making you take it. Tlie average German prefers to earn what he gets and to o \e no man anything, and this has kept him away from the grab-bag. But so far as he has gone into poli- tics, he has always been the ideal- ist, the statesman of pure pvu'pose and lofty courage. Do you know that the original Lincoln man was Gustav Koerner, a bold l)ad hyphenate — what our whipped curs would call a "pro- fessional German"? Do you know that Christian Roselius, a hyphe- nate of Louisiana, was one nian who had the patriotic courage to refuse to sign the Confederate con- stitution? Do you know that the first treas- urer of the United States was a hy- phenated German-American, Hil- legas? He served for fourteen years, and helped pull Uncle Sam out of many a hole. Look at his picture on the next ten-dollar bill you hand over to the Geiman Red Cross Fund. Do you know that the first speaker of the American Congress was a hyphenated German-Ameri- can, Muehlenberg? And in our generation the father of Civil Ser- vice Reform was that great cham- pion of liberty in two worlds, the dauntless fighter of 1848 and 1801, the sage and statesman CiU'l Schurz. If they have not held so many of the offices, the German-Ameri- cans have fought more of the battles of America. In every great conflct they have poured their blood, blood from the Rhine and the Oder, from the Elbe and the Danube, upon the altar of i)atriotic devotion. The war of American Indepen- dence was lai-gely fought by Ger- man .soldiers. When Washington called for volunteers, the first to arrive were German sharpshooters from Berks County. Squads of Ger- man-American riflemcMi tramped six hundred miles from Virginia and Massachusetts to help throw the British out of the American colonies. It seems that they did not succeed in throwing all of them out, and a few more squads should go up to Boston and finish the job. When a conspiracy against - o Washington's life was discovered, it became necessary to provide him with a liody-giiard that could be trusted absohitely. Where was sucli a body-guard to be found? Wiicre but among tiie Germans of Berks and Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania? Their captain was Major Bartholomaous von Heer, a Prussian. If any one had come to Geoi'ge Washington, the friend of Heer and Steuben, and told him it was necessary to crush the Prus- sians, George Washington would have had the Tory scoundrel locked in the guard-house. It was not only the hundred and fifty stalwart men of Washington's body-guard that showed how the Germans stood during the war of Independence. When Congress ordered Pennsylvania to furnish six companies, our hyphenated state furnished nine, four of them entirely German. A German ma- nufacturer furnished most of the cannon and rifles for Washington's army, and when the .soldiers were starving nine Germans donated $100,000 to buy provisions. When Congress was at the point of re- fusing more money for the pvn-- chase of arms, one man got up and said: "I am only a poor ginger- i)read baker, but write my name down for two hundred pounds." Mis name was Christoph Ludwig, and he was a hyphenate. I have often wondered whether he was related to the heroine Molly Pit- cher, who wns also a hyphenated American. Molly's maiden name was Marie Ludwig, lest we foi-get. The German bakers played a considerable role at that time. Frau Margareta Greider for sev- eral months provided the Ameri- can soldiers with bread, refusing to accept pavment, and in addition she svdjsciiued 1500 guineas for the American cause. To tell of Johann von Kalb, who died at Camden, would require an ei)ic. His death was no less heroic than that of Nathan Hale. "This is nothing," were his last words; "I am dying the death I huxo longed for. I am dying for a country fighting for juslice and liberty." Yet he was only a Bai*- barian, only a Him, like Baion von Steuben, who came from the ar- mies of Frederick the Great to drill the armies of Washington. Steuben found at Valley Forge an untrained mob, ready to disband in desperation. Some officers were in gowns made of bedspreads. It took $400 to buy a pair of' boots. Steidjen changed all this, i - From the time he came upon the scene, there was an American army. At Yorktown the last British army on American soil surrendered to this Prussian. So the Germans drove the British from America. Alas, they have come hack and taken Washington. Ah, would that Muehlenberg and Ilerkiinei', Kalb and Steuben could come back to- day! No names in American history shine more radiantly that those of M'\.jhlcnherg and Herkimer. Sec Muehlenbei'g in his pulpit, preach- ing his last sei-mon! "There is a time for jiraying. But there is also a time for fighting. That time has now come!" He throws off his clerical cassock and beneath it is the uniform of Waslnngton's Con- tinentals. Several humlred mem hers of his congregation enlisted in his regiment. That other hero, Herkimer, paid with his life for the victory of Oriskany, which sealed the fate of Burgoyne's army. Smoking his pipe and i-eading the 38th Psalm, his spirit passed into the realm of shadows, to walk beside Leonidas and Winkelried. — — Do you know that Armistead, who defended Fort McHenry against the British, was a hyphenated Hessian? But for him it would have heen sad mockeiy to ask with Fi-ancis Scott Key "Oh say, does, that Star-Spangled Banner still wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" During the Civil war, also, the despised and maligned hyphenates played a prominent part in the preservation of the Union. As compared with other nationalities, tlio Germans furnished fifty per cent more than their quota of men to the armies of the North. One German family, the Penny packers, furnished 88 men, from common soldiers to a major-general. The first volunteers to enlist were the German Turners of Washington. Three days after Lincoln's call, twelve hundred Germans in Cin- cinnati were ready to march. That was real preparedness! To-day preparedness consists in being ready to sell ammvmition to the government at a flat profit. No less than forty-eight Ger- mans rose to the rank of General in the Union armies. Their nam - are not as familiar as some others, because they did not think that their service entitled them to be kept on the public payroll the re- rhainder of their lives. But tlicre are no more distinguished names than those on this roster: Gen. Carl Schurz Gen. Franz Sigel Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr Gen. Alex, von Schimmelpfennig Gen. Louis Blenker Gen. Peter Osterhaus Gen. George von Schack Gen. Konrad Krez Gen. Alban Schoepf Gen. Julius Stahel Gen. Samuel Peter Heinzelmann Gen. J. H. Heinzelmann Gen. Louis Wagner Gen. August Kautz Gen. Hugo Wangelin Gen. G. Pennypacker Gen. Friedrieh Ilecker Gen. Max Weber Gen. August Willich Gen. Friedrieh Salomon Gen. Karl Salomon Gen. Edward S. Salomon Gen. Isaak Wister Gen. Heinrich von Bohlen Gen. Adolph Hassendeubel Gen. Louis Zahm Gen. Gottfried Weitzel Gen. Theodor Schwan Gen. Adolph Buschlieck Gen. Wilhelm Heine Gen. Gustav Kaemmerling Gen. Louis von Blessing Gen. August Mohr Gen. Julius Raith Gen. F. C. Winkler Gen. Johann A. Koltes Gen. Herman Li eh Gen. Alexander von Schrader Gen. William C. Kueffner Gen. George W. Mindel Gen. Felix Salm-Salm Gen. G. R. Paul Gen. Karl Leopold Mathies Gen. Edward S. Meyer Gen. George A. Custer Gen. Adolph Engelmann Gen. Joseph Gerhardt Gen. Hermann Haupt Forty-eight names — and there are others. If it had not been for the Ger- mans, both Missouri and Maryland would have been lost to the Union. One third of the Union armies was of German blood. One man out of every ten was born in Germany. General Robert E. Lee said, and Mrs. Jeff Davis repeated the senti- ment: "Take the Dutch out of the Union Army, and we could lick the Yankees easily." Yet this man Wilson in Wash- — 7 ingtoii dares to question tlie loyalty of tlic German-Americans! Where were the Wilsons in the great crisis of the rebellion? Some were too proud to fight. Others were shouldering gvms for the Confed- eracy, sliooting down Union sol- diers with Bi'itish bullets! Is it any wonder that Wilson insists we must furnish ammunition to Eng- land? He is paying off a family debt. Let me tell you that if some Gib- bon of the future will have to write the Decline and Fall of the United States, there will be no German names in his roll-call of infamy. Germans have cemented with their sweat and their blood the battlements of Liberty's citadel. It was not they that admitted the treacherous island pirates to our gates. Aside from one man, who made the name of Bethlehem a mockery of peace, they were not Germans who sold to our worst enemy the bombs and bayonets to murder our best friend. It was nol the Germans in America who stood by smiling while Russia immolat- ed the Jews and Japan strangled China. It was not the Germans in America that sold their birthright for a Carnegie pension or a Rhodes scholarship. It was not the Ger- mans in America who betrayed the plans of the Irish Renublic to Britain and sullied their soul> with the blood of Dul)lin's hero band. It was not the Germans in America who spat upon the Declar- ation of Independence and cringed before the blood-stained bullies that called Abraham Lincoln an ape! The German-Americans believe in the hyphen, but they know that the hyphen is a mark of union, not of separation. Firm as a wall of iron they have stood in defense of true Ameri- canism. As a rock of granite thev still will stand, amid the storm of calumny and defamation, to save our country from a new British tonciuest. Morgan may give them our banks, and they may buy our newspapers, but Justice is mightier than Gold, and Truth defies the slanderous darts of Malice. We can cry with Brutus, that "We are armed so strong in honesty That your words pass by us as the idle wind. Which we respect not!" And like Ai-mistead at Fort Me Henry, like Kichlein at Long Island, like Herkimer at Oriskany, like Quitman at Chapultepec, like Osterhaus on Lookout Mountain, like Schurz and Stcinwehr on Cemetery Ridge, like Schley at Santiago, like Barbara Frietchie waving her flag before the eyes of traitors, the Germans will be on the firing line in any crisis — not watchfully waiting, but striking hard blows for the honor and glory of our flag and our country, the priceless heritage of liberty, the radiant hope of humanity, that government of the people, by the people, and for the people may not perish from the face of the earth! This reprint of Mr. Seibel's ad- dress is a consequence of countless ai)plications to The Staats-Zeitung for copies of its issue of the 4th of September, in which the address was exclusively, among metropol- itan newspapers, i)ublished in full. Its inability to supply the copies requested moves The Staats-Zei- tung to this method of meeting the wishes of its friends and the friends of racial unity in Amei-ica. M g4 ^/ ^o -ov^^ ^o .•^" . '•••' ^^ ^o-*^ '^^ -^K?. ffl WERT h o^ » ,j^^^^ • aP '