New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1: From the Beginning to March, 1915, With IndexVarious
History
New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1: From the Beginning to March, 1915, With Index
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Many things have been revealed to us by this war that even the
keenest-minded among us would have declared immediately before its
outbreak to be impossibilities. Nothing, however, has been a greater and
more painful surprise to Germans than the position taken by a great part
of the American press. There is nothing that we would have suspected
less than that within the one neutral nation with which we felt
ourselves most closely connected, both by common interests and by common
ideals, voices would be raised that in the hour of our greatest danger
would deny us their sympathy, yes, even their comprehension of our
course.
To me, personally--I cannot avoid saying it--this was a very bitter
disappointment. A year has hardly passed since I was over there the
second time as a guest and returned strengthened in my admiration for
that great, upward striving community. In my book, "Amerikanische
Eindrucke," ("American Impressions,") a new edition of which has just
appeared in a considerably supplemented form, comprising the fruits of
that trip, I have made every effort to place before my countrymen in the
brightest light the advantages and superiorities of Americans, and
especially to convince them that the so-called land of the dollar was
not only economically but also mentally and spiritually striding upward
irresistibly; that also in the longing and effort to obtain education
and knowledge and in the valuation of all the higher things in life, it
was not surpassed by any other country in the world. In the entire book
there is not a page that is not filled with the confidence that for
these very reasons America and Germany were called upon to march hand in
hand at the head of cultured humanity. Is this belief now to be
contradicted? Shall I as a German no longer be permitted to call myself
a friend of America because over there they think the worst of us for
the reason that we, attacked in dastardly wise by a world of foes, are
struggling with unanimous determination for our existence?
*Guillotining German Honor.*
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