Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917)Johnson, Douglas Wilson
History
Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917)
Johnson, Douglas Wilson
World War, 1914-1918 -- Public opinion
In addition to all this, Germany's cause has been most vigorously
championed by many Germans and German-Americans long resident in
America. Münsterberg and others have published numerous articles and
books in Germany's favour. Every possible plea to justify Germany's
position has been enthusiastically spread abroad by the German-American
press, and with that love of "fair play" which is a widely-recognised
characteristic of Americans, even those papers which believe Germany
responsible for the war and its worst horrors, have printed volumes of
material from pro-German authors in order that the whole truth might be
known by a full and free discussion of both sides of every question. I
have read many pro-German articles in the _New York Times_, the _New
York Sun_, the _Outlook_, and other papers and magazines opposed to
German policy--articles by Münsterberg, Kuno Franke, Von Bernstorff,
Dernburg, and other staunch defenders of Germany. The columns of our
papers are freely open to every authoritative champion of the German
cause, no matter what the editorial policy of the papers may be. Never
was fuller and freer opportunity for defence accorded to anyone than has
been given to the friends of Germany to present in print to the American
public every possible justification for Germany's acts. Only the
grossest ignorance of the actual facts could ever lead anyone to make
the charge in good faith that the truth about Germany has been
concealed from Americans. Your letter did not contain a single statement
or argument that has not been printed over and over again in papers from
one end of America to the other by various defenders of the German
cause. Germany's official documents issued in defence of her position at
the beginning of the war, her charges of atrocities against her enemies
and her supposed proofs of the falsity of atrocity charges against the
Germans, have all been published fully and widely, although you seem not
to be aware of this fact.
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