The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective LeagueHough, Emerson
History
The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective League
Hough, Emerson
American Protective League; Propaganda, German; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- United States
It must be pointed out that in spite of this charge of the judge, and
in spite of the sentence of this minister of the gospel, his flock
remained loyal to him and invited him back to preach when he got out of
jail!
It has always been charged against the Germans in America that they
were the most clannish of all the foreigners coming to settle in
this country. They, longer than any other people, retain their own
institutions, their own language, their own customs. In parts of
the country there are schools which teach the German language more
than they do the English—a practice which, in all likelihood, will
be discontinued when the troops come back from France and Germany.
Without any doubt or question, pro-German school teachers were German
propagandists, usually of the indiscreet and hotheaded sort.
From Terre Haute, Indiana, comes a complaint regarding Miss Lena
Neubern—that is what we will call her—a hot socialist and worse, who
was a school teacher. Miss Neubern had two brothers in that city who
refused to allow an American flag to be placed in front of their
store, or to allow their clerks to attend the parade of the Third
Liberty Loan. A committee of citizens called on them and told them
“in strong term what was expected of them.” Miss Neubern taught her
school children, Americans, that the “Kaiser was just as good a man
as President Wilson; that the United States was in this war, not for
democracy, but for commercial supremacy; that the United States was as
greedy as Germany; that we were controlled by England, always the enemy
of the United States.” Miss Neubern refused to allow the Star Spangled
Banner to be sung in her room, and did all she could to hinder the sale
of Thrift Stamps among the children, though in other schools large
numbers of stamps had been sold. This active and intelligent young
woman pleaded guilty of this charge and was dismissed by the school
board. One wonders whether the German Government would have stopped at
the dismissal in a similar instance!
Another form of German propagandist might have been found higher up
in educational circles. The faculties of our great universities have
always been made up in part of a class of men who are of the belief
that intellect and scholarship are best shown by eccentricity and
radicalism. More than that, we had a number of actual Germans in our
university faculties in America. Since it is the proposition here to
deal in concrete facts and not in mere general assertions, let us
print something which came in, embodied in the report from Champaign,
Illinois.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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