REVOLT OF THE HYPHENATES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 274, 11 May 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

REVOLT OF THE HYPHENATES.

According to Mr. J. W. f. Mason, tho well-informed Now York correspondent, of tho Loudon "Express," GermanAmerica hardly knows itself in its new clothes of stars and stripes. Writing early in March, before the declaration which brought the United States right into line with the Allies, Mr Mason said: " Something is happening that is amazing German-America beyond all possibilities of amaxement hitherto considered. It is learning how to thrill at tho sight of the American flag; it is feeling frequent spurs of spontaneous patriotism that find an outlet in cheers for President Wilson: it is talking as if it really wanted to drop the hyphen; it even seems to be ashamed of what has happened within its jurisdiction during the past two and a half years." At that time, apparently, something had worked a miracle among the hyphenates. Perhaps it was the sudden thought of what would really happen to the freedom and liberty which they enjoy in the United Stales if a Germanised domination in America wore really to como to pass. Perhaps the peremptory command of the Kaiser to his U boats to go forth upon tho seas and commit indiscriminate murder, re. called to the German-American «he hardness of lite in Germany, and tho absolutist ways they had flocked to America to escape. Hut whatever tho cause, Mr Mason tells us that for soma time past the German-Americans havo been giving persistent evidence of tho veil having been torn from their eyes, at least for the time being, for doubt to exist as to the genuineness of the shock they havo received. They are showing as completely as are the unhyphenated Americans that they do \ not at all relish the idea of tho mailed fist striving to reach across the Atlantic to fling its submarines into American waters for a new field of crinio. Count John Bernstortf has been proved wrong in his estimate of the large support that would instantly be given to Germany in the United States whenever the imperial authorities at Berlin considered the time had come to put Uer-man-Amerca to the test. It was Count John Bernstorff's frequent claim tint over four million German-Americans could be wholly counted upon to throw America into a turmoil at any critical stage in relations between the United States and Germany. Kerhaps tlic bitterest disappointment to him on 'u« ■»«. parture from New York was the knowledge that ho had been sliowu to be a falo prophet. The late Professor Munsterberg made an equally erroneous estimate of the attitude of the German. Americans. Diplomatist and psychologist, both instructed in the autocratic methods of Germany, were totally incapable of appreciating what AngloSaxon freedom in America might do even to a German-American, when there arose a real question of the possibility of that freedom being threatened from across the seas. There Is somej thing in n life oF liberty that appeals j to German-Americans, just; as it doc? to other citizens of the world. In South America, Brazil took the lead in tho firmness of her Note of protest against the German menace. Yet. Brazil is tho most thoroughly Germanised of all the countries of the southern continent, and might have been expected to show somo reluctance to do anything at ail antagonistic to Berlin. On the contrary, opposition to strong, concerted action in support of the United States came not from Brazil, but elsewhere. This fact, coupled with the instantaneous rally of German-Americans to President Wilson, is said by Mr. Mason to have caused a lot of hard thinking among Americans. "They believe they see," he saya, "in the German-Ameri-can repudiation of the Kaiser, both ; n North America and in South America, a warning, which the governing powers in Berlin will heed if they arc wise. The German-born, it seems, are not willing to defend autocracy for ever, especially when it begins striking out blindly, and in a mad rage to injure whoever it can, regardless of tho innocence of tho persons attacked. As the German-Americans and the GermanBrazilians have responded to the ruth> less submarining, so may the German people at home respond some day to a new order of the Kaiser, when they realise, that ho is bent on murdering them simply to save his own dynasty from the disaster which his madness is causing. The belief is spreading among Americans that the Kaiser has done more harm to the German cause by his new U boat command than has been worked by any other development of the past year. The Beriin Government had previously alienated neutral nations, but before the instructions tor murdor-at-largo wei'o issued, there ex. isted sympathy with the Germans f.mongst the German-Americans in North and South America. Now, however, ev.n this support has vanished, and Germany is practically in complete isolation as far as loreign sentiment is concerned, for the first time since the war commenced." Once let the feelings of the German-Americans penetrate into Germany, and the longexpected internal explosion may come. In American opinion, however, the penetration will be a considerable time making its way.