Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1917 — STIRS HATRED IN ALSACE-LORRAINE [ARTICLE]

STIRS HATRED IN ALSACE-LORRAINE

German Misrule on Conquered Provinces Fosters ProFrench Spirit. DRASTIC MEASURES ADOPTED Newspapers Held to Most Severe Code of Laws—Cartoonists Arouse Fury of Berlin Officials and Are Thrown Into Prison. Washington. —Observers are studying with increased interest the political history of Alsace-Lorraine. The course of this Reichland’s history is recognized as one of the most significant in the story of the world. Through a multitude of other causes of the holocaust in Europe, the case of AlsaceLorraine presents itself with a* growing significance. It is here that Prussia Initiated her grand mistake and, through the forcible cession of this state, engineered the hatreds and “Welt-Politlk” for which she is paying now with all that humankind hold most dear and precious. In 1872, when the German confederation was formed, this booty land was considered as a prize of the confederation as a whole, with the regulative powers vested in the king of Prussia. The state was permitted to send delegates to the reichstag, but could not be represented in the bundesrat, the real power in governmental Germany. With the usual asininity of German officialdom, the assimilation of the people was hurried, and hurried by most unwise and impossible measures. The idea seems to have been that an assimilation could take in one, or, nt /the most, two generations, and that it could be effected while the people paid Prussian tuxes and were not granted representation in the laying of said taxes. As a necessary vent to human nature, the result was the failure of Prussian poHce methods all during the first thirty years of the occupation. What happened after that in Metz, Colmer, Strassbourg and Mulhouse we shall see.

Prussian Misrule. The year 1910 marks the new period of Prussian misrule. The use of Freech was stringently forbidden on tombstones, In courts of justice, In the schools and In public gatherings. Indeed, severe punishment has been meted out for the use of the French language In certain private and semiprivate gatherings. German Immigrants shipped into the Reichsland bred children, only to have them take sides with the Indigenous population in their clamor for annexation to Germany on an equal basis with the other German states. This latter point, contrary to general belief, was actually just what the Alsatians agitated for. French, culture and ideals began to have their effect when nil importunities and pleadings for a relaxation of Prussian oppressive methods and a representation in the government failed. Prussian rule remained inflexible. Guarantees and alterations were promised and seemingly complied with, only to have the people discover, when the smoke of Prussian bland duplicity cleared away, that they were bound more helplessly than ever. <- In the spring of 1912 the Prussians further showed their disapproval of the agitation engendered by attempting to ruin the Alsatian factories at Grafenstndeff, bear Strassbourg, by withdrawing 1 ' ,all ordefs for locomotives for the Prussian railways. In the month of May, in this same year, the popular indignation, already Inflamed, was fanned to fever heat by the remarks of the German emperor to the mayor of Strassbourg, during an imperial visit to the city. He is , reported to have said: "Listen. Up to here you have only known the good side of me. Things cannot continue as they are. If this situation lasts, we will suppress your •constitution’ and annex you to Prussia.” Alsatian newspapers w-*re held to a narrow course by a most severe code of laws, but suspensions were taking - place every day. To be profitable, a Journal could do naught else, but sup-

port the Berlin policies. A school of cartoonists came to the fore, and, by a series of caustic and meaning cartoons, indicted Berlin till the officials in their fury, began placing prison sentences indiscriminately among cartoonists and journalists. And so, France, who had represented to the heroes of 1793 the beau-ideal of democracy, came gradually to the fore as' the influence in Alsace-Lor-raine. Her cfalture.her Ideals and her citizenship became valued dreaiws of loyal Alsatians. But far off dreams they seemed; and the Alsatians, iu their growing love for the republic, could not harbor the thought that France should suffer the throes of a war with remorseless Prussia for their sake. But the war was coming, and to Alsatians it means as all observers agree, a reunion with France. But, queer enough, the world begins to see that the treaty of Frankfortwas the germ of the present holocaust, and that it leads to the utter destruction of Prussian autocracy and world autocracy—that Alsace-Lorraine had been picked to bear the cross —to suffer that the world might he relieved from the burden on the shoulders of all humans, from Herod down to Wilhelm.