Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1920 — SEES G. O. P. BID FOR GERMAN VOTE [ARTICLE]

SEES G. O. P. BID FOR GERMAN VOTE

The following letter, from a German citizen to an Indianapolis Republican paper of a few days ago should be interesting to German voters everywhere: To the Editor: Sir —The almost complete reversal of public sentiment relating to the political situation, wrich is witnessed all over our country, Is absolute evidence that our people are sound at heart and that" they will resent most emphatically any attempt by any political party to aipeal for votes on racial, religious or personal grounds. A few weeks ago Republican success in the coming election was practically conceded. The Republican leaders had adroitly played their game to discredit the Democratic administration. The people were ready for a change, but these leaders overplayed their cards when they appealed to the people of German birth and extraction for their support as Germans instead of Americans. For me It was heartbreaking to have to see the citizens of my blood again misled, as they have been in the past, by unscrupulous leaders who should be discredited on account of the misery brought on many innocent- of any wrong, by their attitude before, during and after the world war, toward the government of this, our country. I warned in private and in public that the unavoidable result of their actions and propaganda would be that every person with a German name would be looked on with suspicion, but I was called a renegade and ostracized by many of the people whose best interests I sought to promote. When the war was won, I .hoped that time would heal the wounds and that we all would become reconciled to each other, forgetting the past, all working-for a glorious future for this country, which had defied and defeated the military autocrats, and overthrown by its -influence the thrones of potentates, proving to the world that governments by and for the people had found its champion. It is deplorable that a great party with a glorious past, the party of Lincoln, should choose for its leaders men of small caliber, who were willing to sacrifice American interests for the sake of political success. The attitude of the German newspapers in this campaign is. significant. Never since I have been a voter has the German press in this country been so exclusively on the side of one party in a political contest, as it is on the side of the Republican party this. year. As an American of German birth, I rejoice that public opinion is exerting itself and is condemning the party whose leaders forget that they must be Americans first an 4 partisans afterward. GEORGE S. SCHAUER.