Friends of German Republic.
Editor Plain Dealer -- Sir: The Plain Dealer as well as the Leader (both English papers) announced the formation of the Society of the Friends of the German Republic. I looked for similar information in the Waechter und Anzeiger (the German paper) but have not been able to find it. There was a time, when Carl Schurz and his spirit was still alive when such information would have been printed in big type on the front page. But it is a sad fact, that the German press of this country seems to be more impressed by the Machiavellian spirit of Berlin and the principles of the kaiser and his set, than by American tradition and by what Washington and Lincoln have to say. These papers seem to admire the big first, low brows and brutish sentiments of the Prussians, of whom the Frei Herr Von Stein says: "The Prussians are a heartless, wooden, half-educated people, fit only for corporals and calculating machines." These people who have become a curse to Germany and the entire world, and German American press [patronizes].
The Society of the Friends of the German Republic has established itself at 38 Park Row, New York City, ready to distribute literature and in one of its circulars says this: "Get your friends interested in the movement. If not living in New [York], start branches of the society in your town. Show your neighbor that the people of German descent are not what so many suspect them to be -- supporters of kaiserism and militarism, but liberty loving men and women, who understand and appreciate the great issues of our time."
Are there not German Americans in this city, who believe in the Germany of E. M. Arndt, of Carl Schurz, of the Frei Herr Von Stein, who are willing and anxious to aid in such a movement, even if they cannot subscribe to every detail of it. I hope so.
CHR. SIHLER, M.D.
Cleveland.
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