me when the motherland asks
them to throw away their exemption papers, in an hour when civilization,
liberty and humanity are treasures trembling in the balance.

3. German Stupidity in Avoiding the Draft

Following the revolution of 1848 in Germany, multitudes of people fled
from Prussia and Bavaria, and these fugitives, settling in the United
States, organized colonies that grew until there were often one hundred
families in a single community. Strangely enough, as the years went on,
these Germans forgot the iron yoke they once had borne, until, when many
years had passed by, it came about that time and distance lent a glamour
to the landscape of the far-off Fatherland. Occasional letters from
their relatives kept them in touch with the old German home. At last
they quite forgot the militarism, the poverty, the cruel limitations and
the hypocrisy of Germany. Familiarity also with the institutions of the
Republic bred a kind of contempt. Through the imagination Germany became
an enchanted land. When, therefore, war was declared these
German-Americans came together in their clubs, beer gardens and German
churches, to pledge unswerving fealty to the Kaiser and to the
militarism from which once they had fled as from death itself.

Last summer brought the Government draft to the young men of one of
these German colonies. The week was approaching when the German boys
must have their physical examination. American officers, American
physicians and the members of the draft board were already in session
in a certain town. One Sunday a German-American physician appeared in
that community. That night some twenty or more young German-Americans
met that physician. He told them plainly how deeply he sympathized with
their unwillingness to turn their guns against their own German cousins
and relatives in the Fatherland. Out of pity and compassion had been
born his plan to save their limbs and perhaps their lives, and also to
serve the Fatherland and the beloved Kaiser. "I have here," said the
physician, "a certain heart depressant. It will slow your heart like the
brake on an automobile. It is a simple coal-oil product. It is quite
harmless. It was made by the well-known German firm of Baer & Company,
chemists, and it is so cheap. I shall see to it that you are rejected
for the draft. And--think of it!--only twenty-five dollars! For that
little sum I will keep you from being wounded or killed. You will each
one give me twenty-fi