Part 15

A biographer of Colonel House says that the colonel’s father was born in England and came to the United States during the Texas war for independence against Mexico, in which he participated. Texas having attained its independence, the elder House wanted Texas to become a colony of England, a project which, fortunately, did not materialize. During the Civil War, it is claimed, he acted for England in facilitating British blockade runners. As a boy Colonel House attended a school in England taught by the father of Lloyd George and the friendship between the latter and Colonel House dates back to their youth. During his stay in England he formed many close attachments for prominent young Englishmen, and, on coming into his father’s extensive property in Texas, he led the life of an English country gentleman and entertained many English gentlemen of family and fortune. His brother-in-law is Dr. Sydney Mezes, president of New York City College, who acted as chairman of the Frontier Commission at the Paris Peace Conference, and his son-in-law is Gordon Auchincloss, who acted as secretary to Colonel House.

=The Humanity of War.=--About the time of the sinking of the Lusitania, our official notes on this and other subjects in the negotiations with Germany teemed with appeals to humanity. No such view was accepted by England. In the British note of March 13, 1915, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told the President: “There can be no universal rule based on considerations of morality and humanity.”

=Illiteracy.=--As a related element of interest in the study of the war from a cultural as well as a military angle the illiteracy of some of the contesting and neutral nations bears strongly on the question:

France 14.1% Belgium 12.7% Greece 57.2% Italy 37.0% Portugal 68.9% Roumania 60.6% Russia 69.0% Serbia 78.9% United Kingdom 1.0% Austria-Hungary 18.7% Germany 0.05% Denmark 0.0?% Netherlands 0.08% Prussia 0.02% Switzerland 0.03% Sweden 0.0?%

United States, 7.7% population over 10 years. Of this, the native white population of native parents furnished 3.7% of the illiterates; the native white of foreign or mixed parentage, 1.1%. The negroes are down with 30.4% illiteracy, less than that of Italy or Greece and several other European States engaged in the task of making the world safe for democracy. Even our Indian population (45.3%) shows less illiteracy than Greece, Serbia or Roumania. The illiteracy of our white foreign-born population is recorded at 12.7%.

=Immigration.=--How much does the United States owe to immigration, as regards the growth of population? Frederick Knapp, worked out a table covering the period from 1790 to 1860, the beginning of the Civil War, intended to show what the normal white population at the close of each decade would have been as a result of only the surplus of births over deaths of 1.38 percent each year, compared with the result as established by the official census figures.

“Natural” Growth Census Figures 1790 3,231,930 1800 3,706,674 4,412,896 1810 4,251,143 6,048,450 1820 4,875,600 8,100,056 1830 5,591,775 10,796,077 1840 6,413,161 14,582,008 1850 7,355,422 19,987,563 1860 8,435,882 27,489,662

The natural increase of the white population in 160 years would have been only 5,203,952, whereas it was 24,257,732, an increase of 19,053,780 over the natural growth. Statistics show that in 1790 an American family averaged 5.8; in 1900 but 4.6. During the earlier period each family averaged 2.8 children, in 1900 but 1.53, a decline of nearly 50 per cent.

Wilhelm Kaufmann (“Die Deutschen im Am. Burgerkriege,”) makes an ingenious calculation of the value of the immigration of the nineteenth century to the U. S. in dollars and cents. Fifty years ago, he says, a human being had a market price. An adult slave about 1855 was valued at an average of $1,100. Estimating, for the sake of argument, a white immigrant at the same price, the 19,500,000 immigrants for the stated period would represent a value of $21,450,000,000; but as a white man performed three times as much work as a slave, besides having a larger claim on life and a much higher intelligence, a white immigrant represented four times the value of a slave. What value, for instance, was an Ericson to the Union army in the summer of 1862, or a Lieber, a Schurz, a Mergenthaler or a Carnegie? But 22 percent of the total immigration was made up of children under 15 years of age. According to the New York Immigration authorities (1870) every German immigrant averaged a possession of $150 cash on his arrival, representing a total value, as regards German immigration alone, of $750,000,000. A famous English economist says: “One of the imports of the U. S., that of the adult and trained immigrants, would be in an economic analysis underestimated at £100,000,000 ($500,000,000) a year.”--Thorold Rogers, Lectures in 1888, “Economic Interpretations of History,” (p. 407). And the American, James Ford Rhodes (Vol. I, p. 355): “The South ignored, or wished to ignore, the fact that able-bodied men with intelligence enough to wish to better their conditions are the most valuable products on earth, and that nothing can redound more to the advantage of a new country than to get men without having been at the cost of rearing them.”

Because the working conditions in Germany were exceptionally favorable, immigration from the German Empire before the war had reached by far the smallest stage of that of any of the leading nations, save France, where the birthrate has been stationary for many years. The figures for 1914 were only 35,734, while the immigration from Greece was 35,832; Italian immigration in that year reached a total of 283,738 and from Russia 255,660, while England sent us 35,864, Scotland 10,682 and Wales 2,183. In 1915 only 7,799 Germans arrived, while England sent us 21,562. The money brought by the Germans totaled $1,786,130, or $221.50 a head, while money brought by the English totaled $3,467,458, a little over $160 a head.

German immigration was never a pauper immigration and of itself refutes the assertion that German immigration was due to fear of military service or political oppression.

The first German immigration from the Palatinate, 237 years ago, was mainly due to the criminal ravages of the French under Louis XIV; that of 1848 was incident mainly to the revolution in Baden, based upon a longing of all thinking Germans for a united Germany, and that of the subsequent period was the spontaneous outpouring of an overpopulated country not yet adjusted to commercial and industrial expansion and the great spread of German enterprise in ship-building and manufacture. As soon as this development had reached a decisive stage, immigration practically ceased. Those who came here obeyed a great economic law by which every man seeks to supply an existing vacancy for his industry; they did not come as beggars, but were welcomed because they were needed. There was no religious oppression in Germany, and in Prussia Frederick the Great proclaimed in the middle of the eighteenth century the doctrine, “In my country every man can serve God in his own way.” If immigration is an infallible sign of the dissatisfaction of the immigrant with conditions at home which drives him to go to another country, the fact that less than 36,000 German immigrants arrived in America in 1914 against a total of 73,417 from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, proves that conditions were vastly better in Germany than in the United Kingdom. (The figures are from the “New York World Almanac” for 1916.)

Anthony Arnoux gives the following table of the total German immigration into the United States for five years, from 1908 to 1912:

1908 17,951 1909 19,980 1910 22,773 1911 18,900 1912 13,706

The latest statistics available, made public in December, 1919, place the total number of immigrants arriving at American ports for the past 100 years at 33,200,103.

From Great Britain (including Irish) 24.7% 8,206,675 From Germany, 16.6% 5,494,539 From Italy, 12.4% 4,100,740 From Russia, 10% 3,311,400 From Scandinavia, 6.4% 2,134,414

For the fiscal year ending in June, 1919, 237,021 immigrants were admitted and 8,626 were turned back, a net total of 245,647. During the same period 216,231 immigrants left the country. The immigrants arriving totaled a per capita wealth of $112, a total of $15,831,247. Foreign-born soldiers serving in the army during the war were given citizenship to the number of 128,335.

=Indians, Tories and the German Settlements.=--The descendants and successors of those who form the very foundation of the government of the United States, bled and died for its existence, cannot suffer themselves to be segregated into a class of tolerated citizens whose voices may be silenced at will. The history of the German element is too closely interwoven with the records of the past and as an element it is too much a part of the bone and muscle of the American nation to remain silent when told that the history of the United States is to be rewritten and the deeds of their forefathers are to be forgotten for the glorification of the Tories who, with their Indian allies, burned the homes of German settlers and dragged their women and children into captivity.

A gruesome chapter of their endurance is supplied by the events in New York State during the Revolutionary War, and notably those events that transpired in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys. It was the German element in New York State which stood the brunt of the forages of Joseph Brant, the Indian chief, educated by Sir William Johnson and renowned as no other Indian in the history of America for his atrocities under the direction of his English and Tory patrons.

He began operations in July, 1778, by surprising a little settlement of only seven families at Andrustown, Herkimer County, killing two and dragging the women into captivity. It was followed by the attack on the German Flats. This was a settlement of nearly 1,000 souls with about 70 houses, protected by two forts, Fort Dayton and Fort Herkimer. The rich harvest of summer had just been gathered when Brant invaded the valley. Three of the four scouts sent out to report his movements were killed by the Indians; the fourth, John Helmer, returned the last day of August, 1778, and reported the approach of the enemy. The inhabitants, so far as they were able, fled to the protection of the forts with everything movable. With the approach of darkness the next day Brant arrived near the forts with 300 Indians and 152 Tories. He immediately set fire to the abandoned houses with their barns, stables and other buildings and drove off the horses and cattle without daring to attack the forts. The attack resulted in the destruction of 63 houses, 57 barns, three flour and two saw mills, and the loss of 235 horses, 229 head of cattle, 269 sheep and 93 oxen. Two men only lost their lives.

In the Schoharie Valley the summer of 1778 passed without any notable events, but the Indians under Brant in June of that year destroyed Cobelskill. The Indians lured the local company of defenders under Captain Braun into an ambush and practically wiped it out. No less than 23 of the men were killed, others were seriously wounded and only six escaped. The women and children fled into the woods, from which they were able to watch the Indians set fire to their homes and barns. Brant here did not follow up his success, but returned to the Susquehanna, where he and his loyalists wrought the fearful historic carnage among the settlements in the Wyoming Valley, and in July attacked the Mohawk Valley settlements.

=About this time the English government offered a prize of $8 for every American scalp.= In consequence of this barbarous edict, the border war, which had so far been mainly conducted between regular military forces, degenerated into a series of savage melees. Indians and Tories sought to bring in as many scalps as possible, and murdered children, mothers and old men in order to earn the promised reward of eight dollars. More than one German settler found, on returning home from his fields in the evening, his family butchered, wife and children lying scalped and mutilated in their dwellings or in front of their doorsteps, their skulls crushed if the scalping process was too slow. Scalping became a recognized industry and was conducted for business.

In the evening, after a successful raid, the Indians would stretch the scalps on sticks to dry during the night, while the captured relatives, bound hand and foot, were compelled to witness the revolting process, exposed to a similar fate at the least betrayal of grief, or doomed to suffer a slow death by torture from fire.

An entire bundle of dried scalps, amounting to 1,062 in number, taken by the Seneca Indians, fell into the hands of a New England expedition against the Indians. It was accompanied by a prayer and a complete inventory addressed to the British Governor, Handimand. There were eight items, as follows:

Lot 1: 43 scalps of soldiers of Congress killed in battle. 62 scalps of farmers killed in their houses.

Lot 2: 92 scalps of farmers killed in their houses surprised by day, not by night, as the first lot. The red color, applied to the hoops of wood, which were used to stretch the scalp, indicated the difference.

Lot 3: 97 scalps of farmers killed in their fields, different colors denoting whether killed with tomahawk or rifle ball.

Lot 4: 102 scalps of farmers, mostly young men.

Lot 5: 88 scalps of women, those with blue hoops cut from the heads of mothers.

Lot 6: 193 scalps of boys of different ages killed with clubs or hatchets, some with knives or bullets.

Lot 7: 121 scalps of girls, large and small.

Lot 8: 122 scalps of various kinds, among them 29 babies’ scalps, carefully stretched on small white hoops.

The accompanying prayer was worded as follows:

Father, we wish that you send these scalps to the Great King that he may look at them and be refreshed at their sight--recognize our fidelity and be convinced that his presents have not been bestowed upon a thankless people.

It was written by James Crawford (spelled Craufurd), January 3, 1782, from Tioga, seeming to indicate that most of the scalps came from the New York frontier. The information is based on Campbell’s “Annals of Tryon County,” pp. 67-70 (appendix).

During 1779 the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys were not molested. In order to punish the Indians for their atrocities in the Wyoming Valley, as well as the western part of New York, Washington had induced Congress to fit out an expedition against the Indians under Sullivan. In August, 1779, General Sullivan and his aide, General Clinton, invaded the valley with 5,000 men, moved against the Six Nations and devastated their territory, crushing them August 29 at Newton, near Elmira, and pursuing them as far as the Genesee Valley, where he destroyed more than forty of their villages. The lack of provisions drove the Indians and their Tory friends into Canada, where they remained quiescent until 1780.

But Sullivan’s course had lacked the requisite energy and, while they had suffered severely, the Indians were by no means discouraged, but, on the contrary, filled with bitter resentment, and as early as the spring of 1780 they reappeared in New York and resumed their former raids.

On April 3 they surprised Riemenschneider’s Bush, a few miles north of Little Falls, burned the flour mill and carried off nineteen prisoners, among them John Windecker, George Adler, Joseph Neumann and John Garter. The latter died from mistreatment; the others were taken to Canada, but released when peace was restored.

During a scouting expedition commanded by Lieutenant Woodworth of Fort Dayton the Americans came into contact with Indians double their number. A fierce hand to hand conflict ensued and only 15 of the Germans escaped; several were taken prisoners and Woodworth fell with more than half his men, who were later buried in a common grave on the spot.

This encouraged the Indians to new atrocities, as this style of warfare was most to their liking. No settler was henceforth safe from surprise and attack; he slept with his gun beside him and at the least sound bounded from his bed to be prepared and to sell his life at least as dearly as possible. Now and then more extensive raids occurred. Brant was the soul and inspiration of every enemy movement. His real purposes were always disguised by skilful manouvers. His spies were everywhere and he was always well informed of everything going on in the valley. He would pretend to attack one place while, in reality, reserving his blow for another, thus keeping the settlers in a constant state of terror and doubt.

In this manner he learned, toward the end of July, 1780, that General Clinton had sent the troops in Canajoharie to Fort Schuyler for the protection of the stored supplies at that place, and on August 2, at the head of 500 Indians and Tories, suddenly hurled himself upon Canajoharie and instituted a perfect bloodbath. No effective resistance could be rendered, as the entire male population capable of bearing arms was absent. Sixteen men remained dead where they had fallen, 60 women and children were taken prisoners, the church, 63 houses, with their barns and stables, were reduced to ashes, upward of 300 cattle were killed or driven off. All the agricultural implements and tools were lost, so that the survivors were even prevented from gathering their crops ripening in the fields. The fate of Canajoharie was impending over the heads of every other settlement, and nowhere was there the least hope of assistance or the least prospect of peace and quiet.

It would be tiresome to enumerate the many Indian attacks on German settlers in the valley, and these examples out of innumerable instances of heroic deeds (see “Schell”) performed by our German ancestors must suffice.

The frontier history of our country abounds in such examples down to the period of the Civil War, when the Germans of New Ulm, Minnesota, again, practically for the last time as settlers, were exposed to Indian massacres in their march to extend our far-flung battle line of civilization into the regions of the primeval wilderness. This border history is dominated by the names of the German, Dutch and English race. No Frenchmen, Russians, Italians or any of the races of southwestern Europe have any share in the reduction of the forests and prairies to the spirit of American sovereignty. French and Spanish settlements remained always a thing apart with never diminishing attachments to Europe, and before and after the Revolution the French were our enemies.

=Inventions.=--Among the many evidences of German moral and intellectual obliquity cited to justify our indignation was their lack of inventive genius, Prof. Brander Matthews in particular alleging that the Germans had contributed nothing to making possible the automobile, the aeroplane, the telephone, the submarine, the art of photography, etc.

The aeroplane, the automobile and the submarine were each made possible by the invention of the gas engine, and the gas engine was invented by Gottlieb Daimler. By combining Lillienthal’s “glider” with Daimler’s gas engine, the aeroplane became feasible. The first employment of the modern gas engine was by Daimler in running a motorcycle.

Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian corporal, in 1850 constructed a submersible craft at Kiel, which though it eventually came to grief, was practically operated and served to spread terror in the Danish navy, which discreetly withdrew from its blockading operations. It was equipped with torpedoes but was navigated by manual operation, no other power being available at that early period. (Boston Transcript.)

The first man to speak over a wire with the aid of electric power and to call his instrument a “telephone,” was Philipp Reis, of Frankfort. In 1868 the inventor wrote as follows: “Incited thereto by my lessons in physics in the year 1860, I attacked a work begun much earlier concerning the organs of hearing, and soon had the joy of seeing my pains rewarded with success, since I succeeded in inventing an apparatus by which it is possible to make clear and evident the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current. I named the instrument ‘telephone.’” In Manchester, before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Reis’ telephone was shown in 1865 by Professor Cliften. The invention was however too soon for the world. To Reis’ great disappointment, the Physical Society of Frankfort took no further notice of the invention, the luster of which shone upon them. Other societies treated it as a scientific toy. The Naturalists’ Assembly, including all the leading scientific men of Germany, had, indeed, welcomed him at Giesen; but too late. His sensitive temperament had met with too many rebuffs, and the fatal disease with which he was already stricken told upon his energies. In 1873 he disposed of all his instruments and tools to Garnier’s Institute. To Herr Garnier he made the remark that he had shown the world the way to a great invention which must now be left to others to develop. On January 14, 1874, he was released by death. In December, 1878, a monument was erected to him in the cemetery of Friedricksdorf with the inscription under a medallion portrait: “Here rests Philipp Reis, born January 7, 1834; died January 14, 1874. To its deserving member, the Inventor of the Telephone, by the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-Main. Erected 1878.” (See “Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone; a Biographical Sketch with Documentary Testimony, Translation of the Original Papers of the Inventor and Contemporaneous Publications,” by Sylvanus Thompson, B. A. DSc., Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.)

The first modern photographic lens was invented by J. Petzval, of Vienna; the rectilinear lens by Steinheil; the Jena glass and anastigmatic lens by Abbe and Schott, of Jena, Prussia.

=English View of Paul Jones.=--In the process of rewriting the history of the United States, as now in progress, in what light will American school children be taught to regard their great naval hero, John Paul Jones, whose remains in a Paris cemetery were exhumed about twenty years ago by order of our government and brought back to America with all the solemn pomp paid to the greatest of men? England’s estimate of him is evidenced by clippings of the contemporary English press, which Don C. Seitz a few years ago compiled into “Paul Jones, His Exploits in English Seas.” It contains clippings of three types: first, slanders on Jones’ personal character; secondly, false reports as to his activities and capture; thirdly, editorial comment in which political morals are deduced or the consequences of his raids are touched upon.

In the first category come such passages as the following:

“Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser,” May 8, 1778: The captain of the Ranger, John Paul, was some time ago master of a vessel called the John, belonging to Kirkudbright, stood a trial in London for the murder of his carpenter and was found guilty, but made his escape.

This is the seed, evidently, from which grew the following tale: