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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Dolge's Address.
5ome
Forcible Truths—An Intensely
American Speech.
5jjTHE following notable address was delivered
~& by Mr. Alfred Dolge as president of the
village of Dolgeville at the great reunion of the
Turners of New York State held in that town
last week. The Dolgeville Herald says : The
scene at the park when Mr. Dolge came forward
on the platform was exceedingly fine. He was
surrounded by the thousands of uniformed Tur-
ners and their friends, including many smartly-
dressed ladies. He was attired in a suit of
white, made of cloth that was manufactured in
the recently-burned factory of the Dolgeville
Woolen Company. Against the deep green
background of the grove his robust figure was
clearly outlined. After a few words of cordial
welcome, Mr. Dolge spoke as follows, in
German:
A quarter of a century has passed since the
district of West New York was organized, com-
prising the Turn Vereins from Fort Plain to
Buffalo.
It is quite proper that you should celebrate
this anniversary here in Dolgeville—near the
home of that German-American patriot and
hero, Nicolas Herkimer, who, with his band of
settlers and farmers, served as a bulwark of pro-
tection for Washington's army during the
struggle for independence.
As you come up the hill near Little Falls, you
see in the valley a red brick house with white
columns—it is the house that Herkimer built;
where he lived and died from the wounds re-
ceived at the Battle of Oriskany.
Nicolas Herkimer stands out in the history of
our country—in the history of the Germans in
America, as the best type of a Gernian-American
citizen.
The history of his life ought to be in the
hands of every German landing on our shores,
and who intends to become a citizen of this
great commonwealth. It would be a safe guide
for him ; it would make him a citizen such as a
republic always needs.
The stern, uncompromising Americanism of
Herkimer, coupled with his adherence to all
that is praiseworthy in German civilization and
idealism, illustrates that it is not only possible,
but a logical consequence that a German immi-
grant becomes a true American.
Herkimer, a German by birth and education,
German in his habits, his thinking and reason-
ing, accepted the conditions, customs, advan-
tages and shortcomings of the land he had
chosen as his home. After he was thoroughly
Americanized, after he understood the new
country and its people, he did not seclude him-
self m that clannish way which we find so often
nowadays. He mingled with his English-
speaking neighbors, and made friends amongst
them by respecting their peculiarities of habit,
custom and thought, religious, political and
social, but demanded that same respect for his
habits, customs and convictions.
The plain farmer of the Mohawk valley has
set an example worthy of imitation by all who
come to us from foreign lands.
Quite a di>cussion has been going on of late
in Germ an-American papers and periodicals as
to the future of the Germans in America.
There is no future for Germans, as Germans,
in America!
Every German who acquires the privilege of
becoming a citizen of this Republic must become
an American, and if he prefers to call himself a
German-American, the accent should always be
on the "American.'"
He is a German by accident, and has become
an American by choice.
While there is no future for Germans, as such,
in this country, there is a great future for Ger-
man culture, German thought, German socia-
bility in America.
It is the privilege of the German-American
organizations such as the Turn and Singing
Societies to make propaganda for whatever may
be preferable in German civilization and culture.
To achieve results in this direction we can
again look to the plowman of the Mohawk
Valley—that sturdy German and noble Ameri-
can, Nicolas Herkimer.
Tolerance and anti-clannishness characterized
the man and hia life. Firm to a degree border-
ing on stubbornness, in his convictions and be-
liefs he respected those of others. A defender of
personal liberty, he would always recognize the
right of his neighbors in exercising the same.
Opposed to all radical ideas and measures, he
was perhaps the most progressive man this side
of Albany.
His home, the first brick house in the Mohawk
Valley, stands to-day as the only monument of
that great countryman of ours, who has shown
us the way to be most useful in the great work
of developing the best race of mankind ; forming
the best government, moulding the most favor-
able social conditions known, by the amalgama-
tion of the various types and culture of the ex-
isting civilized nations of Europe with the
liberty-breathing institutions and conditions of
America.
On occasions like the present we are accustom-
ed to hear a great deal of the " Cultur Mission "
of the Germans in America, and fulsome praise
is spent, which would lead uninitiated Germans
to believe that all America ought to be, and
must be '' Germanized '' in order to make living
here tolerable.
Various efforts have been made to form '' Ger-
man Colonies,'' and here and there you find
settlements so purely German that the store-
keepers hang out a sign '' English spoken here.''
Especially in the Western States do we find
such German, Swedish and Bohemian settle-
ments, but in none of them will you find any
signs of progress. They invariably end in fail-
ure, unless by the infusion of new blood the
dominating clannishness is destroyed, so that
broader ideas can take root, and toleration begin
to reign. When this takes place, we notice the
first signs of Americanism. The public schools
open, and sectarian schools begin to lose ground.
English is taught, and with it American ideas,
and when the children graduate, they leave the
schools as Americans, and not as Germans,
Swedes and Bohemians.
I do not wish to be understood as opposing
the teaching of the German language. I have
fought my hardest battles in public life for the
introduction of the teaching of German in our
Dolgeville schools, but I am uncompromisingly
opposed to all sectarian schools, or schools sup-
ported by members of one nationality only. The
public school is the only place where our child-
ren should get their education. If we Turners,
and all other German-Americans confine our
efforts to agitation for the introduction of the
teaching of German as a language, and the
adoption of calisthenics in the curriculum of
every public school, we will accomplish results
worthy of the greatest and most unceasing
efforts.
To do this is a part, in fact, the most import-
ant part of the " Cultur Mission " of the Ger-
mans in America.
In one of our organs I found lately a state-
ment which has been copied by some of the daily
papers to the effect that the young Turners
'' hardly speak any German '' preferring the
English idiom even while practising in the Turn
Hall.
This fact was deplored, and the question asked
how it could be remedied ; just as though the
German idiom was essential to the exercises.
Are the Turn Halls intended to be meeting
houses for narrow-minded, clannishly-disposed
people ? Or are they intended to assist in carry-
ing forward the so much lauded "Cultur Mis-
sion '' of the Germans ?
It seems to me that we should welcome the
fact that our children who are by birth and in-
clination Americans, accept our teachings, come
to our Turn Halls, and thereby assure the future
success of our system of physical development
and training, which, because of its inherent
pedagogical value, has been adopted by nearly
all the civilized nations of Europe.
I know that these sentiments will not be ap-
proved by the radicals, and that I expose myself
to a tirade from ultra-Germans, especially those
political '' reformers '' who are ever busy in try-
ing to isolate the German voters from their
American fellow-citizens, by organizing German-
American reform leagues, or similar organiza-
tions with high-Sounding names. But that
does not prevent me from maintaining that every
German-born American citizen must be first an
American—and then German.
The press of the city in which I spent the first
seventeen years of my life has repeatedly called
me a renegade, and in bitter terms has denoun-
ced me as a traitor to the Fatherland, because
for the last six years I have defended in public
discussion an American idea, an American eco-
nomic principle.
Right or wrong, I prefer at all times to be
criticised, attacked, and even slandered for this,
than that my earnest, deep-seated loyalty as an
American should be questioned.
Born and educated in Germany, I am thankful
for all the benefits I received from her. It is im-
possible for the most selfish or independent man
to throw off the influences which surrounded
him in his youth. Our German poets and
writers, our philosophers, are still my compan-
ions in leisure hours.—I think and feel German
—but I am an American, and can therefore recog-
nize but one flag—the stars and stripes. My
heart beats for the country which received me
with open arms, which gave me opportunities to
found a home. It is my home ; it is the Father-
land of my children, and though only the Ger-
man language is spoken in my family circle, I
want to see my boys grow up to be Americans
first, last, and all the time.
I cannot, therefore, join in the cry that Ger-