An Ongoing Struggle

 An Ongoing Struggle

When interviewed, Rex Lindemann a longtime Enderlin businessman said, “Lots of Germans settled here.” His remark came years beyond the cruel time of anti-German hysteria in our history. Of consequence some of those ill feelings existed here just as they did across the country. That fact introduces our topic.

Not so long ago, some in this country expressed displeasure with France in 2003 when that country opposed our invasion of Iraq. So we got back at them by promptly replacing the name French fries with freedom fries. One ice cream company ceased calling their product French vanilla changing it to Star Spangled ice cream.

The first appearance of that sort of thing happened during World War One. Sauerkraut was renamed liberty cabbage, dachschunds were now liberty pups, and frankfurters became hot dogs. Toilet paper could be bought with the face of the German Kaiser imprinted on each sheet. Some even wanted to change the name of North Dakota’s capital city to something easier on the ears. Some vandals crept around the town one night carrying a bucket of yellow paint and blotting out the “offensive” name from business places such as the Bismarck Motor Company and the Bismarck Shoe Hospital.

Of course, it was a desirable name when they called it Bismarck to attract German capitalists to buy U. S. railroad bonds. And little did they seem to know or care about General John Pershing’s name, background, or German spelling of his name - Pfersching.

Numerous cases of anti-German sentiment toward U. S. citizens can illustrate the mental set of Americans. The name John H. Wishek represents a good case in point. Founder of the town of Wishek, owner of several businesses, and all-around promoter of the area, he also had jealous detractors. For their various reasons they devised the excuse to have him tried under the Espionage Act.

Wishek was proud of his German heritage and had distributed a booklet to a few friends called “German Achievements in America.” His enemies thought that was all they needed to bring charges of anti-Americanism which resulted in a three-week trial. When it was shown to the court that Wishek had purchased more Liberty Bonds to support the U. S. war efforts than all of his rivals combined it helped quell the criticism, and a jury finally acquitted him and the charges were dropped.

We turn to the Enderlin Diamond Jubilee book of 1966 for their take on an uncomfortable incident occurring there. One passage states “Communities like Enderlin with large groups of foreign-born citizens, particularly those of German or Austrian descent, were particularly vulnerable to the type of irrational ardor which saw sauerkraut become Liberty Cabbage.” The article spoke to the fact of rumors circulating that Enderlin harbored disloyal citizens. Coupled

with some “yellow journalism” appearing in the Fargo News Courier stating that a meeting to assure loyalty to the U.S. with musical performances had been disrupted by pro-German elements. The local editor denied it in strong terms and published the retraction letter sent by the Fargo editor.

The canceled concert had probably started the brouhaha, but the reasons for it were all reported as legitimate. The soloist had lost her voice, lack of songbooks was blamed on a young boy who couldn’t find them, they couldn’t round up enough instruments, and the conductor had car trouble.

We will probably never know the extent of truthfulness in the whole affair, but an outgrowth seemed to be in the forming of the Enderlin Loyal Legion where the inaugural meeting brought in 500 people. The jubilee book told of the assortment of speakers including one who said, “We do not want to have in our midst communities where the people’s diet is lutefisk or sauerkraut. Let’s Americanize them.”

In my reading of history I’ve found the anti-German hysteria in World War One wasn’t the only time something similar happened. Open your Bible to Judges 12:6 and read how people trying to enter a country couldn’t pronounce the word Shibboleth correctly but said it as Sibboleth. They were slaughtered because of it.

President Andrew Jackson acted on behalf of white settlers who wanted land to grow cotton where the Cherokee nation lived and forced them to leave their homes and walk hundreds of miles to Oklahoma in what has become known as the Trail of Tears.

Anti-Japanese feelings and distrust rose in World War II. About 120,000 of them were displaced and sent to ten camps scattered around the country. The Chinese immigrants met with disfavor. The Great Falls spoke of the Chinese problem. In 1885 they noted that the city had “decreed that no Chinaman shall be allowed a foothold within its precincts.”

One only needs to read the history of nation struggles from over the years to know that different nationality groups have found disfavor for various reasons. The invasion of Ukraine is the latest. What will be next? It’s an ongoing struggle where a winner hasn’t yet been found.