Friedrich Kapp's book on Frederic, the Great and the United States has earned the author many sharp attacks on account of the harsh and one-sided opinions he expresses in the appendix(The United States and the Laws of Marine Welfare) about the character and tendencies of American public life...

In a letter to Mr. Bernays in St. Louis, defending himself against severe censure Kapp says: "Anyway, I have said nothing that every thinking American editor does not almost daily repeat in his paper, and that he must repeat for the good of the country. The belief that I as a German and as a former American citizen may not say what the sparrows over there whistle from the roofs, I cannot recognize."

But it is just this distinction which must be made, and that thousands of educated German-Americans do make. They judge things here harshly and do it in the interest of the country...but when they come to Germany 2they only think about the good sides of America and describe them with joyous pride. This has absolutely nothing to do with hypocrisy as a lack of consistency...

To say only part of the truth is just as bad in its effect as to lie. And those who are"tired of America" and who like Kapp, say over there in Germany nothing else but what they have said here, in the interest of the country and who keep silent about all that they never needed to say here, because here everybody knows it anyway(but their readers in Germany do not know it at all) they are guilty of the sin of having said only a half truth...

(Let us illustrate that by an example)

We here in Chicago know that we live not only in a lively, industrious and rich, but also in a beautiful city, more beautiful than any other this side of the Alleghenies. We know that our business streets can boast more magnificent marble palaces than those of New York, and that 3the Wabash, Michigan, Calumet, Indiana, Prairie and Kankakee Avenues have richer homes, in better taste and greater number, than any city of America (New York excepted). We know that in no big city of the whole world the working man lives so comfortably in his own little house and enjoys plentitude of air, light and water as in Chicago. Because we know that, we are not in the least afraid( or rather were not-until eight days ago) to complain volubly about the abominable"stink river", the appalling Healy Slough, and the suspicious unhealthy alleys.- But if now somebody would tell people who never saw Chicago that it is a malodorous hicktown, because the river on which it is situated stinks, because the Healy Slough is a stench hole, and because the unhealthy alleys serve unspeakable purposes-would he be just? Would one get from him a just impression of Chicago?

- As little as of America by Friedrich Kapp.