The following appeal of the Friends of German Democracy to the German people is at present being dropped form American airplanes behind the German lines and in other parts of Germany. The Abendpost is the first newspaper in the United States to publish a copy of this appeal.

"To the German People

"Why are you engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the entire civilized world?

"Why has this war spread from one hemisphere all over the globe?

"Now that the possibility of a German victory is vanishing, it is time for you earnestly to consider once more just what it is that you are fighting for and why you are continuing to make these horrible sacrifices.

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"You think you have to fight for the preservation of Germany as a nation.

"You think that all other nations are jealous of Germany's economic success and desire nothing more than to keep it within limits.

"In that boundless love for the fatherland which characterizes the German, you have let yourself be slaughtered by the hundreds and thousands for more than four years.

"With God for king and country!' This was the phrase used in the proclamation of King Frederick William III to his people.

"The king first, then the country, both under the protection of God! The Christian world outside of Germany looks upon this order as a blasphemy; and considers it a mark of contempt for the German people that it is spoken of in conjunction with the glorification of a single mortal, afflicted with all human weaknesses--a thing which is contrary to all laws of reason and religion.

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"It is true that under this motto you have become a united people, but, at the same time, you have completely relinquished the right to determine your future development and destination.

"Of the objectives for which the German people struggled in 1848, namely, unity and liberty, only the first one has been realized.

"It is also true that after the victory of 1870-71, under the guidance of your rulers and military leaders, you have become a great world power.

"But in your natural pride you completely lost sight of the fact that at the same time your internal liberty and independence was gone; that, in the truest sense of the word, you had become only subjects and that you had waived the right to determine your future course as a nation.

"You became mere servants of the Kaiser who, at every opportunity, talks about 4"my people" as if he owned you like a piece of property.

"In no other country in the world, with the possible exception of Japan, is there a similar attitude in the relation between ruler and people. This is a relic of the bygone days of a dark and despotic medieval age.

"In all other countries there breathes a different spirit.

"In all of them the people get first consideration. They shape their own destiny by exercising their voting privilege, by electing their own leaders or changing them if they have made mistakes, a provision which prevents any leader or party from thinking themselves infallible.

"Until August, 1914, everything you had undertaken turned out to be a success, and this under the leadership of the Kaiser and his diplomatic and military advisers.

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"But you did not see that these leaders espoused a policy which was incompatible with the welfare of the people; that the judgment of these leaders was subject to as many errors as human nature is heir to. But in spite of that you conceded them practically unlimited power over you.

"You owe it to these leaders that you are outlawed today all over the world, that you are in arms against everybody and everybody is in arms against you-- a situation which fills every person of German descent with horror.

"Your worship of military power, the fixed idea of your general staff, that Schrecklichkeit is truly humanitarian because it will hasten the end; the callousness with which human lives are sacrificed as though they were pieces on a chess board; the opinion that brute force and power justified the subjugation of other peoples; the ruthless disregard of all international laws; the purposeless killing of noncombatants and the arrogant challenge to the whole world that America would be held to account after the end of the 6European war: these are the things that mark you as the bloody victims of war.

"Your own great philosopher, Immanuel Kant, proved, in a pamphlet which was published at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that nearly all wars had a dynastic origin. He ascertained, furthermore, that the possibilities of war were diminished the more the nations adopted the republican form of government, and showed that eventually education would be sufficiently widespread to exclude any possible danger of war.

"This attitude cost him any chance of material success, for he had earned the undying hatred of the royal house of Prussia--a hatred which followed him to the end of his life.

"Many thousands of Germans emigrated during the last century to America, and their descendants are fighting today in Europe as Americans, to uphold the 7ideals of our republic and to preserve justice and liberty for humanity.

"Only if you are willing to liberate yourself from the shackles of your autocracy and the tyranny of your military leaders can you hope to live without war for the next generation. Where means are accumulated to conduct a war, as is the case with you, an opportunity to use them will always present itself, especially if the army is guided and influenced by the head of a reigning house who is motivated by the lust for conquest.

"In our principal American cities there have been established associations of Americans of German descent who have made it their business to stand by and give advice to a liberal Germany in order to secure representative government for the German people.

"These associations go under the name of 'Friends of German Democracy'. They do not in the least assume the right to prescribe for the German people in 8what manner and to what extent they should bring about their liberation. They only desire to assist the German people to become independent so that co-operation with other free nations will make a repetition of the present war impossible.

"America is not in this war for material gains. It fights only to make the world safe for democracy.

"As our President has assured you, we are not at war with the German people, but only with that relic of the Middle Ages, the scarecrow of monarchy, and the cruel and arbitrary militaristic tyranny that goes with it.

"Never have your present leaders evinced more shortsightedness and incapacity than in their failure to understand the sentiments and attitudes of other peoples. Chase them out, so that Germany can join the other free nations of the globe, so that humanity and justice can serve as guides in all its international 9policies and relations with all other peoples, and so that the hatred with which Germany is regarded will disappear from the earth!

"May the prophecy of an American poet of German birth come true--a prophecy which said, in effect: 'Germany will not always be a huge parade ground--it is too beautiful for that--and the day will come when freedom will prevail.'

(signed) Friends of German Democracy

Otto C. Butz, President

Karl Mathie, Secretary

Otto Schulz

Otto G. Hottinger

Franz L. Roenitz

Directors."