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"Give him enough rope and he will hang himself" is an old American proverb. The American Legion and other superpatriotic organizations, especially in New York and the East, have had as much rope as they wanted--to use the same metaphor again--and their kind of superpatriotism has really succeeded, now, in hanging itself on the tree of ridicule. May it rest in peace!

Judging by the headlines of this morning's newspapers, we must admit that the superpatriotism which would like to exterminate anything that is of German origin or, shall we say rather the anti-German sentiment, implanted and nourished by envy and weakness, and parading under the cloak of patriotism to conceal a stupid and petty selfishness, is not dead yet, but on the contrary very much alive and virulent. But the percentage of Americans who can only think in headlines has become smaller and smaller as the years go by, and only few people believe indiscriminately what the headlines proclaim. If the headline is 2interesting enough they will also read the articles printed underneath. And if we do that with an open mind in regard to the report telling of a protest of soldiers in New York against the presentation of a German opera in German, we must admit that anti-German sentiment is completely dead. And it could only be revived by the mistakes and lack of tact of German-Americans who are guided by their emotions and not by their common sense.

The American Legion declared war on the German opera, sung in German, quite a while ago and never missed an opportunity to make it clear to six or seven million New Yorkers that it was their duty to suppress anything that made a German sound, including the German opera, at least until the peace treaty was signed. The Legion had lodged a protest with the Mayor of New York against a first-night performance scheduled for yesterday. They had sounded a general alarm to have their troops on the scene of battle in case an attempt should be made, with or without the sanction of the authorities, to let the opera performance take place. The result: "about two hundred sailors, soldiers, and marines, some of them wounded, reinforced by a group of civilians"--the total number of demonstrators was estimated at about one thousand. One thousand 3rioters or so was all the Legion could turn out against the German opera and the German language in a city of millions of people, where a five-legged calf or a brindle-colored jackass on a busy thoroughfare would suffice to make tens of thousands gather and crane their necks--in the New York of today where, thanks to prohibition and the elimination of the "Club of the Little Man," hundreds of thousands do not know how to spend their leisure time and crave any sort of excitement....

And how about the "riot"? You know the story about Jack and Jill (sic) and the dramatic description, "He walked right in and turned around and walked right out again". This description fits the latest New York riot against the German opera. Hiding behind an American flag, the mob stormed down Lexington Avenue against a thin police cordon which blocked the entrance to the opera building. Only the holders of admission tickets were allowed to pass. The shrill of a whistle, the police cordon opens, and through the gap twenty-five mounted police charge through the mob until it disperses and disappears. "While breaking up this apparently determined attack," says a special dispatch of the Chicago Tribune, "not a single policeman had to use his night stick, not one nag 4stepped on anybody's corns and nobody got hurt."

A wonderful testimony for the New York police force, which proved equal to the task, and for its members who exercised such perfect self-control, not to forget the considerate police nags. Let us also praise the two hundred or so marines, soldiers, and sailors, and that mob of civilians. They discharged their assignment for which they were hired by gallantly forging ahead after the command, "Let's go!" was issued. But they did even more by courageously and tactfully retreating before the police. They proved that the odious name "mob" was a misnomer in their case. A real "mob" is only guided by blind passion and incapable of acting prudently and carefully. A really vicious mob of a thousand people could never have been broken up by twenty-five mounties, without the use of night sticks, and without corns and big toes being stepped on by horses' hooves. The conduct of this so-called "mob" proves that their members just did what they were engaged to do (for money apparently) but that otherwise they were peaceful, average citizens who do not know what passionate hatred means.

The only ones who have made themselves ridiculous are the instigators of the 5"riot". And the same thing will happen to all those who try in the future to campaign against German music and the German language.

Ridicule is deadly. A cause that has been made ridiculous is doomed to failure, providing it is not dead already.