The subject with which the note deals is one of the same paramount importance to Germany as it is to this country, and we must wait in patience for Germany’s reply; and I, for one, shall wait in the confidence that when it is received it will be found to offer a basis for a friendly solution of the questions which exist between Germany and the United States and, not unlikely, for those further steps which I have intimated.

Under the caption “A Word of Earnest Advice,” the evening edition of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung on May 14 issued the following warning to Germans and German-Americans:

The times are grave—­even very grave....  A conflict between America and the old Fatherland is threatening.  Such a conflict must rend the heart of every German-American who has acquired the rights of citizenship here, who has founded a new career for himself and brought up his children.

It is probably unnecessary to give any advice to the American citizens among our readers in regard to their conduct in this grave time.  A series of years must pass before an immigrant can obtain his citizenship papers; nobody is forced to become a citizen.  Of the man who has voluntarily become a citizen of the United States we may therefore expect that he knows the conditions here obtaining the institutions of the country of his adoption, as well as his rights and duties.  But there are thousands upon thousands of our readers who are not citizens, and to them a serious word of advice shall now be addressed.  In the grave time of the conflict let efforts be made to avoid every personal conflict.  It is not necessarily cowardly to deny one’s descent, but it is not necessary, either, to make demonstrations.

Where there is life there is hope.  The hope still is entertained that the conflict will be eliminated, that the bond of friendship between Germany and America will not be torn.  Through thoughtless Hotspurs, who allow themselves to be carried away by excitement and do not dam up the flood of their eloquence, much mischief can be done.  Keeping away from the public places where the excited groups congregate and discuss the burning questions of the day must be urgently recommended.  It was for many a sport to participate in these discussions, and with more or less skill, but always energetically to champion the German cause.

The American is in general very liberal in regard to expression of opinion.  He likes to hear also the “other side,” but it must not be forgotten that in times of conflict the “other side” may be regarded as the “enemy side.”  What has heretofore sounded harmless may now be interpreted as a criticism made against the United States.  But the American as a rule repels a criticism made by strangers against the affairs of his own country.  Through heated discussions and unwise demonstrations nothing is at present to be achieved but much can be spoiled.

Grave times!

Calmness is now the first duty of citizenship—­for all non-citizens.