A Wartime Plea for Tolerance in Kennewick
As anti-German sentiment spikes during World War I, a local resident uses a visiting lecturer’s book to argue against hate, while drawing a sharp line at those who support the Kaiser.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mr. Editor: We have with us on the lecture course in a few days, Dr. Steiner. I have just read one of his books with pleasure and profit. Dr. Steiner was born and educated in Germany. He says: ‘Coming to this country a product of Germanic civilization, knowing intimately the slavic, semitic and Latin spirit, the writer was compelled to compare and to choose.’ He says he loves this country with a lover’s passion and I am sure America has been made better by his presence in this country. I hope every German from Richland to Hover will be out to hear him and I know that Kennewick will prove by its attendance that we have no ill will towards the German people or their language, but we do abhor those in our midst who would aid and abet that indescribable monster that is causing more bloodshed, tears, sorrows, heartaches and woes than any other since the morning stars sang together. To my mind there is nothing more impressive than the earnestness which pervades a college town. Going into the hotel at the Grand Canyon, they asked the clerk for rooms as near as possible to the canyon. ‘Yes sirs,’ said the clerk. ‘I can give you a room so close you can spit into it.’ ‘Young man,’ said the Herr Director, ‘I am a guest and we don’t spit into canyons.’ Will someone please rise and name one good and lasting thing that the imperial majesty of Germany has not trampled on in the last four years? - J. N. Elt
“I hope every German from Richland to Hover will be out to hear him and I know that Kennewick will prove by its attendance that we have no ill will towards the German people.”
This letter captures the precarious position of German immigrants in Eastern Washington during the fever pitch of WWI, where the distinction between 'foreign heritage' and 'disloyalty' was dangerously thin. It reflects a time when Kennewick’s social fabric was tested by global conflict, a recurring theme in how small towns navigate identity during national crises.
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