THE PROTEST

As soon as it was a question of the necessity of giving up a part of the territory, all the deputies of the threatened departments signed a declaration, February 17, 1871, which, among other passages, contained the following: "Alsace and Lorraine do not wish to be alienated. Associated for more than two centuries with France, both in good and bad fortune, these two provinces, exposed without intermission to the blows of the enemy, have constantly sacrificed themselves for the greatness of the nation; they have sealed with their blood the insoluble compact which binds them to France. Made doubtful by the claims of the enemy, they assert, through all the obstacles and all the dangers under the yoke even of the invader, their unshaken fidelity. Unanimously the citizens in their homes, the soldiers who rallied beneath the flag, those who voted and those who fought, all signified to Germany and to the world the immutable will of Alsace and of Lorraine to remain French."

March 1, 1871, the same deputies signed a new protest which they deposited at the bureau of the National Assembly in which we find the following announcement: "We declare once more null and void a pact which disposes of us without our consent. The claim to our rights always remains open to each and to all in the form and the measure that our conscience dictates to us."

When the Alsatians were permitted by Germany to send deputies to the Reichstag, the fifteen who were elected protested on their side against annexation February 18, 1874. We find in their declaration the following passage: "In choosing us all, just as we are, our electors before everything else wish to affirm their sympathy with France and their right to govern themselves." These solemn declarations have never been revoked by any equivalent or contrary statement. Not even during the actual war and reign of terror established in the annexed provinces has the German Government succeeded in forcing from the representatives of Alsace-Lorraine a statement expressing the desire to remain German. The attempt to make such a manifestation by the votes of the council-generals, of whom the suspected members had previously been deported to Germany, saying that the economic interest of Alsace-Lorraine necessitated the maintenance of the status quo, only served to demonstrate the insecurity of the political situation of the German Empire in Alsace-Lorraine. What lamentable drivel in comparison to the dignified and generous language of the magnificent protests of Bordeaux. It accords well with the philosophy of German diction which the Baron de Bulach, Secretary of State, jeeringly dared recommend to his compatriots as a line of conduct: "Wess Brod ich ess des Lied ich sing" (Whose bread I eat, his song I sing).

Nothing, moreover, would be less exact than to think that the Alsatians lived on the Germans or that their material well-being depended in any way on the economic life of the German Empire, or that the prosperity of the country was in all, or even in great part, to be credited to the Germans.

It is not within the scope of our essay to present a study of the economic situation of the country, which, if she has been prosperous in some directions, has often been hindered by the predominance given to rival interests of other German countries. The project of constructing a canal from Ludwigshafen to Strasbourg was abandoned because contrary to the interests of the town of Mannheim. The canalling of the Sarre and of the Moselle was basely sacrificed to the interests of the Prussian industries of la Ruhr, which looked with an enemy's eye on any progress in the industry of Lorraine.

The prohibition of American plants for the replacing of the destroyed vines, in execution of the law concerning the fight against the blight of the vine, was dictated by a sentiment of protection for the German vine-culture against the vine-culture of Alsace-Lorraine. Often also, the administration took arbitrary measure against certain trades and industries to injure their interests for the profit of their competitors, or for some determined political end. The illegal prohibition made to the French Insurance companies of Assurances to continue business in Alsace-Lorraine, by which a blow was given to a number of agents in their enterprises, and the threat made to the Alsatian Society of Mechanical Construction of Grafenstaden to countermand the orders from Prussia if the Society refused to dismiss a director suspected of French sympathy, are convincing proofs of the antagonism of the government. We mention the flagrant injustice with which the German interests were always advanced to the detriment of Alsace-Lorraine in the distribution of contracts for public works. But, if Alsace-Lorraine in general could prosper economically, notwithstanding a detestable policy, hated by its population, in what way, we ask ourselves, could that prosperity be compromised by the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France? Above all, as France is a Republic, a form of government which was welcomed with joy by the people September 4, 1870, and which answers in the best manner to their time-honoured worldly aspirations. The loss of the market which Alsace-Lorraine has made for herself in Germany will find a rapid offset in the reopening of its business relations with France.

Certain great industries, such as the iron mines of Lorraine and those of potash in Alsace, would certainly increase. But that is not at all the question. We have to do with a great moral issue for transcending the material considerations which the German thinks so important and which in his mind are all-conclusive. Evidence of this is the following quotation from the Gazette de Voss published July, 1917: "The act of yielding Alsace would involve giving up valuable beds of potash and this would be disastrous to German agriculture of which it is an absolutely necessary ingredient." One sees by this kind of reasoning the nature of the affection of Germany for Alsace-Lorraine.

ALSACE-LORRAINE UNDER GERMAN RULE
1871

It would take volumes to describe in detail the martyrdom of Alsace-Lorraine under the domination of Germany. I can enumerate only a few of the acts and methods that have characterized German rule. The impartial reader will easily conclude that Alsatians are not made to live with Germans and that the return of their province to the mother country of France is the only possible solution of the Alsatian question with justice and equity.