Save Your ‘Strafe’
William Allen White
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
WE SHOULD ALL remember during the present hostilities that the present war is between the America people and the German government, and not between the American people and the German people. In the largest measure, the United States may be the factor in the war which will serve to deliver the world and Germany from the curse of militarism and the Hohenzollerns.
With these things in mind, America should not be picayunish in its attitude toward things German. For instance, the New York Symphony Orchestra soon will visit Emporia, and if it chooses to play selections from the works of Wagner, Liszt or Hayden, the action should be supported by Emporia people. Art is as universal as love or sorrow. The work of a great composer belongs to the world and not to one nation or one government, and it would be the height of discourtesy for an Emporia audience to resent the presentation of a musical composition which happened to be written by a German a hundred years dead.
Save your “strafe” for things that count.
William Allen White
April 13, 1917
Editor’s Note: “Strafe” is German for “punish.” During World War I it came into wide use in the German phrase “Gott strafe England” — “God punish England.” It then came into use on both sides to mean a low-level machine gun attack on ground troops by an aircraft.