Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/212

188 behold!” In these halls not only the material products are displayed, but here breathes our national spirit. After the victories in the Franco-Prussian war it was said: “That was not merely the result of brutal force, it was the German schoolmaster who had his part in the victory.” The same words can be applied here, if under the head of “schoolmaster” we include the German University. In no other country of the world is science so much fostered for its own sake, for the sake of pure knowledge, and in no other country is science so extensively utilized. We see the example before us, and what a variety of products is here amassed: from the Nurnberg toy to the giant monster cannon of Krupp; from the artistic wonders of wrought-iron and Berlin and Meissen porcelain to the most modern products in the domain of machinery, of mining, of railroads, of chemistry, of electricity used as a motive power and for illumination (and the German electric light is the brightest and reaches the farthest), to the magnificent results of the textile industry and the splendid creations of painting and sculpture; from the simplest type of ordinary book-printing to the gorgeous editions enriched by sumptuous illustrations; from the primer of the German “Volksschule” to the most delicate scientific apparatus;—all these and many more are German products—all that is useful and beautiful has been brought together in a variety, an abundance and splendor, and imbued with the grace that only a people of many hundreds of years of culture can possess. Here all these are so amazing and still so undeniably real and convincing, that criticism is overcome by admiration, and even envy and jealousy are silenced.

We German-Americans feel as if we had had a part in the glorious triumph of our kinsmen. May we be permitted to sun ourselves in the radiance of the old Fatherland. With pride we point out what is exhibited here,