Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 267, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1917 — TEUTON PASTOR GETS U. S. TEXT [ARTICLE]

TEUTON PASTOR GETS U. S. TEXT

FEDERAL AGENTS INSPIRE HANOVER DIVINE TO NEW HEIGHTS. , The Rev. Carl Voight, pastor of the German Evangelical church in Hanover, a township on the western front of Cook county, not far from Elgin, made a pilgrimage to the department of justice yesterday. He entered right blithely, his Bible under his arm—to prove that it was not the kaiser's Bible from which he preached. He spent eventful hours in conference with Charles F. Clyne. United States district attorney, and Robert W. Childs, assistant United States district attorney. They spoke to him from the heart. The charge against the Rev. Mr. Voight was that he had preached to nis flock anti-American teachings. At his church the sermons are in German and the Sunday school work is in German. Give to Aid German* It is alleged that though his flock and the . immediate neighborhood some months ago subscribed more than S2OO to the German Red Cross fund, in recent patriotic campaigns their record was like this: Liberty bond sales SOO.OO American Red Cross 00.00 Y. M. C. A. fund 00.00 Grand total A ... SOO.OO

Mr. Clyne charged Mr. Voight withje^ng^hi 8 parishioners that it good judgement, for them to ley away winter stores, as the government would send inspectors, would seize all but their absolute necessaries, and heavily tax that which was left them. The clergyman pleaded that he believed tbit to be true, that he had read such in a German language newspaper printed in Chicago. Mr. Clyne sent for the flies of the paper and told him to find the statement. Mr. Voight failed. ( Refer* to Bible The pastor showed marked passages in his Bible, showing the texts from which he preached. Mr. Clyne countered with the gentle reminder that Hanover cast an almost solid Socialist vote at the judicial election.

The end was this. Hanover is to turn over a new leaf. The pastor is to give a red hot stemwinding sermon next Sunday With /his text “America First.” He is to name -a committee to collect for the Y. M. C. A. army relief. He is to name another for American Red Cross work. He is to buy a Liberty bond and advvise his people to do the same. The subscription lists will be reopened by special dispensation from himself, admitted Mr. Clyne. “I will make Hanover the most intensely American community in the country.” said Mr. Voight. Federal 1 agents will hear the “America First" sermon next Sunday.