Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1916 — LOYAL GERMAN BORN SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT [ARTICLE]

LOYAL GERMAN BORN SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT

Head of League of 10,000 Denounces Intrigues.—This No Time for Traitors. New York, April 26.-—William Lustgarten, president of the recently formed Loyal American league, said that it had reached an enrollment of 10,0000 names of men of foreign birth, principally of German descent. He said the league members did not approve of any act of pro-German propaganda herji nor of the idea of dual citizenship. In reply to the announcement in the morning newspapers that the German-American vote was being organized against candidates who were not in opposition to President Wilson or his policies, he said:

“The members of the Loyal American league have no sympathy with any movement of this kind. While our organization has not been formed for political purposes, I have no hesitation in saying that we shall adopt a political program to meet any political movement which has for its object the expression of pro-Germanism as against American ideals and democracy. Above all we stand for loyalty to President Wilson at this time and for the American issues which he represents.” •

The names of Victor Ridder, brother of Bernard Ridder, editor of the New York Staats-Zeitung, and Henry Weinmann, president of the German-American Alliance. were mentioned in the reports of the organization of the German-American vote, and in the beginning or his statement Mr. Lustgarten, wljo is an attorney, made this reference to their activities:

“At a time like this, it is well to emphasize the fact that the Koelbles, Weismanns and Ridders, who have fostered the various pro-kaiser societies, do not speak for all Americans of German birth. It is not necessary to denounce them. for the platform upon which they "have joined to defeat any candidate at the coming election not in sympathy with the success of German, arms and the preservation of the kaiser on his throne is in the very exposure of its alien aims, its own, scathing denunciation.

“The large mass of citizens of foreign birth, and particularly of German origin, have np sympathy with the outrageous political intrigues of

these men. We denounce the attempt to inject the test of loyalty to the kaiser as a criterion of the political character of candidates for public office. “Ex-Governor Colquit of Texas (who appealed for 'German-American votes on the ground that he had opposed W’ilson’s policies), should be beaten by votes of loyal Americans of foreign birth as a fitting rebuke fox having trifled with that which is treason in spirit, even if it has not yet quite thrust itself beyond the tolerance of the law. Every candidate who is endorsed by these German imperialistic loyalists or who truckles to their support should be beaten by the voters who are, in spirit as veil as in birth or naturalization, Americans. “This is the one time when every instinct of loyal Americanism demands that we of foreign birth or origin be not misled by the trickeries and intrigues of demagogues serving the imperial double eagle of Germany instead of the single-headed eagle of this free United States. “Sentiment and sympathy with German hills and rivers, its poetry, its music, and its learning and its intimate home customs must not be confused with loyalty to its imperialistic and feudalistic political institutions. There® are thousands of Germans who are not blind to, the fact that ft is this same feudal political German kaiserism that drove Carl Schurz and some of the ablest minds of Germany as fugitives out of the land of their birth. It was men such as those German fugitives of 60 years ago who found refuge in the United States and established the Germ an-American colonization.

“The Loyal American league is composed of such men. It is the answer we make to the Koelbles and Weismanns and the pro-kaiser neutrality leagues, financed in the dark, whose naturalization is a convenient cloak to conceal conspiracy and intrigue inspired in the interest of an alien, liberty-hating feudal monarchy. “It was well said that no man can serve two masters. • The recent ex-

posure of the political intrigues of the pro-kaiser hyphenates to destroy the political life of all candidates who do not accept pro-kaiserism is injecting an element into our politics too dangerous to tolerate.

“Now is the time when it is necessary to stand by the President, whatever our birth or politics. This is a crisis, big in the history of world affairs. It is no time, for traitors to the country to be tolerated in any political camp of any political complexion. It Imust be made apparent that these Koelbles and Weismanns and Ridders do not represent the whole German contingent, that they are the unnatural exceptions, who exploit disgraceful unAmerican political intrigues for personal or alien advantage in one of the gravest hours this country has ever faced.

“And this I have said speaking as the representative of the Loyal American league, composed of thousands of Americans who wear the badge of hyphenation as an honorable family distinction and not as the livery of an alien imperialism.” According to Mr. Lustgarten, the politics of the individuals composing the league are unknown to him. Its members are enrolled in the states of California, Wisconsin, Illinois and N£w York, and in lesser numbers in other states, but he believes that the league represents the attitude of many German-Americans not identified with it. Mr. Lustgarten is an independent Democrat, and says he has never been conected with any political organization. He is a member of the City club and has been active in civil service refoYm movements.