Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1915-12-08
NATIONS SECRET FOES
SHOULD BE CRUSHED.
Gravest Danger to Country Comes
From Within Our Own Borders.

reckOnlngS of the problem to be met
are set forth in the report, of the secre-
tary of the treasury.
/ have spoken to you today, gentle
men, upon single theme, the thor
ough preparation Of the nation to care
for it's own security and to make sure
of entire freedom to play the impair
tial role in this hemisphere and in the
world which we all believe to have
been providentially assigned to it.
have had in my mind no thought of
any immediate or particular danger
arising out of our relations with other
nations. We are at peace with all the
nations of the world, and there is rea-
son to hope that no question in con-
troverSy between this and other gov
ernments will lead to any serious
breach of amicable relations. grave as
some differences of attitude and policy
have been and may yet turn out to be.
am sorry to say that the gravest
threats against our national peace and
safety have been uttered within our
own borders. There are citizens of the
United States, l blush to admit. born
under other flags, but welcomed under
our generous naturalization laws to the
full freedom and opportunity of Amer
lea, who have poured the poison Of dis
loyalty into the very arteries of our
national life, who have sought to bring
the authority and good name of our
government into contempt, to destroy
our industries wherever they thought
it effective for their vindictive pur-
poses to strike at them and to debase
trigue. Their number is not great as
compared with the whole number of
those sturdy hosts by which our ma
ton has been enriched in recent gen
erationS out of virile foreign stocks,
but it is great enough to have brought
deep disgrace upon us and to have
made it necessary that we should
promptly make use of processes Of law
by which we may be purged of their
corrupt distempers.
America never witnessed anything
like this before. 1t never dreamed it
pOooAbiC thdI AhCh o"olh lutO lIS oWh
citizenship, men drawn out of great
free stocks such as supplied some of
the best and strongest elements Of that
little, but how heroic. nation that in
high day Of old staked its very life to
free itself from every ENHANCEMENT
that had darkened the fortunes of the
older nations and set up a new stand
ard here-that men of such origins and
such free choices OF allegiance would
ever turn in malign reaction against
the government and people who had
welcomed and nurtured them and seek
to make this proud country once more
hotbed of European passion. lit
tie willie ago such a thing would have
seemed incredible. Because it was in
credible we made no preparation for
it. We would have been almost
ashamed TO prepare for it, as if we
We're suspicious of ourselves. our own
comrades and neighbors. But the ugly
and Incredible thing has actually come
about. and we are without adequate
federal laws to deal with it. ! urge
you to enact such laws at the earliest
possible moment and feel that in doing
so am urging you to do nothing less
than save the honor and self respect
of the nation. Such creatures of pas
sion. dislOyalty and anarchy must be
crushed out. They are not many. but
they are infinitely malignant. and the
hand of our power should cloca over
them at once. They have formed picts
to destroy property, they have entered
into conspiracies against the neutrality
of the government, they have sought
to pry into every confidential trans
action OF the government i'll order TO
serve interests alien to our own. 1t is
possible to deal with these things very
effcctually. / need not suggest the
terms in which they may be dealt with
wish that it could be said that only
a few men, misled by mistaken senti-
ments Of allegiance to the governments
under which they were born, had been
guilty of disturbing the self possession
and misrepresenting the temper and
principles of the country during these
days of terrible war, when it would
seem that every man who was truly an
American would instinctively make 1T
his duty and his pride to keep the
scales of judgment even and prove him
self a partisan of no nation but his
own. But it cannot. There are some
men among us and many resident
abroad who, though born and bred in
the United States and calling them
selves Americans, have so forgotten
themselves and their honor as citizens
as to put their passionate sympathy
with one or the other side in the great
European conflict above their regard
for the peace and dignity of the United
States. They also preach and practice
disloyalty. No laws, / suppose, can
reach corruptions Of the mind and
heart, but ! should not speak of others
without also speaking of these and ex-
| pressing the even deeper humiliation
and scorn which every self possessed
and thoughtfully patriotic American
must feel when he thinks Of them and
OF the discredit they are daily bringing
upon us.
What Is more important Is that the
Industries and resources Of the country