South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-12-07

.hreats against our national peace ana
nfety have been uttered within our
Dvn borders There are citizens Of the
United States. ! blush 10 admit, born
under ether flags. but welcomed under
our generous naturalization laws 10 the
fun freedom and opportunity OF Amer
ica, who have poured the poison OF dis
loyalty into the very arteries Of our
Ia s!!essal life, who have sought 10 bring
the authority and good name Of our
government into contempt. 10 destroy
our industries wherever they thought
It effective for their vindlctiye pur-
poses 10 strike at them and 10 debase
our politics 10 the uses OF foreign In
tTigue. Their number IS not great "a
compared with the whole number OF
those sturdy hosts by which our ma
ton has been enriched I'm recent gen
erations out OF virile foreign stocks,
but It IS great enough 10 have brought
deep disgrace upon Us and TO have
made IL necessary that we should
promptly make Tse OF processes OF law
by which we may be purged OF their
corrupt distempers.
America never Witnessed anything
like this before. 1t never dreamed il
possible that men sworn into its own
citizenship, men drawn out OF great
free stocks such as supplied some Of
the best and strongest elements Of that
nttle, but how heroic, nation that i'm
high day OF Old staked its very life 10
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
10 make this proud country once more
a hOtbed OF European passion. lit
tie while ago such a thing would have
seemed incredible Because IL was in
credible we made no preparation for
II. We would have been almost
ashamed to prepare for IT, as II we
were 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 IL. / urge
you TO enact such laws at the earliest
possible moment and feel that I'm doing
so I 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 close over
them at once. They have formed plots
20 destroy property, they have entered
into consp1racies against the neutrality
OF the government, they have sought
20 pry into every confidential trans
action OF the government in order TO
serve interests alien to our own. II IS
possible 10 deal with these things very
effectually. l need not suggest the
terms In which they may be dealt with.
l wish that 1t could be said that only
few men. misled by mistaken senti-
ments or 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 IL would
seem that every man who was truly an
American would instinctively make II
his duty and his pride to keep the
scales OF judgment even and prove him
self a partisan OF 10 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 AID calling them
selves Americans, have so forgotten
themselves and their honor as citizens
as 10 put their passionate sympathy
with enc 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, I suppose. can
reach cOrruptions OF the mind and
heart but I 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 dlscredit they are daily bringing
upon Us.
nATtIDHI nFCotIDNrC