The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1915-02-16
WHAT THE GERMAN-AMERICA CANS
ARE ORGANIZING FOR


The feeling of some 100000 Ger
Americans who stand helplessly
on this side of the Atlantic and see
their Fatherland surrounded by ring
of flame and steel, unable to go
themselves or to send an ounce of pow
der or bread, can not easily be imagin-
after ship-load of food and war-sup-
| plies going to their enemies. The im-
pulse to do something" has been very
evident of late, and equally evident has
been the fear among other American
citizens that such efforts may in
volve America in embarrassment and
danger. Such foreboding may cruelty
wrong our Teutonic citizens, and il
| so their critics will presumably be
glad to be disappointed, yet il. is I'M
deniable that grave misgivings were
heard in many quarters when the call
went out some weeks ago for ouI
| German-American population to COR
! ganize" as a unit for some action not
then clearly defined. These misgiv-
ings have increased rather than dim
inished, if we may judge by press com
ment, since the movement then fore
Swallowed has taken definite shape and
frankly announced it's platform. Al
though the nationwide organization
launched in Washington on January
80 by fifty-eight representative Ger
man-Americans declares its chief aim
to be the establishment of "genu-
| inc American neutrality" its critics
do not hesitate to denounce ii as an
attempt to coerce the United tates
Government into taking an actively
! Pro-GeTman stand THE wickedness
of the scheme lies in its purpose tc
| create friction between England and
the United States" declares the Boston
| Transcript. The men behind the move
ment, says the Springfield Republican
reveal themselves as more German
than American" and the New Yorl
! Times is convinced that never since
the foundation of the Republic has any
body of men assembled here who were
more completely subservient to for.
Ieign power and to foreign influence
and none ever proclaimed the un,
American spirit more openly" 'Tht
| sole object of the promoters of this
movement is to drive the United States
from its present position of neutrali.
| ty," affirms the New York Herald
! The position they ask us to abandon
says the New York Sun, is historical.
! ly, legally and morally correct" while
the course they urge upon us amounts
TO the enlistment of the American
| people under the flag of Germany
These men, declares the New YORK
| World, "are doing Germany no good
and themselves much harm, by theil
pernicious pro-German propaganda.
| The movement, In the opinion of the
| Philadelphia Public Ledger repre-
sents a ''pro-German plot" and the
Brooklyn Eagle suggests that the ac.
tiyities of its promoters bear close
resemblance to treason
That these and similar objections
to the program of the Washington con
| ference are not prompted entirely b,
sympathy with the Allies may be In
| ferred from the striking protest regis
tered by DR.. Kuno Francke, head o
Harvsrd's Germanic Museum, and on,
Of the most uncompromising cham
pions of Germany's cause in this coun
try. In a letter to Representative
Richard Bartholdt declining to tax,
part In the movement, DR.. Francke
after declaring his sympathies in thi
war wholly and fervently on the Ger
man SIDE" goes on to say:
But my German sympathies can no