Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1916-07-14

are as follows;
Ills Excellency
The President OF the
United States,
Washington, d. G.
Your Excellency:
BE kind enough to permit me to
submit to Your Excellency's con-
sideration a request in connection
with or rather in consequence of
your Memorial Day address. 1t is,
of course, no word of opposition or
Of criticism which j dare to write.
But 1t is q plea that Your Excellency
may actually apply the main SEN
tonces OF that address to the present
facts
Every man will and must be in
hearty accord with Your Excellency's
pointing to the claim of mankind to
liberty and justice" and cOntending
that the vindication Of this claim
ought to be the aim of the United
States. Justice is one Of those agen-
clos which lead to the proper kind Of
cosmopolitanism, but it leads to cos
mopolitanism through nationalism
only; for justice consists in applying
the laws, and the laws Of the present
time arc not international, but ma
tional laws. SO, it would seem, that
acting upon the principle laid down
by Your Excellency must include,
and must include IN the first place,
application OF our own laws.
Now, Mr. President, almost since
the outbreak Of the present European
war a violation of our federal crim-
inal laws has been openly in progress
on a very large scale, has gone un-
punished, even unprosecuted, and,
therefore, continues being committed.
mean the manufacture and expor-
tation of arms and ammunitions in
the present size and manner. AS
long as the orders given by the bel
ligerent governments were not es-
sentially connected with each other
and as long as each manufacturer
bargained for obtaining orders sep
arately, one might have doubted
whether a crime was being commit
ted by these manufacturers. But
when a New York banking firm was
made the controlling agent for Civ
ing and distributing orders, for con-
trolling the execution of these orders,
for checking up the deliveries and,
finally, for paying out the prices
agreed upon, and when, moreover,
the money to be paid out was raised
within the United States by an or
ganized syndicate, every doubt as to
the nature in law Of that traffic must
have vanished. Surely, since then
the manufacture and delivery Of
arms and ammunitions appear to be
one gigantic, organized military en-
terprise such as is forbidden and
To-. kxrC Of
Federal Criminal Law. AS yet not
an attempt has been made to apply
this law, and Your Excellency have
not yet, / have no doubt, been ap-
prised of the fact that the traffic in
warlike goods constitutes a gross
violation Of the law.
/ have now, at the same time when
/ begged to send this letter to Your
Ixcellency taken the liberty of call
ing the attention of the Attorney
General to the matter. There will
be, to be sure, many people within
the United States who should like,
for one reason or the other, to see
this munition trade to be continued
and would regret If it must be
stopped. But there is the law, and
the law has to be obeyed, even to the
point Of suffering thereby loss in
money and material wealth. AS,
however. so many people would dis
like to see the law enforced, and as
the Department Of Justice has done
nothing yet to do so, beg to apply
| to Your Excellency who so convinc-
| ingly pointed to the necessity of fol-
lowing the course of justice and who
| is entrusted by the Constitution with
taking care that the laws are faith
/ fully executed.
1t will not be difficult nor win ii
require a long time to ascertain the
| facts. 1t is only necessary to read
the reports published from time to
time in the newspapers and take the
information contained in them as a
basis for investigation. do not
know any Of the facts myself but be-
leve most Of those newspapers re-
ports to be true
respectfully pray that Your Ex-
cellency may see fit to instruct your
| Attorney-General to enforce the law
by instituting the proper proceed
ings
Hon Thomas w. Gregory,
Attorney-General,
So, 4 \