The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-07-20
GERMANS AND GERMANS

Gle appearing in the Saturday Even
ing Post by Mr.. Edward G. Lowry.
The purpose of the article was to
show that the average German Is
taught to hold the state above all 9th
er considerations.
That all moral attributes and obli-
cations and even personal honor is to
be sacrificed. if by so doing it is be-
lieved that the state can be served
even remotely.
Further, that the more barbarous
| and frightful war can be made the
more certain and quickly victory can
| be secured, so in the prosecution OF
| the war nothing must be regarded as
too appalling or frightful il their COM
mission will add 20 the triumph of
German arms.
Since the publication OF that arti-
Gle another article has fallen under
our observation
1t is a speech delivered by Otto H.
Kahn, a citizen of the United States,
of German parents.
The subject of his speech is What
is the Duty Of Citizens of the United
States of German Origin in the Pres
ent War;"
Mr. Kahn tells us that century
and half ago Americans OF English
birth did not hesitate to throw off
the yoke OF the mother contry in or
der to free the colonies from oppres-
sion.
Should" he asks, American citi
zens of German birth hesitate to do
less?"
speaking as one borp< of German
parents. | do not hesitate to state it
as my deep conviction that the great
est service which men OF German
birth or antecedents can render to
the country of their origin is to pro.
claim, and to stand up for those great
and fine ideals and national qualities
and traditions which they inherited
from their ancestors. and to set their
faces like flint against the monstrOus
doctrines and acts of a rulership
which have robbed them of the Ger
many which they loved and in which
they took just pride, the Germany
which had the good will, respect and
admiration of the entire world
81 do not hesitate to state it as my
solemn conviction that the more I'M
mistakably and whole heartedly
Americans of German origin throw
themselves into the struggle which
this country has entered in order to
rescue Germany no less than America
and the rest of the world from those
sinister forces that are, in President
Wilson's language, the enemy of all
mankind, the better they protect and
serve the repute of the old German
name and the true advantage OF the
German people
Continuing, Mr. Kahn says:
ct is the purpose of common de
termination to fight and to bear and
to dare everything and never to cease
nor rest until the accursed thing
which has brought upon the world the
unutterable calamity. the devils Wis
itatiOn of this appalling war, is de-
stroyed beyond all possibility of res
direction
That accused thing is not ma
ton, but an evil spirit. spirit which
has made the government possessed
by it and executing its abhorrent and
bloody bidding an abomination in the
sight of God and men"
The author says that our one and
supreme job, the one purpose TO
which all others must give way. is to
| bring this war TO a successful conclu-
| sion: that one Of the means toward
that end Is to make the liberty loan
veritable triumph. an overwhelming
| expression of our gigantic economic
| strength. and then concludes as fol
lows:
Would life be toleraDIe if the
power OF Prussianism, run mad and
murderous. held the world by the
throat? If the primacy of the earth
belonged to a government stepped in
the doctrines of a barbarous past and
supported by ruling cast which
breaches the dedication of sheer
might. which despises liberty. hates
democracy and would destroy both if
it could?
ITO that spirit and to those doe.
trines, we. citizens of America, and
servants, as such, of humanity, will
oppose our solemn and mistaken res.
olution to make the world safe for
democracy, and we will say, with a
clear conscience. in the noble words
| which more than FIVE hundred Yea &c