Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-11-29
NEW YORK BANKER MAY COME
STATE DEFENSE COUNCIL.
AMONG FIRST TO WAR
GERMANY AGAINST POLICY
Told People Of FatherIand They Were
Selling Souls to Devil in Blind Fol-
lowing of kaiser-Lafe Young Or
sanizing Loyal Germans Of Iowa
Meeting to Be Held in Des Moines.
Special to Times Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines, Nov. @9.-Otto H. Kahn,
Of the banking firm Of Kuhn, Loeb &
Co.. New York, has been invited by
the state defense council to be one OF
the speakers at the big loyalty con-
seryation meeting which is to be held
at the auditorium Dec. Ii and 10. Kahn
is Of German descent and his firm has
! long been identified with German
finance. However he was one Of the
first Germans 10 warn Germany that
it was on the highway to ruin and to
charge the German people with selling
their souls 10 the devil in their blind
following of the kaiser.
Kahn has of course known Germany
intimately and is recognized as a great
student Of affairs as we'll as finance. In
a recent speech he said:
y speak as one who has seen the
spirit Of the Prussian governing class
a. WORK from close by, having at its
disposal and using to the full practical
" every agency for molding the public
mind.
Y have watched it proceed with re-
!e0:.ess persistency and profound cum
ming TO instiN into the nation the
denon!aCal Obscssion Of power worship
and world dominion, 10 modify and per
Vert the mentality. indeed the very
fiber and moral substance of the Ger
man people-a people which, until mis-
led, corrupted and systema tically poi
soned by the Pruss!an ruling caste,
i -.a.1
valued and welcome member of the
family Of nations.
Il have hated and loathed that spirit
ever since it came within my ken many
years ago, hated it all the more as
saw it ruthlessly pulling down a thing
which was dear to me. the old Germany.
to which I was linked by the ties OF
blood. by fond memories and cherished
sentiments.
The difference in the degree Of guilt
as between the German people and
their Prussian or P-ussianized rulers
and leaders for the monstrous crime OF
this war and the atrOCiOus barbarisrn
Of its conduct is the difference between
the man. who. acting under the intiu-
ence Of a poisonous drug, runs amuclz
in mad frenzy and the unspeakabl'e
malefaCtor who administered that drug,
well knowing and fully intending the
ghastly consequences which We're
bound to follow.
From each Of my visits 10 Germany
| for twenty-five years I came away
| more appalled, by the sinister trans
mutation Prussiantsm had wrough.
| amongst the people and by the por-
| tentious menace I recognized in it for
| the entire world.
TT had given to Germany unparal-
| leled prosperity. hene7cent and ad-
vanced social legislation and not a fey
| other things of value. but had taken in
payment the soul Of the race. II had
| made a devils bargain.
And when this war broke out in
Europe I knew that the issue had been
| joined between the powers OF brutal
might and insensuate ambition on the
one side and the forces of humanity
and liberty on the other, between dark
nese and light.
The duty Of loyal allegiance and
| faithful service to his country rests
| Of course upon every American. But
| II It be possible 10 speak in a compare
| tive degree considering what Is the
| highest Il it is the most elementary
attribute Of citizenship, that duty may
be said to rest with an even more
solemn and compelling obligation on
Americans Of foreign origin than upon
native Americans. For we American $
| Of foreign antecedents are here not by
the accidental right of birth but by our
own free choice for better or for worse,
Woe to the Gerna american. SO =
| called. who in this sacred war for a
cause as high as any for which ever
people took up arms, does not feel a
| solemn urge, does not show an eager
| determination to be in the very fore
front Of the struggle. does not prove a
patriotic jealousy in thought, in ac-
ton and in speech, to rival and to out
do his native born fellow citizen in de-
vOtion and in willing sacrifice for the
country Of his choice and adoption and