The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-05-24
CONFERENCE
LOOKED ON AS
GERMAN PLOT
Passports Will be Refused
American Delegates to
Stockholm
ARE LIABLE TO
SEVERE PENALTY
Delegates Condemned as
Prot German By Promi-
nent Co-Workers
(By Associated PROSE-

Washington, May 24.-The state de-
partment has announced that no pass
ports will be issued to anyone desir-
ing to leave the United States to at
tend the conference of Socialists at
Stockholm to discuss peace. 1t is
pointed out that any American par
ticipating in the conference will be
subject to the penal provisions of the
Logan act of 1899, providing a maxi
mum fine of $4,000 or Imprisonment to
three years for any citizen of the
United States participating directly
or indirectly in any verbal or written
correspondence with foreign govern
ment or its representatives in relation
to disputes of the United States.
The American delegates to the con-
ference, authorized to represent the
American Socialist party over the pro-
test of some of it's foremost members
are Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee and
Morris Hillquit and Algernon Lee of
New York. They were selected by the
party's executive committee after a
notable group of Socialists. headed by
Charles Edward Russell and William
English Walling, had condemned the
movement in a joint statement as "the
most dangerous of all the kaiser's
plots"
The same statement denounced Hill
quit and Lee, who are Socialist writ
ers, as radically pro- German. Berger,
a native of Austria Hungary, has been
editor of several German language
newspapers in Milwaukee and in 1911
was elected as the first Socialist to
sit in congress.
Had Origin in Germany.
American diplomatic agents abroad
have kept a close watch on the Social
list movement and their reports are
To frIo oil nVn1xr 4I4of 4Ian
plan for conference at Stockholm
had its origin in Germany and has met
with the active announcement of the
German government. Passports al
ready have been granted to German
delegates, who will keep at the front
of the negotiations the slogan of mo
anneXations," interpreted here as a
cardinal feature of Germany's pro-
gram for truce to further consolidate
great central European empire.
Russian Socialists also have selected
delegates to the meeting, as a result,
it is believed here, of German infiu-
ence. 1t was in Russia that the pro-
posal of mo anneXations" first came
into prominence, ~and it promptly was
taken up by the German Socialists,
who have urged upon the government
an immediate declaration renouncing
conquered territory, in the east and
west. SuCn proposals are regarded
here as only blind to end the war
while Germany's expansion to the
south is secure.
Turned Down by England.
The Socialist party of Great Britain
has refused to send representatives to
Stockholm, it's executive committee de-
claring that such a conference "is Of
no real Importance and can only bring
ridicule on the Socialist cause"
Officials made it clear that their de-
cision should be regarded rather as a
disapproval of the peace move than as
a reflection upon sincerity of Socialists
in this country. 1t was emphasized that
great danger might result If unauthor-
lied persons attempted at present to
negotiate regarding peace with foreign
agents who appear in reality the in
struments of a cleverly directed Ger
man war move.
The so-called Logan act, under
which Secretary Lansing pointed out
that such attempts can be punished,
was passed by congress in 1893, after
DR.. George Logan. a member of the
Society of Friends and leader in
Pennsylvania politics, had made a tour
of France on a self constituted mission
calculated to close the widening breach
between the American and French
governments. At that time diplomatic
relations between the two countries
had been severed and there was every
indication that war soon would follow.