Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-05

ARE GUILTY OF
TREASON II. R.
Ex-President Also Denounces
Persons Prejudiced Against
Men of Teuton Parentage

Forest Hill, l. l., July 5.-Theodore
Roosevelt, in a Fourth of July Grafton
delivered here, demanded that Ger
man-Americans and pacifsts become
outright Germans or outright Ameri-
cans; that all German newspapers
published here be compelled to print
nm English translation paralleling all
the vote be denied in peace time who
refuse to render universal service in
war time.
He declared that the persons in
America who champion Germany's
cause are guilty of moral treason.
On the other hand, he denounced the
prejudice against Americans of Ger
man descent who are loyal to the
United States and said he would have
chosen several men of German parent
age for officers in his army had he
been permitted to raise one. The
Colonel spoke in part as follows:
THE events of the past three years
bring us face to face with the ques-
tion of whether in the present century
we are to continue as a separate ma
tion or whether we are to become
merely huge polyglot clearinghouse
and countinghouse, in which dollar
hunters of twenty different nationali-
ties scramble for gain. while each
really pays his soul-aliegiance to some
foreign power.
Moral Treason ~.@~
Now we are at open war with Ger
many, yet many of these persons
supported, of course. by the profess
sional pacifists-continue to cham
pion Germany's cause as against the
cause for which we are fighting. This
is moral treason to the Republic, and
all who engage in it are, in fact, al
though not in law, traitors. who have
no right longer to be treated as
American citizens. The time has come
to insist that they now drop their dual
allegiance and in good faith become
outright Germans or outright Ameri-
cans. They cannot be both; and those
who pretend that they are both are
merely Germans who hypocritically
pretend to be Americans in order to
serve Germany and damage America.
AT the moment the vital thing to
remember about these half-hldden
traitors is that to attack Americas s
allies while we are at death grips
with a peculiarly ruthless and brutal
ltt, VI " ClldulplOh tilol ioC oS
against our allies. or to apologize for
that foes infamous wrongdings, is to
be false to the cause OF liberty and to
the United STAGES.
EnvenOmed Foe
Germany is now our bitter and
envenomed foe. She has repeatedly
and brutally murdered our women and
children and defenseless men. She has
proposed to join with Mexico and ia
pan to dismember US. Her publicists
and newspaper wrHers back up with
foul abuse and untruthfulness the
efficient brutality which her military
men have exercised at our expense
and at the expense of the tortured
people of Belgium and of northern
France. Whoever now upholds or
,justiffes Germany is an enemy of the
United States.
"Or contrast the brutality shown
toward men, women and children on
the Lusitania and scores of other
ships by the officially directed Ger
man submarines with the Alabama's s
action fifty years previous; Semmes
never destroyed a vessel without pro-
viding for the safety of the passen-
gers and crew; he turned his own Of
ficers out of their cabins to put in
them the women and children of his
foes, and once when he had 700 pris-
oners and prize, the Arial, he actu-
ally permitted them to go in freedom
on the vessel rather than send them
to a nearby port when he found that
there was yellow fever in this port.
Compare these actions with the
methodical and organized brutality OF
the German military authorities in
this war: and then brand with shame
the American traitor who seeks to
aid Germany by asserting that he. if
given the chance, would be guilty OF
atrocities like those she has commit
ted"