The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-10-11
GOVERNMENT Will
D0PATRIOTlC DUTY
OTTO III. KAHN, NEY YORK BANK.
Err, MAKES A STIRRING
<. APPEAL.
MUST Crush PRUSSIANlSM
INEVITABLE THAT THE UNITED
STATES SHOULD BE FORCED :
INTO WAR. :

Otto H. Kahn, the New York Bank
er and head of the Metropolitan
Opera House Company, on, of the
most eminent of German BON Am-
orleans, speaking of the Liberty
Loan and war finance before the Har.
risburg, Pa, Chamber of Commerce,
said in part:
"God strengthen the conscience and
the understanding, the will and the
power of the German people so that
they may find the only road which
will give the world an early peace, and
in time, lead Germany back into the
family of nations from which it is
now an outcast.
81 speak as one who has seen the
spirit of the Prussian governing class
at work from close by, having at its
disposal and using to the full, prac-
tically every agency for moulding the
public mind.
81 have watched it proceed with
relentless persistency and profound
cunning to instill into the nation the
demoniacal obsession of power-wor-
ship and world dominion, to modify
and prevert the mentality, indeed, the
very fibre and moral substance of the
German people-a people which until
misled, corrupted and Systematically
poisoned by the Prussian ruling
caste, was, and deserved to be, an
honored, valued and welcome member
of the family of Nations.
al have hated and lothed that spirit
ever since it came within my ken
many years ago, hated it all the more
as l saw it ruthlessly pulling down
thing which was dear to me. the
old Germany to which / was linked by
ties of blood, by fond memories and
cherished sentiments.
"From each of my visits to Ger
many for twenty-five years, | came
away more appalled, by the sinister
transmutation Prussianism had
wrought amongst the people and by
the portentous menace | recognized
in it for the entire world.
81 had given to Germany unparal-
leled prosperity, beneficient and ad-
vanced social legislation and not
few other things of value, but It
had taken in payment the soul OF the
race. 1t had made devils bar
gain"
"And when this war broke OUT IN
Europe, l knew that the issue had
been Joined between the powers OF
brutal might and insensate ambition
on the one side and the forces OF
humanity and liberty on the other,
between darkness and light.
"Many there were at that time
and amongst them men for whose
character l. had high respect and
whose motives were beyond any pos
sible suspicion -who saw their own
and Americas duty in strict neutral-
ity, mentally and actually, bat per-
sonally I believed from the beginning
of the war, whether we liked all the
elements of the Allies combination or
not-and l certainly did not like the
Russia of the Czars-that the cause
of the Allies was Ameria's Cause.
"The Duty of loyal allegiance and
faithful service to his country, even
unto death, rests, of course, upon
every American.
"But, if it. be possible to speak OF o
comparative degree concerning what
is the highest as it the most element
airy attribute of citizenship, that duty
may almost be said to rest with an
even more solemn and compelling
obligation upon Americans Of foreign
origin than upon native Americans.
1'For, we Americans of foreign an
tecedents, are here not by the acci-
dental right of birth, but by our own
! free choice for better or for worse.
Gas Washington led Americans OF
British blood to fight against Great;
Britain; as Lincoln called upon Am-
orleans of the North to fight their
very brothers of the South; SO Am
orleans of German descent are now
summoned to join in our lcpuntry's
righteous struggle against a people
of their own blod which, under the
evil spell of dreadful obsession. and,
Heaven knows, through no fault Of
ours. has made itself the enemy Of
this peace-loving Nation"