New Britain herald., 1917-07-05
ROOSEVELT RAPS,
 MORAL TRAITORS
Sympathy for Germany Tanta- mount to Treason, Says Colonel


 July 5.-Declaring that those in America who champion Germany's cause against the cause of America are guilty of moral treason, and are in fact, although not in law, moral traitors, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, in a Fourth of July address here pleaded for a single standard of pa- triotism and loyalty.
 We are now at war with Ger many" said Colonel Roosevelt "For over two years Germany has heaped insult upon insult, injury upon in- jury, on our people. We did not even dare to prepare so as to be able ef- 1ectlVely to resent wrong in the fu- ture. Our supine inaction was part ly due to the folly engendered in our people by the professional pacfists. But an even more important factor was the dread many of our politi- clans felt, not merely of the German army abroad but of German votes at home. The selfshness and short sightedness of the American politi- clans were indefensible, and they were due to the fact that the men who took the lead in the German American movement sought entirely to subordinate the actions of the country of which they were nom- inally citizens, the United States, to the needs of the country for which they cared, Germany
 NOW we are at war with Ger l many, yet many of these persons SUD- ported, of course, by professional narfStS fO oh nj many's cause as against the cause for which we are fighting. This is a moral treason to the republic, and all who engage in it are in fact, al- 1 though not in law, traitors who have no right longer to be treated as l American citizens The time has | come to insist that they drop their 1 dual allegiance, and in good faith be- l come outright Germans or outright | Americans. They cannot be both, and those who pretend to be both are merely Germans who hypocritically ] pretend to be Americans in order to serve Germany and damage Amer lea. At this moment the vital thing 1 to remember about these half-hiddeu 1 traitors is that to attack Americas l allies, while we are at death grips with a peculiarly ruthless and brutal foe, or to champion that foe as against our allies, or to apologize for that foes infamous wrongdoing, is to be false to the cause of liberty and l to the United States.
 No Luke Warm Patriotism. l There can be no half and half at- 1 titude in this war, and no honorable man can afford to take such an at- titude. We are bound by every con- sideration of loyalty and good faith to our allies, and any opposition to l them, or any aid given to their and l our enemy, is basely dishonora ble as regards our allies, and reasonable | as regards our country"
 Colonel Roosevelt said that the claim that it was natural for Ameri- can citizens of German origin to l favor Germany was nonsense, and 1 criminal nonsense to boot" and add ed. either 8 man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an Ameri- can at all. We are akin by blood and 1 descent to most of the nations of 1 Europe, but we are' separate from all of them. We are a new and distinct nation, and we are bound always to l give our whole-hearted and undivid- ed loyalty to our flag, and in any in-
 
 eign nation purely according to it's conduct in that crisis. It is both weak and wicked to permit any of our citizens to hold dual or divided allegiance, and it is just as mischiev- ous, just as un-American, to discrim mate against any good American be- 1 cause of his birthplace, creed or par entage."
 Elaborating on that point and pro- testing against the plan to exclude 1 from American Red Cross units Amerlcans of German or Austrian percentage or descent, Colonel Roose- welt said sthat if he had been per- mitted to raise a militarx force for service in France many of his officers would have been chosen from among men of German percentage who were undoubted Americans Colonel Roosevelt severely ar T raigned those who seek to excuse the acts of Germany "our embittered and envenomed foe'. by saying I've would behave in like manner if we had the opportunity" and reviewed the his- tory of the Civil War in support o1 his contention that the utterance was Infamous falsity.'
 German Official Brutality.
 Contrast the brutality shown to- wards women and children on Lusi- tania, and scores of other ships, by the officially directed German sub- marines, with the Alabama's action fifty years ago, ,".he continued. Sem mes never destroyed 8 vessel without providing for the safety of the pas sengers and crew. He turned his own , officers out of their cabins to put in ho N@ foes, and once when he had TOO pris. oners and a prize he allowed them tc , go in freedom on the vessel rather than send them to nearby DOT, . where there was yellow fever. Com. pare these actiors with the fnefhndi,