New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-26

The action Of the Mayors Committee
on National Defence in making pubic
yesterday the correspondence which led
up to the resignation of Victor +. Rid
der from the Committee on Aliens,
branch Of the larger body, reused into
full fame n controversy between Mr.
Riders brother, Bernard II. Rider,
and James NJ. Beck. which has evident
" been smouldering for some time.
Mr.. Beck is a member Of the COM
mittee from which Victor F. Ridder
resigned.
In taking up the cudgels in defence
Of his brothers loyalty TO the United
States. Bernard Ridder declares Victor
is the victim of Mr.. Beck's notorious
prejudice against anything Teutonic."
In publishing the correspondence Mr..
Beck and Archibald +. Stevenson,
chairman of the Committee on Aliens,
have sought to discredit not only his
brothers allegiance but the loyalty OF
the Ridder publication, the STAYS
Zeitung," he insists.
Says Mayor Helped Dust Him
The correspondence, given to tho
press yesterday by Philip J. McCook
acting head of the Mayors Committee
on National Defence, shows that Victor
Ridder was not only forced to resign
from the Committee on Aliens, but that
the Mayor took hand in ousting him
from that organization.
A letter from Mr.. Stevenson to Vic
tor Ridder, outlining the editors senti-
ments on various German activities,
particularly his justification of the
Lusitania sinking, and suggesting that
he withdraw from membership in the
committee, is supported by another
from Theodore Rousseau, the Mayors
secretary, in which he says:
at is the Mayors view that if the
facts related in Mr.. Stevenson's letter
are true, the wisest course for you to
pursue is to submit your resignation,
rs requested by Mr.. Stevenson"
rarding the publication of the differ
! ences between his brother and the
| Committee on Aliens, says:
when | learned that my brother,
| Victor F. Bidder, had associated him
self with firebrands of the Stevenson
and James VI. Beck type-the former
| being the counsel and the latter the
| most influential member of the Com
| mittee on Aliens--I warned him TO re-
! sign Immediately before he was made
| the victim of the prejudice Of such
people.
"Men like Beck and Stevenson are 80
/ bitterly and VIGOROUSLY opposed to
| everything connected with the German
/ language, however remotely, that 1t
/ required no great power of ratloclna-
/ ton to understand that sooner or
/ later they would set about the humilia-
| ton of Victor +. Ridder. The whole
/ proceeding has now been given TO the
public prints, as 1t did not suit the
purposes of Beck and Stevenson TO
consider the 'Staats-Zeitung' an Ameri-
! can newspaper"
Defends Loyalty Of Paper
! Declaring that the recently pub
| lished correspondence between himself
! and jeremiah A. OIcary had pre-
scented the Stats Zeitung" to the pub
lie in its true light, Bernard Ridder
said that the facts of his brothers
resignation had been made public for
the purpose Of discreGiting the loyalty
of the paper and its publishers.
James NJ. Beck is too clever TO serve
on a committee with OLeary, Niereck
OF al he continued. Had my brother
been less trusting in the good Amer
canism of Messrs. Beck e. Co. he would
have saved himself some undesirable
publicity by refusing TO have anything
20 do with them.
THE Stats Zeitung' proposes 10 re-
main strictly American regardless OF
the attacks made by both radical wings
the one led by OLeary, and the other
by James NJ. Beck"
|, Replying TO Mr.. Ridder, Mr. Beck
| said yesterday that he had never at
= tended meeting Of the Committee or
Aliens, and that he knew nothing OF
Victor Riders resignation until he
read of it in the newspapers.
~ have too much consideration fol
Mr.. Herman Ridder to take part in any
movements against either of his sons,
he said. "Mr. Bernard Ridder is mis-
taken in stating that | am VIGOROUSLY
and wholly opposed to and prejudiced
against everything connected with the
German language.
$50 far as commandments are
concerned, have consistently asserted
from the beginning of the wsr that the
great mass of German-Americans were
loyal to the United States. While my
ancestry happen to be American fol-