Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1917-02-26
THE ESPIONAGE BILL is SIMPLY
THE INFAMOUS ALIEN AND
SEDITION LAWS UNDER
ANOTHER NAME.


mocratic Snators who voted for this
Espionage Bill know how the Demo-
cratic party originated. Why, Sc
nators, the Democratic party origi-
mated in the Opposition of Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison to
JUST EXACTLY SUCH LAWS AS
THIS UN-ANiERICAN LAW. Those
laws were the Alien and Sedition
Laws, passed in the year 1898, during
the Presidency of John Adams. The
Alien and Sedition Laws provided
that the President could arrest and
order out of the country any foreign
born person he might consider dam
gerous, and made it crime punisha-
BILE by fines and imprisonment to
publish any scandalous or malicious
criticism of the Government OF the
United States or either House or
Congress or the President or to
STIR up sedition or opposition to any
act OF Congress or Of the President,
or to aid the design Of any foreign
Power. This infamous and tyran-
nical law, which aroused the people
to fury when put into execution, is
practically copied in every detail and
then broadened and made more ty-
rannical and destructive of all lib
erty in the infamous measure con-
cocted by Attorney-General Gregory.
And we most earnestly warn you,
Democratic members of the peoples
House, that if you permit yourselves
to be persuaded or coerced into
passing this infamous Espionage Bill
YOU and your party will meet - and
deservedly meet the same fate
that the American people visited
upon the Federalist party when 1t
enacted the exact prototype Of this
out of eMstance in two short years.
There Is no need Of this law 1t Is
creature Of the brain Of Attorney
General Gregory - the most mel
flcient and incompetent Attorney
General the country has ever seen.
For two years this man has been OBJ
sessed by his silly nightmare OF Ger
mar spies. He sees one behind every
lamp post He has no more sense in
this matter than the ridiculous indl-
vidual from North Carolina who
told the Senate the other day that
there were 100000 German spies
In our country to-day ~ as If GER
many had $10O,000,000 to spend
yearly upon spy system in America
- for we presume spy would re-
quire at least $1,000 o year by way
OF wages. Or, rs If Germany needed
a single spy to find out anything
about our army or navy or Govern
ment proceedings, when they are all
as open to inspection as the day ana
all have been decribed over and over
again in dozens Of American news
papers and periodicals. This spy
talk Is the most supremely silly bug
a-boo with which silly persons ever
tried to frighten thcmeelyes and
their neighbors. Yet, as we say, IL
IS an obscsson Of this man Gregorey.
He eats sleeps and talks only Ger
man spies, and probably looks under
the bed for them before he climbs in,
For two years past he has put the
whole energies of the Department Of
thisG government, to act as q detective
and messenger force ~ truth FOR
telling which he would doubtless try
to put us in jail if he had his Es-
pionage Bill safely passed. The
business of the American people has
been wholly neglected by him and
his subordinates. Criminal trusts
have practised their extortions with
out single prosecution. They have
robbed the poor and raised the prices
of food until the mothers of hungry
children have rioted right here in the
streets Of New York. No industry
and no person has escaped their ex-
torsions and not one OF these criini-
nails has been even hindered In his
crimes, or even punished. While hum
dreds of thousands Of Industrious
American working people are being
brought to the edge Of actual hum
ger by these villainous and criminal
combinations, Mr.. Gregory and his
District-Attorney and his secret
agents have been chasing phantom
spies. arbitrarily and illegally search
ing Americans going abroad and
taking from them articles the 3ri-
tih Government has forbidden Anne
ricans to carry on shipboard-though
such q thing is absolutely forbidden
by our fundamental law ~ and car
rying on futile and mostly ridiculous
prosecutions of alleged spies. The
best commentary upon the Stiffness
of this waste of public money Is the
fact that In two years Mr.. Gregorys
department has not secceeded in OBJ
tanning convictions in as many as ten
cases Of this kind and in not two
of that small number would an IN
telhgent juryman, upon his oath,
have voted for conviction on the eyi-
dence. And while the Department
of Justice has thus been made r.
diculous and useless to the country
by this absurd spy" obsession, little
children are without food and fathers
and mothers deny themselves ordi-
nary necessities because the real and
active and relentness and cruel enc
mics of the people ~ these villainou'
conspirators who create extortionatt
prices for the necessities Of life r.
have not even been disturbed by &c
much as a subpoena. Now we say
again to you members OF the House
that the people are in no mood tC
see you put unheard- Of tyrannica
powers into the hands of an Attor
! ney-Genral who has proved him
self so utterly Unfit to exercise hi'
rightful powers. This Espionag'
Bill which Mr.. Gregory has drawn
up und which the Senate has mos
unfortunately endorsed is villain
GUS attack upon the liberties OF al
Tr,.lI.. c,,oh inNy M ma