New Britain herald., 1917-08-20
KNIGHTS OF GOLDEN PRETZEL.
New Name Devised for Copperhead Organization of 1917, Whose Pres
 idential Candidate Might Be
 Ia Toilette
La Toilette.
(New Ork Sum-

| (NSW I OTk Sun.)
 Senator La Toilette latest effort to 1 block the course of the administration 1 in the war is both infamous and
 thoroughly characteristic. It Is in famous because designed to give aid 1 and comfort to the enemy. It is char 1 acteristic because ever since the en-
 trance of the United States upon the
 war La Toilette has conducted him.
 self very much as if he were a Ger
 man emissary in the Senate.
 i The story goes that La Follette's &C., tivities and those of the Peoples Council of America" which staged a. German meeting in the room of the Senate committee on military af- fairs. are part of a plan to create a new political party, the platform of Which shall be peace at any price and the immediate purpose the election next year of Congress pledged to that policy of national pusilanimity.
 We are not sure that this purpose should not be commended If the nation could get all it's bad eggs in one basket a mighty purification could be worked by burying the basket. If all the big and little snakes of pro- Germanism had but one neck decapi- tation would be easy and effective. If
 we could but get La, Toilette and Stone, Gronna and Vardaman into one organization, what the people would do to that organization can be guessed at the first try.
 La Toilette and his associates would be embarlng on no unknown
 sea if they were to undertake a na- tion-wide political organization with the purpose of embarrassing the ad-
 ministration in it's conduct of the war and eleCting anti-Am orleans to seats in the Congress. These purposes are
 much the same as those animating the
 Knights of the Golden Circle in the
 early days of the civil war. That organization thrivcd nightly for a
 time on it's disloyal programme, so
 much so that in 1862 a United States grand jury estimated the number of it's members in Indiana alone at 40,- 900. The identity of the individual 1 knights was concealed by a general
 oath of secrecy. As soon as this veil was torns away the order dsintegrat- ed, but only to be succeeded by others having the same ends in view. To se- cure democratic success in the elec- tions, to supply the South with arms, to resist the draft and to assist de- serters from the Union armies and es- capped Confederate prisoners were the specific activities of the Knights and | the Sons of Liberty who succeeded l them.
 All of these patriotic purposes l should appeal to La Toilette, with l Germans substituted for Confederates. 1 He has for such an organization a
 much more important nucleus than 1 had the copperheads of '61. For al- | ready in avowed sympathy with his { campaign are five United States Sen
 ators-Stone, Vardaman, Kirby, Gron- | ma and Norris. Democrats as we'll as l republicans are involved-an ideal
 situation for new party. La Toilette l should of course be the leader-the
 Vallandigham of 1917. That glory is l his due, and if in emulation of Lin-
 coln's act we should send him over to
 the camp of the enemy he might exult | in the knowledge that he completed
 the triangle of treason-Benedict Ar ! mold and Vallandigham furnishing tho | other two sides
 1 But name for the new La Toilette ] Vardaman- -Gronna organization? Why
 not unite apt historical allusion with
 neat reference to it's present day affili- l ations and a recognition of it's con- 1 temptible nature by calling it the l Knights of the Golden Pretzel