The Robesonian., 1917-11-29
TREASON AND DIS
LOYALTY AND THE
LAW OF THE LAND

x
ltators who, led by good or bad mo-
tives, seek to hamper our work in the
war justify me as the chief law Off
Ger of the executive branch Of the
government in calling attention to the
duties, moral and legal, of all per
sons owing temporary or permanent
to the United States.
The German government began this
war by ccntemptuous breach of its
formally plighted faith made in sol
emn treaty and from the beginning un- !
til now has more than made good this ,
ominous earnest Of its intention and /
temper. The President has shown US
how one by one, as opportunity Of
fered, the safeguards which civiliza-
ton has been able during the centu-
rles to throw around neutrals and the
non-fighting people of warning na-
tlons were ruthlessly torn down; how
STRANGE and request Wore met by fair
words, and fairer promises made on
ly to be broken.
German Honor"
We all know as but sober fact,
plainly stated, that the Imperial gov
ernment has allowed no rule OF war.
| no principle of civilization, no con-
sideration OF humanity, no teaching
OF Christianity to stand between it
and the working out Of its illegal pur-
! poses. For half ea~tury that gov
ernmsnt has >chemeA and prepared
to dominate the world by 'blood and
IRON. For half century the ofiei-
ais OF the imperial government, from
the Kaiser down, including the teach
ers Of their children, have prostitut-
ed the minds of their youth until the
whole people has been led to a tole-
ration, it not approval, of the hideous
outrages and barbarities practiced by
that government in this war. While
yet we were neutral, struggling te
keep free from the conflict, the rep
resentatives of that government il
this country planned to destroy oul
factories and our railroads, forged
our public papers, deceived US wher
convenient, violated our hospitality
and our sovereignty, while they plot
ted against our territorial integrity
they deliberately and with malice ant
affronting forewarning drowned ou
helpless women and babes and declar
ed public holiday that their own in
nocent children might celebrate tn,
| murder.
They have bombarded unfortifie,
towns and bombed the unprotecte,
homes of their foes, taking their tol
of wounded and dead from the age
| and infirm, the young and the help
| less. They have made barren desert
| of the garden spots of the earth; the
| have needlessly pillaged and willful
ly burned towns; they have reduce
to slavery men; women and children
| they have wrecked and torn assunde
families with a system diabolical
it's efficiency; they have wantonly dc
filed and destroyed the temples c
| God. They have done all of thes
i things that they might strike terro
into the hearts Of men so as more ca:
lily to conquer and rule them.
II As the war has gone on, the ult
mate aim of the imperial governme1
has become more and more clea
= Drunk with the sense of its own pov
er and its asserted superiority, it h
proposed to secure dominating p
:. sition for itself and for its system o
ing to the people their rightful po,
ers and everywhere seeking to u
hold autocracy and despotism, it h
shown its intention to perpetuate a
solute government of which it a
mittedly is the the head and fro1
It's "kultur" is avowed to be the ac1
of human goodness and endeavor, a
is to boast the rulership of the wor
gained by force and arms.
A War of Two Principles
The world must fight to preseI
itself. Of this there can be no dou
Heretofore, save in rare cases, "
has beena fight between armies;
this war, because of the initial prt
aration for it by an autocracy VIII
prostituted a whole mighty nation
its purpose is a contest between p
pies themselves. It is correspondll
ly intense and relentless. The mai
of events shows that it is now v
of systems-kings against peoples.
our enemy win, kings will domln
the world, because no democrs
- fights with or for them. The Pr
sian autocrat and the brutal II
- will impose upon US their wills,
US what we may do, what we may
\ do, and the horrors and atrocities
\ Belgium and Armenia, leave no do
!. what this means. Government of
people, by the people, and for
people will perish from the cart
In this sense this is truly war
absolute and complete exterminat
not of peoples, but of systems, {
so far as human sight can pierce
future the life of the one system
the other waits on the result.
Thus our own very life came to
bound up in the outcome of this ,
long before we entered it, and e
years before the war broke. To
man of vision it is as clear as sunli
that the aim and the plan of the
perial government was and is to {
quer the world, nation by nation.
was first to defeat France and Rus
next to dominate Great Britain,
with Europe at its feet to turn
America. "Kultur" and the Ger1
sword were to rule around the VIC
We have been thus forced by the
= perial government itself to che
4.ho4hor. II, addition tn s11ffarino