Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-09-18

what he is doing, hefis traitor at
heart.
There are doubtless some who do
not understand what this struggle
really is. Some who were born here
resent interference with their COM
fort and prosperity and the demands
for sacrifice which seem to them UNI
necessary; and they fail to see that
the time has come when, if Ameri-
cans are to keep the independence
and liberty which their fathers won
by suffering and sacrifice, they, in
their turn, must fight again for the
preservation of that independence
and that liberty. There are some
born abroad who have come to this
land for greater freedom and broader
opportunities, and have sought and
received the privileges Of American
citizenship.
"All these naturalized citizens
who are taking part in obstruction
to the government in the conduct
of the war are false to their oaths,
are FORGETTING their rights of citizen
ship and are repudiating their hon
orable obligations. We must believe
that in many cases this is done be-
cause of failure to understand what
this war really is"
INTERESTING SIDE LIGHT ON
THE WAR.
Many readers of this paper will
remember the blunt direction of Ad-
miral Dewey to Admiral Won Goet-
zen, commander of the German fleet
at Manila in 1898, when the latter
attempted to interfere with and
hamper the movements of the Amer
lean fleet--to get his ships out Of
the way and keep them out of the
way if he didn't want them sunk,
and the haste with which Won Goet-
zen complied.
The following extract from sub
sequent conversation between these
two men, filed with Admiral Dew
ey's official reports may be COM
mended to the consideration of the
local nest of traitors who have for
more than two years done their lit
tie best to befoul the flag under
which they live, and to their friends
the street corner blatherskites
entirely ignorant of the causes
which led up to the present war.
The report of the conversation is
preserved in the Naval and Military
Record No. SO, Vol. LII, page SIS,
ct seq, and this was Admiral Won
Goetzen's cheerful prognostication:
"About fifteen years from now,
my country will start her great war.
She will be in Paris about two
Tmohtis after tie commencement Of
hostilities. Her move on Paris will
be but step to her real object
the crushing Of England. Some
months after we finish our work in
Europe we will take New York, and
probably Washington, and hold them
for some time. We will put your
country in it's place, with reference
to Germany. We do not propose to
take any of your territory, but we
intend to take billion or SO of your
dollars from New York and other
places. The Monroe doctrine will
be taken charge of by us, as we will
then have to put you in your place,
and we will take charge Of South
America, as far as we wish to. Do
not forget this, and about fifteen
years from now remember it, and it
will interest YOU"
AS to time, this was accurate
prophecy, for the war actually be-
gan sixteen years after this CONVEX
sation, but the pounce of tooth and
claw upon every ideal held by the
free peoples of the earth had to wait
the completion of the Kiel canal on
June "a, 1914. Four days later war
against Serbia was declared.
The modest loot to be carried
away-"a billion of your dollars or
so'seems ridiculous now, when
war expenditures are measured in
tens OF billions, but it indicates the
short, cheap and easy job which
Germany then thought to make of
it. 1t did not occur to the kaiser
and his band of Prussian buccan-
GERS that they might sometime, in
the very expressive vulgar phrase,
bite off more than they could chew.
OF course, the pro-Germans in
Hamilton county will say the re-
puted statement by Won Goetzen was
never made; that it is a fiction Gre
ated by the imagination of Admiral
Dewey. That is the way they meet