The menace., 1917-07-21
GOVERNMENT TAKES
PRIEST into CUSTODY
Father" Who Has Three Brothers
in German Army Arrested While
Masquerading as Woman

A dispatch dated July 1, Aurora,
ILL.,, that appeared in some of the
daily papers over the country reads
as follows:
Key. Father Osten Koetter, n Shannon, III.
priest who was arrested at Freeport Wednes.
gay night while masquerading AZ n woman, is
held in bail. Federal authorities are inyesti.
eating to determine whether he Is n spy. He
has three brothers In the German army. The
priests trunk containing writings In German,
has been taken by the federal agents.
The above notice would Indicate
that the federal agents did not arrest
Priest Koetter by accident, but rather
indicate that they knew his connec-
tlons and that he was under surveil-
lance.
That the federal authorities should
be on hand at just the proper time
and IN just the proper place Indicates
that there had been some prior in
vestigation or suspicion as to the ac-
tivities of Koetter. As usual when
Rome is about to be caught with the
goods the insanity" plea is being
made in the case Of Koetter, now that
ne is in the tolls of the law.
Another portion of the dispatch
says:
Friends in Aurora believe Father Osten
Koetter has become mentally unbalanced from
overstudy. He was always eccentric.
REV. Osten koetter was arrested at the
Senate Hotel, Freeport. One thing was lack
Ing in his makeup. He wore mems shoes,
and this proved his undoing. Investigators
for the United States department Of justice,
ward L. Thompson and J. c. Drntustburg.
koetter came In. Their attention was at
traeted BY the peculiar actions Of the woman"
a. she stepped to the desk to register. Ths
night clerk, too, was OF the opinion that he
was dealing with an unusual character, for
the hands Of the woman" were unusually
large and "her" voice was masculine.
"She" registered ~ Ellen Wishsr of Rock.
ment agents followed the woman" later and
peered over the transom Of "her'' room. They
saw seated on the bed q man with closely
cropped hair. He was partly disrobed, re-
yealing that his entire dress, even to lingerie,
was that Of 4 woman. They forced an en-.
der arrest.
In the first paragraph of the above
quotation note that it is the friends
Of Koetter" who are claiming that he
is mentally unbalanced. 1t is this
same claim that is being put forward
in the case of Romanist Cocchi, self
confessed murderer of Ruth Cruge,,
and it is this same plea which has en-.
abled Rome to bring many, many
priests and minions through court
proceedings unscathed so far as pun
ishment is concerned. 1t is the same
plea that she urged in the "Father"
Schmidt murder case in her endeavor
to save him from the electric chair.
Should Knight of Columbus serv-
ing in an official capacity with this
government have been in the habit of
confessing to this priest he might in
deed have proven a menace to
the country by divulging matters
that should not be told an ardent
friend of the German propaganda;
and who doubts that there are others?
Should further investigation reveal
that Koetter is an agent of the Ger
man propaganda no one need be sur
prised for he would only be following
the lead Of the pope's own private
chamberlain, Monsignor Gerlach, and
serving the interests of the papacy as
well as those of Germany by assist
ing so far as lay within his power in
maintaining the divine right and au-
tocratic theory Of rule.
Rome's hand was in evidence be-
fore the war began in the treaty, or
concordat, signed at the vatican be-
tween the Serbian government and
the pope which sought not only to
establish Roman Catholicism as the
state religion, supported by the state
in a Greek Catholic country but like
wise designed to destroy the free in
stitutions of that country and the
liberty of its people; thing which
eliminated a few days later in the
assassination of Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, from which many writers
Of current history date the be-
ginning lof the war, without look
ing into the prior events; and,
Rome's hand has been in evidence ever
since; from the demands for the res
toration of the papal states as a part
of the peace compact to the Gerlach
conspiracy and from indifference as
to the fate of Catholic Belgium who
aligned herself with the allied powers
to attempts at harassing the English
government by insistent; yes, even
revolutionary demands for Rome rule
in Ireland.
We need hardly expect, therefore,
that the intriguers have found their
stopping place or that they are going
to cease simply because America has
an+arnJ &1o ,,yor