The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1917-12-03
BANKER TELLS
WHERE LOYAL
POSITION IS
Otto H. Kahn, Of German
Descent, Sends Statement
to a Richmond Man.

son, OF Richmond, he outlines what he
believes should be the position Of all
Americans of foreign descent. The
copy of letter to Ferguson In which
he gives him permission to have the
booklet reprinted follows:
William c. Ferguson. Esq.
Richmond, Indiana.
Dear Sir--I beg to acknowledge re-
ceipt of your letter of the 26th inst,
aud THANK you for your kind expires.
sions concerning my little booklet.
"Prussianized Germany" ! am hon
ored by your intention to give pub
licity In your city to that pamphlet
and gladly consent to your doing SO.
I should be only too happy if 1t were
given to my poor words to aid, in how
ever a modest degree, toward stimH
lating loyalty and notiona. cohesion
and toward furthering q true under.
standing of the righteousness and no
bility of our cause and the hatefulness
OF that of our enemy.
Faithfully yours,
OTTO H. KAHN.
Mr.. Kahns statement, "Prussianized
Germany" follows:
PRUssiANIzEo GERMANY
BY OTTO n. KAHN
From an address before the Harris
burg, Pa, Chamber of Commerce,
September 26. 1917
| speak as one who has seen the
spirit of the Prussian governing class
at work from close by, having at its
disposal and using to the full practic-
ally every agency for moulding the
public mind.
/ have watched 1t proceed with re-
lentless persistency and profound cum
ming to instill into the nation the de-
moniacal obession Of power.worship
and world-dominion, to modify and
pervert the mentality--indeed the very
fibre and moral substance-of the Ger
man people. people which until mis-.
led. corrupted and systematically
poisoned by the Prussian ruling caste,
was and deserved to be an honored.
valued and welcome member OF the
family of nations.
I have hated and Ioathed that spirit
ever since II came within my ken
many years ago: hated it all the more
as | saw it ruthless,y pulling down
q thing which was dear to me--the
old Germany to which was linked by
ties of blood, by fond memories and
cherished sentiments.
The difference in the degree of guilt
as between the German people and
their Prussian or Prussian rulers and
leaders for the monstrous crime of
this war and the atrccious barbarism
between the man who, acting under
The influence Of a poisoned drug, runs
amuck in mad frenzy and the un-
speakable malefactor who administer.
I'd that drug, well knowing and fully
intending the CHASTITY consequences
which were bound to follow.
The world fervently longs for peace.
But there can be no peace answering
to the true meaning Of the word-no
peace permitting the nations of the
earth, great and small. to walk unarm-
ed and unafraid---until the teaching
and the leadership of the apostles Of
an outlaw creed shall have become
discredited and hateful in the sight
OF the German people; until that peo-
pie shall have awakened to a con-
seriousness Of the unfathomable guilt
of those whom they have followed in
10 calamity and shame: until mood
OF penitence and Of G decent respect
for the opinions of mankind shall
have supplanted the sway of what
President Wilson has so trenchantly
termed turbulence and treachery"
God strengthen the conscience and
the understanding, the will and the
power OF the German people 80 that
they may find the only road which
will give to the world an early peace
and in time lead Germany back into
the family of nations from which 1t
Is now an outcast.
From each successive visit TO Ger
many for twenty-five years l came
away more appalled, by the sinis.
ter transmutation Prussianism had
wrought amongst the people and by
the portentous menace ! recognized in
II for the entire world
It had given to Germany unparallel.
ed prosperity, beneficent and advanced
social legislation, and not few other
things of value.,~,but 1t had taken in
payment the soul OF The race. It had
made a devils bargain"
And when this war broke out In
Europe knew that the issue had been
Joined between the powers Of brutal
might and insenate ambition on the
one side and the forces of humanity
and liberty on the other: between
darkness and light.
Many there were at that time-and
amongst them men for whose charac-
ter ] had high respect and whose mo-
ives were beyond any possible suspi-
c'on-who saw their own and Amer
i'as duty in strict neutrality, mental
II and actually, but personally l be-
faYed from the beginning Of the war.
wnether we liked all the elements OF
The Allies combination or not--and
Certainly did not like the Russia of
The Czars--that the cause Of the Allies
was Americas cause.
believed that this was no ordinary
var between peoples for a question Of
ational interest, or even national
honor, but a conflict between funda-
mental principles and ideas: and so
believing | was bound to feel that the
natural lines of race, blood and kin
ship could not be the determining
lines for ones attitude and alignment,
but that each man. regardless Of his
origin. had 20 decide according to his
Judgment and conscience on which
side was the right and on which was
The wrong and take his stand accord
ingly, whatever the wrench and
anguish OF the decision. And thus I
took my stand three years ago.