Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-05-30
Why We Fight
MOL
Because Germany for Years Has
Been Making Secret, Preacher.
GUS War on Us
BY CLARENCE l.. SPEED
Secretary Of the Wal Committee of the
Union League Club of Chicago.

Union League Club of Chicago.
One of the deep, underlying reasons
mot just a diplomatic pretext-why
we are at war with Germany is that
for a generation Germany has been
making wal on us. Germany has
made this war not openly, bravely or
humanely, but secretly, treacherously
and persistently. She has sought to
create race discord, to corrupt and de-
file politicians and otficeholders, and
to create separate German commune
ties within our borders. She has poi
soned the minds of children in our
schools in an endeavor to make Ger
mans of them instead of have them
grow up into loyal American citizens.
She has invaded the sa%credness of the
pulpit itself in an endeavor to corrupt
our people through the very leaders
of morality to whom they are accus-
toned to look for guidance.
These may be startling assertions,
but they are all true, as you shall see
from the documents of the Germans
themselves. We all knew that it was
| Il OellliGu llSSl NHlAll " az
ton when Dewey sailed into Manila
bay. We all knew it was the Germans
who sought to bring about a European
alliance against US when we were en-
gagged in the wal with Spain. Few Of
us RELAXED, however, that all these
years Germany has been busy within
our W borders, through editors,
teachers and preachers, seeking to
break down our national unity, so that
when the time came it would be easy
to defeat the United States in open
warfare, to set at naught u cherish
ed Monroe doctrine, and to seize, in
the Western hemisphere, anything
that the land grabbing rulers of the
German empire might desire.
The climax of Germany's under.
handed war on the United States came
in 1913, more than a year before the
outbreak of hostilities in Europe. This
was the enactment Of what is known
as the Delbruck law, which provides
that if an emigrant from Germany
who is about to be naturalized makes
application to a German consul, he
may retain his German citizenship
even after he has become a citizen of
his adopted country.
In plain words, this law, and the ap.
plication of it, mean just this:
A German goes into court in this
country and solemnly foreswears al
legiance to the kaiser and pledges
his word-the temptation was to say,
"of honor"-that he will become a 10y.
al citizen of the United States. Then
he slips around to the German consul
and says:
"You know I didn't mean that, al
all. Those Americans are easy marks
and they fell for that stuff right off
But you just put me down on your list
as a good, loyal German, and if the
time ever comes when I a prove it
you can count on me-"
So the German consul puts his name
down in the little card index Of which
the Germans are so fond, and this
man,-this creature who swears al
legience to the country which gives
him an opportunity to make a real liv
ing and to become somebody in thi:
, world, and at the same time swears
secretly to be true to Germany-is
turned loose to work his will, while
Americans 60 carelessly about theil
business and refuse to see the danger
! In the arrangement.
: Long before the passage Of the Del
bruck law, there was formed the We
} rein fur das D%eutschtum i'm Ausland-
the Union for Germanism in Foreign
Lands. This organization, oficiall!
= fostered in Germany, issued a quarter
ly magazine, which, in it's very first is
sue, outlined it's aims as follows:i
1.-THE purpose of this union is tn
< preservation and promotion of tn
r Germanism of over 100000 peopl'
e Of German blood dwelling outside tn
q German empire" All it aims to do
you see, is to keep Germans who COM
to this country from becoming Ameri
cans.
Away back In 1890 the Alldeutsche
o Verband, or the Pan-German league
e vas formed. 1t now consists Of 26'
e chapters Of which two now are-or a
least were Immediately before the wa
Il lin the United States, one in New
York and n in San Francisco. T.
quote from the Alldeutsche Batter, it
n official publication, "the Pan-Germal
d league is founded for promoting Ger
man National interests, both in Ger
many and in foreign lands" .
vi A few thinking Americans knew
# all the time what was coming-wha
must come. But America, as q whole
went along In that care1essness an
- Indifference with which it treats al
things unpleasant, and allowed thi
e German war or our most sacred inst
tutions to continue unchecked.
So Germany stands today, with on
foot on PROSTATE Belgium and the 9th
er on the neck of poor deluded Rus
STA; with a bayonet planted in tn
heart Of Serbia and tho po;n+ ~ a.