The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-10-24
GERMAN.BORN CITIZENS
FlAYED BY j. S. JUDGE
DISREGARD OATH OF AllEGl.
ANCE AND REMAIN GERMAN
IN ACT AND THOUGHT.

| A few days ago Judge c. T. Ami.
don, of the United States court al
Fargo, n. d., in sentencing a German
Lutheran preacher to three years In
prison for sedition, took occasion tc
expound some good Americanisn
which should not be lost on the non
partisan league. Of which the Ger
man pastor was an active adherent
Judge Amidon said:
Every Thought Was German.
you received your final papers as
citizen in 1898. BY the oath which
you then took you renowned and alb
jured all allegiance to Germany, and
to the emperor of Germany. and
swore that you would bear true faith
and allegiance to the United States
What did that mean? That you would
set about earnestly growing an Am
erican soul, and put away your Ger
man soul. That is what Your oath
of allegiance meant.
Have you done that? l do not
think you have. You have cherished
everything German and stifled every
thing American. You have preached
German, prayed German, read Ger
man, sung German. Every thought OF
your mind and every emotion of your
heart has been German. Your body
has been in America, but your life
has been in Germany. If you were
set down in Prussia today you would
be in harmony with your environ
ment, 1t would fit you just as flow
er fits the leaf and stem of the plant
on which it grows.
Soul Remained German.
you have influenced others who
have been under your ministry to do
the same thing. You said you would
cease to cherish your German soul
and that you would begin to build UP
inside of you an American soul. That
meant that you would begin the study
OF American life and history: that
you would penyour mind and heart
to all of it's influences; that you
would try to understand it's ideals
and purposes and love Them that you
would try to build up inside Of your
self a whole group of feelings for the
United States, the same as you felt
toward the fatherland when you left
Germany.
There have been good many
Germans before me in the last month
They have lived in this country, like
yourself, 10, 20, go 40 years, and they
have had to give their evidence
through an interpreter. 1t has beer
an impressive part of the trial AS
| looked at them and tried, as best
could, to understand them, there wa
written all over every one of them
/ Made in Germany American lif
/ has not dimmed that mark in tn
least. 1t stood there as bright ant
fresh as the inscription upon a nev
coin.
Separate Sheep and Goats.
Il do not blame you and these mel
alone. ! blame myself. We urgec
you to come; we welcomed you; w
gave you opportunity; we gave yol
land; we conferred upon you the dia
Dem of American citizenship-ant
then we left you. We paid no at
tention to what you have been doing
"And now the world war ha:
thrown a searchlight upon our ma.
tional life, and what have we discov.
cred? We find all over these United
States, in groups. little Ceramics
These foreign people have thrown g
circle about themselves and, instead
of keeping the oath they took thai
they would try to grow American
souls inside of them, they have stu
diously striven to exclude everything
American.
when we get through this war and
civil liberty is made safe once more
upon this earth, there is going to be
a day of judgment in these United
States. Foreign born citizens and the
institutions which have cherished for
eigners, are going to be brought to
the judgment bar Of this republic
That day of judgment looks more to
me today like the great day of judy
ment than anything that / have
thought of for many years. There is
going to be a separation on that day
OF the sheep from the goats. Every
institution that has been engaged in
this business of making foreigners
perpetual in the United States will
have to change or cease That Is 60
ing to cut deep, but it is coming
Merchant-Are you man who