The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-06-07
american at the present time.

/, American at the present time.
The only fault / have to .ind with Oui
government is that it is altogether toe
goodZfor some people: Spies and trait
ors here fare better than honest men dc
in some countries could name.
I pause here TO receive converts Come
into the fold of true Americans. Kneel
and pray. Your prayer may be either
mental or audible. When you are
through, rise TO your feet, salute the
But look well to your heart. Look well
to your heart. Mere outward form counts
for very little in this important step in
your life. Now come forward, please
l see none. l ann glad of that. 1t is
splendid thing to stand before an audi
ence as large as this and find it 100 per
cent pure. Magnificent, say. Will
some one go and wireless Potsdam?
/ All disloyalty must go, my friends, in
high places and in low. When treason is
let grow, the Ides of March remember.
Were l the senate of the United States
/ should want to find out as soon as
possible whether or not there are any
disloyal microbes floating suout in my
blood. If l should find there are l shall
without debate suspend the rule of sena-
tOrial courtesy long enough TO eject the
offending bacteria from my system even
though they should bear a striking re-
semblance to that Kaleidoscope kaiser
lover, the senior senator from Wisconsin.
On the other hand, if 1 should find there
are no offending microbes in my blood,
Il shall get down on my knees and pub
licly thank God for that And while in
the attitude of prayer l might perhaps
also humbly suggest to the. voluble sage
of Oyster Bay that it would DE a very
nice thing in him in these troublous days
to initiate the habit of the clam and re-
main silent.
Henry Watterson said long ago: ITO
hell with Hohenzollernism!' / say now:
To hell with senatorial courtesy. Both,
I take it, are now properly consigned
Intrigue and intriguers must likewise
go. Johan Won Berhstorff iseC the fact
that he had an American wife as a sort
of camouflage to screen his crooked dip
lomatic Vaccinations while in this coun-
try. The scheme worked for while.
|. Then Johan was found out and he had
to go, thank God What a mean motive
for hiding behind woman's skirt! Is it
not matter for thanksgiving that JO-
han is now gobbled. UP in Turkey?
Something must be wrong with Mrs.
Bernstorff also; else she would have di-
vorced the beast and stayed behind with
the home folks. That she could cling
to count who counts for nothing ex-
cept in Berlin and Constantinople is not
to her credit as an American born wo-
man. The incident suggests that dam
ger turks in American girls marrying
princes of power, sometimes without hon
or and frequently without money, and
bringing them here as guests of the ma
ton.
War is bad business. My whole being
revolts at the monstrous insane butchery
now going on in air, on land and on the
high seas. And yet something good will
come out of it. Before we are done
with this war we shall dispose of two
demons at cost-John Barleycorn and
William Hohenzollern. You will notice
that the names of the two ruffians al
1 ,,l,x T(,,f fI1nNy hoy cnTo "a n
else in common Both claim to be vice.
gerents of some kind, one by the direct
grace of God and the other by virtue
of the miracle at Cana. Eut these
The word "vice-gerent" is a compound
one, having a hyphen. The hyphen it
self is suspicious, but that is not the
worst. Look at the .etymology OF the
nasty little word "vice" which means sin
corruption, depravity; and the Latin
derivative germs" which means to car
ry on, to rule. A vice-gerent therefore
crime and by the suppression of all the
finer human instincts. And that exactly
describes the nefarious business OF John
Barleycorn and William Hohenzollern.
Am / not right?
loon not long ago: saw fine, young
fellow sneak in like thief and come
out maudlin drunk. 1 saw him enter
like beggar and come out grlnnlng IKE
Old King Cole. l saw him go in sober,
and l saw him come out a degraded man.
Whose work is that? John Barleycorn' $.
Then for four long years l have felt
the ever deepening anguish and heard
the bitter groanS of a War-Weary world.
have, seen hundreds of our young men
go off to the war, feeling that many OF
them would never come back and know
ing that many mothers heart would be
broken as she received word that her boy
was killed somewhere in France, and
have turned away from the painful scene
with moist eyes and saddened heart as
contemplated the awful tragedy OF 1t
all that the flower of our nations young
manhood is to be sacrificed upon the
altar of war. Yet, l could see no escape
from accepting the challenge so rudely
flung in our face and fight now or suf-
fer a greater misery in the years TO
come. Whose work is that?
All the waters of the sea will not
serve to wash Germany's hands clean OF
the blood already spilled. and yet she is
crying for more. Let her conquer Eng
be on deck as the next victim of her IN
satiable lust for expansion and power.
Talk not to me of Germany being tnree
thousand miles away and the ocean ~
science and inventions have long since
annihilated space and that the ocean is
no longer hindrance but an open My
way and a convenient shelter for the
about distance, when there is no distance
and of the ocean, when the ocean is no
barrier at all but a menace instead.
1 could wish that my fears of Germany
were unfounded, but all the signs point
the other way. Listen to the threat or
the kaiser, made at the end OF the Brest-
Iitovsk negotiations, that there Will pc
no peace till he is acknowledged as the
supreme war-lord of the world. Then
listen to the great writer's OF painter
many, her prophets of evil and mould
ers of her intellectual life: to Nietzsche
teaching, "Ye shall love peace as means
to new wars-and the short peace more
war as IAN ordinance set by God and the
most powerful maker of nations; 70
Bernhard declaring, 1.-The lessons of
history confirm the view that wars Whicr
have been deliberately provoked by far
seeing statesmen have had the happ1est
results" and to Lehman preaching,
'"The German soul is Gods soul. 1t
shall and will rule over mankind" List
en- to all this, and then rest in fancled
security If you can but be sure that you
rest on your drawn swords.
1t is easy to trim. It is sometimes
hard to speak the truth. l have neither
trimmed nor failed to speak as feel and
see things today. The situation is too
grave. 1 hold that he who does not
whole heartedly support our government
in this crisis is a traitor to the nag who
should be informed and his property con-
fiscated. Shippers here at home should
be freely used for foreign export. Ameri-
ca is not big enough to contain both the
kaiser spirit and the Wilson spirit. Fill
yourselves with the one;N empty your
selves of the other. Mixing drinks is al
ways a bad practice any way. In these
few words is stated my patriotic creed.
1t should be easy to be patriotic now
i'll LT. lrn