The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-04-27

1t is sincerely to be hoped that the United States senate
will rise to the occasion and place in the vacancy caused by the
death of Senator Stone a man in whose Americanism there is
mo flaw. The rule of priority and that other bugbear known
as senatorial courtesy" would of course be outraged, but this
is a time when the people are disposed to say, in relation to
such matters, courtesy be hanged
The Tribune is reluctant to speak i'll of the dead, but it
has shared the distrust of Senator Stone that has been voiced
by millions of Americans, in his own party as freely as in
other parties. And now by the same rule-the rule of prior
ity-that carried Senator Stone into a place he could not fill
and in which he was not trusted in emergency, Senator Hitch
cock is in line for advancement to the craftsmanship OF that
most important of all committees, the committee having juris-
diction in the senate in matters affecting our foreign relations,
our relations with our allies. And the senate, with the presl-
dent constitute the treaty-making power. And the treaty of
peace, when it comes, and the terms of peace, will be largely
in the hands of this committee.
There are some things in Hitchcocks record that are at
this time hard to forget. The Tribune has published them and
reverted to them from time to time, but they will bear recall
ing. Very early in the war, but after Germany had been eff
fectually shut off by the British navy from business inter-
course with this country, Hitchcock introduced a bill %forbidding
the sale of bonds in the United States by belligerent nations
as Germany wanted him to do.
A little later, in December, 1914, with ocean traffic closed
to Germany, he presented a bill prohibiting exports of all kinds
to belligerent nations-as Germany wanted him to do.
On the day after the sinking of the Lusitania he declared
that "the loss of American lives was only incidental or acct
dental" and that PREPARATION" money indemnity, would satisfy
every claim-as Germany wanted him to declare.
And a few days later, commenting on the presidents ring
ing note of protest he said he would not be willing to go to
war for the purpose of securing to Americans the right to
travel in the war zone on British %ships"-as Germany wanted
him to say.
In the meantime he was almost clamorous for war with
England-as Germany wanted him to be-because England
ransacked our mail bags to thwart the German spies that were
using our soil as a base of operations. He had no more ardent
champion than that arch traitor, George Sylvester Viereck,
who with his "Fatherland," subsidized by Bernstorff, led the
German newspaper propaganda. And as the New York World
recently said, "in his conferences with Viereck and other pro-
German editors at Washington, as in his interviews with the
agents of the German-American Alliance in Omaha, and in his
attendance upon a meeting Of the Peace council in the capitol,
where the Impeachment of the president was impudently de-
manded, he (Hitchcock) represented the German view of our
rights and duties"
No member of either house, not excepting La Toilette, has
played the kaiser's game more faithfully or antagonized the
aims and purposes of our present allies more vindictvely than
Gilbert M. Hitchcock of Nebraska. These aims and purposes
are now our own. And the senate owes It to our allies as
well as to America and the world, to place at the head of
the foreign relations committee a man who is free from any
faint of kaiserism.
We are all familiar with the campaign circular issued in
the last campaign by the president of the German-American
Alliance in HitchcOcks behalf. Those who are now reading
The expose of the German spy system in America by w. j.
Flynn, former chief of the secret service, or have read the
similar revelations given out by the department of justice, are
familiar with the name of DR.. Heinrich F. Albert, Berlin's fl
nancial agent, operating Under Bernstorff. Among the private
papers of DR.. Albert that fell into other hands was a letter to
him from another of Bernstorffs precious gang, Herr Reiswitz,
in support of the embargo conference" planned to be held
in Chicago in support of Hitchcocks resolution. Said Herr
ReiswitZ to Herr Albert:
Among others, the following have agreed to cooperate:
Senator Hitchcock, Congressman Buchanan, William Bayard
Hale, and the wen-known pulpit orator DR.. Aked (born an
Enghshman) of San Francisco. Hitchcock seemed to be very
strong for the plan. He told our representative at a o
ference in Omaha: IF this matter is organized in the right
way you will sweep the United States"
Buchanan was overwhelmingly defeated in the election
that followed. Hale later went to Germany as a correspond
ent and since developed as a German propaganda there. His
exposure has been complete.
4 e x
When America finally entered the war Hitchcock's friend
Viereck, the leader of the propagandists, found one consola-