The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1918-09-18
.SEDITION IS Held
Due TO NEGLECT
National Policy Partly Response
BILE, Says Jurist in Sentencing
Naturalized German.
SEES DAY OF JUDGMENT
Judge Amidon Of North Dakota Deliv.
ers Talk on Patriotism at Close Of
Trial Of New Salem Minister
at Bismarck, N. q.

at Bismarck, N. D.
Rev. J. Fontana, pastor of the Ger
man Evangelical church, New Salem,
N. d.. has been on trial at Bismarck
for the past two weeks. He is
charged with having uttered from
time to time seditious language for
the purpose Of interfering with the
military activities of the government.
The jury returned verdict of guilty
against him last Thursday. United
States Attorney Hildreth moved for
sentence Monday morning at 10
o'clock. In passing sentence Judge
Amidon said in part: .4s77 N
The Oath Of Allegiance.
"You received your final papers as
citizen in 1898. BY the oath which
you then took you renowned and
abjured all allegiance to Germany,
and to the emperor of Germany, and
sWores that you would bear true faith
and allegiance to the United States.
What didsthat mean? That you would
set about earnestly growing an Amer.
lean soul, and put away your German
soul. That is what your oath Of al
legiance meant.
Have you done that? do not
think you have. You have cherished
everything German, and stified 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 through all these years 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 har-
mopy with your environment. 1t
would fit you just as flower fits the
leaf and stem of the plant on which
it grows. @~
"You have Influenced others who
have been under your ministry to do
the same thing. HI 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 open your mind and heart
to all of it's Influences; that you would
try to understand its ideals and pur-
poses, and love them; that you would
try to build up inside Of yourself a
whole group of feelings for the United
States, the same as you felt towards
the Fatherland when you left Ger
many.
aMade In Germany"
There have been good many
Germans before me in the last month.
They have liVsd in this country, like
yourself, 10, 20, 80, 40 years, and they
had to give their evidence through an
interpreter. 1t has been an impress.
sive part Of the trial. AS I looked at
them and tried as best I could, to
understand them, there was written
Sall over every one of them, Made in
Germany American life had not
dimmed that mark in. the least. II
stood there as bright and fresh as the
inscription upon a new coin. ...@.
II do not blame you and these men
alone. blame myself. blame Nmy
country. We urged you to come; we
welcomed you; we gave you oppor.
tanity; we gave you land; we con.
TERED upon you the diadem Of Amer.
lean citizenship-and then we left
you. We. paid no attention to what
you have been doing.
"And now the world war has thrown
searchlight upon our national life,
and what have we discovered? We
find all over these United States, in
groups, little Ceramics, little Italics,
little Austrias, little Norways, little
Russias. These foreign people have
thrown circle about themselves, and
instead Of keeping the oath they took
that they would try to grow Ameri-
can souls inside of them, they have
studiously striven to exclude, every
thing American, and to cherish every
thing foreign.
- - ea.g i = u ~.
1.-THE court finds and adjudges that
you are guilty under each count of
the indictment, and as a punishment
therefor, it is further. adjudged that
you be imprisoned in the federal peni.
Tertiary at Leavenworth for the term
of three years. The sentences under
the three counts Of the Indictment
are to run concurrently and not sue
cessively."-From the Minneapolis
Tribune.