Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-09-19
National Policy Partly RESPONSE
BILE, Says Jurist in Sentencing
Naturalized German.
SEES DAY OF JUDGMENT
Judge Amidon of North Dakota Deltv.
ers Talk on Patriotism at Close of
Trial of New Salem Minister
at Bismarck, N. D.

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 a 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:
The Oath Of Allegiance.
"You received your final papers as
q 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
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 Amer
lean soul, and put away your German
| soul. That is what your oath of al
legiance meant.
"Have you done that? l do not
| think you have. You have cherished
| everything German, and stifed 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
=. -, h,,4 ro11r 1ifn hos hOnn in
Germany. If you were set down in
Prussia today, you would be in har.
mony with your environment. 1t
would fit you just as a flower fits the
leaf and stem of the plant on which
it grows.
you have Influenced others who
have been under your ministry to dc
the same thing. You said you would
cease to cherish your German soul
and that you would begin to build uE
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 its influences; that you would
try to understand it's ideals and pur
poses, and love them; that you would
try to build up inside Of yourself
whole group of feelings for the United
States, the same as you felt towards
the Fatherland when you left Ger
many.
"Made in Germany"
There have been a good man.
Germans before me in the last month
They have lived in this country, lik'
yourself, 10, 20, 80, 40 years, and the.
had to give their evidence through al
interpreter. 1t has been an impress
sive part of the trial. AS l looked a
them and tried, as best l could, t.
understand them, there was. writer
all over every one of them, Made il
Germany American life had no
dimmed that mark in the least. I
stood there as bright and fresh as tn
inscription upon a new coin.
II do not blame you and these me-
alone. 1 blame myself. l blame m,
country. We urged you to come; W
welcomed you; W. gave you oppol
tunity; we gave you land; we cor
ferred upon you the diadem Of Amel
lean citizenship-and then we lei
you. We paid no attention to wha
you have been doing.
"And now the world war has throw
a searchlight upon our national lift
and what have we discovered? w
find all over these United States,
groups, little Ceramics, little Italie|
little Austrias, little Norways, littl
Russias. These foreign people hav
thrown a circle about themselves, an
instead Of keeping the oath they too
that they would try to grow Amer
can souls inside of them, they hav
q studiously striven to exclude ever
thing American, and to cherish ever
D thing foreign.
"The court finds and adjudges tn,
you are guilty under each count
the Indictment, and as a punishmel
therefor, it is further adjudged tn;
s you be imprisoned in the federal per
s tertiary at Leayenworth for the ter
" of three years. The sentences und,
the three counts of the indictmel
are to run con%currently and not SUI
cessYvely."-From the Minneapol
Tribune.