The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1918-08-16
Body in America,
Soul in Europe.
JUDGE Amid0n OF North Dakota Saws
that Condition Must Come to End.

Rev. j. FOntanna, pastor OF the
German Evangelical Lutheran church,
New Salem, N. D., was found guilty
by jury at Bismarck last month OF
having uttered seditious language. In
passing sentence Judge Amidon said:
:YOu received your final papers as
. citizen In 1898. BY the oath which
you then took you renOunced and ab.
iured all allegiance to Germany, and
10 the emperor of Germany, and swore
that you would bear true and faithful
allegiance to the United States. What
did that mean? That you would set
about earnestly growing an American
soul, and put away your German soul.
That Is what your oath of allegiance
meant.
{" Have you done that? do not
think you have. You have cherished
every thing German and stiffied 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 year 5
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 environment.
1t would tit you just as flower fits
the leaf and stem Of the plant on
which il grows.
"You have influenced others who
have been under your ministry to do
the same thing. You said you would
cease to cherish your German souh
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
try to understand its ideals and pur-
try to build up inside OF yourself q
whole group of feelings for the United
States the same as you felt towards
the fatherland when you left Germany.
"There have been q good many Ger.
mans before me in the last month.
They have lived in this country like
Yourself, 10, 20, 80, 40 years. and they
have had to give their evidence thru
an interpreter. 1t has been an i'm
pressive part of the trial. As look.
ed at them and tried as best could
TO understand them, there was written
all over every one Of them. "Made in
Germany American life had not
dimmed that mark in the least.
II do not blame you and these men
aalone. / blame myself. ] blame my
country. We urged you to come; we
welcomed you: we gave you oppor-
tunity: we gave you land, we confer
red upon you the diadem Of American
citizenship-andt then we left you. We
paid no attention to what you have
been doing, and now the world war
has thrown search light upon our
national life. and what have we dis
covered? We find all over these
United States in groups, little Ger
manies. little Italics, little Austrias,
little Norways and little Russias.
These foreign speople have thrown a
circle about themselves, and instead
OF striving to grow American souls IN
side OF them, they have studiously
striven to exclude everything Ameri-
can and to cherish everything foreign.
"A clever gentleman once wrote q
romance called America, the Melting
Pot It appealed to our vanity, and
through all these years we have been
seeing romance instead of fact. That
is the awful truth. The figure OF my
country stands before me today. II
says to me, do not blame this man
alone. l am partly 10 blame. Pun
ish him for his offense, but let him
know that see things in q new light.
That there must be an iterpretation
anew OF the oath Of allegiance. In
the past it has been nothing but q for
mula OF words. From this time on
it must be translated into living char.
acters incarnate in the life OF every
foreigner who has his dwelling place
within our midst. II they have beer
cherishing foreign history. foreign
ideals and foreign Loyalty, it must bt
stopped and they must begin at once
to cherish American thought, Ameri'
can history, American ideals.
"That means something that is to be
done IN your daily life. II does no'
mean simply that you will not tax
up arms against the United States. u
goes deeper than that. II means that
YOU will live for the United States
and that you will cherish and grov
American souls inside of you. |
means that you will take down from
hNvraoc tho y,ioknMA n