The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-10-09

Americana develop an America
scathingly denounced /
United States Judge Charles
Amidon in passing sentence o
Rev. John Fontana. pastor {
the German Evangelical Luthera
church of New Salem, North Dakot;
charged under three counts of violatin
the espionage act and sentence
to three years Imprisonment in tn
federal prison at Leavonworth. Kal
sas. The preacher. upon whom tn
sentence was passed came to the Un
ted States at the aSe of 16, and b.
came a naturalized citizen in 1898. H
received part of his education in &c
many and completed it at a Luthera
seminary at Austin, Mini
He graduated in 1898 and ha
sinced preached in the German tongu
In Minnesota, Ohio, South Dakota an
North Dakota.
The address of Judge Apaidon to tn
prisoner was as follows:
You received your final papers
rs citizen in 1898. BY the path
which you then took you re-
nounced and abjured all alleg-
lance to Germany and to the en-
peror of Germany, and swore that
you would bear true faith and al
legiance to the United States.
What did that mean? That you
would set about earn estly 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 cher
ished everything German, and
stifled everything American. You
have preached German, prayed
German, read Geramn, sung Ger
man. Every thought of your mind
and every emotion of your heart
through all these years haas been
German. Your body has been In
America, but your life has been in
Germany. If you were to. sit down
in Prussia today you would be in
harmony with your environment.
1t would fit you just as flowe-
fits the leaf and stem of the PLANK
on which it grows.
You have influenced others
who have been under your minis
try to do the same thing. You said
you would cease to cherish your
German soul, and that you would
begin to build up inside o: you an
American soul. That meant you
would begin the study OF Ameri-
can life and history: that you
would open your mind and heart
to all of its influences; that you
would try to understand its ideals
and purposes, and love them; that
you would try to build up inside
of yourself a whole group of feel
ings for the United States, the
same as you felt towards the
fatherland when you left Ger
many.
There have been a good many.
Germans before me in the last
month. They have lived in this
country, like yourself, ten, twenty,
thirty, and forty years, and they
had to give their evidence through
an interpreter. 1t had been an inn
pressive part of the trial. As
looked 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. 1t stood
there as bright and fresh as the
inscription upon new coin.
do not blame you and these
men alone. 1 blame myself. I
blame my country. We urged you
to come; we welcomed you; we
gave you opportunity; we gave
you land; we conferred upon you
the diadem of American citizen
ship-and then we left you. We
paid no attention to what you
have been doing.
And now the world has thrown
a searchlight upon our national
life, and what have we discover
cred? We find all over these Unit
ed States, in groups little German
les, little Italics, little Austrias,
little Norways, little Russias.
These foreign peoples have thrown
a circle about themselves and In
stead of keeping the oath they
took that they would try to grow
American souls inside of them,
they have studiously striven to
exclude everything American and
~ SNSI y Lliiiie9 lOl tI5h
A clever gentleman wrote a ro-
nance called America. the Melt
ing Pot" 1t appealed to our van
ity, and through all these years
we have been seeing romance In
stead of fact. That is the awful
truth. The figure of my country
stands beside you today. It says
to me. DO not blame this man
alone. / am partly to blame Pun
ish him for his offense. but let
him know that / see things in a
new light, that 4 new era
has come here. Punish him
to teach him and the like of
him, and all those who have been
mfsled by him and his life, that a
change has come; that there must
be an Interpretation anew of the
oath of allegiance. 1t has been in
the past nothing but a formula
of words. From this time on 1t
must be translated into living
characters. incarnate in the life
of every foreigner, who has his
dwelling place within our midst.
If they have been cherishing for
eign history, foreign ideals, for
eign loyalty, it must be stopped,
and they must begin at once, all