The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1918-08-15
u. 5. JUDGE FLAYS
ALL DISL0YALISTS
SEDITIONISTS TOLD BY AMIDON
THAT THEY 'MUST GROW
AMERICAN SOULS"
DAY OF JUDGMENT ON WAY
MANY PEOPLE HAVE HEARTS IN
OLD COUNTRY-BODIES
HERE.

Bismack, N. D., Aug 10-"The OBJ
ject of the sentence imposed upon you
is not alone to punish you for the dis
loyalty of which you have been guilty
but to serve notice upon you and the
likes of you who have been cherishing
things foreign that the end of this
regime has come; that the day has ar
rived when you and the likes of you
must grow an American soul within
your body. The court finds that you
are guilty under each count of the in
dictment, and as punishment therefore
it is decreed that you be imprisoned
under three counts to run concurrent-
ly and not in separate sequence"
Fontana Appeals.
Judge c. F. Amidon in federal court
closed his charge in the foregoing
words in sentencing to term of three
years Rev. John Fontana, pastor Of
the German Evangelical Lutheran
church of New Salem, convicted I'M
der three counts of violating the
espionage act Of 1917. Fontana's
counsel Immediately gave notice of
appeal and filed an appeal bond, to-
gether with writs of error and other
technical formalities.
"You received your final papers as
a citizen in 1918," continued the court
in addressing Fontana. "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
American soul, and put away your
German soul. That is what oath of
allegiance meant.
Body in U. S.; Life in Germany.
"Have you done that? I do not
think you have. You have cherished
everything German, and stif1ed 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 Ann
erica, but your life has been in Ger.
many. If you were set down in Prus-
STA today you would be in harmony
with your environment. It 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. You said you would
cease to cherish your German souls
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 it's 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 toward
the fatherland when you left Ger.
many. i
Americans Not Blameless.
"There have been good many ,Ger-
mans before me in the last month";
They have lived in this country, like
yourself, 10, 20, 40 years, and they
have had to give their evidence
through an interpreter. It has been
an impressive part of the trial. AS /
looked at them and tried, as best !
could, to understand them, there was
written all over one of them, Made
in Germany American life had not
dimmed that mark in the least. It.
stood there as bright and fresh as the
inscription upon new coin.
81 do not blame you and these
men alone. I blame myself. I blame
my country. We urged you to comes
we welcomed you; we gave you ops
portunity; we gave you land; we cons
ferred upon you the diadem of Ameri-
can citizenship-an then we left youa
We paid no attention to what you have
been doing.
"And now the world war has thrown
a searchlight upon our national life
and what have we discovered? We
find all over these United States, IN
groups, little Germanies, little Italics.
little Austrias, little Norways, little
Russias. These foreign people have
thrown a circle about themselves, and
instead of keeping the oath they took
that they would try to grow American
souls inside of them, they have studi-
ously striven to exclude everything
fConf;n,,oJ ~, nose o;rb&l