Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-03
ALLIANCE MEMBERS
PROCLAIM LOYALTY
German-Americans From Sew
eraI States Fight Repeal
of Charter.
OHLINGER IS DENOUNCED

VtIItVOCn 10 OENOOiSOcN
Proclaiming their loyalty and the
loyalty of the National German-Ameri-
can Alliance to the United States, rep
resentatives of that organization APP
peared yesterday afternoon before the
Senate judiciary subcommittee in
charge of the King bill to repeal the
act of Congress granting the alliance
q federal charter. They came from
widely separated states. including Tex
as. Illinois, Florida. Maryland. Penn
sylvania and New York.
At the outset of the hearing Carl NJ
A. Sholz. attorney for the alliance, pre-
scented a brief in which it demanded
that Senator King of Utah. author of
the bill, retire from the committee on
the ground that it would be unfair and
against all American principles that
man should pass judgment on cause
In which he himself was personally in
terested.
Sought Chance to Defend.
If the object of the proposed repeal
of the charter was anything besides
the punishment of the alliance because
posed the nomination of President Will
son, the investigation could well be
turned over to the officers of the De-
partment of Justice. the brief said
With the department handling the
case. the alliance would be able to go
into court and defend itself.
One witness, Col. Paul Meerscheidt of
San Antonio, Tex. told the committee
that preceding the election of 1916 he
received a letter from DIR. C. ]. Hex
amer. then president of the national al
lance, urging him to get the German
Americans to vote for Hughes for
was not sent a message from the
national alliance, but in a personal
way.
Sutro Denounces Ohlinger.
DR.. Theodore sutro of New York.
former president of the New York
State German American Alliance, a
denounced Gustav Ohlinger, president
of the Toledo chamber of commerce.
who made long statement against
the alliance a week ago.
loose the shoe laces of hundreds of the
live members of the national ALI
ance." He mentioned the names of
many widely known German-Ameri-
cans. among them Cuno H. Rudolph,
former president of the board of Com
missioners of the District of Columbia.
He characterized ohlinger as Unique
fous and as really too insignificant to
be taken seriously. and expressed sur
prise that the Senate committee had
stopped to listen to him.
Senator Sterling Objects.
Senator Sterling objected to the re-
nection on the committee contained in
the word stopped.
We'll. / will erase stopped re-
piled Mr.. Sutro.
~ On cross-examination Mr.. Sutro and
: other witnesses admitted that they did
not approve of the speeches of former
President HeNamer of the national al
: lance. in which he had urged there
be no assimilation between the Ger
mans in this country and the Ameri-
cans. and suggested that Germans
would not lower themselves to the level
Of American ideals.
They insisted that DR.. Hexamer could
not be considered the whole national
alliance
In Official Bulletin.
It was pointed out repeatedly by
members of the committee. however.
that these remarks of DIR. Hexamer had
been published in the official bulletin
Of the national alliance. which seemed
to Indicate that the alliance approved
his utterances.
tional alliance had every right to seek
10 have the public schools in this coun-
try teach German, that it was a good
thing for the children to learn two
languages from an educational point
of view. and that they were justified
IN banding together also to fight pro-
hibition. Dr.. Sutro insisted that the
Prohibition question was not properly
personal liberty
Race Made a Target.
Dr. Sutro said that for nearly three
and a half years. or since the war be-
gan in Europe the American citizens
of German blood and German name
have been the target for people like
those now demanding the repeal of the
charter.
sAnd now they come to Congress and
ask it to act against the National Ger
man-American- Alliance" he said. IT
say that there is no body Of men in the
United States so devotedly attached to
our country as the men of the national
alliance.
Does Senator King imagine that the
passage of his bill would tend to make
more devoted citizens of the members
ut the national alliance? Would / be
f,ore loyal if i spoke English with an
English accent? Am to be condemned
BECAUSE / speak with a German accent,
and for that alone?
Senators Interject.
senator Sterling and other members
Arsthe committee interrupted DIR. Sutro
q point out that Mr.. Ohlinger had
Pot said the majority of German-Amer-
Lc2ns were disloyal. but that leaders
"a the national alliance were, and were
seeking to have Germanism continued
: in this country to the detriment Oh
Americanism.
Dr. Sutro contended that the intro
5 auction of the King bill was almost
m insult" to the hundreds of thousands
of loyal German-Americans in this
country who are members of the ma
stional alliance.
The senators felt constrained to de-
fend the testimony given by Mr. Ohlin-
ger, pointing out that II was taken
almost entirely from official publica-
ticns of the alliance and German au-
thors dealing with the subject of the
German-Anerican Alliance.
Denies German Connection.
DR.. Sutro declared that the alliance
was not and never had been connected
In any way with officialdom in Germany.
Speaking of the entrance of the United
States into the war he said