The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-03-19
Richard Lieber's Speech

Richard Lieber's Speech
Richard Lieber one of the prominent and in
fluential men Of German descent in Indianapolis,
who loves the United States as much as he hates
Prussianism, struck the right note in his speech
at the organization meeting of the Friends OF
German Democracy in that city last Saturday
night.
He pleaded for German-Americans to come
out of the shell of their aloofness and proclaim to
this nation in unmistakeable terms that they are
loyal in the fullest sense of the term. He wants
none of the sham patriotism that tries to de-
ceive the nation by buying Liberty bonds but in
wardly curses the exgency that forces the invest
ment.
Lieber calls for loyalty that is not mere
babbling of lips to escape condemnation but is
conviction of the heart that believes in the JUS
tice of this war and prays that America will sue
coed. He has only scorn and contempt for the
man who publicly mouths his loyalty but IN the
family circle supports the Kaiser
He wants men of German extraction to come
to the front with positive proof of their aztec
lion for their adopted country.
"These duties should be shOuldered
like holy load by united people. Unit
cd in every purpose, united in national
crucble glowing in the white heat of sub
l;nated all-American fervor and deathless
determination to teach our enemies that
nation has arisen in it's unconquerable
MIGHT. Not a conglomerate of races, but
q united people, devoted to it's noble tradi-
tions and tied together by an undyng
faith and love in it's own country institu-
TONS"
Jieber is conscious of the trying position IN
which men of German origin find themselves but
the suspicion in which they held today, he be-
,eves is to be traced to their dilatoriness in
coming before the world with nationwide pro-
nouncement of their loyalty and a nationwide
participation in patriotic movements
Too MANY German Americans do not believe
that German victory will be disastrous to them.
Assuredly they do not expect liniency and ex-
enntion from the German conquerors! If they
do it is positive proof that Bernstorff, Boy-Ed
and Won Papen entered into perfldious league
with their leaders in which the reward for
treachery to their adopted country would be ex-
emption when the Kaiser's troops march down
Broadway.
The only way in which German Americans
can clear themselves of this suspicion is by get
ting into the open and staying there.
Il propose lndJ we 'onS
the lead. That we come out of the distant haze OF
passivity That we be within reach, as we are
within call
That's exactly what the American nation asks
of the German-Americans. They must prove
their fidelity. The Friends of German Democ-
racy propose this very step.
Read Liebers concluding words:
My friends, | am pleading for this understand
ing in unity, I am pleading for singleness of pur-
pose and for whole-hearted action. | am plead
ing for mutually better understanding.
This great wonderful country of ours has CIV
en- us all we are While we have faithfully done
our part in it's upbudng, it yet has always yield
ed more than we gave. Today this country, the
mother of us ALL cries out to her sons and daugh-
tiers for succor. To arms! To arms
| see before me the gloriously vast continent
stirring in new and untried work. From the
mountainsides, over the prairies, from Plymouth
Rock and Cape Hatteras to the Golden Gate and
to northland Alaska, from the Great Lakes to the
Gulf of Mexico, comes the response In camps, in
factories in offices, in the fields, in the bowels
of the earth, in city and village, the nation is
tuning up like huge gigantic orchestra, until
soon from more than 100, 100000 voices choral
will rise up resounding over all the world. Men.
women children, yea the very mountains, rivers,