Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1918-09-05
Why We Fight
No.
Because Germany for Years Has
Been Making Secret, Preacher
GUS War ON Us
By CLARENCE T. sPEED
.,
Secretary of the War Committee of the
Union League Club of Chicago.

one OF the deep, underlying reasons
not just a diplomatic pretext-why
we are at war with Germany Is that
for a generation Germany has been
making war on us. Germany has
made this war not openly, bravely or
humanely. but secretly, treacherously
and perSiStently. She has sought to
create race discord, to corrupt and de-
file politicians and oficeholders, and
10 create separate German communi-
ties within our borders. She has pol
soned the minds of children in our
schools in an endeavor to make Ger
mans of them instead of have them
grow up into loyal American citizens.
She has invaded the sacredness of the
pulpit itself in an endeavor to corrupt
our people through the very leaders
of morality to whom they are accus-
toned to look for guidance.
These may be startling assertions.
but they are all true, as you shall see
from the documents of the Germans
themselves. We all knew that 1t was
German fleet which stripped for ac-
ton when Dewey sailed into Manila
bay. We all knew 1t was the Germans
who sought to bring about q European
alliance against US when we were en-
gagged in the war with Spain. Few Of
rs RELAXED, however, that all these
years Germany has been busy within
our own borders, through editors,
teachers and preachers, seeking to
break down our national unity, so that
when the time came it would be easy
to defeat the United States in open
warfare, to set at naught our cherish
ed Monroe doctrine, and to seize, in
the Western hemisphere, anything
that the land grabbing rulers of the
German empire might desire.
The climax of Germany's under
handed war on the United States came
In 1913, more than a year before the
outbreak OF hostilities in Europe This
was the enactment of what is known
as the Delbruck law, which provides
that if an emigrant from Germany
who is about to be naturalized makes
application to a German consul, he
may retain his German citizenship
even after he has become q citizen of
shis adopted country.
In plain words, this law, and the ap-
plicatiOn of it, mean just this:
4 German goes into court in this
country and solemnly foreswears al
legiance to the kaiser and pledges
his wOrd-the temptation was to say,
"Of homo" he will become q 10y
al citizen of the United States. Then
he slips around to the German consul
and says:
''You know I didn't mean that, at
all Those Americans are easy marks,
and they fell for that stuff right off.
But you just put me down on your list
as a good, loyal German, and If the
line ever comes when I can prove it,
you can count on me-"
So the German consul puts his name
Town in the little card index of which
the Germans are so fond, and this
man,-this creature who swears al
Iegience to the country which gives
him an opportunity to make a real liv-
ing and to become somebody in this
world, and at the same time swears
secretly to be true to Germany-is
turned loose to work his will, while
Americans go carelessly about their
business and refuse to see the danger
In the arrangement.
Long before the passage Of the Del
bruck law, there was formed the We
rein fur das Deutschtum i'm Ausland-
the Union for Germanism In Foreign
Lands. This organization, officially
fOstered in Germany, issued quarter
ly magazine, which, in its very first IS
sue, outlined it's aims as follows:
1.-THE purpose Of this union Is the
preservation and promotion Of the
Germanism Of over 100000 people
Of German blood dwelling outside the
German empire" All it aims to do,
you see, is to keep Germans who come
to this country from becoming Ameri-
cans.
Away back in 1890 the Alldeutscher
Verband, Or the Pan-German league,
was formed. It now consists Of 26S
chapters Of which two now are-or at
least were Immediately before the war
in the United States, one In New
York and one in San Francisco. To
quote from the Alldeutsche Batter, its
official publication, "the Pan-German
league is founded for promoting Ger
man National interests, both in Ger
many and in foreign lands"
A few thinking Americans knew
all the time what was cOming-what
must come. But America, as a whole,
went along in that carelessness and
Indifference with which it treats all
things unpleasant and allowed this
German war on our most sacred insti-
tutions to continue unchecked.
SO Germany stands today, with one
foot on PROSTATE Belgium and the 9TH
er on the neck of poor deluded Rus
STA; with a bayonet planted in the
heart of Serbia, and the point Of It's
while it looks out over the vassal
States Of Bulgaria and Turkey to In
dia and the Orient. And as it stands
thus, 1t cries to it's foes On the west
ern front:
"Kamerad! Why go on with all this
killing7 Let's have a peace by nego-
tiation| and, under it's breath, adds,
''Pve got all want for the present.
Can we talk of any peace until
such Germany is absolutely defeat
ed? Shall we negotiate a peace and
allow all these German preparations
for world domination to go on until
the time Is ripe for Germany to COM