Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-02-05
IOWA GERMANS
FORM LOYALTY
ORGANIZATION
Pledge Fealty to America
Hear Kaiser Played In
Block Address.
NATIVE OF GERMANY
SCORES HUN RULER

was effected here today of the Gel
man-American Patriotic association
with membership limited to Unite
States citizens of German parentag
whose purpose is the furtherance o
the interests of this country in tn
war on kaiserism.
While the associations charte
membership is confined to Iowans
the hope was expressed that simila
organizations would result in othe
states. It was said the organization
MS the first of it's kind in the country
HONOR FOR FRED WHITE.
O@cers elected were:
Rev. J. c. Orth, Guthrie Center
president; F. H. Luthe. Emil G
Schmidt and L H. Harbach, all o
Des Moines, vice presidents; Frank J
Albert, Des Moines, secretary; ant
Fred White, Sigourney, Louis Block
Davenport. and VIM. Koch, De-
Noines, honorary presidents.
The association was proposed y!
former Senator Lafayette Young O.
Oes MONIES, chairman of the Iowa
Oeate council of national defense, ant
~ membership includes some Of the
most prominent Iowans of German an
oogtxy.
BLOCK FLAWS KAISER.
Louis Block Of Davenport, pas
grand master of the Iowa Masons anG
one Of the Iowans of German birth
who are leading in the movement
which the new association typifies
was unable to be present, but sent the
following letter, which was read al
today's session and created marked
enthusiasm:
1T will be impossible for me to at
tend the meeting to be held on Friday
February 1 at Des Moines, for the pur
pose of organizing the proposed Ger
man-American Patriotic association.
However, my whole heart and soul
are in the project u of making all
American citizens of German birth or
parentage understand what this world
war is really about and what there is
1T stake in it.
Zone of my German-American
friends said to me the other day, I
Don't see how you, being of German
Need, can be- against the Germans in
this war and answered him by say.
ing. I don't see how you, being an
American citizen, can be against
America in this war
ut seems to me that we ought to do
everything in our power to make our
German.American citizens realize that
the Germany of today is not the Ger.
many OF forty or even of twenty-five
years ago, but is a Germany that has
become far worse than the old Ger;
many. If the Germany of forty years
ago was so bad that our forefathers
aristocratic despotism and it's hard
and rigid military rules and it's heavy
taxes levied to build up vast war ma
chinery, and come to free America
where they could shake themselves
free from the heavy shackles of this
awful military burden and start life
with some show of real success, they
certainly ought to be glad that they
are not living in the Germany of to-
day. For in the Germany of today no
one but the soldier has any opportun-
ity at all, and even he has very little
chance unless he belongs to the Of
fetal class.
WORSHIP OF WAR.
. nation which simply worships war.
which exalts soldering high above
every other calling in life and has
nus become constant source of aw.
mi danger to other nations of the
Vorid-a danger loaded with disaster,
one that may suddenly destroy all hui
man happiness and blast the race OF
man with untold suffering, horror,
pain, anguish and madness. It is as
result of Germanys militaristic sys-
tenn alone that her men have been
turned from kindly, gracious. human
beings into snarling, ravenous beasts
who have toppled over the beautiful
and shapely built structures of civil.
zation until now they lie in hopeless,
smokeless maddening ruins at their
feet The Germany of today has be-
come fiend at the fireside of the fam.
lily of nations and in such a sulphur.
GUS atmosphere, the flower of human
freedom has become scorched and
shriveled and liberty has been utterly
lost in a land ruled by the soldier.
"In this cursed Germany the will OF
the commander-in-chief is now the
sole and only law and blind obedience
to that will has become the one great
virtue. The will of Wilhelm. the war.
lord, is now supreme in all the walks
of life. He tells the preachers what
they shall preach, the professors what
they shall present and PROFOUND, and
the papers what they shall print.
CITIZENS ARE SLAVES.
"The citizen is a slave of the state
and the kaiser is the state. The one
and only law is obey, obey! Don't
think, don't protest, don't kick,
just obey, obey! The individual
has no will of his own left, for
he has surrendered himself body and
soul to the state. The poor German
people are in the iron clutch of their
kaiser. He has them buffaloed. locoed,
walking in a mad dream
Of obedience for the sake Of conquest
It took him and his royal ancestors
some forty years of constant educa-
ton in schools, churches and colleges,
controlled by him and presided over
by teachers, preachers and professors,
appointed and paid by him, to steal
away their idividual souls, but he
seems at last to have done it.
$50 that today he, himself, a mad