The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-10
Senator Hitchcock Speaks In
Senate ON Use of Name.
1t Had Appeared in List Taken
From German Lenders.
BRANDS CHARGES As FALSE
Prof. Hart of Harvard Talks to
the Senate Committee.
Says He Always Has Been
ThOroIy an American.

Washington, Dec. 1V.7oenator
Hitchcock, chairman OF the senate
foreign relations committee. and Prof.
Albert Bushnell Hart, Harvard uni
versity, today branded as false and
unwarranted the efforts of German
propagandists to connect him with
German intrigue in the United States
before this country entered the war.
Hitchcock's denial was delivered to
the senate, while Hart's was made be-
fore the senate committee investigat-
ing propaganda.
Hitchcock referred to the letter
dated July 22, 1915. read into the rec
ord by A. Bruce Bielaski of the de-
partment of justice. in which German
Consul Reiswitz, at Chicago. said II at
Hitchcock, among others. would aid in
| a movement to get an embargo on
arms shipmen-s to the allies. This
letter was written to some unnamed
"excellency." IF his alleged excel
] lency or Reiswitz himself had any in
telligence, either or both of them
might have known that I myself was
the author of the bill to prohibit the
expectation of arms and ammunition
| and that L had introduced it in the
senate more than eight months before
the Reiswitz letter was written said
Hitchcock.
| They must have known that I
made a senate speech upon it. and
that it had been debated in the SEN
ate and discussed in the newspapers.
| They must have known that on Feb
ruary II, 1915, 1 had offered my bill
as an amendment to the shipping bill
| then pending and that my amendment
had been defeated by vote Of SO
to 81. My position, therefore, in ia
vor of prohibiting the expectation of
arms and ammunition had been inde-
pendently and publicly taken and was
widely known months before Reis-
WITT discovered it and revealed it to
his chief as secret.
Stand Not Concealed.
THE part I took during 1914 and
1915, in favor of prohibiting the ex-
port Of arms and ammunition during
our neutrality has never been a sub
ject OF conceaIment or apology on my
part. 1t became a Campaign Issue
in 1916 when I ran for reelection
a comfortable majority indicates that
my course and my motives were un-
derstood and approved by the people
of Nebraska.
MY stand was taken in 1914, as an
American for neutrality.
The Germans in America took
theirs by forming the embargo con-
I
many. They were supporting my bill,
but declined to go to their confer
ences, or meetings. tho L was often
invited to appear as a speaker. ]
made my only speeches here in the
senate or in defending my course later
, before my constituents.
In those days, the country was un-
der a pledge Of neutrality by virtue
Of the presidents proclamation made
when the war broke 'out. We should
no doubt have remained neutral. al
least nominally and officially, il Ger.
many had not, by a series of outrages
made our attitude first difficult and
/ then impossible.
: MY attitude naturally changed with
: changing conditions. 1 stood first fol
2 a strict, peaceful and impartial neu.
3 trality. even to the extent Of selling
! no arms and ammunition and lending
' no money to either side.
Germany in Attack.
Next. when Germany began a sys
tematic attack on our commerce.
was ready to fight to protect our neu.
trality.
!, II supported the presidents reques
: that we authorize him to assert ant
j to protect our neutrality by arminf
t our merchant ships, and 1 had charg,
t in the senate of what was known a.
4 the armed neutrality resolution, which
e died so dramatically in the senate OF
: March 4, 1917.
"A month later, when the issu,
l changed from armed neutrality t,
y war. I had charge Of the declaration
l of war. which was briefly debated ant
: passed by the senate April 4, 1917.
"And. like other Americans, / hay,
passed from one phase Of the situation
Davn rr,~A