New Britain herald., 1918-04-13
KAHN'S OPINION OF PRUSSIA.
California Congressman Gives Pointed
 Views on Patriotism

ing house of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.,, deal
 ing with the duty Of Germans in the
 United States. Mr. Kahn Is himself
 a native of Germany, and is taken to
 represent the best element of tho
 Teutonic blood to be found in every
 community of the American nation.
 His speech, i17 part, follows:
 T speak as one who has seen the
 spirit of the prussian governing class at work from close by, having at it's
 disposal and using to the full prac
 tically every agency for moulding the
 pnbli> mind.
 T have watched il proceed With relentless persistcncv and profound
 cunning to instill into the nation the demoniacai obsession of power-wor- ship anG world dominion, to modify and pervert the mentality, indeed the very fiber and moral substance of the German people-a people which until mjsled, corrupted and systematically poisoned by the PrUssian ruling cast, Was and deserved to be an hon ored. valued ond welcome member of the family of nations.
 1T have hated and loathcd that spirit ever since if came within my ken. many years ago; hated 1t all the more as l saw it ruthlessly pulling down a thing which was dear to me, the olG Germany to which I WAS linked by ties of blood, by fond mem Ories and cherished sentiments.
 "The differences in the degree of guilt as between the German people and their P1uSsian or Prussianized rulers and leaders of the monstrous crime of this war and the atrocious barbarism of it's conduct, is the differ ence between the man who, acting under the influence of a poisonous drug. runs amuck in mad frenzy and the unspeakahle malefactor who ad- lninistercd that drug, we'll knowing and fully intending the ghast1y conse- qucnces which Were bound to follow.
 ''The world ferTently longs for peace. But there can be no peace answering to the true meaning of the world, no peace permitting the na- tions of the earth, great and small, to walk unarmed and unafraid until the teaching and the leadership of the apostles of an outlaw creed shall have become discredited and hateful In the si ght of the German people until that reoplo shall have awakened to a con- sciousness of the unfathomable guilt Of those whom they have followed
 
 mood of ponitence and of a decent respect for the opinions of mankind shall have supplanted the sway of what President Wilson has so tren- chantly termed 'truculencc and treachery.'
 God grant that the German peo- pie may before long work out their own saliva ton and find the only road which will give to the world an early peace and lead Germany back into the family of nations from which it is now an outcast.
 Prom each of my visits to Ger many for 25 years, came away moro appalled, by the sinister transmuta- ton Prussianism had wrought amongst the people and by the DOT tentous menace I recognized in it for the entire world.
 ''It had given to Germany unpar- allelcd prosperity, beneficent and ad- vanced social legislation, and not a few other things of value, but it had taken in payment the soul of the race It had made a devils bargain
 And when this war broke out in Europe. i knew that the issue had been joined between the powers of brutal might and nsensate am bition on the one side and the forces of hu- manitv and liberty on the other, be- tween darkness and light.
 Many there were at that time and amongst them men for whose I had high respect and whose motives were beyond any pos sib1e suspicion--who saw their own and America's duty in strict neu- traity, mentally and actually, but hp1i hoo ming of the war, whether we liked all l the clements of the allies combina- ton or not-and I certainly did not ] like the Russia of the Czars-that 1 the cause of the allies was Ameri- ! cas- cause.
 T believed that this was no ordin- 1 ary war between peoples for a ques- 1 ton of national interest or even na- l tional honor, but q conflict between ! principles and ideas; 1 and so believing, I was bound to feel l that the natural lines of race, blood l and kinshtp could not be the deter mining lines for ones attitude and 1 ent, but that each man, what 9ver his origin, had to decide &C., cording to his Judgment and con- science on which side was the right l md on which was the wrong and l ake his stand accordingly, whatever he wrench and anguish of the deci- sion. And thus I took my stand three rears ago.
 "But whatever one's views and ceilings, whatever the country of one's birth or kin, only one course vas left for all those claiming the privilege Of American citizenship when by action of the President and Congress the cause and the fight of he allies was formally made our ,ause and our fight.
 "Thc duty of loyal allegiance and