The Denver Jewish news., 1919-11-12
Shall Americas At"
titute to Germany be?
OTTO II. KAHN DISCUSSES TRADE
RELATIONS WITH OUR LATE
FOE.

with Germany. Oito IL Mann saiu.
in part:
However reluctant ! am to speak
of anything relating to HE personally.
must ask your Indulgence for a few
words of personal nature.
1 am OF German birth. am noi
ashamed of it nor do ! apologize for
it Or try to hide 1t. But from the
day the first gun was fired in the
summer of 1914, did everything
could to demonstrate my bitter hos
tility to the hideous Prussian spirit
which had brought upon the world
the unspeakable calamity of that ap-
palling war. and / did everything
could to demonstrate my unqualified
cspousal of the cause of the Allies.
because + saw in it the cause of right
and freedom.
/ have never wavered in that stand.
| could take none other and be true
to my conscience and Judgment and
my conceptions of duty and honor.
1t was not an easy stand to take for
me, nor was 1t in the earlier stages
of the war Il popular on, or one that
promised to be on the winning side.
1t was for me q hard and bitter choice
to make as long as America was
neutral j knew that had much to
lose by making it in the way l did.
that my motives would be Liable to
be misinterpreted and misunderstood
and that it meant breaking forever
ties and affiliations which had been
dear to me.
j need not say anything about my
attitude after America had thrown
her sword into the scale and ii had
become plain to all that there was
not room in the world for American
ism AND Prussianism. because from
that moment the attitude of all true
Americans was the same
The only reason why have venturcd
to refer to my record is becausc j
think it fairly absolyes ME from the
imputation that what | am going to
say is influenced by my German des-
cent / speak as an American and sole
ly as an American. ! am not Of those
who try to make up ana seek forget
fulness for their attitude before, and
In some cases after America entered
the war. by loud PROFESSIONS OF un-
relenting hostility and ostentat'ous
hatred toward the beaten foe. l am
no more afraid now OF the epithet
.Pro-German' than l was formerly Of
: The cpithet Renegade"
Germany Is crushed anu In dire dis
trcss \ peace of stern and sweep
ing punishment. continuing On as yet
indeterininate sentence has been i'm
posed upon her Her spirit Is broken
More and more the recognition of the
.norstrous crime to which. under
thrice accursed leadership. her people
lent themselves, is being borne In up
| on them. even tho l fear TINT some
time must still elapse before full
consciousness Of their guils and
genuine mood Of atonement will take
the place of the state of dazed con-
fusion and bitterness of spirit. in
which Germnny's- utter defeat and the
grimly unsparing penalties assessed
against her have left the nation.
What the German rulers and people
have done within the recent past Will
stand forever among the most hor-
rible crimes of history-pertaps as the
most horrible crime. 1t can never be
forgotten nor forgiven. But neither
should this be forgotten: Here is
! people, still sixty millions strong
springing from one of the grent racial
stocks OF the earth, Intelligent and ei-
ficicnt, naturally given to good order
and to hard work, having in past
I times contributed much to the com
mon assets. spiritual and material, OF
the world 10 the east OF them tho
red flood. of Bolshevism is threatening
10 engulf the nations.
Whether those sixty millions shaH
be made useful in rcequipping ana
! normalizing world sadly out OF gear
and sorely beset by insufficient pro
! duction and insufficient means OF dis-
tribution; whether they shall be gwen
hope and scope and inducement for
work and rehabilitation and the pre-
| scrvation of the existing order of
/ civilizatio and government or whetll-
or. bereft of hope, listening to the
( council of despair, they shall surrender
/ to those who promise them salvation
thru chaos, depends primarily upon
: the actions and the attitude toward
/ Germany, of America and her All es
in the late war. There is no time to
be lost. The people of Germany are
looking to the coming winter Will.