Part 20
Testifying before the Congressional investigating committee, Representative Cooper, of Wisconsin, declared: “This organization is financed by corporations worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and can hire college professors and secure publication in the newspapers of articles designed to deliberately mislead public opinion,” and, referring to the denial of Elihu Root and other officials of the organization that it had engaged in politics, he said: “If they are willing to testify under oath, in public, so foolishly, there is nothing they will not do in secret to serve the great, powerful corporations which they represent.” Representative Reavis read into the record a statement that 40 per cent. of the league’s “honor roll” of forty-seven Representatives voted against measures which would have made the big interests receiving tremendous war profits bear their burden of war expenses. All of those who voted for the McLemore resolution, against war and against the Julius Kahn conscription bill were put down in a “disloyalty chart,” and large sums were expended to defeat them.
S. Stanwood Menken, an early president of the league, in his testimony stated that he favored an American navy which, combined with that of Great Britain, would “surpass any other two-power navy in the world,” but that, on the other hand, “he favored a reduction of armaments.”
The succeeding president of the league, Charles D. Orth, was forced to admit that in publishing the league’s Congressional “disloyalty chart” he had conveyed a false impression by recording the vote on the McLemore resolution as on the merits of the resolution instead of on the vote to table it. There were innumerable other counts against the league. One was that it sent its literature to 1,400 newspapers and then read what these newspapers printed in arriving at the opinion of “the great majority of the people.” In other words, they first circulated the opinion and then accepted it as that of the people. Orth was asked if there was any good sound American stock in Illinois.
“There surely is,” he answered.
“Then how do you reconcile that with the fact that the men who voted against war were returned to Congress with an overwhelming majority?” he was asked by Representative Saunders, but failed to reply.
Among the activities of this league was that of dictating the things to be taught in the public schools. In New York $50,000,000 is annually spent for the public school system, raised by taxes paid by all the people, and the schools should represent the people who pay for them. A New York paper of April 4, 1919, in an editorial, said: “It has been shown during the past few days that a course of economics has been adopted by our educators under the tutelage of an outside body. This outside body is the National Security League, an organization financed by the big war profiteers, whose political activity in connection with the last Congressional election constituted a grave scandal.”
The Congressional committee on March 3, 1919, filed a report arraigning the Security League, calling it “a menace to representative government,” “conceived in London,” “nursed to power by foreign interests,” “used in elections by same interests,” and revealing “the hands of Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, du Pont, suggesting steel, oil, money bags, Russian bonds, rifles and radicals.”
In regard to Frederic C. Coudert, a prominent New York lawyer, one of the league’s leading lights, Mr. Menken testified that he represented Great Britain, France and Russia in international matters and is counsel for the British ambassador.
The originator of the league was S. Stanwood Menken, who testified that he conceived the idea while listening to a debate in the House of Commons on August 5, 1914. He is a member of the firm of Beekman, Menken & Griscom, New York lawyers, who represent a large number of corporations controlling railways and public utilities; also the Liverpool, London and Globe insurance companies, which proceeded early in the war to force the German insurance companies out of business. The firm also represents “some sugar companies and also the Penn-Seaboard Steel Company.”
Charles D. Orth is a member of a New York firm dealing in sisal, from which farmers’ binding twine is made, and testified before a Senate investigating committee that he had been engaged in forming a combination to increase the price of this product. His firm had an office in London and he traveled all over Europe in the interest of his sisal business.
All the heavy subscribers were shown to be men making millions in war profits and interested in silencing every voice raised to criticise the conduct of the war. Through the activity of this organization, pacifists everywhere were denounced and cast into jail. What baneful influence it was able to exercise is apparent. The Carnegie Corporation--Andrew Carnegie, president; Elihu Root, vice-president, holdings in United States Steel Corporation, with income over $6,000,000--contributed $150,000 to the league. The investigation showed that the organization had expended the following sums:
July 8, 1915, to December 31, 1915 $ 38,191.59 January 1, 1916, to December 31, 1916 94,840.43 January 1, 1917, to December 31, 1917 111,324.59 January 1, 1918, to December 31, 1918 235,667.56 ----------- $480,014.17
=Neutrality--“The Best Practices of Nations.”=--President Wilson’s message to Congress in August, 1913:
“For the rest I deem it my duty to exercise the authority conferred upon me by the law of March 14, 1912, to see to it that neither side of the struggle now going on in Mexico receive any assistance from this side of the border. =I shall follow the best practise of nations in the matter of neutrality by forbidding the exportation of arms and munitions of war of any kind from the United States=--a policy suggested by several interesting precedents, and certainly dictated by many manifest considerations of practical expediency. We cannot in the circumstances be the partisans of either party to the contest that now distracts Mexico, or constitute ourselves the virtual umpire between them.”
=New Ulm Massacre.=--New Ulm, a settlement of Germans in Minnesota, was August 18, 1862, attacked by Sioux Indians, who in resentment of their ill treatment by Government agents and for the non-arrival of their annuities from Washington, took advantage of the fact that many of the male white population had departed for the war and left the homes unprotected. The Indians adopted the ruse of entering the houses of settlers under pretext of begging or trading for bread. Not suspecting any treachery, they were admitted as usual, and in an instant turned upon the friendly Germans and murdered upward of seventy men, women and children. A squad of Germans, who were using wagons with banners, headed by a band, to recruit for the Union army along the frontier, were fired upon from ambush and several killed, seven miles from New Ulm. The men were able to effect their retreat and to alarm the countryside, while soon the smoke rising from ruined homes was apprising the settlers in every direction of the occurrence of extraordinary events and to hasten them into the town for common protection. The next morning, Tuesday, August 19, the Indians were roving in every direction throughout the neighborhood; and appearing before the town, opened an attack on the outposts stationed west and southwest of the settlement. Ill equipped for such engagement, the men fell back, with the Indians forcing their way into the center of the town, where the fighting continued until nightfall, many on both sides giving up their lives in the fierce battle. On the following morning the Indians had disappeared in order to surprise the small garrison at Fort Ridgely and destroy it preparatory to a campaign of murder and rapine along the Minnesota Valley. Meantime reinforcements arrived from Mankato and St. Peter, 30 miles distant, and from Le Sueur, still more remote. But the garrison held out, and strongly reinforced and greatly embittered the Indians again marched upon New Ulm, driving everything in their way and evidently determined to destroy every homestead in the village, which was soon a mass of flames. On August 23 the whites succeeded in barricading themselves on a small area of ground, where they were in a better position to continue the uneven struggle. The fighting was not interrupted until nightfall, and was resumed the next morning, which was Sunday. After several hours of fierce fighting the Indians realized that they were at a disadvantage, and learning from their scouts that strong reinforcements were on the way, abandoned the siege. A number of families had either wholly or partly perished and 178 homes had been destroyed. A train of 150 wagons carried the survivors, including 56 wounded and sick, to Mankato and St. Peter, comparatively few returning to New Ulm, many scattering throughout the State to begin life over again. The innocent Germans had thus paid the penalty of crimes committed by others who were permitted to profit by their fraudulent treatment of the Indians.
=Lord Northcliffe Controls American Papers.=--Lord Northcliffe not only owns the London “Times,” “Mail” and “Evening News,” but the Paris “Mail.” He also owns an important share of stock in the Paris “Matin” and the St. Petersburg “Novoje Vremja.” His influence in American journalism has long been known, and J. P. O’Mahoney, editor of “The Indiana Catholic and Record,” in a statement in the Indianapolis “Star,” directly charged Lord Northcliffe with owning and controlling eighteen very successful American papers in order to use them against the best interests of the American people and in the interest of Great Britain. With many of the leading newspapers under the control of a foreign publisher it is not difficult to account for the persistent misrepresentation of German policies and motives, and for the general bias of so many of the leading papers in the East. The following is the extract from Mr. O’Mahoney’s statement referred to as printed in the Indianapolis “Star” early in 1916.
“Talking about foreign propaganda in our midst, Lord Northcliffe (then Sir Arthur Harmsworth), told the writer in an interview in the Walton Hotel, Philadelphia, in April, 1900:
“‘=The syndicate of which I am head owns or controls eighteen very successful American papers in your leading cities.= We find the American service they send us very satisfactory, and we, of course, furnish them with our great European service. As you see, I am not here on pleasure only, but on business.’
“When asked to name the papers ‘owned and controlled,’ the big, brainy, handsome Englishman cleverly ’sidestepped.’
“Now, if eighteen or more leading papers are owned and controlled in England, is it a wonder that the ‘German plots in the United States’ are being ‘played up,’ and the English plots in the United States hushed up? Is it surprising that the people, through the news service, get only the English side of the news?”
=Osterhaus, Peter Joseph.=--Regarded by some critics the foremost German commander in the Union army, called by the Confederates “the American Bayard.” He attained the rank of major general and corps commander. Born in Coblenz in 1823. Served as a one-year volunteer in the Prussian army at Coblenz and rose to the rank of an officer of reserves. He participated in the German revolution and fled to America, settling at Belleville, Ill., and St. Louis. In 1861, at the outbreak of the war, he enlisted as a private in the Third German Regiment of Missouri. He soon was appointed major of the regiment and later was made colonel of the Twelfth Missouri (German) Regiment, rising to brigadier general in January, 1863, and to major general after distinguished service at Chattanooga in the same year. On September 23, 1864, he was given command of the Fifteenth Army Corps, which he commanded in Sherman’s march to the sea.
He retired January 16, 1866, after continuous service for five years, rising from the pike to the highest command, never deserting the Union flag for a day, fighting thirty-four battles without losing one where he was in independent command. He lived to see the first year or two of the World War, residing at the age of ninety with a married daughter at Duisberg in the Rhinelands. His services to the Union were forgotten and his pension was cut off. Rear Admiral Hugo Osterhaus, retired in 1913, is his son. He was born in Belleville, June 15, 1851, and resides in Washington.
=Palatine Declaration of Independence.=--The history of the Tryon County Committee, identified as it is with the events in New York State immediately preceding the Revolution and throughout the latter, and commemorating as it does the name of General Herkimer, is the more interesting for being probably the first, and surely among the first, to make a declaration of independence in anticipation of the formal Congressional announcement of the break with Great Britain of July 4, 1776. The claim of priority is conceded by William L. Stone in his work on the “Life of Joseph Brant-Thayendanegea,” (1830) the Indian chief who proved himself the scourge of the New York and Pennsylvania frontier settlers. Stone in Volume I, p. 67, says:
It is here worthy, not only of special note, but of all admiration, how completely and entirely these border-men held themselves amenable, in the most trying exigencies, to the just execution of the laws. Throughout all their proceedings, the history of the Tryon Committees will show that they were governed by the purest dictates of patriotism, and the highest regard to moral principle. Unlike the rude inhabitants of most frontier settlements, =especially under circumstances when the magistracy are, from necessity, almost powerless, the frontier patriots of Tryon County were scrupulous in their devotion to the supremacy of the laws. Their leading men were likewise distinguished for their intelligence; and while North Carolina is disputing whether she did not in fact utter a declaration of independence before it was done by Congress, by recurring to the first declaration of the Palatine Committee, noted in its proper place, the example may almost be said to have proceeded from the Valley of the Mohawk.=
“The Minute Book of the Committee of Safety of Tryon County, the Old New York Frontier” (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1905), contains the minutes of the meeting at which this German American Declaration of Independence was adopted. The names, reduced to their German originals, leave no doubt of the racial character of the majority of the members. The declaration adopted August 27, 1774, begins with these words:
Whereas the British Parliament has lately passed an Act for raising a Revenue in America without the consent of our Representatives to abridging the liberties and privileges of the American Colonies and therefore blocking up the Port of Boston, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Palatine District in the County of Tryon aforesaid, looking with Concern and heartfelt Sorrow on these Alarming and calamitous conditions, Do meet this 27th day of August, 1774, on that purpose at the house of Adam Loucks, Esq., (Lux) at Stonearabia and concluded the Resolves following, vizt.
King George is acknowledged the lawful sovereign, but
3. That we think it is our undeniable privilege to be taxed only with our Consent, given by ourselves (or by our Representatives). That Taxes otherwise laid and exacted are unjust and unconstitutional. That the late Acts of Parliament declarative of their Rights of laying internal Taxes on the American Colonies are obvious Incroachments on the Rights and Liberties of the British subjects in America.
Sympathy is expressed with the people of Boston, “whom we consider brethren suffering in the Common Cause,” and that “we think the sending of Delegates from the different Colonies to a general continental Congress is a salutary measure necessary at this alarming Crisis,” etc.
Section 5 of a resolution adopted nine months later, at a meeting of the Palatine Committee, May 21, 1775, expresses the declaration in even more specific form, as follows:
That as we abhor a state of slavery, we do Join and unite together under all the ties of religion, honor, justice and love for our countrymen never to become slaves, and to defend our freedom with our lives and fortunes.
Of the 71 names attached to the declaration, 48 were distinctly German, and six Dutch or Low German. Some of the names appear in their anglicised form in the minutes, due to clerical errors and gross indifference of their bearers; but their identification is based on the careful researches of Friedrich Kapp, the historian of the German element in New York, and others. Fuchs was changed into Fox, Teichert into Tygart and Klock into Clock. The change was also due to an inherent desire to hide the German origin of the names which assume such important historical value. That the writing of Loucks for Lux was an error is proved by the discovery that a descendant of the same family, one Adam Lux, played quite an important part in the Baden revolution of 1849, while descendants of the Petrie family are living today in Wurtemberg, Germany. The list of 54 German signers (inclusive of the Hollanders or Low Germans) is as follows:
Adam Lux, Johann Frey, Major; Andreas Finck, Jr., Major; Andreas Reiber, Peter Wagner, Lieutenant-Colonel; Johann Jacob Karl Klock, Colonel; George Ecker, Nikolaus Herckheimer, Major-General; Wilhelm Sieber, Major; Johann Pickert, Ensign; Edward Wall, Wilhelm Petrie, Surgeon; Jacob Weber, Markus Petrie, Lieutenant; Johann Petrie, George Wentz, Lieutenant; Johann Frank, Philipp Fuchs, Friedrich Fuchs, Christoph Fuchs, Adjutant; August Hess, Michel Illig, Captain; Friedrich Ahrendorf, George Herckheimer, Captain; Werner Teichert, Lorenz Zimmermann, Peter Bellinger, Lieutenant-Colonel; Johann Demuth, Adjutant; Wilhelm Fuchs, Christian Nellis, Heinrich Nellis, Heinrich Harter, Hanjost Schumacher, Major; Isaak Paris, (Elsaesser) Heinrich Heintz, Friedrich Fischer, Colonel; Johann Klock, Lieutenant; Jacob James Klock, Major; Volker Vedder, Lieutenant-Colonel; Fried. Hellmer, Captain; Rudolph Schuhmacher, Hanjost Herckheimer, Colonel; Johann Eisenlord, Captain; Friedrich Bellinger, Adam Bellinger, Second Lieutenant; Johann Keyser, First Lieutenant; Johann Bliven, Major; Wilhelm Fuchs, Lieutenant.
Samuel Ten Broeck, Major; Antoon van Fechten, Adjutant; Harmanus van Slyck, Major; Abraham van Horn, Quartermaster; Willem Schuyler, Gose van Alstijn.
=Franz Daniel Pastorius and German, Dutch and English Colonization.=--What the Mayflower is to the Puritans, the Concord is to the descendants of the Germans who were among the pioneer settlers of America. It was this vessel that bore to American shores the first compact German band of immigrants, under the leadership of Franz Daniel Pastorius.
While the first Dutch settlement, that of Manhattan Island, or New York, was founded in 1614, and that of Plymouth by the Puritans in 1620, that of Germantown, Pennsylvania, occurred in 1683, although long prior to that date Germans in large numbers were settled in the New World, and there is evidence that there were Germans among the Jamestown pioneers and those of the Massachusetts Bay colony.
But German immigration is reckoned to have begun with the arrival of thirteen families from Crefeld under Pastorius. They embarked July 24, 1683, on the Concord, and arrived October 6, 1683, in Philadelphia.
Pastorius was born September 26, 1651, at Sommernhausen Franconia, studied law and lived in Frankfort-on-the-Main. By the so-called Germantown patent he acquired 5,350 acres near Philadelphia from William Penn and founded Germantown. Acting for a company of Germans and Hollanders, 22,377 additional acres were acquired under the Manatauney Patent. Germantown was laid out October 24, 1685. (See “Germantown Settlement.”)
The principal occupation of the settlers was textile industry, farming and the establishment of vineyards. Pastorius was elected mayor in 1688 and the next year the town was incorporated. In 1688 Pastorius and others issued a judicial protest against slavery. He became a member of the Philadelphia school-board, twice was elected to the Assembly and also acted as magistrate.
Three famous families issued from this settlement. The Rittenhausens, who established the first flour and the first paper mill in America and from whom was descended the great astronomer, Rittenhouse; the Gottfrieds, from whom descended Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, and the Sauers, of whom Christopher Sauer attained fame as a printer.
There is some analogy between the Puritans and the Crefeld colony in that they were strongly religious bodies, and of the plain people, though the Germans, unlike the Pilgrims, were not forced to leave their native country by intolerable conditions of oppression and bigotry. Another notable incident is the fact that the Pilgrims brought over the political ideas of Holland rather than of England, as they had lived in Holland for twelve years, exiled for conscience’s sake, earning their bread in a foreign land by the labor of their hands.
King James had declared of the Puritans: “I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land.” Their long residence in Holland influenced their future politically, if not in the direction of tolerance, since those who joined them soon practised in America the oppression on their fellows which they had left England to escape.
Dr. William Elliot Griffis agrees with Lowell “that we are worth nothing except so far as we have disinfected ourselves of Anglicism.” Dr. Griffis says that the Dutch settlers of that period, a period when England, even down to 1752, was in her calendar, like Russia today, eleven days behind the rest of the world, “brought with them something else than what Washington Irving credits them with. They had schools and schoolmasters, ministers and churches, the best kind of land laws, with the registration of deeds and mortgages, toleration, the habit of treating the Indian as a man, the written ballot, the village community of free men, and an inextinguishable love of liberty were theirs. =They originated on American soil many things, usually credited to the Puritans of New England, but which the English rule abolished.= They, however who remained, assisted by Huguenot, Scotchman and German, though in a conquered province, fought the battle of constitutional liberty against the royal governors of New York night and day, and inch by inch, until, in the noble State constitution of 1778, the victory of 1648 was re-echoed.”
New York he contends, “is less the fruit of English than of Teutonic civilization.” It was the institutions of Holland, not only directly, but through the medium of the Puritans, that influenced the shaping of those policies which are known as American. “They say we are an English nation,” writes Dr. Griffis in a paper read before the Congregational Club of Boston in 1891, “and they attempt to derive our institutions from England, notwithstanding that our institutions which are most truly American were never in England. The story of Holland’s direct influence on the English-speaking world is an omitted chapter.”