Part 27

Under the foregoing, German citizens, merchants, corporations, companies, etc., would have the right for the period of nine months after the declaration of war to collect their debts, settle their affairs, and, if possible, to depart safely, carrying all their effects with them without any hindrance whatsoever. This would mean, for instance, that the owners of the German vessels interned in our harbors would be privileged to have full control over their property.

Under date of February 8, 1917, the State Department issued the following statement:

It having been reported to him that there is anxiety in some quarters on the part of persons residing in this country who are the subjects of foreign states lest their bank deposits or other property should be seized in the event of war between the United States and a foreign nation, the President authorizes the statement that all such fears are entirely unfounded.

The Government of the United States will under no circumstances take advantage of a state of war to take possession of property to which under international understandings and the recognized law of the land give it no just claim or title. It will scrupulously respect all private rights, alike of its own citizens and the subjects of foreign states.

This was made public two months before we found ourselves in a state of war with Germany. Soon after, A. Mitchell Palmer was appointed Custodian of Alien Property and began to seize about one thousand million dollars’ worth of German property and securities--not the property of the Imperial German Government, with which we were at war, but the property of German private persons.

Using the language of an editorial in one of the leading newspapers in America of August 29, 1919, a treaty between the United States and Germany, which had never been denounced and was in full force, provided that in case of war between Germany and the United States, Germany should permit American owners of property in Germany, or Americans doing business in Germany, to have nine months in which to wind up their business affairs, to dispose of their property and to take themselves unhindered out of Germany. And the United States bound itself, of course, to give the same treatment to German aliens doing business or owning property in America. This treaty agreement was deliberately broken by the Custodian of Alien Property. Under international law the duty of such a custodian is to take possession of the property of alien citizens of an enemy country, administer that property carefully, preserve it in good faith, and hold the earnings of the property and the property itself ready for return to the owners whenever peace shall come. “We want,” declares the paper, “to keep the name and reputation of the American people so clean and honorable that no American shall ever need to apologize either to friend or foe.” (New York “American.”)

As a result of the confiscation of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of alien property, a sensational scandal developed, which was aired in the House and Senate and had a perceptible bearing on the defeat of the League of Nations treaty in the Senate. Among other things, Palmer, ultimately appointed Attorney General, was charged with having sold the great Bosch magneto works, valued at $16,000,000, for $4,000,000, giving the preference to friends; and Representative J. Hampton Moore, referring to Francis P. Garvan, Mr. Palmer’s successor as Custodian, demanded to know: “Why the same Frank P. Garvan, the distinguished criminal lawyer of New York, had recently been elected to and accepted the presidency of the Chemical Foundation, which has taken over all the German patents in the United States for the manufacture of dye stuffs through an arrangement with the Alien Property Custodian, A. Mitchell Palmer, now Attorney General?”

In his speech of June 21, 1919, in the House, Mr. Moore named a number of big trust operators and financiers, including Cleveland H. Dodge, as having formed the Chemical Foundation and taking over “4,500 patents which Mr. Palmer and Mr. Garvan, this distinguished criminal lawyer from New York, the successor of Mr. Palmer as Alien Property Custodian, found on file in the Patent Office, and which they seized on the ground that they belonged to certain German patentees.” (New York “Times,” June 22, 1919.)

Hardly a pretence is made by the administration that the seizure was legal, and the death-blow to all such pretensions was delivered when, in urging the ratification of the Versailles treaty by the Senate, Senator Hitchcock, the administration’s Senate leader, declared:

Through the treaty we will get very much of importance.... In violation of all international law and treaties, we have made disposition of a billion dollars of German-owned property here. The treaty validates all that.

It is important that Americans should know the facts in the case, however unpopular the narrative may be, in order that they may set themselves right before the world, or at least be prepared for the wave of prejudice which is bound to be excited by the remarkable proceedings. Quoting Walter T. Rose, a prominent Chicago exporter just returned from a tour of Europe, the New York “Sun” of November 28, 1919, said: “It is an unfortunate fact that hardly anywhere in Europe does one hear good opinions of America and Americans.” Mr. Rose gathered his opinions in France and England as well as in central Europe. The course of the Custodian of Alien Property establishes a precedent that, of course, will be heeded by those associated with us in the war no less than by our late enemies. It is a warning that the filing of patents and patented processes insures no immunity from confiscation in the event of war, and a warning to foreign investors to go slow in investing their money in industries in the United States. To counteract this policy imposes a moral task upon every citizen of the United States who holds the honor of his country above a dollar. For we shall have flaunted in our faces this passage from President Wilson’s address to Congress, April 2, 1917:

We shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion, and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and fair play we profess to be fighting for.... It will be easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act, not in enmity of a people or with a desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in opposition to an irresponsible government. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us--however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe this is spoken from our hearts.

In a hearing before a Senate committee investigating his acts as Custodian, Mr. Palmer named as his advisory committee, Otto Barnard, Cleveland H. Dodge, George L. Ingraham and Alex Griswold, Jr. He asserted that he had seized 40,000 German properties. Upon his list were the names of 32 Germans and Austrian-Hungarians interned as enemy aliens, whose property was taken over by him. Their names and the value of their property follows:

Carl Heynan, $487,748; Adolf Pavenstedt, $1,661,408; E. K. Victor, $274,092; Edward Lutz, $117,865; Hugo Schmidt, $89,434; F. Stallforth, $540,408; Ad. Fischer, $477,396; F. Rosenberg, $228,484; Max Breitung, $46,006; Isaac Straus, $36,688; Franz Bopp, $31,782; Adolf Kessler, $205,165; Robert Tumler, $48,655; Dr. Ernst Kunwald, $26,456; Fritz Bergmeier, $28,651; Dr. Karl Muck, $82,181; Hans Cron, $54,436; J. H. Beckmann, $120,360; Paul Lubeke, $30,930; Johannes Schlenzig, $58,967; Max Reinhard, $52,433; Gunther Weiske, $138,255; M. S. Barnet, $42,766; Heinrich Beckisch, $25,811; Frank H. Meyer, $60,928; Arthur Richter, $50,012; Herbert Clemens, $53,813; Fritz Materna, $40,000; William H. Steinmann, $32,768; Julius Pirnitzer, $84,656; Desider W. B. de Waray, $200,166; C. F. Banning, $44,000.

Among the amounts confiscated was $3,000 left in the will of Mrs. Louisa Manada, of Wyoming, for the care of blind soldiers in Berlin, her home going to a hospital in this country.

Among those mentioned as placed in charge of enemy property by the Custodian, in his report to the Senate, March 1, 1919, appear the names of several prominent newspaper men and politicians: Don C. Seitz, publisher of the New York “World,” and George McAneny, publisher of the New York “Times,” two strong administration papers, both of whom were trustees of the Bridgeport Projectile Company. Mr. McAneny and Henry Morgenthau, former ambassador to Turkey, were made trustees of the American Metal Company, another enemy concern. Gavin McNab, of San Francisco, a leading Democratic politician of California, was made a trustee of the Charles E. Houson Estate Company, the Marvin Estate Company and the J. H. von Schroeder Investment Company.

In the investigation Mr. Palmer denied the various charges, and others referred to, as well as the allegation, aired in the New York “World,” that his name corresponded with the initials of a certain M. P. mentioned in the captured notes of Dr. Albert, the German agent, who was referred to as friendly to Germany. He stated that “no other course than the seizure was compatible with the safety of American institutions,” to which reply was made from Germany that the $700,000,000 investments by Germans in this country did not reach “one-half of the total value, for instance, of a single American industrial company like the United States Steel Corporation, and not even approximately one per cent. of the total value of American industrial enterprises.” The immense business built up here by the Germans was, Mr. Palmer said, lost to the Germans forever, and there was absolutely no hope for the development of American chemical industries under the old conditions. He defended the Bosch seizure on the ground of a plot by the manager to promise special apparatus to the British for their aeroplanes without intending to deliver them.

Millions of dollars’ worth of property belonging to women of American birth, married to German and Austrian subjects, was taken over by the Custodian. Many prominent women are in the list, including Countess Gladys Vanderbilt-Szechenyi, whose property as taken over amounts to nearly $4,000,000 in securities in addition to the income from a $5,000,000 trust fund created under the will of her father.

The list includes:

Baroness Augusta Louise von Alten, Budapest, Hungary, formerly Augusta L. De Haven, and Sarah E. von Camps Hanover, Welfel, Germany, formerly Sarah E. De Haven, granddaughters of the late Louisa G. Bigelow, formerly of Chicago. Estate valued at about $1,460,000.

Baroness Clara Erhart von Truchsess, Dusseldorf, Germany, formerly Clara Erhart, of New York. Life estate in trust fund of $500,000; securities valued at $600,000.

Gertrude, Baroness von Bocklin, Baden, Germany, formerly Gertrude Berwind, of Philadelphia. Under the will of Charles F. Berwind, her father, she received more than $300,000 in property, which was put in trust with property received by the other heirs.

Baroness Olivia Louise von Rothkirch, Schlesien, Germany, formerly Olivia Louise Brown, daughter of William John Brown, of New York. Life interest in trust, approximating $1,000,000.

Baroness Matilda L. Bornemissa, Budapest, Austria; Baroness Margaret von Wucherer and Anna von Dory Johahaza, both of Steiermark, Austria, daughters of the late James Price, of Philadelphia, and Baroness Manon Dumreicher, Baron Tibor von Berg, Baron Tassilo von Berg and Baron Max von Berg, children of the deceased daughter, Baroness Sallie Mae Berg. The above enemies share an income of the trust under the will of Sarah Maria Price, valued at $275,000, and also in a trust created under the will of Samuel Harlan, Jr., valued at $75,000.

Baroness Cornelia C. Zedlitz, Berlin, Germany, formerly Cornelia Carnochan Roosevelt, daughter of the late Charles Y. Roosevelt, of New York. Under a trust agreement made in 1889 in contemplation of marriage, her property, valued at about $1,000,000, was put in trust, reserving to her a life interest. Personal property valued at $200,000 was also taken over.

Countess Marguerite Isabelle Eugenie Victorine de Stuers Obendorff, wife of the former German Ambassador to Austria, and grandniece of the late Henry Astor, grandson of the original John Jacob Astor, and inheritor of a share in his estate. Her mother was Countess Margaret Laura Zhorowski, daughter of Alida Astor, a sister of Henry Astor, and daughter of William Astor. Trust fund $60,000, created by deed of trust by her father; cash, $949,225 and eight-fifteenths interest in New York city property.

Countess von Francken, Sierstorpff, Zyrowa Leschnitz, Prussia, formerly Mary Knowlton, daughter of Edwin F. Knowlton, of New York. Life interest trust fund $1,200,000, left under the will of her father; Countess Alice Grote, Schloss Varechentin, Mecklenburg, Germany, formerly Alice von Bergen, daughter of Anthony von Bergen of New York. Life interest, $250,000.

Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szechenyi, Budapest, Hungary, daughter of the late Cornelius Vanderbilt and Alice G. Vanderbilt. Nearly $4,000,000 in securities taken over; also income from $5,000,000 trust fund created under the will of her father.

Countess Harriet Sigray, Ivancz Nagycsakny, Hungary, daughter of the late Marcus Daly, of Montana, a sister of Mrs. James Gerard, wife of the former Ambassador to Germany. Securities taken over, $1,000,000.

Countess Gladys McMillan Cornet, Brussels, Belgium, formerly Gladys McMillan, daughter of the late James H. McMillan, of Detroit. Life interest in one-tenth of trust of $4,500,000; life interest in two-thirds of trust of $450,000; life estate one-tenth trust of $600,000 and securities valued at $149,725.

Countess Elizabeth T. P. de Gasquet-James, Krain, Austria, formerly Elizabeth T. Pratt James, of Esopus, N. Y. Life estate in $135,000 and bonds, $59,000.

Lily Freifrau Treusch von Buttlar Brandenfees, Stettin, Germany, formerly Lilly G. Stetson, daughter of the late Isaiah Stetson, of Bangor, Me. Securities taken over valued at $250,000.

Jayta Humphreys von Wolf, Munich, Germany, daughter of the late Frederic Humphreys, of New York. Life interest in a trust valued about $50,000.

Rosa K. Schertel von Burtenbach, daughter of the late Frederick Schaefer, of New York. Under trust created in will of father, she has life interest of $200,000.

Clara von Gontard, Berlin, Germany, daughter of the late Adolphus Busch and Lilly Busch, of St. Louis. Life interest in trust fund created under the will of Adolphus Busch, securities valued at $900,000, including stock holdings in Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company of St. Louis.

Mary Trowbridge von Zepplin, Germany, formerly Mary Wilkens, Detroit, wife of Conrad von Zepplin and daughter of the late Lizzie C. Wilkens, of Detroit. Life estate trust fund, $40,000.

Clara Bauer von Rosenthal, Frankfort-am-Main, Germany, formerly Clara Bauer, daughter of the late Augustus Bauer, Chicago. Life interest in trust of $35,000.

Mary Grace von der Hellan, Hamburg, Germany, formerly Mary Grace Meissner, Garden City, New York. Life interest in trust created by herself just prior to her marriage, $65,000, and bank balance, $304,472.

Charlotte von Gorrisen, Hamburg, Germany, formerly Charlotte Anderson, daughter of the late Elbert J. Anderson, of Newport, R. I. Small interest in the estate of her father.

Alice von Buchwaldt, Bremen, Germany, and Anna Maria von Bose, Dresden, Germany, daughters of William Wilkens, deceased, of Baltimore. Each has a life interest in a trust fund under the will of her father of about $180,000.

Natalie Burleigh von Ohnesorge, Provinz Posen, Germany, daughter of Sarah B. Conklin, of New York. Life estate in a trust under will of her father, $140,000.

Florence Grafin von Schwerin, Munich, Germany, formerly Florence Wann, of St. Paul, Minn. Daughter of the late John Wann, deceased. Property taken over, $20,000; life interest in trust created under the will of her father, $40,000. Interest in the trust created by deed of trust of her brother, Thomas Leslie Wann, consisting of valuable real estate in St. Paul.

Children of Sophie von Bohlen und Halbach, Baden, Germany, formerly Sophie Bohlen, daughter of Gen. William Henry Charles Bohlen, of Pennsylvania. She died in 1915 and her children, all residing in Germany, became beneficiaries of her estate, including trust funds totaling $1,500,000.

Helen H. von Stralenheim, Dresden, Germany; Louise von Trutzchler zum Falkenstein, Vogtland, Germany, and Josephine von Arnim, Dresden, Germany, daughters of David Leavitt, deceased, late of New York. Each has life estate one-fifth of $225,000 trust.

Sophie von Arenstorff, Frankfort-a-Oder, Germany. Under the will of Edward G. Halls, deceased, late of Chicago, above enemy, a granddaughter, has a life interest in three-tenths of the estate, valued at $267,000.

Katie von Kracker, Mecklenburg, Germany, formerly Katie Elias, daughter of the late Henry Elias, of New York, life interest in one-half of a trust valued at $300,000.

Mr. Palmer’s assertion that Germany set the example by seizing American property in Germany cannot be sustained by him.

=Villard, Henry.=--A distinguished war correspondent during the Civil War, afterwards built the Northern Pacific Railroad, largely with German capital. Born in Speyer, 1835. His real name was Heinrich Hillgard. Married a daughter of William Lloyd Garrison, famous abolitionist. Father of Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of “The Nation.”

=Vote on War in Congress.=--A resolution declaring the United States in a state of war “with the imperial German Government” on the grounds that the imperial German government had committed repeated acts of war against the government and the people of the United States and that in consequence of these acts war had been thrust upon the United States, was passed in the Senate on April 5 and in the House on April 6, 1917.

In neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives was the resolution passed by a unanimous vote.

In the Senate on April 5 it passed by a vote of 82 to 6, and in the House by a vote of 373 to 50. No obstructions were resorted to, and comparatively a short time was consumed on both sides in speeches devoted to individual explanations.

In the Senate 43 Democrats and 39 Republicans voted aye and in the House 193 Democrats, 177 Republicans and three Independents (Fall of Massachusetts, Martin of Louisiana and Schall of Minnesota) voted affirmatively, while 16 Democrats and 32 Republicans, 1 Socialist and 1 Independent (Randall) voted in the negative. Miss Rankin, the first woman member of the lower House of Congress, voted against war.

The Senators voting “no” were Lane, Stone and Vardaman, Democrats, and Gronna, La Follette and Norris, Republicans.

In the lower House the members who voted against war were the following:

Alabama--Almon, Burnett.

California--Church, Hayes, Randall.

Colorado--Hilliard, Keating.

Illinois--Britten, Rodenberg, Fuller, Wheeler, King, Mason.

Iowa--Haugen, Woods, Hull.

Kansas--Connelly, Little.

Michigan--Bacon.

Minnesota--Davis, Knutson, Van Dyke, Lundeen.

Missouri--Decker, Igoe, Hensley, Shackleford.

Montana--Rankin.

Nebraska--Kinkaid, Reavis, Sloan.

Nevada--Roberts.

New York--London.

North Carolina--Kitchin.

Ohio--Sherwood.

South Carolina--Dominick.

South Dakota--Dillon, Johnson.

Texas--McLemore.

Washington--Dill, La Follette.

Wisconsin--Browne, Cary, Cooper, Esch, Frear, Nelson, Stafford, Davidson, Voight.

Paired, 6; absent by illnesses, 2; not voting, 2; vacancies, 2.

Speaker Clark did not vote.

The debate in both Houses will rank among the most memorable in the history of the country. With a degree of courage amounting to heroism, Senators La Follette of Wisconsin, Stone of Missouri and Norris of Nebraska spoke in opposition to the adoption of the resolution; but the surprise came in the House when the Democratic floor leader, Kitchin, announced his opposition to the measure. It should not be assumed that any of the men in either branch of Congress took the position in a spirit of light-hearted opposition. Not one among them but realized the heavy responsibility of his action. With a newspaper clamor for war unequaled in the history of the United States, with the bitter denunciation of Senators who voted against the armed ship bill in March still ringing in their ears, and with the widespread propaganda carried to the doors of Congress by those anxious for war, every legislator felt the gravity of his step in refusing to sanction the necessary authority which would plunge the country into the European conflagration.

An analysis of the vote shows that not a single representative of the people from an Eastern State (except New York, London, Socialist) voted against war. Every negative vote came from the West and South. The favorite slogan that the agitation against war emanated wholly from German sources was not verified by facts. It is said that there is hardly a German vote in the North Carolina district represented by Kitchin. No such influence operated upon Senator Vardaman of Mississippi, nor upon the two members from Alabama.

The largest vote against war came from Wisconsin, where, aside from Senator La Follette, nine members of the lower House were found on the negative side and but two on the affirmative, exclusive of Senator Husting. The latter went out of his way to make a bitter attack on the German-Americans and called the people of his State disloyal if they refused “to back up the President in the course he has decided to take.” He said this was the only question at issue, as he believed that if the question of peace or war only were submitted to the people war would be voted down.

Sentiment in his State on the war question was indicated by the large anti-war vote of the Wisconsin delegation and the referendum votes taken in Sheboygan and Monroe on April 3. In the former place only 17 out of 4,000 votes cast were for war, and in the latter 954 votes were against and 95 for war. A relative result was recorded from a Minnesota referendum.

Several incidents of interest out of the common marked the great debate, but there was a noticeable absence of the high feeling that accompanied the declaration of war against Spain. For part of the day the House was half empty while the debate was in progress and comparatively few people appeared in the galleries.

Representative Kitchin declared that he expected his vote against war to end his political career, but that he nevertheless could not act against his conscientious convictions. A rampant Southern fire-eater named Heflin, hailing from Alabama, attacked Kitchin and declared that the latter’s attitude should prompt him to resign from Congress, as he did not represent the opinion of the country.

The answer to this suggestion was a volley of hisses from the Democratic side of the House; and while Miss Rankin, tears in her eyes as she found herself confronted with the serious problem of doing a popular thing or following her convictions, declared in a broken voice, “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war--I vote no,” applause greeted her decision even from those who were voting the other way.

Kitchin was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which has in charge the appropriations necessary to carry on the war. He distinctly announced that if war were declared he would present no obstructions to its successful conduct but would do all that was required of him as a member of the House.