As Aberdeen is located in one of the Non-Partisan League districts, and as reports have come from nearby towns denoting a large percentage of pro-Germanism, it may be well to quote further from the report of this division. The Chief says that one family living in Hecla, strongly pro-German, declared they would never be taken alive. The A. P. L. took over the case. One man was shot resisting arrest. Five members of the family were arrested and two were convicted, while one remains to be tried. “This stopped pro-German utterances in that community,” says the Chief, “and materially aided in the sale of bonds.”
In December, 1917, Fred H—— of Aberdeen was interned for pro-German utterances. His wife turned state’s evidence on members of the local German club where members had been fined for speaking the English language. Four of the leading spirits of this club were taken into custody, one of them the publisher of three German language newspapers of wide circulation which were openly pro-German. This man had sent to von Bernstorff $10,000, ostensibly to be used for the German Red Cross—all of it raised from readers of his publication through the sale of the “iron ring.” This man was sentenced and fined $500. An associate editor of the same string of papers was interned also. One of the parties was president of the South Dakota German-American Alliance, and published a German language paper at Sioux Falls. He was charged with writing a letter which reads as follows:
I have never given any declaration of loyalty and never will do it, nor subscribe to any Liberty Loan. The name is to me already an emetic because hypocritical and misleading. That a man perhaps buys bonds for business considerations, I can understand, but I myself couldn’t do it without thinking that my $50 or $100 might perhaps buy the explosive which American accomplices of the allied plunderbund might throw on the house of my mother.
The writer of the above, as head of the German-American Alliance, raffled a picture of the crew of the Deutschland after our declaration of war, and sold souvenirs from the boat, remitting the funds to New York German centers. He was sentenced to ten years in the Federal penitentiary.
The active Chief of Aberdeen also caught H. M. H——, a former lieutenant in the German Navy and an ex-instructor in the Naval School at Hamburg, who was also active in the German-American Alliance. He got five years in the Federal penitentiary for urging young men of draft age not to enlist. Another alien enemy whose papers show that he once had wealthy connections in Germany, although he was engaged in making a scanty living at baling hay, was reported as a Prussian and believed to be dangerous. Yet another, William B——, was picked up in Aberdeen and told a tale that sounded like one by Deadwood Dick. He said he lived in the mountains of California with his uncle, who was a smuggler. He was found to be communicating with the I. W. W., and was sent to a detention camp. Another arrest was made, of Ed. R——, a wealthy farmer who stated he would rather see his daughter in a house of prostitution than a member of the Red Cross. He was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary, and this has discouraged the expression of such sentiments near Aberdeen.
Now, if there were nothing else whatever printed in these pages, the foregoing would show the necessity for such an organization as the American Protective League, even in communities far away from manufacturing centers and not supposed to be governed by the foreign element. The report of the Chief of the Aberdeen Division affords grave reading and matter for grave consideration. In that one little community, which does not turn in memoranda of all its cases, there were 312 Department of Justice cases, 156 War Department cases, and three Navy Department cases. Seventeen persons were arrested or interned. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the recommendations made by the local Chief is this: “It has been the experience of this branch that the communities reached by the German language publications have been decidedly disloyal. It is our opinion that action should be urged upon Congress to discontinue the foreign language press in America.” These last are words of gold. They ought to be remembered by every man holding office in the United States and by every man seeking the suffrages of real American citizens. The time for mincing matters with these gentry has gone by.
NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo, North Dakota, hands in a report which varies in one important particular from those received from neighboring districts. The division was not making trouble enough for the rampant pro-Germans in Fargo, so the League turned around and investigated some of its own officers. None the less, the report tells of a story of accomplishment, there being 101 disloyalty and sedition cases, 109 cases under the Selective Service Act, and eight cases of enemy sympathizers who threatened the life of the President.
KANSAS
It will be no surprise to those who know Kansas to learn that this ultra-progressive, prosperous, energetic State was unswervingly loyal throughout the war, and had few cases of any kind to report. A few sentences quoted from the reports of several representative little towns will serve to show the Kansas war temperature varied from normal but slightly, if at all.