A PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF ONE OF ROOSEVELT’S EDITORIALS
To a policy based on callous disregard of death and suffering, and the brutal use of force, they have added the habitual and extensive employment of corruption as a means for weakening their foes and bending other nations to their service.
The Administration at Washington recently made public the proof that Ambassador Bernstorff, on behalf of the German Government, was, up to the very last moment of his stay, engaged in efforts to bribe with German money American organizations or individuals who could be used to further Germany’s purpose by protesting against war, demanding peace at any price, opposing the measures necessary for war, denouncing the Allied nations, praising unpreparedness, or by some other of the methods habitual with pro-German Senators, Congressmen, editors, heads of peace societies and the like.
No well-informed man was surprised at the revelation. Every reasonably well-informed man, who has known about matters at Washington, has known that for nearly three years German money and governmental power has been used for the corruption of American newspapers and pacifist organizations and for the pay of German, and the bribery of native, scoundrels to wreck our industries with dynamite and in all ways debauch our political life. The Government, from the highest official down, knew all these facts over two years ago. The New York World published the names of some of the editors and other individuals who had received money, and the amounts received. The Austrian Ambassador, Dumba, and two of the German attachés, Boy-Ed and Von Papen, were dismissed for inspiring and countenancing the intrigues. It was absolutely impossible that what they did was not ordered and supervised by Bernstorff, under the direction of the Berlin Government. It was deeply to our discredit that we did not then show the courage and manliness to break at once with Germany, instead of hiding our heads in the sand so as to avoid seeing the guilt of the German Government, and punishing the minor instruments of wrongdoing who, under no conceivable circumstances, would or could have acted save as their superiors bade them act. Germany has hitherto been able to do but little against us with blood and iron; gold has been her weapon, and her agents have been the foes of our own household.
Every man in this country who is now playing the pro-German game should be made to feel that he must overcome a presumption of guilty motive. There are misguided pro-Germans who are uninfluenced by corrupt motives, just as there were in the Civil War copperheads who were merely misguided and not conscious wrongdoers. But these men are in mighty unpleasant company!
The pacifist, the man who wishes a peace without victory, the supporter of Senator La Follette or Senator Stone, the man who in any way now aids Germany, may be honest; but he stands cheek by jowl with hired traitors, and he is serving the cause of the malignant and unscrupulous enemies of his country.
THE GHOST DANCE OF THE SHADOW HUNS
October 1, 1917
Ten days ago a ghost dance was held in St. Paul under the auspices of the Non-Partisan League, with Senator La Follette as the star performer. We have the authority of the German Kaiser for the use of the word Hun in a descriptive sense, as representing the ideal to which he wished his soldiers in their actions to approximate. It is therefore fair to use the word descriptively as a substitute for the German in this war. It is also fair to use it descriptively of the German sympathizer in this country, of the man who aids and abets Germany by condoning the German offenses against us, by seeking to raise class division in this country, with, of course, the attendant benefit to Germany; by screaming against the war, or in favor of an inconclusive peace; or by belittling or sneering at or declaring inopportune the effort to arouse the spirit of Americanism. The Americans who thus serve Germany deserve the title of Shadow Huns.
It was to me a matter of sincere regret to have the Non-Partisan League play the part it did at St. Paul in connection with the meeting which Senator La Follette addressed. They held what was in effect a disloyalty day festival. When the Non-Partisan League movement was first started, I was inclined to hail it, because I am exceedingly anxious to do everything in my power to grapple with and remedy every injustice or wrong or mere failure to give ample opportunity to the farmer. With most of the avowed objects and with some of the methods of the Non-Partisan League I was in entire sympathy, although there were certain things it did which I felt should be condemned, and certain ways of achieving its objects which I believed to be mischievous. But when the League, on the disloyalty day in question, ranged itself on the side of the allies of Germany and the enemies of this country, it became necessary for every loyal American severely to condemn it. Morally, although doubtless not legally, it thereby came perilously near ranging itself beside the I.W.W., the German-American Alliance, and the German Socialist party machine in America.