y did a thing it was proper. Germany had a right
to break her solemn treaties; Germany had a right to sink the
_Lusitania_; if Germany was out of iron ore she had a right to invade
France and steal her iron mines. What had been crimes suddenly became
virtues.

Fleeing from the German tyrant in 1859, in 1918 the old farmer turned
upon the United States that had befriended him.

"If I have to make my choice, I choose the Kaiser."

Mentally, it seems absurd. Morally, his was a monstrous position. But
blood was thicker than water. Gratitude had no place in his heart.

This old German regarded the gift of his farm by our people as a sign of
weakness. The Republic gave him a homestead because he was a superior
man. He actually had a belief that Germany would soon overrun the world;
that the Kaiser would soon be enthroned in Washington; that some German
in Iowa would supersede the Government in Des Moines, and he was simply
getting ready, having made friends with the Kaiser's Government, to
receive reward when the United States became a German colony.

Who can explain the obsession?

It is clear that the German-Americans had been drilled for forty years
through their German newspapers in these ideas. Little by little they
have been alienated from the institutions of the Republic. Slowly they
have been led to believe that Berlin is soon to be a world capital and
Kaiser Wilhelm the world emperor, while only Germans shall be allowed in
this country to hold office or land, while all Americans become tenants
and servitors thereto.

Plainly this is what Siebert meant in his book, published five years ago
in Berlin:

"When we have reached our goal Germany must see to it that no race save
the German race can have a title deed in land or carry weapons, just as
in the first world empire no one but a Roman was allowed to own land or
have a sword or spear."

7. In Praise of Our Secret Service

Of necessity our Secret Service work is carried on in silence and
without blare of trumpets. The achievements of the Department of Justice
cannot be proclaimed from the housetops. Everybody knows something about
the crimes committed by the German agents. These spies, loyal with their
lips, have in their hearts plotted innumerable crimes against our
Government. They have dynamited our factories and warehouses; they have
burned shops and planted bombs on ships; they have thrown trains from
the track; they have poisoned the horses and mul