I know that it is hard for Americans to realize the magnitude of the war in which we are involved. We have problems in this war no other nation has. Fortunately the great majority of American citizens of German decent, have in this great crisis of our history, shown themselves splendidly loyal to our flag. Everyone had a right to sympathize with any warring nation. But now that we are in the war, there are only two sides, and the time has come when every citizen must declare himself "American" or "traitor". We must disappoint the Germans who have always believed that the German-Americans here would risk their property, their children's future, and their own necks, and take up arms for the Kaiser. The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me, "your country does not dare do anything against Germany, because we have in your country 500,000 German 'reservists' who will rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany." Well, I told him that that might be so, but that we had five hundred and one thousand lamp posts in this country, and that that was where the "reservists" would be hanging the day after they tried to rise.

And if there are any German-Americans here who are so ungrateful for all the benefits they have received, that they are still for the Kaiser, there is only one thing to do with them--and that is to hog-tie them, give them back the wooden shoes and the rags they landed in and ship them back to the fatherland.

I have traveled this year over all The United States, through The Alleghenys, The White Mountains, and The Catskills, the Rockies and The Bitteroot Mountains--the Cascades, the coast range and The Sierras. And in all these mountains, there is no animal that bites and kicks and squeals and scratches that would bite and squeal and scratch equal to a fat German-American if you commence to tie him up and told him that he was on his way back to the Kaiser.