- papers 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
