Speech #660018035

Custodian of Alien Property. on or about September 14 made the following statement: " The facts will soon appear which will conclusively show that 12 or 15 German brewers of America. in association with the United States Brewers Association. furnished the money. amounting to several hundred thousand dollars. to buy a great newspaper in one of the chief cities of the Nation. and its publisher. without disclosing whose money had bodght that organ of public opinion. in the very Capital of the Nation. In the shadow of the Capitol itself. has been fighting the battle of the liquor traffic. " When the traffic. doomed though it is. undertakes and seeks by these secret methods to control party nominations. party machinery. whole political parties. and thereby control the government of State and] Nation. it is time the people know the truth. "The organized liquor traffic of the country is a vicious interest. because it has been unpatriotic. because it has been proGerman in its sympathies and its conduct. Around these great brewery organ. izations owned by rich men. almost all of them are of German birth and sympathy. at least before we entered the war. has grown up the societies. all the organizations of this country intended to keep young German immigrants from becoming real American citizens. "It is around the sangerfests and sangerbunds and organizations of that kind. generally financed by the rich brewers. that the young Germans who come to America are taught to remember. first. the fatherland. and. second. America". and Whereas it has been publicly and repeatedly charged against the United States Brewers. Association and allied brewing companies and interests that there is in the Department of Justice and in the office of a certain United States district attorney evidence showingThat the said United States Brewers Association. brewing companics. and allied interests have in recent years made contributions to political campaigns on a great scale without precedent in the political history of the country and in violation of the laws of the land .