The Untold Story of Following Jesus During World War 1 - Part 7

Lesson Transcript

God Almighty understands the American language. Address Him only in that tongue. We're going to be looking today at the untold story of following Jesus during World War I. This is my seventh message. And today we're going to be—I'm going to have these brothers, and we're going to also have a short video clip from Brother Daniel, who's going to be helping us.

What we're going to be looking at today is how in the United States there was an attack on German, the German culture, and the German language, and there was an attack on other cultures and languages as well that most people are not aware of what happened in that type of situation in the United States in World War I. So I'm going to open with these four brothers helping me share.

We're going to say the Lord's Prayer in different languages so we can hear what we're talking about when you say you can't speak a certain language. We're going to—Wes is going to share with Spanish. Lynn's going to do Pennsylvania Dutch. Atlee's going to do German. I'm going to do English. And then Brother Daniel will show his video will be Chinese. So I'll start with Wes here. Why don't we all stand? And you don't have to say it with me, so... Nuestro Padre, que está en los cielos, santificado sea tu nombre.

Venga tu reino, hágase tu voluntad, como en el cielo, así también en la tierra. Y perdónanos nuestras deudas, como también nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores. Y no nos metas en tentación, más líbranos del mal. Porque tuyo es el reino y el poder y la gloria, por todos los siglos. Amén. Amén. I don't have this memorized. Unsere Vater im Himmel, lass den Jünger heilig sein, lass der Reich komme, lass der Wille geschehen, auf die Erde wie im Himmel.

Gib uns heute unser täglich Brot und vergib uns unsere Schuld, wie wir die vergeben, die uns schuldig sind. Und führe uns nicht in die Versuchung, aber halt uns vom Übel. Für dich ist es reich an der Kraft und der Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen. Amen. Now I know the German one from memory, but I'll say it too fast if I don't read it, so I'm going to read it. So let's pray. Unser Vater in den Himmel, dein Name werde geheiliget, dein Reich komme, dein Wille geschehe auf Erden wie im Himmel.

Unser täglich Brot gib uns heute und vergib uns unsere Schulden, wie wir unsere Schuldigen vergeben. Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung, sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel. Denn dein ist das Reich, die Kraft, die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen. So I'm going to say it in English here, and then we'll conclude with Jason saying, I mean, Daniel saying in Chinese. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Now we're going to look at Daniel as he does Chinese for us. Here we go. 弟兄姐妹们平安，咱们一起祷告。主祷文：我们在天上的父，愿人都尊你的名为圣，愿你的国降临，愿你的旨意行在地上，如同行在天上，我们日用的衣食，今日赐给我们。面对我们的债，如同蒙怜悯人的债，不叫我们遇见试探，救我们脱离凶恶，因为国度、权柄、荣耀，全是你的，直到永远。阿们。 Amen. Okay. So we're going to go into the message here.

As I said, this is looking at the attack on the German culture and language and the attack on other cultures and languages as well, which happened in World War I. We're going to look at these two Bible verses. There's not a lot of verses about this, but there are some verses I thought of. Oops. There we go. Look at this. This is from an authentic newspaper clipping, and I'll give more explanation of what it's meaning, but just read that. This was a clipping from the United States in this time period.

God Almighty understands the American language. Address Him only in that tongue. Do not remove this card. That's the authentic that really happened in a certain state. We'll explain more about that. To the two verses here.

Romans 14:11, "For it is written, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God,' tongue referring to language." And a similar one in Revelation 7:9, "And these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues," again, language, "standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands." As we look at this idea of the attack on German and other

languages, I first wanted to see how many German speakers were in the United States at this time period.

This was—we're talking the time period from like 1917 to like 1920. So I went back to the 1910 U.S. census, which is close enough. But if you look at it, it has English and Celic as the greatest. These are talking about immigrants, the United States recent immigrants who would have still spoken their native language. And you had that. These were immigrants like Great Britain, and the number underneath is German. It's 8,817,271 people. That's what the U.S.

census said, who were recent immigrants who still spoke German in 1910. That why it says mother tongue is referring to immigrants who just came to the United States and their children who either were born in the United States from immigrant parents, being one parent or two. And that's a pretty large amount, 8 million. But what makes that amount even more significant, the U.S. census of 1910 said there was approximately 93,402,151 people in the United States.

So approximately a little over 10%, give or take a little bit, spoke German at this time period. So that's a pretty significant amount of people who are speaking German. Not an insignificant number. Even Norwegian is not an insignificant number if you look at that. We're going to look at two different aspects of this attack on German and the other cultures. You had first what was called Americanization, which we'll define.

It was the process—this was something that I think has been in the United States for a long time, but it was definitely there in the United States at that time period, at some time after the Civil War. The process of an immigrant who came to the United States, he became a person who shared the American culture, the values, beliefs, and customs by assimilating, by becoming part of the United States. You would drop your foreign culture, your foreign language, everything like that.

There's two posters—because I'm not going to focus a lot on this when we focus on the others—but here's two posters about this idea. It says, "Make the 4th of July Americanization Day. Many peoples, but one nation." Again, that we are trying to become one people, that you're going to drop your foreign language. And here's another little brochure about the same word, "Americanization." It was written by this—whoever that is, Dr. Albert Shills.

What it means, how it operates, how every citizen town can put it into practical application. A revelation on the subject nearest every American patriot's heart. So you had this going on about that we need to be one person, I'm saying one people here in the United States. And you had this as well, the attack, the specific attack on German culture and other languages that was done at the government level.

If you remember, we had the Committee of Public Information, one of the first committees in the United States on propaganda. And you had also the state and local propaganda, and you had what I would call the society propaganda. So let's look at some of that propaganda here. This one from the Davenport Democrat and Leader, "Paint horrors of German atrocities in war." And this was the lecture given by a pastor in Brooklyn, New York. We're going to look at a few of his comments.

I'm going to focus on specifically three. They're the ones I have in the box. "The Kaiser's God has been my devil all my life long." Good propaganda there. Read the next one. "There are two places I never want to go: hell and Germany. I have been there too many times now." Germany, I mean, not hell. I mean, like I said. And then I'm going to read that bottom one. "Life will not be worth the living unless we smash this foul thing called Germany." Like I said, this was by a pastor. Here's another one.

Like I said, again, attacking German in the culture. And this is how they always spell culture when they attack German culture. The crime of German culture, you might not be able to read it, but I'm going to read that top sentence there. It says, "German culture is not culture at all, but a criminal conspiracy against the freedom of the human race." Is that something you believe? Isn't that pure propaganda? And then, like I said, the Committee of Public Information.

They had many brochures on this, and they show three of them. "Conquest and culture," again, the way they spelled it, "Aimed at the Germans in their own words." "German treatment of conquered territory." This was a two-part series. "German war practices," if you see, part two, "and German plots and intrigues during the period of United States neutrality." The propaganda just didn't end here. It goes in all kinds of facets of life. We're going to look at a specific one I found I thought was interesting.

You might recognize this, a dachshund dog. That was a German breed, so guess what got picked on was this dachshund dog. Here is a newspaper article about it from the Jasper Weekly, November 1st, 1918. "Dogs of war," look at those two guys what they're saying. "Some of these war devices of the Prussians have proved clumsy. Yes, they were the sort of thing to be expected from a nation that regarded a dachshund as an improvement on a regular dog." So we'll look at this.

This is another propaganda, some type of police officer carrying this poor little hon, dragging a poor little dachshund. Then we'll look at this next one. I probably am going to butcher that, but it's something Tufelhunden, which is the word for devil dog, German nickname for U.S. Marines. It shows a picture of a U.S. Marine that bulldog with the little helmet chasing the poor little dachshund with the little helmet. "Devil dog recruiting station." And what this led to is the next one.

As far as I couldn't find this anywhere else, but according to this, they said it happened. "Exit the German dachshund. Marine poster causes German dachshund to be driven from streets of Cincinnati. Exit the German dachshund from the Society of Cincinnati Dogdom." The United States Marine Corps poster was responsible for the German doggy's social demise here. The poster depicts an American bulldog chasing a German dachshund with the words Tufelhund, devil dog, the German nickname for the U.S. Marine.

Since the appearance of this poster, the local dachshunds, of which there are a great number, have led a miserable existence as small boys have sicked bulldogs, terriers, hounds, and every other canine breed on the poor Fritzy until at last they have been virtually driven off the streets of Cincinnati. Pretty crazy. Because dachshund, being a German dog, you attack people, at least in Cincinnati, and drive them off the streets. Here's some other things that happened.

Like I said, there's propaganda against German culture. This one I thought was funny because we were looking. What did they call wallpaper paste? We sell liberty paste. And this was from the public opinion from this local community, April 3rd. Here's another one. Instead of calling it German measles, Pierre wasn't sure why they did that. They called it now liberty measles. Why they—yeah. Camp Dix, New Jersey. Camp Dix will no longer recognize the disease known as German measles.

It was wiped off the sanitary department records yesterday. And hereafter, those soldiers so unfortunate as to contract the lighter form of the malady that has brought about the quarantine of the contentment will be listed as ill with liberty measles. I agree with Pierre. I don't know why you would call something liberty if you're trying to make fun of something. Here's another one. Have you bought your liberty cabbage yet? Some of you might know what that's referring to, but if you don't, it's referring to this.

Don't let yourself open to the charge of pro-Germanism hereafter by calling it sauerkraut. Refer to it as liberty cabbage. Like I said, this is a real thing. Okay, this is like in all the states that they did this. So yes. And as this one concludes, food conservations are urged to adopt this slogan. It says, "Buy by liberty cabbage," like purchase, and then "Buy by sauerkraut," like see you later idea. This is so you can understand. But this even hits closer to home.

If you remember when we used to meet at the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Liberty Street, I always wondered, that is a weird street name, Liberty Street. It is a weird street name because it wasn't called Liberty Street originally. It was called German Street. And because of World War I, the people who lived on it didn't like that name, so they petitioned the Borough of Chambersburg to get their names changed. So here's what it says, March 5th, 1918.

"Council to revoke German Street name." And they gave the residents on what was German Street like a poll what they wanted to change, and they chose Liberty Street. So this is now public opinion, April 3rd, 1918.

"An ordinance changing the name of German Street to Liberty Street being enacted and ordained by the Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Chambersburg," and skipping to the bottom, "passed by the Town Council this first day of April, 1918." I had always wondered where this Liberty Street came because I've never heard that before. Not that big a deal changing something German Street to Liberty Street. But again, the attack on the word German. But some of the stuff is more dark than this some of this.

I think the dachshund's a little dark, but liberty cabbage, that's not a big deal, German Street, Liberty Street. But what about this article? "Lewiston citizens display patriotism. Pro-Germans to swear allegiance and burn German books." This was in Montana where they had a lot of this type of thing. So they caught German people forced them to kiss the U.S. flag or be threatened with hanging. And they took public school books. They had permission, and they burned them in the book burning.

These books were German, this type thing. Here's another one. This is from Lima, Ohio. The same place that they had the patriotic rally at one of the Mennonite churches in Lima, Ohio. That's the same exact area. Read what it says. "Lima Vigilante score huntung," skipping to the bottom, says, "Take stand in German. Declare it should be made dead language in America and go into lengthy details." So now we're starting, like I say, to attack the German language.

Now I would say that was Vigilantes, which I know what the Vigilantes did in Lima, Ohio before. Now we're going to start focusing a little bit more on the language and what happened to the language. Because that's something that I think as I share these stories, I think you all will think about. It made me think about a lot of it. But first of all, we're going to begin with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peacefully to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." But something you should be aware of with the "United States Constitutional Rights," ever since the time of the American Revolution, during wartime, the rights go by the window.

And it doesn't matter if the Constitution said of the United States or the state constitutions, if there's war, they go out the window. So even though they said they weren't going to affect your religion, it doesn't matter. Your right went out the window. It's something to think about as we look at this. So the first thing we're going to look at is this attack on the German language. This was from the Chilicoff Gazette. 14 states, this is September 1918, 14 states stopped German in schools.

So one of the first things they did was they started attacking that you couldn't take German in your school, be it a public school or a private school. It went across the board. They outlawed teaching German in school. It eventually went up to approximately 34 states that banned German in school, including the District of Columbia as well. And these were both at the legislative level and during World War I at the state council defense level. They both banned it.

These are some of the council defense that restricted language. We're going to look at three specifically today. Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, good old Montana, Indiana, and Oklahoma. Some of the states you would have probably thought would ban the German language. But in the states where the state council defense, such as in Colorado, didn't ban German officially, the local localities did. Two localities in Colorado did specifically, they banned German. This is Fort Collins, Colorado.

It says, "Can't speak German language on streets in the city of Fort Collins." That was done by local businessmen and the local county council of defense that they banned speaking German in the town of Fort Collins. And a town just nearby called Windsor, Colorado, did the same exact thing. It says, "Anti-German signs to be put up here.

The general use of the German language in business and on the streets is to be discouraged in Windsor by putting up signs reading, 'If you live in America, talk American.'" And that was done by the ward council as well. But it went beyond just teaching German in school and speaking on the street. It actually went to what you were speaking in your church building. That article that I read, the one, I will explain a little bit. It says, "God Almighty understands the American language. Address him only in that tongue.

Do not remove this card." This was actually happened in the state of Oklahoma in the county of Major by an editor of the local newspaper who went to all the German-speaking churches in that county and put this plaque on their front door trying to intimate you need to stop speaking German. And Oklahoma was one of the states that restricted language. The next list is not a comprehensive list, but it's a list of these churches that still spoke German during World War I. It's more than you probably think.

It's not comprehensive. There's a few that I didn't put on it. We have the Lutheran, Evangelical, Reformed, Methodist Episcopal, Mennonite, Hutterite, Amish, Brethren, Congregationalists. As far as I can tell, Moravians also still spoke German in their church services in World War I as well. So this restriction thing about German was not just on "Anti-Baptist" type people. It included other churches as well. Now we're going to look at three of the states and their specific orders.

We're going to look at South Dakota, Montana, and Iowa, and their specific order, what they specifically said about German. I'm going to share a few stories about it. And then on Montana and Iowa, I'm going to go into a little bit more detail. So we're going to start with South Dakota first. German language order number four of the South Dakota Council of Defense.

As I had said before in one of the messages, the Council of Defense is on a virtue all the states had legislative power and they could say it, and that was the end of it. If they said it, there was not an appeal or anything like that. It was a pretty well-done deal.

Is there for order that all teaching in the German language in classes, both public and private, as well as private tutorage is hereby prohibited except in classes of religious instruction already organized, which may continue such instruction until October 1st, 1918? So here's one of those restrictions on the German language. And they're including it private as well. Not just the schools, but if you're doing it in your own home, it's going to be banned learning German.

And it is further ordered that the use of the German language in all public and quasi-public meetings, including sermons or public worship, is hereby prohibited except where permits may be granted by the State Council of Defense upon proper showing that the use of the German language upon such occasion is necessary and is not detrimental to the best interests of the state and nation. And I'll conclude with this one. This order shall be and become effective on and after June 1st, 1918.

Made adopted and approved by the said South Dakota of Defense on 25th day of May, 1918. So there's the point of the first ones. If you caught that, they banned German in the pulpit in public worship. And that was legal. It was not declared unconstitutional. That was legal, and it was enforced. South Dakota did enforce this. People were fined for speaking because speaking German, doing things in German. So it was not declared illegal. We're going to read similar order by Council of Defense of Montana.

Their number is order number three. Order number three, this is from the Council of Montana. It is hereby ordered by the Montana Council of Defense that the use of the German language in public and private school and in the pulpits of the state be and the same is hereby forbidden. It is further ordered that the following named publications be withdrawn by the librarians of all public and school libraries from the circulation and use into the state.

That is to say, I'm going to read the list real quickly, but some of those books in that list were some of those books they burned in Lewiston, Montana. They had an idea of what they were going to be requiring them to take out. Just look at the read the name not by who wrote it. These are all the books that were forbidden in Montana.

Ancient World, writing and speaking German, About the Great and Other Things, From First to Last, William the Victorious, Peter Moore's Journey to the Southwest, German Songbook, A Summer in Germany, German Songs, First German Reader, German Compositions, Selections for German Compositions. That's a pretty long list of books that are banned in the state of Montana in the public or private in a public school or university or library. And here's what they further want to say.

Librarians and school authorities of the state are further requested to carefully examine all publications in their respective libraries and to withdraw from circulation and use all German textbooks, which in the judgment of such school authorities or librarians contain German propaganda, whether such books or publications are enumerated above or not. Dated Helena, this 22nd day of April, 1918. And again, if you caught it, they forbade German in your church, in your pulpit.

And this was, like I said, you could appeal it to the Council of Defense, but everything I'm going to show you, they always said no. So let's look at that. This was the first letter. These are authentic letters between the two councils of defense, the local council of defense. Like they say, for example, Franklin County addressing the state council of defense. So this is what happened in Montana. Scan of the original letter dated they had much better mail service back then.

I did notice these guys are much better than we do. Dated April 4th, 1918. So let's read this letter together. This is the letter from the local council of defense writing the governor, who's one of the key people on the Montana Council of Defense. Regarding, sorry, my dear governor, recently we have received several complaints regarding a community of Mennonites residing in north of Chinook.

It appears that these people are in the habit of holding church service in their different private homes, and that during these services, the German language is spoken. Not very good there. In the past, we have made inquiry into this matter, and from what we are told, it appears that these people took the matter up with you personally at the time of your presence at the Farmers County picnic in Zurich.

And they advise us that at the time, you informed them that this would be permissible for them to talk their native language at their services so long as these services were conducted in their own private home. This is a small matter to bring to your attention at this time, but you are aware of how these neighborhood complaints are registered. And in order to dispose of the matter, I am taking it with you for your decision. With kindest personal regards, I am, yours very truly, A.S.

Lohman, Chairman, Blaine County Council of Defense. So this guy is writing on the state asking, "What should we do? The Mennonites are having church in their home, and they're using German. How bad can you be?" So here's what this is a letter. I'm shocked. Like I said, these guys, they have us have, I don't know, plenty of expression because they're dating it April 4th, I mean, October 4th, October 5th. So we're going to read what the governor says back to the from the state back to the local. October 5th, 1918.

"My dear Mr. Lohman, your letter of October 4th has been received. And I know what you say about the community of Mennonites holding services in the German language. I did talk of this at the picnic in Zurich. I told them just what you say. However, since that time, it has become apparent that in some instances, people have taken advantage of that construction and have simply moved the church service from the church or schoolhouse to a private home.

In some instances, they have held services that were just as much public as though they were in a church. For that reason, the state council thought it unwise to permit such services to be held and decided that it was best to confine services in the German language to family worship. I would suggest that you convey this information to the people in question. You may use this letter as your authority in doing so. I think it wise to give them a chance to understand the situation.

I would not attempt to make any arrests for that has been done if they are willing to conform in the future. Very truly yours, governor." Pretty amazing letter there if you think about it. The governor of Montana is saying, "You are not allowed to have a church service in your home if you speak German in your home." This is in a church building. This is now forbidding you to have a prayer meeting, a church service, a Bible study in your home if you use the language, if you use German.

Pretty far how far Montana went on this thing. Now we're going to skip that was in October 1918. Now we're going to skip to November 26th, 1918. What's interesting about this, the armistice of World War I was on November 11th, 1918 at 11:00 AM Central European Time. This is now two weeks after the World War I has been declared ended. And what does it say? A group of German Lutheran pastors petitioned the Montana Council of Defense asking for permission.

Now that the war is over, can we speak German our languages again? German our church service again. And what does it say? Pastors may not speak German. State Council of Defense refuses the rescinded order forbidding use of the Hun language in church service. My question I would have is why the war is over now type thing. But it gets even more ridiculous than that. So now we're going to skip to March 31st, 1919. This was a letter by Mr. Dick. I have it where you can read it.

Most likely, he is a Mennonite of a Russian Mennonite background because they're ump. And he's writing to the State Council of Defense again on the same language. Same question. Can we use German now in our church service? Now we are almost five months past World War I ending. So here's what he says. "Dear Sir," dated March 31st, 1919. "There are different and undesirable opinions in the neighborhood in regard to the use of German language in church meetings. Some say the ban is lifted while others claim it is not.

Will you kindly advise me by return mail as to this matter? Yours truly, J.J. Dick, Jr." I said he's most very likely of the Mennonite of the Russian Mennonites there in Montana. Here's their reply. That was March 31st. The reply is April 2nd. Again, they said they have much better mail than we do. Copy the original letter. We'll blow it up so you can see. April 2nd, "Dear Sir," we'll read what the Council of Defense says.

"Replying to yours of March 31st, the ban has not been lifted on the use of German in church service. The order of the Montana Council of Defense as originally made has not been amended, modified, or rescinded. I am enclosing you a copy of the order." My question I would ask you, why? The war has been over almost five months, and you are still not allowed to use German in your church service. That's why the guy was writing, and the Council of Defense says, "No." So when is the council this revoked?

It's not revoked until June of 1920, almost two years after World War I ends that the Council of Defense finally revokes the German order. Pretty ridiculous. Let's read that. This is Friday, June 11th, 1920. We're just going to read some highlights out of that column where it says, "Revokes order on the use of German." We're going to start with the top.

"The State Council of Defense has revoked the order enforced during the war, which prohibited the holding of religious service in the German language." Again, it's right underneath it says, "The St. Paul's will start holding a German service again." And this is why they said they were going to do that. The first reason why is realizing that there is a great uncertainty as to when the treaty of peace with Germany will be ratified. And then we'll skip down a little bit where it's in the highlight in the box again.

It says, "Governor Stewart, of Montana, chairman of the council, requested me to write the members of the council for their opinion as to the wisdom of rescinding that portion of the order prohibiting church service in German. Replies have been received from a majority of the members of the council, all of whom expressed the opinion that the portion of the order referred to should be rescinded.

In consequence of this unanimous opinion of the majority, Governor Stewart has directed me to notify you with the request that you notify these parsons concerned that where it is desired, church services may be conducted in German." Like I said, almost two years after the war ended that they're now letting you have German again. We'll conclude this one. I'll just read this last little bit of this order.

"The council knows also that in save a few isolated instances, the pastor of the churches in Montana affected by the order referred to obeyed it literally and conscientiously. And it is largely because of this knowledge that the majority of the council has come to this decision it has." Yours very truly, Charles D. Greenfield. Just giving you an explanation of why they did this. The statute that made the Montana Council of Defense said it would end when the peace treaty with Germany was signed.

The United States did not ratify the treaty of Versailles, which was signed in 1919. So the Council of Defense still existed, and they refused to change any of their orders. Council of Defense in Montana finally ended on August 26th, 1921, when the United States signed a second peace treaty with German. But if you notice, this rescission did not rescind that you could do German classes again. Those were still against the law. So it only took that you could have German church services.

So that's where we're going to stop with Montana. Now we're going to look at Iowa. Iowa goes a little further. These other states, like I said, were on German only. Iowa takes it to all languages. So let's look at their order. This is originally a two-page document. It's from the governor's office of the state of Iowa. We're going to look at page two, but there was a page one where he gave explanation of why they're doing this. I'm going to just share one paragraph from that page one. Okay.

"The official language of the United States and state of Iowa is the English language. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by federal and state constitutions. But this is not a guarantee of the right to use a language other than the language of this it should be country, and I miss obviously the English language." So that, again, going back to what that slide said, God only understands the American language. Pray to him accordingly.

So here's what the governor, the Iowa thing said that was slightly different and even more comprehensive. First, English should and must be the only medium of instruction in public, private, denominational, or other similar schools. Second, conversation in public places on trains and over the telephone should be in the English language. Third, all public addresses should and must be in the English language, thereby if you take that to a logical conclusion, forbidding any church service in any language but English.

Fourth, let those who cannot speak or understand the English language conduct their religious worship in their home. So going back to number three, if you can't speak another language, you can't have church, you must be at your home and stuff. You cannot have church in a public place. Now we'll just read this other little statement that the governor said as he signed this order. Again, these orders were all upheld as constitutional. They were not declared unconstitutional.

"This course carried out in the spirit of patriotism, though inconvenient to some, will not interfere with our guaranteed constitutional rights and will result in peace and tranquility at home and greatly strengthen the country in battle. The blessings of the United States are so great that any inconvenience or sacrifice should be willingly made for their perpetuity. In testing the order of.

I heretunto set my hand in cause to be affixed the great seal of the state of Iowa, done at Des Moines this 23rd day of May 1918, W.L. Harding, who was the governor." So let's look what he says. He has something very similar to that other one about the English language. "One language idea popular. Opposition to Governor Harding's dictum is dying out." And that's a quote from Governor Harding. "I am telling those who insist upon praying in some other language that they are wasting their time.

For the good Lord up above is now listening for the voice in English." So you first have pray to God in the American language. He only understands this. And now you have the governor of Iowa saying that the good Lord is not listening to any other language but English. Now I'm going to look at a local council of defense order that was implementing this in the state of Iowa. And read what the local council of defense said that you as a church had to do in your church.

Because they had this meeting with the local pastors. So let's just read this. This is in Iowa, the Sioux County, Iowa, with churches to use English. This is from this little paper called the Pelicronical. "The pastors of all the county churches were invited Tuesday to meet with the military committee that's referring to the military committee of the council of defense to consider the governor's proclamation. Here are the rules that he gave. Sermons.

This is the council of defense talking with the pastors from all the churches in the community. The principal sermon at every public worship must be in English. They did give a little bit of leeway that you could have a little bit of like a little short synopsis in the other language, but the primary thing had to be in English. Songs. They had a little leeway here. The committee will permit the singing of songs in a foreign language. Reading of the scriptures. The scriptures will be read in English.

Then again, it says you can read them, repeat if you need to. Forms. The old established forms such as administering the sacrament, communion, baptism, etc., are to be conducted in English. They said you could repeat it if you need to. Then prayer. Prayer in public worship or public gatherings must be offered in the English language, but they give you permission to use the next one. Then going to the sacrament, or some people call ordinance. Every sacrament must first be administered in the English language.

Then it could be repeated in the foreign language. Then they had a thing that said penalty, that they said the penalties are being decided. And lastly, this is the pledge that all the pastors of the community were supposed to sign so they could have church in their church service, in their church building. After the above rules had been explained, the following pledge was signed. We, the undersigned, hereby pledge our loyalty to our country and our flag.

We will do all we can to promote harmony and unity among our people in council obedience to our laws. We will follow the proclamation of May 23rd, 1918, issued by the governor of our state, and while that said proclamation is enforced, address our congregation at our public worship in the English language and in the presence of the stars and stripes or in the presence of the United States flag. Dated at Orange City, Iowa, this 18th day of June 1918. If you think about that, that's pretty scary.

Now the state council of defense, I mean, the local is now telling you what you can and can't do in your own church service, and you have to sign a loyalty pledge to be able to have church in your church building. I'm going to just about done here, but I'm just going to look at one example of some of the stuff that happened in Iowa. If you remember from my fifth message, I talked about how they desecrated many Anabaptist-type churches in Oklahoma, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio.

And all these comments, a lot of them make the comment, "We're doing this to promote unity, order, peace, tranquility." But as you look at the reality, I don't think any of these orders did that. I'm just looking at an extreme example that I had not that happened here in Iowa. It actually happened to the Dutch Reformed churches. These churches were over the Dutch Reformed, but they still spoke Dutch. Not Pennsylvania Dutch, but Dutch Dutch, Holland Dutch. So let's just read this thing.

It says the Peoria church, this is Peoria, Iowa, church and school burn. Fire thought to be of an incendiary order and do the feelings on war questions. So I'm not sure where Peoria, Iowa is, but like I said, there's a community of Dutch Reformed churches that the people did not want there because they weren't Americanized, so they were getting attacked. In the end, we'll look at the next newspaper article. This is about a year later. It says, "Must answer to serious charges.

Detectives clear up the mysterious fires at New Sharon and Sully, others in the adjacent territory still under investigation." So in the end, as I read this, the men apprehended are charged with an instrument on causing destruction of the Dutch Reformed church of New Sharon, the burning of the Geese of Osborne, he was summoning from a Dutch, and the attempted destruction of the Holland school at SUNY. Plus, if you go to the next one, state agents are still working in the Peoria Dutch Reformed church fire.

The placing of dynamite, this is the first time I've read this, underneath the home of the Reverend Edmund Husbrigg, pastor of the New Sharon Holland church. So the patriots, the vigilantes, tried to blow up the parsonage, and he was still there. Thankfully, the dynamite didn't go up and end up killing the pastor of this little church, but they tried to murder this was a Dutch Reformed pastor, and the burning of the McVeigh elevator.

So in my mind, these ideas didn't promote peace and harmony and unity that they said they were. But one last little article I'm going to read is, "How do you think the community felt of you if you voluntarily started using English in your church language?" I found this interesting article from Oklahoma about a Mennonite church. Let's read it. Who did that? Lick Howard is sad. Mennonites patriotic.

An action that will be appreciated by the little Americans in this part of the country was that taken by the Mennonite church in this city at a meeting last Sunday in which they decided to discontinue the use of the German language in their services hereafter. These people are Americans and patriotic, and they are proving it by voluntarily dropping the use of a language that is fast becoming a challenge in itself to every red-blooded American. Henceforth, all Mennonite services will be in English.

So this is how this local community viewed this Mennonite congregation for dropping German. So I will just bring a short review, and if you have a question that you can ask me, I may or may not be able to answer. We looked at, like I said, this is a brief attack on, like I said, on the German language and other cultures and languages. And I looked at, like I said, the restrictions that they placed on the teaching and speaking of German.

We looked also how they forbade the use of German in your church and even in your own home if it was during a "worship service," like they did in Montana. Because this was very new to me as I was studying this. I was a little appalled how far they were able to take this attack on German and stuff and this restricting people to use it in their own church. Like I said, this was all for none of these was declared unconstitutional.

I mean, like I said, Montana had it forbade for almost two years that you couldn't do German, and that was tough luck. That's just how it is.