100 years ago in The Record
Tuesday, April 10, 1917
Rensselaer County Sheriff William P. Powers assures unnaturalized foreigners that they have no reason to fear “any invasion of [their] personal or property rights” while the U. S. is at war, The Record reports. In a statement issued today, the sheriff writes that he deems it “wise in the present war crisis” to remind immigrants who haven’t become American citizens of their rights and responsibilities. The U. S. declared war on Germany last Friday. Austria-Hungary, Germany’s ally, broke off diplomatic relations with the U. S. yesterday. “The United States has never, in any war, confiscated the property of any foreign resident unless by his own hostile acts he made it necessary,” Powers writes, “I take this formal means of declaring to all foreign born residents that they will be protected in the ownership of their property and money and that they will be free from personal molestation so long as they obey the laws of the state and nation and county.” As for responsibilities, “Let it be understood that every citizen owes undivided allegiance to the American flag, that he is expected to loyally fulfill all obligations which citizenship and residence impose upon him, and that any act, however slight, tending to give aid and comfort to the enemy is treason, for which severe penalties are provided, in addition to that punishment which pub- lic opinion inflicts upon the memory of traitors in all lands.”
Public opinion is volatile right now, as shown by the shooting over the weekend of a Mechanicville man who got into an argument about the war with a former policeman. Probably with that example in mind, the sheriff makes an “urgent request that all our people refrain from public discussion of questions involved in the present crisis and maintain a calm and considerate attitude toward all without regard to their nationality.”
Wartime bipartisanship
At today’s meeting of the Rensselaer County Republican Committee, former county judge Michael A. Tierney tells party leaders that they have a “more serious obligation” than party business in wartime.
Tierney urges unconditional support for President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, in his prosecution of the war. Wilson “was not your choice nor mine, but he was and is the choice of the majority,” he says, “As true Americans we owe to him our loyalty and should pledge to him our confidence and support.”
Warning against obstructionism, Tierney says that while Republicans may think that “an appropriation of five billions of dollars is too great … we must not forget that the war in which we have entered is the most momentous that the world has ever seen.”