"For nine years I have known a man who used to be a burglar but is now fighting for his country in France. He is a friend of mine, and this former criminal is a better citizen than you have ever been," said Federal Judge Landis to August Weissensel, who was arraigned before him.

Weissensel is a man of about sixty years of age, has been in the country for forty years, and is an American citizen. In spite of all this he has made all sorts of pro-German utterances, as for instance, that if the Germans landed in New York, one would find out what they would do to America, and many other such things. But what especially exasperated the judge was the fact that, although one of his [Weissensel's] sons serves in the American army, he talked about the war to his second son, who just had reached the military age, in a pro-German fashion, and attempted to convert the young man to his own ideas.

"It is people like you," continued the judge, "who, by their attitude, cause ten million German-Americans in this country to be held in disgust and contempt by their fellow citizens. For the sake of your son who is serving in the army, I will impose on you only half of the punishment the espionage law provides for--ten years in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth."

Weissensel, who at first had tried to defend himself, listened to the pronouncement of the sentence silently and apparently unmoved, before he was led away.