Beschreibung:

HARDING, Warren G. (1865-1923). Typed letter signed ("Warren G. Harding"), as President, to George Sylvester Viereck, Washington, D. C., 14 November 1921. 1½ pages, 4to, White House stationery . "THERE IS NO INTENDED DISCRIMINATION AMONG CITIZENS OF GERMAN STOCK OR ORIGIN" HARDING ASSURES THE INFAMOUS NAZI PROPAGANDIST. He doesn't usually respond to criticism, Harding tells Viereck, but he wants (as a later President would say) to make one thing perfectly clear: "There is no intended discrimination among citizens of German stock or origin. On the contrary there have been some very desirable appointments made of men who have pride in their German origin and their loyalty of American citizenship. There is some difficulty in naming Mr. Heyn as Minister to Austria," Harding goes on to explain. Heyn is a New Yorker, and a fellow New Yorker had already been named Ambassador to Germany. "It is not possible to choose all of our diplomatic representatives from the great Empire state. In simple truth I have been more generous in allotting New York the lion's share already. Apart from this you will be interested to know there is some opposition to Mr. Heyn from those who are as proud as you or he to claim German origin..." Viereck helped deliver the German-American vote to Harding in the 1920 election, so the the President is eager to assuage this important, but controversial immigrant leader and journalist. From 1914-1917, Viereck was an outspoken proponent of the German war effort, championing the Central Powers in his own publication, Fatherland . In 1915, critics outed him as a paid propagandist for the German government, but Washington declined to prosecute. During the Nazi era, Berlin directly funded his writings on behalf of American isolationism, and in 1941 he was arrested and tried for improperly acting as an agent of a foreign power. He eventually served four years in prison.