Things Politicians Say- 1917 Edition

This always happens to me when I'm looking up information about a company or technology or whatnot. I end up at Wikipedia and stumble upon something astounding or remarkable....Never fails.

So, here is something that made my jaw drop...from the bio on James W. Gerrard, Ambassador to Germany (1913-1917)...

In 1914, he was the Democratic - Tammany Hall candidate for U.S. Senator from New York. He defeated Anti-Tammany candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Democratic primary, but lost the election to James W. Wadsworth, Jr. On the declaration of war by the United States, he was recalled from his post of minister at Berlin...

Gerard once said in a speech: "The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me your country does not dare do anything against Germany, because we have in your country five hundred thousand Germans reservists [emigrants] who will rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany. Well, I told him that that might be so, but that we had five hundred thousand and one lamp posts in this country, and that that was where the reservists would be hanging the day after they tried to rise."^[1]

Wow. Just reminds you how much America has changed in almost 100 years. Can you imagine any politician of any political party saying something like that? And this from the guy who beat FDR in a Democratic party primary...