Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-24
TRUE AMERICANISM.
The Strong Feeling Developed During
the Recent Presidential Campaign.


the Recent Presidential Campaign.
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, in responding to
the toast, The Day we Celebrate" at the New
England dinner in Brooklyn, gave the follow
ing definition Of what constitutes true Ameri-
canism:
But there 10 one phase Of the election which.
think, reaches far beyond party. if we take the
trouble to go little beneath the surface. Irefer
TO the strong American feeling that was deveop-
ed during the canvass, not in noise and shouts,
but IN regard to many vital issues. 1t is going
moreover, to last. The war for the Union and the
issues springing from it have been settled.
While they lasted they overshadowed every
thing else. But all the time other questions
have been growing up with the growth of the
nation and are now coming to the front for
decision. 1t is our duty to settle them not
only In the right way, but in a thoroughly
American fashion. By Americanism i do not
mean that which had brief political existence
more than thirty years ago. That movement
was based on race and sect and was therefore
thoroughly un-American and failed, as all un-
American movements have failed in this coun-
try. True Americanism is opposed utterly to
any political divisions resting on race and reli-
gion. To the race or to the sect which as such
attempts to take possession of the politics or
the public education Of the country, true Amer
icanism says: Hands of"
THE AMERICAN IDEA
is a free church in free state. and free and
unsectarian public school in every and in every
village, with its doors wide open to the chill
dren Of all races and Of every creed. 1t goes
still further and frowns upon the constant at
tempt to divide our people according to origin
or extraction. Let every man honor and love
the land OF his birth and the race from which he
springs and keep their memory green. II is q
pious and honorable duty; but let us have done
with Britlsh-Americans and Irish-Americans
and German-Americans and so on and be all
Americans, nothing more and nothing less. If
man is going to be an American at all let him
be so without any qualifying adjective, and if to
be something else, let him drop the word
American from his personal description. As
there are sentiments and beliefs like these to
be cherished, so there are beliefs which must
be purely and wholly American and to the
manor born" if we would have them right
and successful. True Americanism recognizes
the enormous gravity of the social and labor
problems
which confronted Us. 1t belives that the
safety of the republic depends upon the well
paid labor and the highest possible average
OF individual well being. 1t believes that the
right solution of this problem should be sought
without rest and without stay. and that no de-
vice, public or private, of legislation or indi-
vidual effort which can tend to benefit and ele-
waite the condition Of the great wage-earning
q.
1t sets its face rigidly against the doctrine of
the anarchist and communist, who seek to solve
the social problems not by patient endeavor but
by brutal destruction. That way madness
lies" and such attempts and such teachings
barbarous and un-American as they are must
and will be put down with strong unfinching
hand, in the name of the home aud the church
and the school and of all that makes I'D civiliza-
ton and the possibility of human progress In
the great public lands Of the vest an American
policy sees one of the safeguards of the repub-
lie. 1t opposes the further use of the lands to
invite immigration or to attract speculation
1t should be the heritage of the American peo-
pie and not bait TO attract a surplus popu,a-
ton that we do not want. The true American
policy goes further and believes
THAT IMMIGRATION
should not only not be stimulated, but that il
should be restricted. The pauper and the
criminal. the deceased and the vicious. the
anarchist, the communist and the Mormon
should be absolutely shut out. while the gene
raj Vow Of immigration should be wisely and
judiciousiy checked 1t is the American
policy to admit to the union the great
territories of the west fast as they can fulfll
the conditions of statehood, but il is not the
American policy to admit an un-American
territory with population Of Mexicans who
speak Spanish, or Utah with population which
defes our laws and maintains q barbarous
and corruptive system of marriage. When
these two territories are thoroughly Ameri-
canized they can come in with the rest and
take part in our government, but not
before. 1t is the American policy never
to NEEDLE in the affairs Of other
nations, but to see to il that our attitude
toward the rest Of the world is dignified
and that our flag is respected in every corner
Of the earth and backed by navy that shall be
an honor to the American name. Last and
greatest Of all, true Americanism demands
that the ballot box shall everywhere
be inviolate, even il it takes the whole
force of the United States to make IL
so. The peoples confidence in the decision of
the ballot box is the only guarantee we have
of the safety Of our institutions, and we do not
guard it as we ought. It is to these things
that the American people are looking, and While
they have no ignorant contempt for the experi-
ence Of other nations they are firm in the faith
that they must settle their own problems
in their own way in accordance with
their own conditions and the light of
their own ideas and beliefs In that
faith they win move on to do battle with the
problems and the difficulties which they in COM
mon with all mankind must face. They viii
move on with high and confident spirit. they
will extinguish the last traces Of sectional diff
ferences, and il they are true to themselves
they win do the best work that II has ever been
given to any people on earth 70 do