The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-08-28
The American Race.

We print elsewhere a letter from the
President Of an Irish association, who as.
serts and proves that the so-called anglo.
Saxon element enters into the composition
Of our American population far less than
the Irish and the German.
The point, however, we do not regard as
of the Importance which he gives to it. The
whole English-speaking race is made up OF
many different race elements, and the pres
ent course Of human progress indicates that
its composition will be even more various in
the future. During the present century the
aggregate OF people speaking the English
language has increased more than hvefold,
until now they are more numerous than
those speaking any other European Ian
guage; and this experience Of growth is
likely to be repeated on a far larger scale
in the next century. These English
speaking people are now drawn from all
the European races, and also from Asia
and Africa, and the mixture will go on
increasing, SO that 1t will be idle, it is al
ready idle, to attempt to discriminate be-
tween the races contributory to the result,
or to fix their preponderance in it. It is a
new race, to which contributions have been
made and are making from all races, and
the pride Of the old should be in the new.
In his country more especially, with its
population drawn from every country OF
Europe, and because Of the intermarriage
OF these many original and c~ontrlbutory
races, there has been generated a race
which Is already distinctlvely American
and will become more distinct as time goes
on. During this century about twenty
million immigrants have come hither. AS
Mr.. BEALIN proves by statistics from
the census, the majority of our foreign
born population is German and Irish. But,
as in the past, their children, the genera
lions OF the future, will become distinct
lively American, and In the process of time
intermarriage and the changes brought
about by our climatic and political con-
ditions will remove all traces OF their
different descent. They will speak the
English language, n they will be Amer
leans In tone and character. Tracing
back their ancestry a hundred years hence
they will find in it different strains of race
blood, as do now all Americans Of the older
Each will contribute its share to
the constitution OF the composite American
race, and which strain has made the most /
contribution to the common stock
may be discussed curiously, but the impor- |
taht matter will not be touched by any such !
discussion, for the important matter Is the |
resulting American race.
A newspaper In this town printed In the |
German language, and distinctly foreign In
ts feeling and prejudice. the Stats zeituno,
assails The SUN as N enemy OF the German
race because we have expressed often such
and reprobated all attempts to
the accident OF German birth or
my other foreign birth. The usefulness of
Germans In this republic and their own prog
less suffer from such q vicious policy. They
re no longer Germans tied to the Ger
nan Empire, with the German language
10 their proper and convenient means of
communication; they are American citl-
ems, the people of a country whose Ian
'uage is the English. In their wi inter
ct they must learn that language ana
ttsthelr own. and until they learn