The Irish standard., 1903-05-16

ment they have been exceptionally for
tunatc in their isolation, you have said
it all If you are an Anglo-Saxon, my
brother man. that Is about what you
are in point Of genesis and genealogy.
10 prate about the Anglo Saxon race
in the prevailing fashion is, as matter
of common knowledge, childish and
absurd: and as matter Of morals, less
,lcfensible than any other propaganda
Of race hatred that ever was heard Of.
tt makes fools of people who believe
that it imputes to them any peculiar
racial sanctity or excellence, and It's
only and inevitable tendency abroad Is
to pit race against race in a most hats
full and perniclous fashion, to stir up
strife I'm the world, and to set the M.
tlons by the ears. No Informed and no
patriotic human being ought to he
pnrty to It. Anglo-Snxonsm, in it's
whole length and breadth, is wholly
unimportant. so far as It has any basis
of fact, and utterly misunderstanding,
if pressed Whatever shadowy excuse
O, necessity there may he for 1t IN the
British islands, there Is no room for
II In America. Few hcrcsies can he
further from the truth than the pre-
tcIcc that the eighty millions Or so of
human beings who constitute the
American nation arc Anglo-Snxon In
Jrt> 1,n& CT tr{ In INV
true chronological sense. a branch Of
TINT race Saying n thing over and
over. solemnly and with emphasis, to
people who do not think much aDout 1t,
makes It sound familiar and like the
truth, and gives It the credence and
currency Of any other platitude, but It
has no tendency to make 1t true. Even
the purely English element Of our
population has drawn its nObler quail
ties, not from the German forests, but
from tho valley Of the Seine, and here
in America we have laid not only
France and England and Germany un-
der tribute, but the islands Of the sea
as well. and the most distnnt corners
Of the earth. We are AnglO-SnxOns,
yes. in way; and we are everything
else besides. In the sum total Of our
better qualities we are more every
thing else than Ang1o-Saxon. AS
matter Of mere national maternity,
Spain is more our mother-land than
| England: and France has been and IS
to-day more our intellectual stimulus
and inspiration than all the rest Of the
world beside. Our language Is
| bastard French: our religion, our art,
our taste our architecture. our drama,
our Kitchen. our manner Of life, the
| whole sllbstratum Of our civilized
existence are Latin more than Teuton.
Rome. more than the iungles Of middle
age Germany, has contributed to our
twentieth century prime and prosper
| ity. Our letters. our learning, our
mental genesis 90 back in ordinary
generation to the city on the Tiber:
and our intellectually, as we'll as our
material wcll-bcing. has filtered down
to us. in broadening current, from
Rome, through Paris. to New York.
Only diverted stream has trickled
around through the valleys of the
Rhine and Of the Thames These are
the truths we learn in schools, and for
get like Greek and geology in after
life: but they are as eternally true
now as when they were new to us.
Whatever Englishmen may do in the
future by way Of preaching Anglo
SaXonisIn. we in America taking due
account Of the cardinal points Of the
compass and of the elementary verities.
may well give over this unconsidered
trifing. AS a mere vaunt. it is silly:
as menace. It is crime. Worse and
more indefensible than setting the
black race against the white in the
South is it to stir up Saxon against
Latin and Latin against Saxon in the
world. In this wrong doing. so far
as we have been drawn into It, our
little finger has been thicker than our
fathers loins. The pretense that such
bravado makes for the peace of the
world, and the assumption that the
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