The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-15
SCOTT AND GERMANS.
Kansas Congressman EuIogizes Them
on the Floor.

Washington, April Representa-
tive Scott is a great admirer of the
Germans of the United States, and be
Heves they have contributed more to
the good citizenship of the country
than the men who have come from any
other nation. In the course of some
remarks, eulOgizing Henry Burk, OF
Pennsylvania, who died during this
winter, Mr.. Scott said:
Mr.. Speaker, in a recently publish
ed letter addressed to the head of ore
of our great universities the president
of the United States used the follow
ing words:
''Our debt as a nation to Germany
is weighty and of long standing. Tie
existence among US of free self-gOV-
eminent has drawn to our shores ad-
VenturouS and nberty-lOving men from
many lands, so that in a true sense
we have become a world nation, with
ties Of friendship which must bind US
in peace to all the great people Of
mankind.
g 'Germany's share in the upbuDding
of our composite nationality has been
marked. German blood was freely
shed for our libeFty-in the Revolution
airy war. In our second great period
of national trial our citizens of Ger
man birth and origin were unit in
support of the cause of Union and
freedoms To our citizenship the Ger
man element contributes a peculiar de-
gree of business thrift and industry
In this, as in most of his public ut
terances, President Roosevelt has eX-
pressed a sentiment that Will meet
with the sincere and cordial approval
of all thoughtful Americans. 1t is no
reflection upon the millions of good
and loyal citizens who have come to
US from other lands to say that no
other country has contributed to our
cosmopolitan population so large a
proportion of good, so small a proper
tion of evil, as has come to US from
Germany Sound and sturdy of BODY,
strong and sane of mind, frugal,
thrifty, and Industrious, patient, per
sistent, orderly, and laW-abiding, home
loving and home keeping, the German
immigrant who has sought and found
a home here has from the beginning
been an important and valued factor
not only in the development and up
building of the Industrial and com
mercial interests of our country, hut
also in the strength and stability of
our institutions.
Fair minded, tolerant to the last
degree of the opinions of others as he
IS, the average German has a profound
and unalterable attachment to strong,
orderly government. In the great crisis
of our civil war, as the president has
we'll said, our citizens of German birth
and origin were substantially a unit in
support of the cause of Union and lib
erty, hundreds of them freely offering
up their lives for a country whose
language they had not yet learned to
speak. And in the years that have fol-
lowed, unhappily marred as many of
them have been by tumult and riot,
it has been but rarely that a German
name has been found among those in
revolt against the law and the con-
stituted authority of the state.
But admirable as is the German
character in it's attachment to stable
and orderly government, it is more
rather than less so in its devotion to
the home duties. 1t was my great good
fortune as a boy to live for two years
in a German family, and if that family
was typical-as I have every reason
to believe it vast would be hard 10
exaggerate the beauty of the German
home life So much affection and so
generously expressed. so much pa
thence and forbearance, such genuine
comradeship between parents and chill
dren, I have rarely seem"