The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-28
SOME THINGS
and OTHER THINGS

these hyphenated names that appear in
many IL our papers. Such names as
Spanish-American, Irish Americ a n,
English-American, French-American
and German-American have but little
meaning. They leave the impression
that men who use such terms are try
ing to carry water on both shoulders,
to blow hot and cold, to curry favor.
But to be real citizen of this country
of free speech and pportunity-just to
be known as an American filed with
the American spirit is good enough.
Other countries may have more graves,
fused and struggled longer, have more
broken hearts, furnish more disappoint-
ments and have more cost-and we
know they have, but this country
where men grow, where invention
thrives and peace reigns is my home.
l love it with love unexcelled on this
grain of sand.
No ideals should ever have backward
look. They should hold place in the
future. Winkelreid may have made
his breast a pin-cushion for Austrian
spears, and local circumstances may
have forced him to do it; and he has
been immortalized by the frenzied poet,
but such heroes. do not appeal to me.
I sometimes here public speakers hold
such ancient worthless up to US as great
examples. an not sure that Column
BUS, Alexander, and Ericsson would be
heroic in the jobs we now have to do,
such as dry-farming, irrigating deserts,
breeding cacti, or draining swamps.
| Past ideals are not of any great use.
Men never grow great by dreaming the
dreams of the ancient worthless. We
cannot help the past, but we have much
to do about the future. Washington
put the Fourth of July on it's feet, and
made what the Fourth stands for oc-
cdpy big place in the world of human
eadeavor; but if we spend our time
thinking about valley Forge eros
sing the Delaware or the famous
CHERRY Tree we will not accomplish
much. If we are carrying around anci-
ent ideals, we would better call the
junk-man. Just now an idealist just
| walked down the street. He had long
hair, broad-brimmed hat on his head,
spurs on his heels, belt around his
waist and two Smith and Wesson' S
stuck in it. Now that man was dream
ing of the ideal plains man of sixty
years ago, but this idealist is nothing
but cheap second hand joke for this
present civilization. We can only
make manhood out of the material at
handmade heroes for the future by
taking the raw material as we find it
and Transforming it into what our i'm
aginations say it should be.
The subject of Nationality is being
overworked these days. The French
man prides himself on the record of
Napoleon, but Napoleon was Corsican
and his wife, Josephine, was native
of the island Of Martinique; the found
| er of the ruling house of Sweden, a
! Frenchman; Alexander Hamilton OF
whom we boast was born of question
able parentage on the isle of Nevis;
| Tie OpddllSu DOdSL VI OOlulHDuS, DuI 1t
was an Italian; Desraeli, who made
England great, was Jew; Gladstone,
the great English statesman, was e
Scotchman and Wellington, the hero of
Waterloo, was an Irishman. In the
present terrible conflict of Europe, the
the English armies are led by General
French, the Russian armies by Genera
Frances, and the French armies by
General Joffre, all these names sug.
! costing that these men were Of differ
emit nationality than the armies they
were leading. In fact we find that il
we study the lives of philosophers ant
scientists we learn that many would bt
aliens by ancestry Kant, the man Of
Germany, swears he was Of Scotch
descent; Ibsen, the famous Norwegian
was a Scoth-German; and Rousseau
the French philosopher, was Swiss
Modern German literature boasts Of
such names as Heinie, Heyse, Suder
mann, and Hauptmrn and all were o.
Jewish ancestry. No Nation can brae
of being 1T. There is no. super-race
and the man who wants to leave sucl
an impression is long way from being
well read or reasonably. informed.