The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-11-11
lLIFF SOUNDS B0S0MS
OF AMERICAN PEOPLE
FOR HUMANE Sentiment

mater. Here individuals of all races are
melted into a new race of men, whose
labors and posterity will one day cause
great changes in the world. The
Americans were once scattered all
over Europe, here they are incorpor-
ated into one of the finest systems of
population which has ever appeared.
and which will hereafter become dis
ttnct as great nation"
Prophecy Fulfilled.
And SO, here we are, fulfilling the
prophecy. English, German, French,
Swede, Irish. Greek and Italian forget
their preudices and antipathies under
American skies. They mingle and mar
~. and very soon we see their children
full-fledged Americans. The amigrant
soon imbibes a new spirit and the old
customs and prejudices melt away. In
less than three generations the foreign
stamp has disappeared.
Even the Jew, who has for centuries
tried to keep his blood unauthorized,
is influenced by the American spirit
and becomes an ardent American pa
triot. His contact with the people of
the old countries has not influenced
him, but the breadth of the American
spirit has told upon him, and the old
orthodox generation, strict in relig-
ious and social observances, stands
aghast at the enthusiasm with which
the new generation adopts the free
manners OF this country, ignoring the
exclusive barriers which his race has
set.
New Class Arises.
But In these latter days of the Re-
public there comes a shadow over
the radiant vision of our future great
ness. Perhaps the cloud may dfsap-
pear or end in mist and vapor. There
has arisen class in our cities, and
ringing our urban coasts, which pre-
tends to despise our working, shirt
sleeved America. They say America
is SO insipid, her history is so dull, her
manners SO boorish, and her literature
so crude and inartistic. They would
rather be apes with a passion for Eu-
rope than real men and women with
divine passion for American liberty
and righteous love for the broad hui
mainly upon which the foundations
of this nation were laid
There is little slim book of only
forty-four pages called Fortune of the
Republic" 1t is lecture delivered in
Old South Church, Boston, in 1878. by
the sanest and cleaest thinker our
country has yet produced, Ralph Waldo
Emerson. This was four years before
this great Sage of Concord died. This
book should be school textbook But
1t isn't, and many graduates of our
high-schools know as little of him as
they do of our rich American litera-
ture.
Albert Bushnell Hart, of Harvard,
said our school books should be writ
ten with special reference to English
writer's. No! American literature first,
last and always! 1t is shameful to
demand that our Franklin, Hawthorne,
Holmes, Longfellow, Bryant, Emerson,
Harte, Motley, Bancroft, Mark Twain,
and brilliant constellation OF other
American writer's. should take a low
err place in order that England may be
glorified. Is it not of far more inn
portance that our youths should i'm
bibe the true spirit of America than
that they should be taught to try to
catch the spirit of ages dead and gone
forever?
Combination is Strong.
Is 1t not true as Emerson says, that
there never was before in history such
combination as ours. and that the
"ASo w ihSCI Jul are uOt
set down in history? Is it not true that
right now men of original perception
and original action, men who can act
in the interest of civilization and hui
mainly instead of solely for the en-
largement of private fortunes-is it not
true that such men are needed ?-men
who live in the present and can take
a step forward-men who are not
afraid, as jefferson, Patrick Henry,
John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson
and Lincoln were not afraid to es-
pouse the cause of common, every day
human rights?
The class under condemnation is the |
coterie of men and women who make
their clubs merry over the flatness Of
American life. They say we have none
of those darling Illusions and romances
of London and Paris. They have no
perception of our destiny. They would
sacrifice the dearest ideals Of human
ity and strangle the hopes of the world
for a financial deal that would pile up
vaster fortunes. They are not Ameri-
cans. The women are as unsexed as
those beautiful Roman DANES who
sent the soldiers out to butcher the
Teutonic women in order to get their
coppeEcolored hair to wear at the re-
ceptions OF the lecherous Emperors
and senators-those pompons Roman
-