The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1915-11-10

great hope of the human race.
You have said, eve are going
to America not only to earn a
living, not only to seek the
things which it was more diff
cult to obtain where we were
born but to help forward the
great enterprises of the human
spirit" to let men know that
everywhere in the world there
are men who will cross strange
oceans and go where speech is
spoken which is alien to them,
knowing that whatever the
speech, there is but one longing
and utterance of the human
heart, and that is for liberty and
justice.
And while you bring all coun-
tries with you, you come with a
purpose of leaving all other
countries behind you-bringing
what is best Of their spirit, but
not looking over your shoulders
and seeking to perpetuate what
you intended to leave in them.
I certainly would not be one
even to suggest a man cease to
love the home of his birth and
the nation of his origin-these
things are sacred and ought not
to be put out of our hearts
but it is one thing to love the
place where you were born and
it is another thing to dedicate
yourself to the place to which
you go.
You cannot dedicate yourself
to America unless you become
in every respect and with every
purpose of your will thorough
Americans. You cannot become
Americans if you think of your
selves in groups. America does
not consist of groups. A man
who thinks of himself as be-
longing to particular national
group in America has not yet
become an American; and the
man who goes among you to
trade upon your nationality is
no worthy son to live under the
stars and stripes.
My urgent advice to you would
be not only always to think first
Of America, but always also to
think first of humanity. You
do not love humanity if you seek
to divide humanity into jealous
caps. Humanity can be welded
together only by love, by SYM
pathy, by justice, not by jeal-
ousy and hatred.
I am sorry for the man who
seeks to make personal capital
out of the passions of his fellow
men. He has lost the touch and
ideal Of America, for America
was created to unite mankind by
those passions which lift and not
by the passions which separate
and debase.
We came to America, either
ourselves or in persons of our
ancestors, to better the ideals
of men, to make them see finer
things than they had seen be-
fore, to get rid of things that
divide, and to make sure of the
things that unite.
1t was but an historical acct
dent, no doubt, that this great
country was called "The United
States" and yet | am thankful
that it has the word United"
in its title; and the man who
seeks to divide, man from man,
group from group, interest from
interest in the United States, is
striking at it's heart.
1t is an interesting circum-
stance to me in thinking of
those Of you who have Just
sworn allegiance to this great
government that you were drawn
across the ocean by some beck
oning finger Of hope, by some
belief, by some vision of a new
kind of justice, by some expec-
tation of a better kind of life.
No doubt you have been dis
appointed in some of us. Some
of us are disappointing. No doubt
you have found that justice in
the United States goes only with
a pure heart and right pur-
pose as it does everywhere else
in the world. No doubt what you
found here did not seem touched
for you, after all, with the COM
plete beauty Of the ideal which