Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-09-04

congress IL Will iUC PAoPoi
chagrined.
OLD AM ERICA AND IMMIGRATION.
Prof. Julius Goebel of the Universi-
ty of Illinois was recently quoted as
saying that what is needed in this
country is IAN infusion of American
life with German Kultur and IDEALS
and Baron Speck Won Sternberg, waile
serving as Germany's ambassador at
Washington a few years ago, declared
in a public address that at the out
break of our war Of 1861-'5 lit was
men of German birth or descent who
saved Maryland, Missouri and even
Kentucky for the cause of the Union
Baron Sternberg's modest statement
of what may be actual fact, and Prof.
Goebel's less modest expression of as
piring hope and expectation, are an
infusion" of European ideals that
had already taken place more than
half a century ago.
The facts of American history tend
to show that in 1861 not German set
tiers alone but the European settlers
in general turned the scale, not only
in the three states named, but in the
North and West as a whole. There
is abundant reason for the belief that
Americans Of the old stock, anxious
to save the Union at any cost, were
not numerous enough to have been
able to accomplish that undertaking
without the support in the beginning
and the active aid later on of the
European settlers and their sons.
These new Americans had been born
to autocracy and imperialism, and, ir-
respective Of the other questions at
issue, were instinctively inclined to-
Ward a strong and all-dominating cen
trail government. The majority OF
Americans of the old type, with tradi-
lions reaching back to 1776, had up to
that time stood for state sovereignty
"a principle which to the neWcom-
ers wa the veriest nonsense and
which they readily pronounced trea-
son when the crisis arrived.
The assertion of state sovereignty
in tne form of threatened secession
from the Union-the last of many
such assertions in New England
was made by formal resolution Of the
legislature of Massachusetts, as late
as 1916. The same principle was
threateningly asserted in the South
ern states five years afterward, dur
ing the secession agitation of 1851,
and such often proclaimed intention
of separate nationality on the part
Of states north and south was brought
to the final test by the determined
southern leaders of 1851. Meanwhile
the great flood of foreign immigration
was flowing through the middle and
into the western states, and strength
ening the Union sentiment for the
reason stated. 1t was a North vastly
expanded by a new European element
with imported IDEAS that in 1881 con-
cluded to "coerce sovereign states
AN undertaking which even Alexan.
der Hamilton, the first apostle Of a
strong centralized government, had
once described as zone of the mad
dest projects ever devised"
The more than twenty-five million
foreigners, born to au%tocracy and i'm.
perialism, who settled in the North
and West during the past sixty or
seventy years, have exerted a tremen.
dous and far-reaching influence. They
have modified the old American type.
AS they tul ned the scale in 1861, SO
in 1889 they undoubtedly turned the
scale in favor of the imperialistic ad.
venture which made the republic of
North America master of q colonial
empire on the other side of the world,
1t is safe to say further that they
and their sons today contribute the
chief support of the policy of contin.
Chief support of the policy of con.
tinuing expansion of the cen,
the rights of home rule guaranteed
the people Of the separate states un.
der the Constitution. In short, if i'm
ported European ideals should prove
to be very much influential in