New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1915-06-24
AMERICA FOR ALL TIME.

Whlcn is the coupling pin joining TWO
words. into one, has fallen by the way
side and tumbled down the gulley OF
disrepuae. The hyphen, when making
certain connections, is as unpopular
as any Of our modern diseases. And
rightly so, for there are no two or
three or more words in our language
that can be strung into one nyphen-
ated mass and made an adjective to
describe or characterize a citizen Of
the United States of America.
rish-American, German American.
French-American. Italian American.
these hyphenated terms all mus,
come under the ban. There is no
place for the hyphen in this connec-
ton. Write it American, or Irish, or
German, or French, or Italian. Any
thing! But cut out the hyphen.
AS an example to be emulated by
those who do not readily grasp the
situation, an incident which recently
happened down in the state of Penn
sylvania may be cited:-
A party of German citizens,-that
Is, citizens of Germany,-toured the
state of Pennsylvania for the purpose
of testing the existing feeling there
tween this country and Germany.
They asked all they met How do you
stand on the situation with Ger
many ~
To the utter surprise Of the strang-
ers every person they addressed an
swered verbatim, In this fashion,
"Our names are German, we
speak German, but we are not
Germans. We have no sympathy
for Germany. We are Americans
to the backbone and we bear al
legiance to no country save the
United States. Our ancestors
fought in the war; of the Revolu-
ton and we are for America for
all time!'
There Is an answer worth cutting
out and framing. There is American
ism in its true colors. America for
all time It is an answer that must
have chilled the hearts OF those Ger
man automobilists who were evident
ly misguided in the belief that the
good old state of Pennsylvania is part
of the Kaiser's domain. They prob
ably believed the Keystone state was
inhabited by citizens and admirers of
the imperial German government
when, as n1attersof fact, ,Rennsyl-
vania; Germans are the staunchest
Americans who profess allegiance to
the United States of America.
The present mayor of Philadel-
pfia is good example of the So
called Pennsylvania German, or as
some call them, Pennsylvania Dutch
Mayor Blankenberg speaks in the en-
phatic vernacular or dialect charac
teristic of the German RECOMMENDATION
of this language. This particular,
speech is familiar all through east
ern Pennsylvania But Mayor Blank
enberg is not German. nor is he
German American. He is straight
American, and proud of it. He showed
that when he welcomed President
Wilson to his city not many weeks
ago,--at the time the president spoke
to the newly naturalized citizens of
Philadelphia
It is to be hoped the German tour
lists of the state of PENNSYLVANIA took
away with them lesson in American
loyalty. If they were after any en-
couragement in this country they
were in the right place, SO it, would
seem For fully one-half the COVER
nors Of the state of Pennsylvania
have been Pennsylvania Germans
Nearly one million and q half. of it's
population speak the dialect Of these
people all Of whom can also speak
the German language as fluently as
people in Berlin or any part of Ger
many. If there was no swerving
from the land of their adoption by
such people,. how can the emissaries
of the Kaiser's hope to enlist sympa-
TIMERS in the rest of our land? II
is safe to say these tourists, If they
visited other places dominated by
people descended from the persecut-
ed peoples Of the Old World who
came to this country in the early
eighteenth century, or later, would
receive the same answer they got all
through Pennsylvania
There is no such thing as a Ger
man American. The Germans in this
country who have taken out their