Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1915-10-20
"AMERIcA FIRST"
(From the New York Worlt

June l6, 1858. Nor can it endur
half American and half alien.
President Wilson, in his address
before the Daughters of the Revolu
tion,' defined the most vital issu
that the people Of the United State
have faced since slavery and seces
sion were throttled erica First.
This issue goes to the very life o
the Republic. All the political differ
ences, all the economic differences
all the industrial differences of th'
last fifty years We're trifling in com
parison with the fundamental ques
ton Of whether the American people
are the American people or whether
they are a congeries of Europ ear
Immigrants who recognize no allegf
ance of patriotism to the country o.
their adoption.
Lincoln's Scriptural warning thai
"a house divided against itself can
not stahd' is as applicable today as
it was in 1858. Hyphenated American
ism is not treason within, the narrow
legal definition of the Constitution,
but it is moral treason, and it is a
form of moral treason Tat, if it is
tolerated, must inevitably bring about
the disintegration Of the Nation.
Mr.. Roosevelt did not overstate the
case when he. said in his speech to
the knights OF Columbus Last night,
echoing the sentiments that .Presi-
dent Wilson had voiced the day be
fore in Washington:
For an American citizen to
vote as a Gernan-American, an
Irish-American or an q English i
American is to be traitor to
American institutions; and those
hyphenated Americans who ter
rorize American politicians by
threats of the foreign vote are
engaged in treason to the Amerl-
can Republic.
President Wilson could not we'll
answer these threats, because they
have been made against him per-
sonally, but Mr.. Roosevelt has an
swered them for him, and the senti-
ment that Mr.. Roosevelt expressed
in this quotation from his speech
must be the sentiment of every
who is loyal to his coun-
try, to his country's flag and to
his country's institutions.
The issue which President Wilson
SO felicitously stated in the words,
America First" cannot be evaded.
It must be met in the coming ses-
sion of Congress. 1t may be met IN
the national campaign of 1916, and
ON this issue every American voter
has a right to know how his neigh
Dor stands.
The blame for the situation that
confronts the country does not rest
alone upon the hyphenated citizen.
1t must be shared by men who knew
better but who capitalized the foreign
vote for sordid partisan advantage.
For years managing politicians OF
both parties have made a business OF
manipulating this vote and have
helped thereby to maintain its soli-
darity. Every campaign has had its
appeal to the German vote, to the
Irish vote, to the Jewish vote, to the
Italian vote, to the Scandinavian
vote, to the Polish vote and to any
other kind of vote that desperate par
tisanship could consolidate and reach.
How could true Americanism be ex-
pected to take root in a Soil that
American politicians deliberately
striped of SIS Americanism?
In the easy, tolerant, humorous
way of the American people, these
appeals to the racial consciousness OF
the foreign voter have been treated
playfully and jestingly, but the for
eign voter has not regarded them
in that spirit. He has taken them
seriously, and he naturally came to
believe that he was important pclitl-
cally not because he was an Amel1-
can citizen but because he was Ger
man or Irish or Italian or Polish or
Scandinavian or Jew, until we have
at last reached a stage at which a
President Of the United States can
be threatened, here and in Europe,
with political determination for dar'
ing to put the interests Of the
United States above the interests OF
European monarchies.
President Wilson is not alone in
his desire to ''have lineup and let
the men who are thinking of other
countries stand on enc side-Bibli-
cally it should be the left@and all
those who are for America first,
last and all the time on the other
side" We cannot have this line
I'D too soon, and the result cannot
be allowed to remain in doubt. Eth
er an overwhelming majority OF
American citizens, regardless ca
their racial origin, are for America
first, last and all the time or the
Republic is failure and all the
blood that was shed in the Rev"lu'
tionary War and in the Civil War
was shed in vain.