Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-07-01

When ! was police commissioner of
New York. was thrown into intimate
contact with many good Americans,
with many good citizens of the great
city. On the whole 1t seemed to me
that OF the men with whom I was
thus thrown into contact, the two best
and most useful Americans were
Jacob Riis. who was born in Denmark
and who throughout his life was one
OK the most potent influences in this
: country for the highest kind Of Amer
lean nationalism and good citizenship,
and Arthur Won Briesen, who was
born in Germany, who had fought In
our Civil War, and who in founding
the Legal Aid Society had met in ef-
fcient manner one of the most crying
needs OF the day, the need of making
the law the true handmade of justice;
the need of making the law an aid
instead of merely a menace to those
who stand most in need of the laws
assistance. No men whose ancestors
came over on the Mayfiower could
have possibly rendered better service
to the cause of genuine Americanism
than these two men were then rend-
ering. Under me at the time there
were working in the department men
whose forefathers for generations had
been born in the United States and
men whose forefathers had come over
from Ireland. Some OF these were
good men and some of these were bad
men; the former l am happy to say
outnumbering the latter. But any
line of division drawn between the
good and the bad, the efficient, would
have run at right angles to the line
OF cleavage between those whose
fathers were of foreign and those
whose fathers were of native-Ameri-
can stock. In the same way there
were under me men who were Prot
estants, men who were Catholics, men
who were Jews; and an exactly paral-
lei statement would have to be made
by any man who conscientiously
strove to sort out from among them
those who were and those who were
not good public servants.
This country is a crucible, a melt
ing pot, in which many different race
strains are being fused into one. The
true test Of the worth of such q melt
ing-pot Is the completeness of the
fusion. If some of the material re-
mains as an INFUSED lump, 1t is worth
less in itself, and it is also a detri-
ment to the rest of the mixture. In
other words, nothing but damage
comes both to themselves, and to all
OF us as whole, from any group OF
immigrants remaining distinct as a
group; and nothing but damage comes
from the action of any group of native
Americans who seek to discriminate
against good Americans who were
born abroad or who profess a differ
ent creed, simply because they thus
have a different birthplace or thus
worship their Creator in a different
manner
In short words it is an outrage for
COMMUNICATIONS, English-Americans
or Irish-Americans, or in any way to
use their citizenship, excepting each
as q plain American citizen no more
and no less, whose prime concern is
the honor and the interest of America
and whose desire is to see the United
States behave with equal justice to-
ward all the other nations and peo-
pies of mankind; and 1t Is no less an
outrage to discriminate for or against
a man because Of the national origin
of himself or his forbears, or because
he is or is not a Catholic or a Protes-
tant, Jew or a Gentle.
Often good citizens of foreign birth
are puzzled by the term "hyphenated
Americanism," being uneasy lest 1t be
applied to them as a term of ofrense
because they are not native born. 1t
should be clearly understood that 1t
is just as offensive, just as un-Ameri.
can, 10 ascribe "hyphenated American.
ism" to good American who was
born abroad as II is for an American
born abroad himself to USE the term
In such manner as to show that his
interests are not at one with those
Of all other American citizens. 1t Is
offensive and mischievous for any ma
tive-born American to speak of O first.
class American citizen who happens
to have been born in Ireland or Ger
many as a "German-American" or an
"Irish.American." If the newcomer is
a good American he is entitled to be
spoken Of as such and as nothing else,
and he Is entitled to exactly the same
respect aB IL descended from any May.
flower Pilgrim or Hudson River pa
troon or Virginia settler on the banks
OF the James. Native-Amerlcanism is
itself merely a species of hyphenated.
Americanism. Insistence upon 1t mer .
ly weakens us when we denounce, as
we are In honor bound to denounce,
every species of foreign-Americanism
The very fact that we must decline to
allow the principle of dual nationality
In our life, that we must insist that
the 0erman.American or Irlsh.Ameri.
can IN false to America II he tries to