Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1915-10-20
america FIRST"
New York World.l

az do not believe this government
can endure permanently halt siave
a,d half free said Lincoln in his
snr;nof;eld convention speech OF
Iune 10, 1858. Nor can it endure nan
American and half alien.
President Wilson, in his address
before the Daughters OF the keVolu-
ton. defined the most vital issue that
the people OF the United States nave
faced since slavery and secession
were Observation-Disclosures First. lhis
issue goes to the very life OF the Re
public. All the political differences
ali the economic differences, all the
industrial differences OF the last iiity
wears were trif1ing in comparison
with the fundamental question 'oi
whether the American people are the
American people or whether they are
a congeries Of European Immigrants
who recognize no allegiance OF pa
triotism to the country OF their adop-
ton.
Lincoln's Scriptural warning that
a house divided against itself can
not stand is as applicable today as
il was in 1858. Nyphenated Ameri-
canism is not treason within the mar
row legal definition OF the Constitu-
tiou. but it is moral reason, and IL
is a form Of moral treason that, II II
is tolerated, must inevitably bring
about the disintegration OF the ma
ton.
Mr.. Roosevelt did not over state
the case when he said in his speech
to the Knights OF Columbus last
week, echoing the sentiments that
President Wilson had voiced the Cay
before in Washington:
"For an American citizen to vote as
a German-American. an lrish-Ameri-
can or an English American is to DC
a traitor to American institutions;
and those nypn2nated Americans VINO
tc: roriz. American politicians by
threats OF the foreign vote are en-
gagged in treason to the American re
public"
President Wilson could not well
answer these threats, because they
have been made against him person
ally, but Mr.. Roosevelt has answered
them for him, and the sentiment that
Mr.. Roosevelt expressed in this
quotation from his speech must De
the sentiment of every American who
is loyal to his country to his coun-
try's flag and to his country's insti-
t~utions.
lle ISSUE which President Nils4n
SO felicitiously stated in the words
america First" cannot be. evaded.
1t ma be met in the coming session
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 neighbo-
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 for
eign vote for sordid partisan advan-
tage.
Fol years managing politicians OF
both parties have made a business of
manipulating this vote and have help
ed thereby to maintain its solidarity.
Every campaign has mad 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 p~artisanship
could consolidate and reach. How
could true A~mericanism be expected
TO take roo in a soil that American
politicians deliberately starved of It's
Americanism?
In the easy, tolerant, humorous
way of the American people, these
appeals to the racial consciousness
Of the foreign voter have been treat
ed playfully and jestingly. but the for
eign voter has not regarded them in
that spirit. He has taken them SER
iously, and he naturally came to be-