The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-06-02
COLONEL IN ADDRESS
CR|LLED THE HYPHEN
Continued from Page One.

conditioned and unqualified, and
stand against every form of hyphenat-
ed Americanism. / do not speak of the
hyphen when it is employed as a
mere matter of convenience, although
personally | like to avoid it's use even
in such manner. l speak of and con-
denim its use whenever it represents
an effort to form political parties
along racial lines or to bring pressure
to bear on parties and politicians, not
for American purposes, but in the in
terest of some group of voters of a
certain national origin, or of the
country from which they or their
fathers came.
"Americanism is not matter
of creed, birthplace or national
descent, but of the soul and OF
the spirit. IF the American has
the right stuff in him, ! care not
a snap of my fingers whether he
is Jew or GENTLE, Catholic or
Protestant | care not snap Of
my fingers whether his ancestors
came over in the MayfoWer, or
whether he was born, or his par
ents were born, in Germany, Ire
land, France, England, Scandina-
via, Russia or Italy or any other
country. All | ask of the imm-
grant is that he shall be physi-
caIIy and intellectually fit, of
sound character, and eager in
good faith to become an Ameri-
can citizen. If the immigrant is
the right kind | am for him, and
if the native American is of the
wrong kind ] am against him.
But unless the immigrant be-
comes in good faith an American
and loyal only to our flag, then
he is out of place in this country
and the sooner he leaves it the
better.
I'VE in this country form a new
nation, akin to. but different from,
each of the nations Of Europe. AS
Alexander Hamilton put it, Let us be
neither Greeks nor Trojans, but
We are false to this
country if we rank ourselves as Ger
man Americans or 'English-Ameri-
Irish Americans or French
Our duty is to the United
States. This duty should constrain us
in the first place to treat the other
nations primarily according to the
way such treatment serves American
and in the second place so
far as possible to treat other nations
in such manner rs serves the inter-
ests of mankind at large. Every ma
ton acts sometimes well and some
times i'll. Therefore we should stand
for or against any nation accordingly
as its behavior tells for good or for
evil in the particular crisis with which
we have actually to deal We should
be friendly to all nations, and in any
crisis we should Judge each nation by
its conduct in that crisis. We should
condemn the misconduct of any ma
ton, we should oppose it's encroach-
NO ats upon our rights with equal vi
II, whether it be Germany, Eng
iand, France, Russia or any other
power, according to what it actually
does on the given occasion with which
we have to deal.
Ancestors Came From Everywhere.
$50 much for our treatment of other
nations. Now for our citizens. We
many different race strains.
Our ancestors came from many differ
ent old world nationalities. 1t will
spell ruin to this nation if these ma
tionalities remain separated from one
another instead of being assimilated
to the new and larger American life.
"The children and children's chill
dren of all of Us have to live here in
this land together Our children's
children will intermarry, one with
another, your children's children,
friends, and mine. They will be the
citizens of one country. Even if they
wished. they could not remain citi-
zens of foreign countries. The at
tempt to keep them with half citi-
with a divided loyalty, split
between devotion to the land in which
they were born and in which their
children are to dwell, and the land
from which their father came, will
merely mean that they fail to remain
citizens of the old world land and yet
do not get the benefit of being citi-
zens of the new-world land. The
effort to keep our citizenship divided
against itself by the use of the hy-
phen and along the lines of national
origin is certain to breed spirit Of
bitterness and prejudice and dislike
between great bodies of our citizens.
If some citizens band together as
German Americans or Irish-Americans
then after a while others are certain
to band together as English Ameri-
cans or Scandinavian Americans and
every such banding together, every
attempt to make for political pur-
purposes a German-American ALI
ance or an Irish American alliance or
an English American alliance I or a
Scandinavian alliance means down
at bottom an effort against the
interest Of straight-out American
an effort to bring into our
nation the bitter old-world rivalries
and jealousies and hatreds.
"What have been striving
for a year and three quarters to
do is to protest against the up
growth of this utterly unAmeri-
can spirit, to protest against the
upgrowth of a spirit which means,
If successful, division and impo
tence in our national life, the
breaking up of our unity as a ma
ton, the severance of our citi-