The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-29
We Can't Permit 1t ON Coat OF
Arms, Says L. r.
Make Immigrant Proud OF
Country-He'n Be Loyal.
JUST and STRONG, THEN PEACE
Make It Evident That Insults
Won't Be Tolerated.
Roosevelt Spoke Softy, but
Used Dewey Big Stick.

New York, May 29.-To the music
of '-rhe Army and Navy. Forever
and Star Spangled Banner" three
| thousand pilgrims, nearly every one
carrying an American flag, marched
four miles from Oyster Bay and
climbed Sycamore Hill to pledge
their support to Colonel Roosevelt and
to hear him plead for real American
ism and an army and navy that would
forever preserve the peace and honor
of the United States.
Deeply moved by the wonderful
demonstration, Colonel Roosevelt re-
piled to the army of pilgrims in a
speech that surpassed any of his pre-
vious utterances in intensity of feeling
and patriotic fervor. Standing on the
gallery of his home, while the army of
marchers massed around him under
the shade of the big trees. the colonel
enunciated anew his definition of true
! Americanism.
| His Oppoents in 1912.
In the crowd that came from New
| York there were scores who in 1919
were bitter opponents, many whose
| opposition dated back to his first term
| in the White House, Wall street men
| who had declared him the enemy of
business and of prosperity.
ana HlSl WHOSE POLITICAL dCLlV1LSS III
the past have been Democratic, so
also were there many men of German
birth and of German blood who came
to tell the colonel that they were with
out the hyphen.
| Colonel Roosevelt. addressing the
visitors from the porch of his home,
said in part:
I'VE have a right to demand of
| every man who comes here and be-
comes a citizen, that he become an
American and nothing else.
Hyphen as a Bar.
I'VE regard the hyphen as a bar
sinister drawn across our national coat
| of arms, and we don't intend to permit
| it to remain there. To you, both ma
| tive of this country and those born
| abroad, and above all, to you old ma
| tive Americans of old stock. you can
| not expect to get loyalty from the i'm
migrant or the immigrants children
unless you make this country to
which proud man can be loyal. And
to do that you have got to demand
that the country stand for courage and
for strength No man ever yet was
loyal to coward. ~ No man ever yet
was loyal to a weaklfng, whose weak
ness wassdue to the fact that he would
not take the pains and undergo the
effort necessary to be strong.
fI was very glad to see published in
the papers the letter of Admiral Dew
ey describing an incident that took
place while 1 was president. When
we were menaced with trouble / acted
up to my theory that the proper way
of handling international relations
was by speaking softly and carrying a
big stick. And in that particular case
Dewey and the American fleet repre-
sented the big stick. L asked on be-
half of the nation for nothing to
which we were not entitled. 1 was as
courteous as possible; not only acted
! with Justice hJIf With 10
ward them put every battle ship
and every torpedo boat on the sea
under the American flag and Dewey
with instructions to hold himself
sail at moments notice. That didn t
mean that we had war. Dewey was
the greatest possible provocative of
peace.
Don't Talk, But Act
) We will do well to remember one
keep house with fear 1t is line
worth remembering, and the way to
get peace IS not by being so l1npre-
pared as to invite war, still less by
using words which are not translated
into deeds, but by behaving viii
, scrupulous justice and courtesy to.
ward the other nations and at the
same time being so prepared both in
: soul and in body, both spiritually and
| materially. as to make it evident that
~ ILLS NdL1On Dy AnY other
nation VIII not be tolerated by our
! people"
Again and again Roosevelt was in.
5 terrupted by cheers, particularly wher
he declared the way to maintain peace
was to be ready, spiritually and ma
: ter1aiiy-" The crowd applauded wild
, ly, too. when the colonel related how
? he had spoken softly but used tbs
q big stick in the form of Dewey ant
the American fleet while he was presi-
, dent and the threatened internationa
. difficulty was averted.
After the colonel had finished. the
crowds pressed about him until Colo
= onel Roosevelt told them to fall il
D marching order and he would shake
hands with each one. There the com
lposite of the nature of the crowd tina
had come to pledge their support t.
< Colonel Roosevelt became most evi
: dent.
), = MAY father" began a man bearing
: tiny flag in his buttonhole, land m,
= mother were born in Germany, but
am an American
T am willing" declared the colo
9 mel, "to rest the case for straigh
u Americanism purely with citizens o
Z German birth and 1 will carry then
a two to one for the American doctrine.
|