The Irish standard., 1916-03-04
''The Day We Celebrate

pose? No! The curious larry to read
the inscription, the critical to admire
the architecture, the frivolous to gush
for fleeting moment and all is over
the object forgotten.
At the present time there is great
deal of talk in the newspapers and
by certain individuals with regard to
our so-called hyphenated Americans
and their loyalty or disloyalty to this
country. l have little sympathy with
the folsome praises directed just now
towards that fortunate individual
whose ancestors happened to be driv
en- out of Europe few years earlier
than the ancestors of his less fortu.
nate brothers, who weren't able to
leave until more recent times and
am nauseated by the free advice
given by the descendants of he who
got out of Europe in the 18th Century
to the poor devil whose people didn't
secure passage money until the 10Th
century. l deny the insinuation that
the one is less loyal to this country
and it's institutions than is the other,
or is less willing to give the last full
measure of devotion to the land of
his or his immediate ancestors adop-
ton. The difference is simply diff
ference OF years, not of substance.
1t is simply question of whether our
ancestors were driven out so years
ago or 200 years ago, question of
whether they decided to leave Europe
and escape it's burdens with the Pill
grims, Huguenots, the Cavaliers, or
Lord Baltimore, or whether they came
after the grinding machinery of the
second empire, Bismarck, or the Vic
tcrian Era had caused them to leave
the land of their birth. Who is the
hyphenated American? Who is he?
Why the men who have made Amer
lea, who have set every sail, plowed
every furrOw, marked every trail,
builded every road in the develop.
ment Of this mighty nation. They
came from distant lands, our best and
bravest men and women. They felled
the forests and plowed the prairies,
they builded their little cabins in Min
nesota valleys and on Iowa prairies.
Yes, who are they? The men who
died at Lexington and Valley Forge,
and Germantown. Who fell in the
vortex of Gettysburg and Chancellors-
vile, who were burned in the crucible
at Shilo and Vicksburg. Who pierced
the clouds on Lookout Mountain and
marched with Sherman from Atlanta
to the sea. If history tells us rightly
they formed the apex of that Union
Army that stood that beautiful July
day on the hills of Pennsylvania and
hurled back the blue bloods of old Vir-
sinia. Who followed Pickett in that
charge that will 60 down in history as
being unsurpassed in civilized war;
tare. Are they less loyal than the
men that stopped OH that historic bat.
tie ground. Are they to be insulted
and sneered at and ostracized. and are
their children to be snubbed and their
Americanism questioned because they
have resided few less years on
American soil than the embattled war
riors of Virginia whom they hurled
back in that mighty contest that de-
cided the fate of your Country and
mine.
Let us remember that we have our
own trials, our own sorrows and our
own hopes, our own ideals. Let us
not hasten to fasten our ideas on peo-
pies of different races and different
traditions. Let us leave them to work
cut their own salvation. Remember,
il God had intended the lily to be a
rose He would have placed it on a
briar bush. If He intended the negro
to be Caucasian, he would have
made him with a white skin, and if
He intended the peoples of all the
world to be like us He would have
created them in the same way. Re.
member everything has it's place. The
angle worm Is more necessary to the
wants Of man and beast than the
mighty elephant Of the forest or the
king of beasts, and who knows but
that the poor benighted sisal grower
of Yucatan is of more Importance to
the worlds happiness than the stock
gambler of Wall Street. the naked ma.
tive gathering quinine along the
Amazon more necessary to the hui
man family, than the tango artists
of Newport and Palm Beach.
This Nation must mean something.
1t must represent to its people and
the world certain standards of human
conduct, certain ideals of human
thought, certain rights and certain
privileges that the individual in hui
man government has a right to ex-
pect and require.
The nation that becomes only q
tax gatherer is not worth fighting for.
The Nation whose flag is the insignia
Of power instead of justice is not de.
serving OF loyalty; the nation whose
only creed is q prayer to the God of
commerce deserves to be buried in
a golden slime, and If that prayer
brings IT. to hlowa with the noonle