New Britain herald., 1916-05-31

Civil War Yet another, an Indiana boy. had a German father and a French mother But we were all of us Americans, and nothing but Amer jeans.
 ROOseVeltS Cabinet.
 Tn my cabinet a descendant of one of Butchers coloneTs sat side by side with a descendant of one of Napo- Icons brothers. Another member of the cabinet had been born in Ger many, and yet another member in Scotland. The parents of another member were born in Ireland They were all of them Americans and noth- ing else. If they had severally desig- mated themselves and had acted as, one "German-American," another a "Fren h-Ameri another an Irish Am erican," another a British American,' each conditioning his 1oy- atty to the United States by a hyphen not one of them would have remained an hour in my cabinet. The greatest work done by any American in re- cent years was the work done by Gen. eral Goethals in the Panama Canal Zone. His parents were born in Hol- land. But he is no more a "Dutch- American" than I am. He is an American. Among the other Army men who have been closely associated with me, Major General Barry is of Irish parentage, whereas Major Gen. eral Leonard Woods forebears came over in the Mayf1ower three centuries ago. But General Barry is not an Irish American Nor is General Wood an "English-American." They are Americans. When the battle fleet went around the world, two of the best men aboard it were Admirals Wainrig1t and Schroeder Wainright was of old Colonial English descent, and Schroeder's parents were born in Germany. But the one was not an English merican' or the other a "German-American." They were Americans and incidentally, both of them were as gallant and accom- plished officers and as thorough sea- men as ever commanded a squadron of warships under the American fla e.
 As another example I take ;4n en- listed man. Throughout my term as president the doorkeeper in the 1xecu- tive office, the man to whom the safe ty of the president and the intimate workings of the government were in a peculiar sense trusts, was an .ex- soldier of'the regular army He was by birth a German. At the outbreak ot the Civil War his regiment was stationed in Texas. Some of inc off, cers joined the Confederacy Others were imprisoned. The enlisted men were left alone. A body of them. in cluding my friend, marched north through the Indian country, without any officers, reached the Union lines, rejoined the army and fought through the war. How would it be rossible to find better Americans? My old friends children and grand children live in this country beside my children and grandchildren. It is their coun- try; and they all have an equal claim on it, and owe to it an equal duty. He and I fought for and under the same flag. That flag floats over our chlldren's children. It is their flag and the only flag It would be a wicked and a cruel thing to try to sunder them from one another and to make any of them divide their all legiance by a half loyalty to any other flag.
 No Discrimination
 "It would be possible to man our entire administration from president uOWn Wltn men or German blood, and of such uncompromising Americanism that every good American could fol- low them with whole-h hearted loyalty I would vote to seat in the presidents chair any American of German, Irish, Scandinavian or other percentage of whatever creed as against any man whose ancestors came over in the MayflOwer, or settled on the banks of the James three centuries ago, if I thought the first man was better fit tea for the position than the second man. hold it an outrage and d vio- lat1oh or every principle of true Amerlcan1sm to discriminate against such man because of the land from which he or his parents came, or because of his creed. But I hold if no less an outrage for him to act in our domestic politics hot as an Amer ican but as an American with d uuali-
 ication; as an American who has some un-American interest to serve. some foreign country to serve. necarso of his ancestry. The man who thus acts is the hyphenated American.
 This is not a mere abstract uues- tlon which I am discussing At this