The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-05-31
AMERICA FOR
AMERICANS
IS HIS MOT To
THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN ST.
LOUIS SPEAKS ON AMERICAN
ISM AND CONDEMNS THE USE
OF THE HYPHEN.

St Louis, Mo, May 31,-Moral trea-
son to the United States was charged
by Theodore Roosevelt, in an address
delivered here today against German
Americans who seek to make their
governmental representatives act in
the interests of Germany rather than
this country. He characterized the
German-American Alliance as IAN
anti-American alliance but added
that he believed that its members mot
only do not represent but scandalous-
ly misrepresent' the great majority
of real Americans of German origin.
Urging the motto America for
they were born here or abroad, the
former president declared that "the
salvation of our people lies in having
nationalized and unified America,
ready for the tremendous tasks of
both war and peace"
81 appeal to all our citizens" the
Colonel said, mo matter from what
land their forefathers came, to keep
this ever in mind, and to shun with
scorn and contempt the sinister in
triguers and mischiefmakers who
would seek to divide them along lines
of creed, of birthplace or of national
origin"
Col. Roosevelt said he came to st.
Louis to speak on Americanism-to
speak of and condemn the use of the
hyphen whenever it represents an etr
fort 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 coun-
try from which they or their fathers
came"
He was equally against the native
"A
the immigrant of the right kind, the
| former President declared but the
immigrant who did not become in
good faith an American, "is out of
place" in the United States. He said
each nation should be judged by its
conduct and that the United States
| should oppose encroachment on its
| own own rights whether Germany,
/ England, France or Russia be guilty
| Of misconduct.
"The effort to keep our citizenship
divided against ITSELF" the Colonel
continued, "by the use of the hyphen
and along the lines of national origin,
is certain to breed a spirit of bitter
ness and prejudice and dislike be-
tween great bodies of our citizens. If
some citizens band together as Ger
man-Americans or Irish-Americans,
! then after a while others are certain
to band together as EnglishAmeri-
cans or ndinavianAmericans, and
every such banding together, every at
tempt to make for political purposes
a German-American alliance or a
Scandinavian alliance, means
down at the bottom an effort against
straight-out American citizenship, an
effort to bring into our nation the bit
ter old world rivalries and jealousies
and hatreds.
What | have been striving for a
year and three-quarters to do is to
protest against the upgrowth Of this
utterly un-American spirit, which
means, if successful, division and i'm
potence in our national life, the break
ing up of our unity as nation, the
/ severance of our citizenship along the
bitter lines of old-world antipathy."
Pointing back along his own career
in public and private life, Col. Roose-
welt cited numerous examples of men
who, associated with him as office
holders or soldiers, were descendants
of foreigners but who, he declared,
were in every sense real Americans.
'It would be possible" he declared
"to man our entire administration
from President down, with men Of
German blood, and of such uncompro-
missing Americanism that every good
American could follow them with
whole-hearted loyalty"
81 hold it an outrage and viola
CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE