The Detroit times., 1916-06-01
HYPHENISM
IS FLAYED
BY COLONEL

ST. LOUIS, June 1.-Col. Theo
dore Roosevelt dissected. fayed and
excbriated the hyphenated Anler!
can here Wednesday-in the city
having second largest German-Amer
lean population in United States. The
former president has seldom been
so vitriolic as he was In denouncing
the moral treason" of hyphenates.
He spoke at a luncheon of the City
club.
THE German-American alliance
came in for a large share of the
colonel's wrath. He held this or.
ganization and its branches to be
composed of people "disloyal" to
the United States and UNIT for
citizenship" He made a powerful
appeal for America for Americans
while lauding in glowing terms the
patriotism of immigrants who came
to America, and, as citizens here,
proved fealty to the Stars and
Stripes by deeds of heroism and
public service.
Americanism In not a matter OF
creed. birthplace or national descent,
but CT the soul and OF the spirit. III
the American has the right stun In
him. / care not a snap OF my fingers
whether he is Jew or Gentle, Catho-
lie or Protestant: ] care not SNAP
came over in the Mayhower. or
whether he was born. or his parents
France. England. Scandinavia. Russia
ask Of the immigrant is that he shall
be physically and intellectually mt. of
sound character. and eager In good
faith TO become an American citi-
Kind ! am for him, and IL the native
American is of the wrong kindr1 am
against him. But unless the immi :
grant becomes In good faith an Am
out Of place In this country and the
sooner he leaves II the better.
We in this country form a new ma
don. akin to. but different from, each
Of 18th the nations a9,,sr Of Europe As Alex k
neither Greeks nor Trojans. but Am
orleans" We are false to this coun-
try IL we rank ourselves as German.
Americans" or English Americans,
states. We should be friendly 10 all
nations. and In any crisis we shout a
Judge each nation. by, It's conduct In
that crisis. We should condemn the
misconduct of any nation. we should
oppose it's Entertainments upon our
rights with equal vigor. whether II
be Germany. England, France. Russia
or any other power. according tn
occasion with which we have TO deal.
III some citizens band together as
German-Americans or Irish Amerf-
cans. then, after while others are
certain to bald together as English
Americans or scandinavian meri.
cans and every such banding togeth-
err every attempt to make for poll
tieal purposes German. Amerl l,s,I
ance or an English American ALI
ance or a Scandinavian American al
lance means down at bottom an eff
fort against the interest of straight
out American citizenship. an effort
to bring into our nation the bitter
old world rivalries and tealousies and
hatreds. What ] have been striving
for year and three-quarters to DC
is TO protest against the upgrowtf
of this utterly unAmerican spirit tc
protest against the upgrowth OF g
spirit which means. IL successful. di.
vision and impotence In our national
life, the breaking up of our unity as
a nation, the severance OF our citizen
ship along the bitter lines OF old
world antipathy. We cannot afford
TO have our children and our chill
dren's children grow UP excepting as
Americans pure and simple. Ameri-
cans and nothing else.
IL any OF our people born here 60
back to the land from which their
fathers came. they find themselves
inevitably looked upon as foreigners
The American of English descent
who goes TO England finds himself
looked upon and treated. as he ought
to be- as an outsider. a Yankee. His
ways OF thought are different from
the ways of thought OF the people OF
the land The American of German
descent who goes to Germany is not
looked upon as German. He Is