The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-13

in this country, so far as I can dis cover, no taint of the spirit of mii- tarism.
 You young gentlemen are not pre- ferred in promotion because Of the families you belong to. You are not drawn into the academy because you belong to certain influential circles. You do not come here with a. long tra- dition of military pride back of you. You are picked out from the citizens of the United States eo be that part of the force of the United States which makes it's pOlity safe against interfer- ence. You are the part of the Amer ican citizens who say to those who would interfere: N You must not and You shall not
 But you are American citizens and the idea I want to leave with you boys today is this: No matter what comes always remember that first of all you are citizens of the United States before you are officers, and that you are officers because you represent in your particular profession what the citizenship of the United States stands for. There is no danger of miitar1sm if you are genuine Americans and for one do not doubt that you are. tic spirit-not the military spir1t-that is all rfght-tnen begin . to double whether you are Americans or not.
 You know that one thing in which our forefathers took pride was this, that the civil power is superior to the military power in the United States. Once and again the people of the United States have so admired some great military men as to make him President of the United States when he became conmanderzin-chief Of all the forces of the United States but he was conmander-in-ch chief because he was President, not because he had been trained to arms and his author ity was civil, not military. can teach you nothing of military power but I am instructed by the constitu- ton to use you for constitutional and patriotic purposes. And that is the only use you care to be put to. That is the use you ought to care to be put to because, after all, what is the use in being an American if you do not know what it is.
 You have read a great deal in the books about the pride of the old Roman soldier who always felt like drawing himself to his full height when he said, T am a Roman,' but as you compared with the pride that must have risen to his heart, our pride has a new distinction, the distinction of carrying certain lights for the world that the world has never so dis tinctly seen before, certain guiding lights of liberty and principle and jus tice.
 'ewe have drawn our people. as you know, from all parts of the world and we have been somewhat disturbed re- gently, gentlemen, because some of ithose-though I believe a very small number-whom we have. drawn into our citizenship have not taken into their hearts the spirit of America and have loved other countries more than they loved the country of their adop- ton.
 we have talked a great deal about Anericanism. It ought to be a mat ter of pride with us to know what Americanism really consists in. Amer icanisn1 consists in utterly believing in the principles of America and put ting them first. believe that the American test is a6pirituaI test. c If 8 man has to make excuses for what he has done as an American, I doubt his Americanism. He ought to know at every step of his action that the motive that lies behind what he does is a motive which no American need be ashamed of for a. moment. We ought to put this test to every man we know. We ought to let it be known that nobody who does not put America first can concert with us. But we ought to set them the example by thinking American thoughts. by entertaining American purposes and those thoughts and purposes will stand the test of example anywhere in the world, for they are intended for the