The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-31

leans or Irish-Americans, then after
a while others are certain to band to-
gether English or
Scandinavian-Americ and every
such banding together. every attempt
to make for political purposes a Ger
man-American alliance or an Irish
American alliance or an English
American alliance or a Scandinavian
American alliance means down at bot
tom an effort against the interest of
straight-out American citizenship, an
effort to bring into our nation the bit
ter oldworld rivalries and jealousies
and hatreds. What l have been striv-
ing for a year and three-quarters to
do is to protest against the upgrowth
of the utterly un-American spirit, to
protest against the upgrowth of a
spirit which means, If successful, d.
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.
All of Us Foreigners Abroad.
If any of our people born here go
back to the land from which their
fathers came. they find themselves in
evitably 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
a German. He is looked upon and
treated as a foreigner, as an Ameri-
can; and his ways of thought are diff
ferent from the ways of thought of the
land where no divided allegiance
would for one moment be permitted,
where, very properly, whoever dwells
in the land is held to sole and I'M
divided allegiance to the German flag;
and the American of German descent
who goes there either remains abso-
lutely an outsider and an alien, an
American, or else he has to become
absolutely German You do not have
/ to take my word for this. Take the
word of his majesty. the German en-
peror. He is quoted in the press as
stating to a member of a New York
Schutzenverein who was introduced as
German-American: What do I
hear? I know no such people. I
know only Germans and Americans.
You can have no divided loyalty" If
either the American of English
! descent or the American of Germa n
descent tries to remain with a dual
allegiance, with a divided citizenship
. he merely ceases to become an Ameri-
can without thereby becoming a Ger
man or an Englishman or anything
else. He becomes a man without a
country who has forfeited the right to
be stirred by the feeling of patriotic
/ devotion to any land, or to have a
| special and peculiar kinship with any
| people. The American birthright is
| the birthright of all of us; and it is
a shame and a disgrace for any man
! 80 a,-fe -
tage as is implied in that kind of
! hyphenated citizenship which means
| that the individual tries to be a half
way citizen of two lands and forfeits
the right to be a whole citizen of any
| land.
1t is entirely proper to feel an in
innate sympathy with the art and liter
allure of the land with which by blood
or tradition we have close ties; and !
sympathize with the man who has
such a feeling for Milton and Shake
speare and with the man who has the
feeling for Goethe and the Nibelun-
genlieb. 1 admire all four myself but
I very strongly feel that our prime
| duty even in literature and art is to
/ develop our own American schools and
traditions. that is, to develop our own
distinctive American culture.
When our nation was formed in the
stress of the Revolution, it was under
the lead of men OF many different
race strains; English, Dutch, German
Irish, French: But they were al
loyalty to this country was whole
hearted and undivided, and they
sought to serve only the United States
and not any of the countries from
which their ancestors had come.
Many Races of One Mind.
The same rule applies today
Throughout my life my closest per
n.
Guided men who were themselves borr
/ in, or whose ancestors were born in
Germany, Ireland or Scandinavia, JUS
as they included men who were o.
old Colonial American stock This
man who, for the ten years when
was governor, vice president and pres
ident was closest to me, was a mar
whose father and mother were borr
in Germany-and his father served il
the Civil war, by the way. He and
looked at all problems national and
international, from the standpoint
and only from the standpoint, of ou'
common Americanisn- The man who
when I was police commissioner il
New York, was closest to me was borT
in Denmark. He is dead now. Hi
name was Jacob Riis. He was one o
the best Americans l have eve
known. Again and again l have helc
up his career as a model for on
American boys to follow One of tn
| best Americans L know, a man Wn'
has done better work for the nav.
than any one else during the last TIVE
years, is by birth a Swede. Durin;
my scientific work in Africa ant
| South America, at the head of Aneri
can scientific expeditions, the Ameri
can members of my party included tn
man with whom L have been mos
closely associated in geological work
and who was joint author with me O
the geological book of which I an
most proud. His parents were borl
in Germany; his kinfolk fought il
the Union army Another of m,
American companions. an Iowa man
was born of an Irish father VIII
fought in the Civil war. Another
father was born in Bohemia, beini
a Czech, and also fought in the Civil
war. Yet another, an Indiana boy
n