Daily Kennebec journal., 1916-09-01


the election of a Senate and House Of
to give some of the reasons why in my
judgment it would be a grave misfor-
tune for the people of the United
States to re-elect Mr.. Wilson.
/ make no merely partisan appeal.
/ ask the support of all good citizens
for our cause. l ask the support of all
good Americans. And 1 not mercy
ask, but demand as a matter of right,
that every citizen voting this year
shall consider the question at issue
from the standpoint of America, and
not from the standpoint Of any other
nation.
The root idea of American citizen
ship. the necessary prerequisite for pa
triotic service at home, and for service
to mankind at large, Is that there shall
be In our citizenship no dual allegi-
ance. There must be no divided 10y
atty between this country and the
country from which any Of our citi-
zens, or the ancestors Of any of our
citizens. have come. The policy Of
the United States must be shaped with
view to two conditions only: first,
with a view to the honor and interest
OF the United States, and second, with
view to its interest Of the world as
whole. 1t is therefore our high and
solemn duty. both to prepare our own
strength so as to guarantee our own
safety. and also to treat every foreign
nation, in any given crisis, as its con-
duct in that crisis demands. The cit
lzen who does not SO act, and who en-
deavors to shape Americas policy In
the interest Of the country from which
he or his ancestors have sprung, is no
true American, and has no moral right
to citizenship in this country. Any at
tempt to organize American citizens
along politico-racial lines is foul and
evil thing. Any organization Of Amer
ioan citizens which acts in the interest
of foreign power is guilty of moral
treason to the Republic. 1t is because
of such action that l condemn those
professional German Americans who
in our politics act as servants and al
lies of Germany, not as Americans in
terested solely in the honor and well
fare of America; and l would condemn
Just as quickly English Americans or
french americans or Irish Americans
VINO acted in such manner.
Americanism is matter of the
spirit, of the soul. OF the mind; not of
birthplace or creed. We care nothing
as to where any man was born, or as
to the land from which his forefathers
came, so long as he Is wholeheartedly
and in good faith an American and
nothing else. If the man Is q good
American we care nothing as to his
creed, whether he be Protestant, Cath
Ole or Jew; we care nothing whether
his ancestors came over in the May
flower, or whether he himself was born
in England or Ireland. in France or
Germany, in Scandinavia or Russia.
Some Of the very best Americans l
have ever known were men who We're
born abroad; and in every great period
OF American history, the Americans
who deserved best of their country
have included men of different creeds
Tien whose ancestors had for genera
taoTs lived on this soil; and other men
who themselves, or whose parents,
had come from some of the lands of
the Old World. But all these men alike
acted as Americans and nothing else,
and with an undivided loyalty to this
nation. and not with half loyalty 70
this nation and half-loyalty to some
Old World nation
An Evil Revival.
During the last two years we have
seen an evil revival in this country of
non-American and anti-American divi-
sion along politico-racial lines; and we
owe this primarily to the fact that Presi-
dent Wilson has lacked the courage and
the vision to lead this nation in the path
of high duty, and by this lack of affrma-
tive leadership has loosened the moral
fibre of our people, has weakened our
national spirit. and has encouraged the
upgrowth within our own borders of
separatism along the lines of racial ori-
gin. When our own government so acted
as to bring shame on all our people, it
shook the spirit of loyalty among those
TO whom it was vital that loyalty should
be taught. Full-hearted allegiance is
shattered by the government that fails
to uphold the honor and interest Of the
nation by immediate and effective action
when the lives Of it's citizens are menaced
or taken by foreign powers.
The cause of preparedness is insepara-
bly, connected with the cause of Ameri
eanism, of patriotism, of whole-hearted
loyalty to this nation and to all for which
all the great men of this nation in the
past have stood. The events of the last
two years have made it evident that the
dreams Of the professional paciflsts were
not merely dreams but Nightmares, so
far as the unfortunate nations who trust
ed them were concerned. Moreover. in
practice these pacifists have shown not
only utter futility but moral baseness.
They have not only been helpless to de-
fend themselves. but they have been so
anxious to save their own skins that they
have not dared to say one word against
triumphant wrong and in favor of the
right that was crushed by the wrong.
There are few things more revolving than
such an attitude when taken by profess
sional moralists.
AS the world now Is, our great free
democracy must understand that unless
1t can protect itself by its own strength
and its strength is not strength at all un-
less it is carefully trained in advance-it
will sooner or later suffer the fate that
China Is suffering before our eyes.
Thanks to the fact that President Will
son has sometimes led us wrong, and