The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-06-02

ferent from the ways of thought of
the people of the land He has gone
to land where no divided allegiance
would for one moment be permitted,
where, very properly, whoever
dwells in the land is held to a sole
and undivided allegiance to the Ger
man flag; and the American of Ger
man descent who goes there either
remains absolutely an outsider and an
alien, an American, or else he has 10
become absolutely German.
! You do not have to take my word
for this. Take the word of His Ma
jesty, the German emperor. He Is
quoted in the press as stating to a
member OF a New York schutzen-
verein who was introduced as a Ger
man American: What do l hear? /
know no such people. l know only
Germans and Americans. You can
have no divided loyalty If either
the American of English descent or
the American of German descent or
the American of any other descent
tries to remain with a dual allegiance,
with a divided citizenship, he merely
out thereby becoming German
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 de-
votion to any land, or to have a spe-
cial and peculiar kinship with any
people. The American birthright is
the birthright of all of us; and it is a
shame and disgrace for any man to
barter it for SO poor mess of pot
tage as is implied in that kind of hy-
phenated citizenship which means
that the individual tries to be a
halfway citizen Of two lands and
forfeits the right to be whole
citizen of any land.
at is entirely proper to feel an in
innate sympathy with the art and
literature of the land with which by
blood or tradition we have close ties,
and l sympathize- equally with the
man who has such a feeling for Mil
ton and Shakespeare and with the
man who has the feeling for Goethe
and the Nibelungenlied. I admire all
four myself, but l very strongly feel
that our prime duty even in litera-
ture and art is to develop our own
American schools and traditions that
is, to develop our own distinctive
American culture.
When Nation Was Formed.
when our nation was formed in
the stress of the Revolution, it was
under the lead of men of many diff
ferent strains; English, = Dutch, Ger
man, Irish, French. But they were all
Americans and nothing else Their
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.
"The same rule applies today.
Throughout my life my closest per-
sonal and political friends have in
Guided men who were themselves
born in, or whose ancestors were born
in, Germany, Ireland or Scandina..
via, just as they included men who
were of old Colonial American stock.
The man who, for the ten years when
| was governor, vice president and
president, was closest to me, was a
man whose father and mother were
born in Germany-and his father
served in the Civil war, by the way.
He and l looked at all problems, ma
tional and international, from the
standpoint, and only from the stand
point, of our common Americanism.
1.-THE man who, when was
police commissioner in New York,
al
Denmark. tle is dead now. His
name was Jacob Ris. He was
one of the best Americans have
ever known. Again and again
have held up his career as
model for our American boys to
follow.
One of the best Americans I know,
a man who has done better work for
the navy than any one else during the
last two years, is by birth a Swede
During my scientific work in Africa
and South America, at the head of
American scientific expeditions, the
American members of my party in
cluded the man with whom / have
been most closely associated in ZOO
logical work, and who was joint au-
thor with me of the geological book
OF which | am most proud His
parents were born in Germany; his
kinfolk fought in the Union army.
Another of my American companions,
an Iowa man, was born of an Irish
father who fought in the Civil war.
Another's father was born in Bo-
hernia, being Czech, and also fought
in the Civil war. Yet another, an
Indiana boy, had a German father
and a French mother. But we were
all of us Americans, and nothing but
Americans.
"In my cabinet descendant of one
of Blucher's colonies sat side by side
with a descendant of one of Napoleons
brothers. Another member of the
cabinet had been born in Germany,
and yet another member in Scotland.
The parents of another member were
born in Ireland. They were all of
them Americans and nothing else.
If they had severally designated
themselves and had acted as, one a
German American another a
French American another an Irish
American another a British Ameri-
can each conditioning his 1ova1tv to