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

~ and Improperly since the beginning
of the European war was practically
the sole topic that was discussed this
afternoon by Colonel Roosevelt in his
speech at St Louis.
And only a presidential possibility
with the political courage that Theo-
dore Roosevelt possesses to such a
marked degree would have selected
st. Louis as the setting for such
speech on such subject.
There are, possibly, proportionately
more American citizens of alien birth
| or descent in ST. Louis than in any
other American city the country over
1t is fairly alive with them.
But that's Roosevelt.
Beating around the bush is exotic
to his nature. When he has anything
to say to anyone he says it to his face.
not behind his back. Innuendo is I'M
known to him. He fights with his
voice as he would fight with his fists,
four square to the other fellow.
| That's why he went to Detroit to
| present his masterful exposition of
America nism, the Americanism of I'M
swerving loyalty and of preparedness
in all things that must prevail if this
| ture that is within its grasp.
Detroit is the home of Henry Ford,
the leading pacifist of the country,
the embodiment of the peace-at-any-
pricers.
So Detroit was the place, the only
one that appealed to Colonel Roose-
welt where it was most appropriate
that he should deliver his polite but
/ Of soil
fishian policies for which the extreme
pacifists stand.
And thus, ST. Louis, the home of so
many citizens of foreign blood, was
seuected by Colonel Roosevelt as the
most logical place for him to discuss
the hyphenated horror. as some would
paint it, but which, in reality, is the
hypenated nightmare, or apparition
that the European war has projected
amongst US.
Any other presidential possibility
would probably as soon have thought
of confessing to a covert criminal ca
reer as he would of boarding the lions
in their den in this fashion.
That is the Rooseveltian method,
| though.
Prominently, he is man not only
with intense convictions but he is also
one who is possessed of the courage of
his convictions to truly remarkable
extent.
And isn't that the kind of presi-
dent the United States needs during
the momentous days that are ahead of
it and the rest of the world?
However, there wasn't so much of
the boarding of the lions in their den
in the address that Colonel Roosevelt
delivered today.
And for the very good reason that
he took advantage of the occasion to
point out that the hyphenated evil in
this country is good deal of a boyle,
that it has been emphasized out of all
proportions to its real stature.
| AS Theodore Roosevelt stated to-
day the great bulk of the so-called Ger
man-Americans and of every other class
| of Americans of distinctively foreign
blood are as true and faithful Ameri-
cans as are the so-designated native
patriots of the first water.
Americans of foreign stock who be-
come angry at the criticism that Theo-
dore Roosevelt has found so many oc-
casions to heap on the wrong kind of
| hyphenates, and which he repeated
with renewed vigor today, are those
who should be angered by just such
criticism; are those whom just such
truth would hurt, as truth has the
habit of doing, and hurt hard.
Because a comparatively few Ger
man-Americans have forgotten their
duty to the land of their adoption and
have been noisy and vehement or
crafty and criminal in endeavoring to
further the interests of their mother
country to the disadvantage of their
own, it has been little short of out
rageous that the great mass of their
law-abiding and America-loving breth-
rem should also be stigmatized with
the brand of Cain.
Unfortunately, though, it seems to
be another of the curious rules which
operate in all fields of human activity
that the many should be blamed for
the mistakes, the crimes or the errors
of the few
Nor has that rule ever run so true
as has been the case in this whole dis
agreeable hyphenated American BUSH
ness. 1t has been exaggerated ire
mendously. a mountain has been
made out of a molehill.
Theodore Roosevelt made this plain
in his st. Louis speech today.
And it is safe to assert that this
speech. severe as some parts of it
were against those who would serve
two countries, and one, of course, at
the expense of the other, did not of
fend single ahen-blooded American
of the right sort in St. Louis, or else
where in the country; and that those
in St. Louis who did not take offense
at the address were as ten to one, yes,
a hundred to one when compared with
those who did.
St Louis may be a city in which
dwell many people of foreign birth and