Washington Journal., 1916-06-09
The Hyphen
What II Means In American History

What II Means In American History
The term "hyphen' is defined by Nut
tails Standard Dictionary as a charac-
ter, thus (-), joining two words or
syllable into one. The object OF inns
article is to show the absurdity ana IN
Justice of the coinage OF the terms ny
phenated citizen" and "~hyphenated CHI
zenship." For a proper comprehension
of this object, it is necessary to REFER
to geography and to turn over the pages
of American history.
First in order to be considered IS the
proper adjective American. The term
American is applied usually to citizens
of the United States of America, pre-
sumably because this nation IS the hrst,
largest and dominating republic OF the
new world. The citizens OF Mexico,
Canada and South America have an
equal right to assume this title. AS the
original inhabitants or natives OF TINS
continent were Indians and all OF the
other inhabitants or their ancestors emil
| GRATED to America from foreign lands,
ali Of the present inhabitants except the
Redmen are literally hyphenated-Ameri-
cans.
The citizens of the United States are
composed of two classes, Le., the native
horn and the f~oreign-born (who have
become naturalized). These two classes
are offspring from the five great races
of MAJ and are: Caucasion, or white !;
| African. or negro or black; Monaghan,
or yellow Malay, or brown, and Indian,
or red. Considered from the standpoint
of nationality they originate from Eng
fish. German. Austrian, Hungarian,
French. Russian, Polish, Irish, Scotch,
Swedish, japanese, Chinese, and all
other foreign stock or every political
division of the globe. Before discussing
further the ~euthnology of our popula-
tion. let us in passing mention i'll tribute
he name of all Italian, Christopher CO.
lumb1s. who discovered America; of
another Italian, John Cabot, who dis
covered the mainland of America, and
of a third. Amerigo Vespucci, whose
name was applied to the continent by a
Frenchman.
A list of the settlements of the States
by nationalities follows:
Observation-Disclosures and German.
New Jersey-Dutch.
Georgia-English.
Connecticut-English.
Observation-Disclosures
Maryland-English.
South Carolina-English and French.
New Hampshire-English.
Virginia-English.
New York-Dutch.
North Carolina-English and French.
Rhode Granddaughter.
Vermont-English.
Acknowledgements.
Tennessee-English.
Louisiana-French.
Mississippi-French.
Tndiana-French.
Illinois-French.
Alabama-French.
M~aine-English.
Missouri-French.
Arkansas-French.
In the following list of States the
chief foreign population is German, and
the numbers of this chief foreign popu-
lation are quoted from the 1911 census
New Jersey, 658,159.
Pennsylvania, 1,438, 1852.
Maryland, 104, 176.
Virginia, 26,62s.
North Carolina, 1888.
South Carolina, 6,054.
Georgia, 1901.
Kentucky, 40,O23.
Tennessee, 1890.
Alabama, 1896.
Mississippi, 1891.
Oklahoma, 40,0SS.
Arkansas, 1878.
Colorado, 1851.
Oregon, 1885, O2
California, 517,319.
Ohio, 597, 255.
Indiana, 1918.
Illinois, 1901 1928.
Wisconsin, 512,569.
Minnesota, 542,857.
Iowa, 273,3ss.
Missouri, 228,695.
Nebraska, 1883.
Kansas, 134,71
In 1890 the first census showed a popu-
lation of nearly 100000. In 1910 the
census gave a population of 100, O00, 900.
This increase is due to the natural proba-
CATION of the inhabitants and the tide
of immigration. The high-water mark
of immigration was attained in 1914
with the figure 1,403, Os1. The total
number of immigrants since the time of
Columbus is 80, 0OO, 900. In the present
population of the United States there
are o than 100000 900 persons who
were not born in this country.
Thus if the hyphen is to be employed
at all in distinguishing the various classes
of citizens of the United States, these
groups should be designated English
Americans, German-Americans, French
Americans, Negro-Americans, Chinese
Americans, Dutch-.Americans, and so on
ad infinitum. However, the Dutch
Americans prefer to be called now Hol-
land-Americans for some reason best
known to themselves. The preceding
facts prove clearly that no n class or
set of A nericans is more hyphenated
than the others, and all except the few
Indians are logically and equally en-
titled to the application of the hyphen.
But against all rules of logic and COM
nonsense since the beginning of the
present European war, the employment
of the hyphen has been garbled and
distorted into an %approbrium and re-
hexion against United States citizens of
German and Austrian blood. This RI
diculous, absurd and unwarranted ap-
neliat;on of one class of citizens nv the