Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1916-06-02
WILSON AND THE nYpHnN.


Wilson's speech at Arlington Gem
etery on Memorial Day in which he
speaks OF the "Hyphens". Writing
on the same subject, Mr.. Bernard Fl.
Ridder says:
Yet. surrounded by the dead and
the monuments erected to their hon
or, Mr. Wilson could not refrain from
injecting the "hyphen" into his dis
course. And this, when a tremen-
dous percentage Of the graves among
which he stood, enclosed the mortal
remains Of "hyphenates" who were
most loyal to the flag which they had
adopted and who went to their death
at the hands of those who would
have spurned the term.
What the President said was, in
part this:
I'VE do not wis men to forget
their mothers and their fathers, their
forbears running back through long,
laborious generations which have
taken part in the building up Of the
strength and spirit OF other nations.
No man quarrels with that From
such springs OF sentiment we all
draw some of the handsomest in
spirations of our lives; but all that
they are not very numerous-but
in some instances men have allowed
this old ardor Of another nationality
to overgrow their ardor for the ma
tionality to which they have given
their new and voluntary allegiance
Time and events seem to have
chastened the mind of the President,
in some degree. There is observable
In
ment over those employed In his
Manhattan Club address OF November
A, 1915;
1.-THE only thing within our own
borders that has given us grave con-
cern in recent months has been that
voices have been raised in America
protesting to be the voices of Amer
leans which were not indeed and in
truth American, but which spoke
alien sympathies, which came from
men who loved other countries better
than they loved America, men who
were partisans Of other causes than
that Of America and had forgotten
that their chief and only allegiance
was to the great Government under
which they live. These voices have
not been many, but they have been
NSA9 4OQQ anu NNi NAetAiiJl Oues NY
have proceeded from a few who were
bitter and who were grievously
misled"
Yet, surrounded by the dead at
Arlington, where lies the toll taken
by Mr.. Wilson's own state and those
other states which seeded with it
from the Union, of the eight hundred
thousand Germans and German
10 D., 4 ,p
countless thousands Of Irish "hyph-
enates" there buried, whose lives
were given freely, fervently and
patriotically that the Union might re-
main free and independent and in
President could seek to make
political capital out Of the "hyphen"!
The ceremonies which are held on
Memorial Day should be in honor Of
the dead who have passed beyond the
impossible bourne. that their coun-
try and all that it stands for might
survive!
We were a forward-looking people
even when these same dead looked
forward to the glorious future which
they were establishing by their blood
for the American states Their eyes,
now gloomed in the grave, We're not
bent, however, upon the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November.
The word "hyphen", in American
political parlance, is q creation Of the
President for the time being. There
is nothing in the word itself inher-
emily damaging. There was nothing
damaging, as a matter Of fact, in the
first implication given 1t by Mr.. Will
son. AS he employed 1t in the early
and acerbate addresses which he de-
livered to the American people the
President sought obviously only to
delude the American. The 'hyphen"
then spelled disloyalty only to viii
son. Seemingly, however, q prohibit
ish element in this country has read
into the "hyphen" disloyalty to
America.
Z out Of the dead, whose voices
should have been listened to by the
President on Tuesday last, was the
toll of four thousand score OF
"hyphenated" German Americans
Yet, by implication, he charges us all
with disloyalty!
While his state and his people
were fighting to disrupt the Ameri-
can Union, the "hyphens" we're fight
ing for it's preservation!
The word "hyphen" should be
adopted by and written on the es-
cutcheon of every American of Ger
man or Irish DESCENT
Ii is a word hallowed by the ser
vice which they have rendered in the
past, and stand ready to render in
the future in the cause Of American
independence, American liberties,
and those American principles de-
veloped by the Fathers Of the coun-
try
When Philip II of Spain sought to
impose his rule upon The Neither
lands, those noblemen who opposed
him were characterized as "gueuse"
or "beggars" Ultimately the words
"les gueuse" became those not Of oD-
probrium but Of respect among the
people of the Lowlands. Those who
bore them served not master but o
country
We may logically look forward TO
the day when, long after Woodrow
a.