New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-19

God. this madness has not prevailed, ana
after long. bitter delays our country mas
taken its old position among the liberal
peoples Of the world and has put away the
aliens and the hyphcn follies which were
too long tolerated and too tardily recog
nized for what they were.
There have been periods during the last
three years when those who loved the ira
ditional America most feared most for ITS
future. There have been times when those
whose Americanism came down from Con
cord and Lexington seemed foreigners IN
the country which their grandfathers and
their great crandfathcrs had won. There
have been hours when the very language
that was once the common speech Of all
Americans seemed dead tongue pre-
served by the written memorials Of van
ished race.
That time has passed. The American
ism which had its origin in the common
love Of liberty and Of justice and of democ-
racv Of the Thirteen Colonies nearly a
century and half ago has triumphed, has
-nrevailed. over the Prussian spirit spoken
by those who sought in America not to
serve the principles here established, but
10 replace them by the system which is to-
day expressing itself in fire over Northern
France as yesterday It wrote its will IN
blood over Belgium.
There never was and there never could
he in an America faithful to the tradition
Of its past room for anything that even IN
the remotest degree cOnformed to the ideas
/ and the ideals of modern Germany. The
soft voices, the lying tongues, the whining
hypocrisy, the stupid threats and the
secret violences of the German agents in
America were things hitherto unknown in
our history and foreign to all our tradi-
tons.
The descendants Of the men who fought
at Lexington Common and at Concord
Bridge could never feel anything but loath-
ing, contempt, bitter disgust for nation
and for a system which expressed itself
in the terms of modern Germany. All that
we love and hold to was endangered when
the first gray-clad Prussian soldier crossed
the Belgian frontier, which was then and
remains the symbol of modern civilization
and of American democracy.
At last we are at war with Germany.
At last we, too, have taken arms to fight a
tyranny a thousandfold more odious than
that which crushed the first rally of the
Minute Men at Lexington; tyranny TO
which is Joined brutality otherwise I'M
known in any so-called civilized people
And on this Nineteenth day of April
while there is cause to rejoice that our
country has come through the storm safely
that in the end it has not betrayed all
that it once stood for in the hearts and in
the ewes of men all over the wOrld-there
/ is still reason to keep in mind the warning
of recent days We shall lose all that Is
worth while in a nation if we permanently
forsake the principles established at Lex
ington and Concord We shall cease to be
great in all save size if we ever forget the
origin, the character and the condition Of
our national life Americanism is not
/ figure of speech. 1t is not an empty
phrase. 1t is an ideal of service and Of
sacrifice. 1t was expressed by the Middle
sex farmers one hundred and forty-two
years ago to-day when they left everything
I they had or hoped TO have and without
thought Of victory and without prospect of
survival challenged the trained armies Of
a European power because the rulers of
] that power invaded their rights and sought
to limit their freedom. They dared all, that
their tradition and their inheritance might
be continued. Their example remains the
cearest expression of the meaning Of
Americanism that we have had or ever
can hope to have. The pathway to national
greatness lies toward and not away from
Lexington and Concord.
Rr.-aa 1 a-,.l.Iox.