The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-09-14
Not Only a Duty Which Every
Good American Owes His
Country at This Time.
AMERICA IS RE-OISCOvERED
Autocratic Rulers Of Germany Have
Learned That They Cannot Foist
Their Theories of kultur Upon
Our Democracy.
BY THOMAS r. MARSHALL,
Vice President of the United Statee.

America consists in the fact that lit
does not remain discovered, for a
country is discovered only when the
world knows where y Is and what
it is. If the world ~ mistaken in
either particular, it rsnuains still an
unknown land. Historians say that
Columbus discovered st in 1892, and
80 far as revealing its geographical
location to the world is concerned that
is true. But in 1776 it was rediscov-
cred when the ~fat-headed German
who sat on the English throne made
the great mistake in the life of the
British empire in thinking that he,
might treat the colonists as he chose.
Dream Of World Dominion.
The average German junker, II he
had n religious sense which rose
higher than the mere worship of pow
er, would have made a splendid theO-
logical professor in those days when
it was wittily said Of Andover that
every five years the professors took
a solemn oath to the effect that they;
had learned nothing in the preceding
FIVE years and would learn nothing in
the succeeding five. This German
hierarchy became obsessed with the
idea of world dominion emanating
from a great empire in middle Europe.
1t proceeded with a diplomacy that
would have made Machiavelli seek
admission into the kindergarten. 1t
organized by an act of the congress
of the United States what is known as
the German Alliance. Ostensibly a
fraternal organization. Its underlying
purpose was to obtain possession Of
the schools, colleges and universities
of America, and by a course of train
ing from generation to generation
teach this people that the individual
was nothing, that the state was every
thing. 1t thought in forty years it had
so divided the American people that
there were but two courses OPEN to
them, either a ready acquiescence in
the purposes and aims of the imperial
German government or in the having
of sufficient power at the close of this
bloodthirsty and cruel war to collect
off the American people a sufficient
tribute to indemnify in dollars and
cents the vast expenditures of the
German empire in the waging of this
war and the making of the entire
western continent a mere a~ppendage
of the German crown.
Now that the war is on some of its
leading men boldly disclaim the right
of the American government to have
any immigration laws whatsoever.
They braZenly announce that Column
bus discovered America for the world:
that the Germans have an unrestrict-
ed right to come to America, and if
they car get a sufficient number here
imbued with their theories of kultur
to shift our individualistic democracy
into a state autocracy. The Lusitania,
the Arabia and the Sussex would new
,er have been sunken, the indignities
heaped upon the flag would never have
occurred, the brutal and autocratic
course of conduct would never have
been taken, had their government not
imagined it's forty years influence
upon the thought and purpose Of
American life had so weakened the
fiber of American citizenship that in
the hour of trial 1t would be as impo-
tent as a leprous hand, or as water
spilled upon dry ground that may not
be gathered up again.
Peaceful Man Can Fight.
1t has rediscovered America. It has
found that it was mistaken. 1t has
been suddenly confronted with the
fact that the peaceful mar is the most
dangerous man when he concludes to
engage in a fight.
But this fight is not yet won. There
are no half dozen courses open to the
American people. They must win or
they must lose, and if they lor1, what
was sought to be accomplished by in.
sidious propaganda will be given to
them by the mailed fist of the con-
queror. Holy writ declares that all a
man hath will he give for his life, but
more than a century and a quarter of
American life has disclosed that life
is not life unless with it goes liberty.
We are therefore up against the real
thing. We must win or we must be
contented to be slaves, despoiled of
h" our lands, our stocks. our
bond ~'ortgages and our money.
| an graduate of the Wharton
School OF Finance. / learned my inan-
cial system from the Indiana official
who felt that he had been a faithful
public servant when he made a report
in his fiduciary capacity which simply
showed that the money was all paid
in and all paid out. But with blood in
my veins, not a drop of which on
either side of the house has landed on
this soil since 1776, my idea of what
constitutes America is not extent of
territory, nor vast resources, nor III
limited power. 1t is rather that Amer