New-York tribune., 1918-05-26
Text of Roosevelts Reply to Burleson

preaching all my life, and most of all
during the past four years.
"To emphasize the quality of true
Americanism. President Heckert, the
president of this Lutheran college. has
asked my old and deeply valued friend
Monsigneur Vattman. to come, so that
it is a Lutheran preacher and a Cath
olic ecclesiastic who give the invoca-
tion and the benediction at this meet
ing. Both alike are of German blood
and both of them are as straight and
good Americans as are to be found in
the whole United States, bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh, Americans
in body and in spirit, standing like all
other good Americans for America and
the allies of America, and against the
Prussianized Germany of to-day and
all her allies and vassal states.
"Such an invitation from such q
source appealed to me peculiarly, and l
was glad to accept it,
No $3.50 Allegiance
"The first essential here in the Uni
ted States is that we shall be one ma
ton and that the American nation. We
are new nation, by blood akin to but
different from every one of the nations
of Europe. We have our own glorious
past. we are a nation with a future
such as no other nation in the world
has before it, if only we, the men and
women of to-day. do our full duty and
bring up our sons and daughters to do
their full duty, as Americans and as
nothing else.
"1n such a nation there can be no
fifty-fifty allegiance. There is no such
thing as being loyal to the United
States and also loyal to any other
power 1t is just as impossible as for
equally loyal to some other woman. If
any man dilutes his loyalty to America
by any degree of loyalty to any other
country whatsoever, he ought instantly
to be sent out of this country and back
t. the country where he belongs And
of course the case is even worse if he
sacrifices his loyalty for America to
his hatred for some other country.
"The German American alliance put
the interests of Germany above the in
tcrcsts Of the United States; it showed
itself the embittered foe OF America
and tried to run our politics with ref
erence not to our own honor and inter
ests, but to the needs of the Germany
of the Hohenzollerns
"The Sim Feiners have put the hon
or and interest of America second to
their hatred to England. The German
American alliance is dissolved, but
Congress ought by law to make the
dissolution permanent, and to render
forever impossible its revival or the
creation of any similar anti-American
and semi-traitorous organization. In
just the same way every Sim Feiner
credit Americas allies in this war and
thereby to give aid and comfort to
Germany should be interned as an
enemy alien or sent out of the country
"The same thing is true of the Rus
sian Bolshevists, who seek to plunge
this country into the chaotic ruin into
which Russia has been plunged. All
these men are the allies of Germany
and the enemies of the United States,
Their most potent allies are the native
American demagogues, whether polltl-
clans or newspaper editors, who pander
to the foreign vote that is hostile to
America. and the native American paci-
fists. who have been the main allies
OF German militarism, and the I. W: W.
people, and the Germanized societies
All these are enemies to the United
States and should be treated as such.
Appeal to German-Americans
"This question of Americanism has
two sides to it. The first side is that
which I have above outlined. Apply.
ing what have said in concrete. form
it means that at this time the Ameri.
can of German blood should himself
take the lead in proceeding against
every man in this country who directi!
lukewar7n in our war against Germany
In the Revolution the American Of