The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IN FORM ATION
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC ,. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. D. C.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. DAY.
Washington. D. C.

Washington, D. c., July I'm the
fourth of July, 1918, one hundIed and
forty-two years after the signing OF
the Declaration of Independence, there
will be held turnout the United States
an anniversary celebration such as the
good Americans who wrote that docu-
ment never dreamed of. Men of
twenty-four different racial groups
will signify by parades and dances and
fireworks their loyalty to the country
in which they have found a greater
personal freedom, and which is now
the leader in the world war for the
political freedom of their netherlands.
The Fourth of July, 1875, assured
the independence of this country from
European domination. Altho primar-
lily statement that we would no long
err remain a part of the British empire,
the Declaration of Independence was
accompanied by the formulation of a
policy of isolation. All the world was
told that this infant nation on the
edge of a wilderness intended to work
out its own destiny in its own way,
and that any who tried TO gainsay that
determination would be met by force.
The Fourth of July, 1918, means
that the tremendous and troubled
growth which sprang from that small
beginning has come to fruit in a state
which is today the strongest in the
world; that by reason of its great
place in international politics, the iso-
lation of the United States has for
ever come to an end; that it recog-
MES and accepts its responsibility for
the destiny of mankind as a whole,
and that it welcomes every true ally
in the battle for the freedom of civil
lied men from the barbaric ideals of
empire. Assuming that license in gen.
| eralization which is additionally ap-
propriate to all independence day lit
erature, it may be said that this
| Fourth of July is the first celebration
of the new era of internationalism, in
which men will recognize that by CO.
operation they can accomplish re-
suits which the old spirit of interna-
! tional antagonism made impossible;
that the future of civilization will be
built upon the dependence of all ma
| lions and races of men in each other.
The Fourth of July, 1918, might ap-
! propriately be called Interdependence
| day.
| This significant celebration will
take place in two hundred and eighty
| cities of the United States. About
| twenty-five thousand men and women
of twenty-four races will take part IN
| it. Polish youths and maidens will
! perform their national dances in the
| parks; Cinnamon will carry the yell
| low dragon thru the streets OF san
| Francisco; in hundreds of American
| churches masses will be said for men
of a score of races who have died
| fighting for the cause that is now
! Americas. In Philadelphia, twenty
| five thousand Germans will march
| thru the streets carrying the service
flags which symbolic the sons and
| brothers that are serving with the
lAmerican colors
Washington will lead the nation in
this celebration with a great pageant
symbolical of all the nations that are
now united in the war for freedom
New York, Chicago and Philadelphia
| will proba bly, have the largest demon
| STATIONS, after that of the national
capital, but the movement is repre-
scented in all parts of the United
States. The Swedes in the northwest
the Dutch in Michigan, the Latin
Americans in the southwest, the ORR
entails in the Pacific states, the Jugo-
SlavS and Czecho-Slovaks, the Lith-
uanians and Ukrainians, the Syrians
the Turks, and dozens of other races
| that seemed to the revolutionary
statesmen as remote to America as
the people of Mars, will march anG
dance and make speeches as an ex-
preston of the fact that their hopes
of freedom, both as individuals and
as nationals, are permanently identi-
fled with ours. Neutrals, allies, and
the oppressed races, which in the
words of tE-ir own petition to the
president, have been able to give bu
a passive resistance to the aggressioni
of medievalism, will all join in thi.
great celebration.
This event is a spontaneous expires
sion on the part of the races that have
gone into the making of America, Of
their loyalty to this nation. In May
a petition was presented to Presiden
Wilson by the representatives o.
Der of others have subsequently Joined
the movement. The spirit Oh the oc
casion is expressed in the closing
sentence of this petition.
United 70: the principles of tina
Democratic world state which is fight
ing now for its being on the battle
fields of Europe. we intend on Jul!
4th, fS18, to manifest by special cele
brations, our loyalty to this countr!
and to the cause for which we fight
and we respectfully request that yol
J call the attention of your fellow
citizens to this fact, in order tina
they may join with us in commend
rating this, the anniversary not onl!
OF national freedom, but of universe
: freedom
To this the president replied II
part: You have shown where yol
stand. not only by your frequen
, professions of loyalty for the caus
for which We fight, but by your cage
response to the calls for patriots
service. including the supreme service
/ of offering life itself in battle =
That is indeed the fact which give
, this celebration a fine sincerity. Their
are Americans who have urged thi
: war for reasons of greed, and other
who have made it an occasion TO
, self aggrandizement: but the foreigl
born Americans are certainly no
: among them. Especially the million
in this country who have come from
; the small, oppressed nations o
Europe, including the Poles an,
Lithuanians, the Jugo-Slav an
: Czecho-Slovak states, and also tn
Syrians, have shown a patriotism o
the purest and most self-sacrificin
kind. They have shown, too, that i
is possible to combine a love of thei
, hoI ,elands with a perfect loyalty t
America. Poles have made ever
sacrific to figh- in this war Ricl
men of that nationality have give