Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-03-01
Making America Safe for
Americans

/ L1fFkkI bCUTbO
Frederick Boyd Stevenson in Brooklyn Eagle.
Making America safe for Americans is not a
| trite phrase when used in the broad American
sense. If America be not safe for Americans,
one Of two things will happen.
Fither-America will be safe for nobody
Or-America will be safe only for those who
are not Americans.
In the first instance America would be over
run by the bolshevik, as Russia; and, in the sec
ond instance, America would be overcome by a
foreign power as dreamed by Germany.
So no one who is 100 per cent American can
object to the phrase, The point is right here:
What do you understand by Making Amer
lea safe for Americans"
What does America mean to you?
On the answers to these questions-correct
or Incorrectly the great majority of the peo-
pie of the United States-naturalized or un-
MISUNDERSTANDING have arrived at the thinking
age" depends the future of the United States.
If the great majority of the people of the
United States answer these questions correctly
America will be safe for Americans. If the
great majority of the people of the United
States answer these questions incorrectly Amer
lea will not be safe for Americans.
What are the correct answers?
In broad sense America is safe for Ameri-
cans when the American principles of Wash
ton and Jefferson and Lincoln and our ances-
tors who founded this nation are carried out In
a word, these principles mean that we must be
thinking OF America first all the time; not from
a restricted and narrow viewpoint; not from
selfish standard; not with the idea of exclusive
ness or of keeping aloof from participation in
the affairs of the world but with the full knowl-
edge that in order not to be selfish, in order
not to be exclusive and in order that we can do
the greatest good when we do participate in the
affairs of the worid-we must, in thinking Of
America first all the time, make America so
American" that we will be leader of nations,
and never an imitator.
Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln were
Americans all the way through. We must be
Americans all the way through or we will cease
to be Americans. There can be no compromise.
There can be no half-breed mixtures with lin
gering Royalties for other nations. There may
be melting pot" but we must be certain that
only the pure metal and not the dross comes
from the crucible.
What are the incorrect answers?
We can read them every day in the news
papers.
Industrial Workers of the World is one.
Naval plots another.
Prohteers another.
Propagandists still seeking to create sympa-
thy for Americas enemies and still seeking to
prejudice Americans against its allies another.
And so one might reach on into the hun
dreds, mentioning them by topics, but there are
special concrete examples which need attention.
We are beginning to talk about halt in i'm
migration. We have been very free in opening
our gates to all Corners. We have been very
careless in asking questions. The result has
been just what might have been expected it
would be-6,000 interned enemy aliens, and
there should be 10000 of them. Some Of them
may be innocent, but i is safe estimate that
more guilty enemy aliens are outside Of the
prison bars than innocent enemy aliens are be-
hind the bars
Keeping these points in mind the real Amer
leans of America are beginning to analyze the
different types of peoples who were, previous to
the breaking out of the war; flocking to the
United States. And they are beginning to no.
tice which types have made good Americans
and which have not, They are taking cognizance
of the fact that citizens from certain countries,
while becoming citizens of this country still
retain greater love, greater sympathy and
greater loyalty for their fatherland than for
their adopted land.
There are three immigration plans sug-
gested:
IAN absolute bar for four years or more of
all aliens.
Keep out the indigestbles; that is. dis
criminate
3-Assimilate immigrants by educational
methods.
Before we enter very largely into any as
similating process by education we should thor
ough1y consider the great uneducated masses
which we already have in this country. Recent
figures compiled in the surgeon generals office
of the United States show that rs per cent Of
the draft army could not read a newspaper nor
write letter. OF the l552,2S6 drafted men ex-
, amined by the War department, 386,l30 were
either wholly illiterate or could not pass the
simple tests. According to the figures of the
last census taken in the United States, 5,500000
of 8,500000 immigrants and native illiterate per-
sons over 10 years of age could not read or
write English.
And English is the language of the United
States of America.
To think in English is to think in "Ameri-
can" No man can think in the terms of a
country whose language he does not read and
understand.
Can a man who cannot read nor write nor
talk in the English language answer these ques-
tons correctly:
What do your understand by Making
America safe for Americans?"
What does America mean to you?
Wet Spots in Washington.
Only one truly-for-sure oasis in the coming
American Sahara fIndc sunnnrf in Washington