The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1919-12-24
Genuine Spirit
Of Americanism
URGED BY GOV. FRANK o.
LoWDEN IN ADDRESS BEFORE
CONVENTION IN MEMPHIS

/ en- AliuNldl LdLd NpINcHILOiI, ~ III
phis, Tenn, Thursday afternoon
spoke in part as follows;
The great forces which move
society are not, after all, those forces
provided by law. If the family were
controlled only by the statutes, if its
Of the state, if its members were not
held together by finer chains than
these that government makes, the
family would soon disintegrate and
disappear. The great mass of man
kind live without thought of the re-
strictions of legal requirements.
They are moved by impulses which do
not have to recur to the statute
books; and SO a city like Memphis, if
it were simply influenced by legal
rules, if there were not something
broader and finer in the hearts and
lives of it's citizens than anything re-
quired by law, Memphis would not
have achieved the triumphs which
make it famed throughout the land.
SO it is with the state, and so it is
with the nation. 1t is the influences
and impulses that come from the
heart, without any thought of legal
or formal or governmental require
ments, that make a people great, that
bind the people of one state to the
people of another. They are the
same moral and spiritual impulses
which come from the hearts of the
people of one state and the people of
another state, and in order to stimu-
late that relationship it is necessary
that the people of all the states
should know each other better.
The human element is entering in
to business and all the relations of
practical life more and more every
day, and so / thank you for having
of the South in which am so much
interested
We have just emerged from a great
war. During that war our soldiers
fought in the same battle-line and
learned to respect one another more
than they had in the past. We were
fighting against the principle that
might makes right. 1t follows from
that principle that the only considera-
tions in the universe are material
considerations. From the moment
that you announce the proposition
that force is the last argument, you
take the position that moral force
and spiritual force and all the finer
influences of life no longer exist.
They cannot exist side by side with
the principle that the material uni
verse is the only thing worth while
Today that same principle that might
is rights emerging in another
form and in every land. 1t now as
serts, not that the armed despot is
supreme above all things, but only
that the majority is supreme above
all things. The moment you admit
that proposition-tha the majority is
supreme,-you announce again the
doctrine that might is right, that
righteousness, that justice, that all of
the things for which our soldiers
fought in the recent war, are false,
because the majority is capable of
doing injustice, of exercising violence
equal with any monarch that ever
lived and reigned, and that is not the
principle for which modern democ-
racy stands; it is not the principle for
which America stands, | am sure.
Today, throughout the length and
breadth Of this land, there is no
power in the majority to deprive the
humblest individual of his right to
worship God according to the dictates
of his own conscience; to deprive him
of his right of life or of liberty or of
property. Those principles are as
sailed today on every hand, and the
principle is announced that a ma
jority can get together and have it
within its power to deprive a minority
of all these sacred rights; aye, to de-
stroy the minority should that minor
ity stand in it's way.
This is furnishing a despotism as
deadly, as cruel, as any despotism of
any throne. We are told that ap-
proXimately one-tenth of the popula-
ton of the United States is composed
of unnaturalized aliens. With all
these forces Of lawlessness and of
disorder stalking our land under
specious names, and with false argu-
ments opposing the power of govern
ment and of law and order, it is time
that we aroused ourselves. The |
question is no longer how many peo-
pie we have within our borders, but |
what kind of people. 1t is not num-
Oers alone that makes a nation great
it is the character of the individual |
citizen. And who can doubt today |
that America would be greater and |
our future brighter if we could re-
luce our population by few hundred |
thousand of those malcontents who |
come from other lands? 1t is not |
quantity, it is quality in a democracy
which makes for greatness. And that
S true of city, and it is true of a
,own, and it is true of a rural region,
anywhere. So, my friends, a com
nunity that has but three thousand |
people is great honor to America
and a great achievement of civiliza-
ion, if those three thousand men and
and children are leading hap
oy and useful lives, with hope before
hem, with devotion to their fellow
nen and to their country, and with
lesire to make America the perman-
mt hope of civilization and of the
world, 1t is quality of citizenship
hat is wanted, and you can exercise
4 great influence toward this end.
Let US add a new activity in the
direction of teaching our people
what the Government means, of en-
,ouraging genuine spirit of Ameri-
,anism, of making them feel in their