The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-09-16
1T rs IN THE SOUTH WHERE GEN
uINE LOYALTY is PERSONA
FLED


friend, Mr. j. G. Holmes, of Cedar
Rapids. Iowa, measure up to the be-
lief that naturally the true blooded,
Simon-pure, Americanism is to be
found in this section.
He continues to nurse the belief
born of partisan politics that the good
people of this section refuse to clasp
hands across the bloody chasm," the
heritage of the civil war, and that
we still nurse venom because the
''niggers we're set free"
Our good friend continues to cleave
to these convictions notwithstanding
the acid test of two foreign wars. and
in domestic affairs, in speech and
deeds this section has set the example
of good citizenship and genuine Ameri-
canism in many ways.
We hope that he will permit us to
make a few citations:
During the world war, which we
have but recently passed through,
Colonel Lafayette Young, we are told,
was chairman of the Iowa Council of
National Defence. He was at one time
a United States senator, and was, and
perhaps is still, the owner of the Des
Moines Register. He is a man of
much travel and large experience.
While chairman of the council of
National Defence he wrote letter
to the New York Times concerning
some of the difficulties he encounter
ed in Mr. Holmes state.
Among other difficulties he pointed
out the following:
In New York you are undertaking
to have foreign-born children taught
to speak and write the English Ian.
guage. Out here we are struggling to
prevent American-born children from
being educated to speak German to the
neglect of the English language In
other words, you are struggling to
make Americans out of foreigners,
and we are struggling to prevent
Americans from being converted into
foreigners"
Mr.. Holmes will find that these con.
ditions do not exist in the South.
Commenting on this statement the
New York Sun said:
THAT puts the matter in nutshell
In Iowa, in Nebraska, in Wisconsin
and other states of the West there
are German settlements, German
schools and German churches wherein
no language other than German is
tolerated In Nebraska Investigations
by the State Council of National De.
Tense revealed instances of pupils in
German schools being punished for
speaking English. These investiga-
tions have uncovered the fact that in
some cases schools teaching English
either had to be closed entirely or
be conducted with a merely nom.
inal attendance, whereas the German
schools were Overcrowded
There are some settlements in the
Northwest, too, where the people are
wholly Scandinavian and speak their
native tongue, and in many parts of
the country, eastern and southern Eu
rope are literally represented New
York City itself is exceedingly poly.
glot and in parts of the East Side Yid.
dish is a more familiar tongue than
English
The melting pot has been overttaxed
in regions like those described. In the
South the foreign-born are quickly
assimilated, and the second generation
is indistinguisable from the natives.
Yet the extensive foreign settlements
in the West were not regarded as an
evil or a menace until the country be-
came engaged in foreign war. The
requirement Of citizenship was made
easy and the newly arrived immigrants
We're soon given all the rights of the
descendants of personal---very. faith
ers.
So when the war came on the value
of a distinct nationality, a oneness of
type, and uniform allegiance, was
at once signalized and emphasized.
We recognize. of course, that the
foreign born of the western farm
settlements, in most instances, made
thrifty and frugal citizens and did
much to build up the waste places
of that part of our public domain.
But it can not be said that they showed
the same allegiance to the flag in our
national crisis as in this section where
ninety per cent. of its citizens were
native born, tracing their ancestry
back to colonial times.
So, we may say, if we are to con
tinue to be one people. with one un
divided allegiance these immigrants
must yield more readily to the melting
pot. having all foreign dross removed,
for, if they side with the land of their
birth, they at once become a menace
To be a homogeneous nation ali