Evening star., 1941-02-24
Tells Why America
Supports England
Writer Soys Freedom
Under Law Is
AngIo-Soxon

OUuSI IuW -
AngIo-Soxon
To the Editor of The Star:
A question was asked Of Leland Stowe
on a recent broadcast of the Town Meet
ing of the Air: You insist that America
support the Anglo-Saxon way of life.
What do you imagine we Americans of
other nationalities think of that?"
This question is revealing, for it indi-
Gates process of thinking on the part of
some Americans that is greatly in need
of Qualification. At the same time it is
a challenge to all Americans to search
their minds and their histories to under
stand what it is that prompts this coun-
try to collaborate and cooperate with
England in most serious international
crises.
AS is shown in our characteristics as
people, the population of the United
States is blend of many nationalities.
Most Americans have in their veins the
blood of other nations besides England
and many have no English ancestry at
all. That this is true makes our feeling
Of kinship with England a phenomenon
indeed
1t reveals that this sense of kinship
goes deeper than blood or common
tongue.
1t is based, believe, on common law,
and the common law Is the foundation
of the Anglo-Saxon way of life. This is
our heritage from England. 1t was con-
ceived by the English people and was
born at Runnymede with the signing of
the Magma Carta. This common bond is
so strong that it has survived in this Ma
ton the mixture of blood of many coun-
tries. 1t has survived two wars and
myriad differences of opinion.
The Magma Carta and the extensions
to it which have evolved through the
years put into concrete form and en-
acted into law the Englishman's innate
sense of his political rights and his per-
sonal dignity. One can hardly conceive
of the Declaration of Independence or
the American Bill of Rights if these laws
establishing the rights of free men in
England had not prepared the ground.
For they bred into the very bone of the
founders of this Nation an overpowering
belief in freedom under law.
Even to this day no such safeguards
for human freedom have been built up
in any nation in the world as those which
exist in England and the United States.
Nowhere else does the individual count
for so much as in our two countries.
1t will be said that we are far from
achieving real democracy and high
standard of life for all the people OF
course, that Is true. But the process is
going on! And the point is that the
means are provided by law, the means
for the people steadily to improve their
lot by peaceful, orderly methods That
Is the Anglo-Saxon way Of life and that
is the thing we cannot see destroyed by
conquest in England. Nor can the Eng
ish let it be destroyed by conquest here.
This Nation has received much from
other nations than England We are
grateful for the song of the italian and
the art which he has given to the world.
We recognize the genius Of the German
people in science and music. We are
proud of American citizens who have
come to us from Italy, Germany and
other countries. But great as these
blessings are to all of us, we are forced
to recognize that the citizens from those
lands have come here because they ex-
pected to find in America freedom and
opportunity
1t is human to minimize and forget
oppression when it is viewed from a dis
tance across a wide ocean. Frustration
in the realization of some of the hopes
which brought them to our shores, in
many cases, have caused foreign-bor
citizens to look back with nostalgia at
the former homeland and magnify the
virtues which they believe exist there.
But what must be remembered by them
and by us is the fact that a desire for
freedom, political freedom and freedom
to rise in the economic world, or both.
brought the natives of other countries to
America because they had lost all hope
of finding them in the lands Of their
birth. They knew they would find them
hele ocCduSc IIlcSe eliHSS are proCecIeo
by law In the United States, and the
spirit of that law is Anglo-Saxon. 1t
came from England.
We in America intend to keep the
Anglo-Saxon way of life, to enlarge it
and constantly to improve it. And in do
ing so we shall not forget in their hour
of peril the people of the land that gave
it birth. LEONA KIDwELL YODER.