example and the supreme vindication of democracy. I find the vindication of democracy not only in the career of Lincoln, but also in the million men who left their occupations and responded to his call to arms to defend a national ideal; I find it in the fortitude and sacrificing love of the countless American mothers, wives, and sisters, who bade their men go forth and give their fullest measure of devotion to the homes and altars of their country. I find the supreme vindication of democracy in this nation's survival of the shocks of the greatest civil war in history; in that great historic triumph of reason over the passions in a reunited North and South; in America's millions of happy homes; in its multitudes of schools and libraries, which are "free to all," and in the fact that its power of cohesion is neither that of standing armies, nor yet of superimposed laws, but the intelligence of its citizens and mutual good will among them. I find the vindication of democracy in the marvelous assimilative powers of America through which hosts of aliens are enfranchised in peace and freedom, intellectually, politically, and socially; in the fact that one may travel through the whole vast territory called the United States, the home of a hundred million souls, without encountering a customhouse, a "frontier guard," or a constabulary squad; in the American citizen's love for fair play and his deep conviction that right only makes right. . . . ... No king, I believe, ever felt more exalted with his crown and scepter than I did whenever I said "My country." Just think of me, the child of ages of oppression, now having a great country to serve, to defend, nay, to save from impending ruin! It was undefiled glory to address "my fellow citizens," even to carry a torch - a lighted oneand join the procession under the Stars and Stripes. Now, do you wish to know what riches I have gathered in the New World? I will tell you. These are my riches, which neither moth nor rust can corrupt. I have traveled from the primitive social life of a Syrian village to a great city which embodies the noblest traditions of the most enlightened country in the world. I have come from the bondage of Turkish rule to the priceless heritage of American citizenship. Though one of the least of her loyal citizens, I am rich in the sense that I am helping in my small way to solve America's great problems and to realize her wondrous possibilities. In this great country I have been taught to believe in and to labor for an enlightened and coöperative individualism, universal peace, free churches, and free schools. The duty of loyal allegiance and faithful service to his country, even unto death, rests, of course, upon every American. But, if it be possible to speak of a comparative degree concerning what is the highest as it is the most elementary attribute of citizenship, that duty may almost be said to rest with an even more solemn and compelling obligation upon Americans of foreign origin than upon native Americans. For we Americans of foreign antecedents are here not by the accidental right of birth, but by our own free choice for better or for worse. 1 From an address by Mr. Kahn, a prominent banker and philanthropist of German birth, before the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Chamber of Commerce, September 26, 1917. Published in "Right Above Race." Copyright, 1918, by The Century Company, New York. Used by permission of the author. We are your fellow citizens because you accepted our oath of allegiance as given in good faith, and because you have opened to us in generous trust the portals of American opportunity and freedom, and have admitted us to membership in the family of Americans, giving us equal rights in the great inheritance which has been created by the blood and the toil of your ancestors, asking nothing from us in return but decent citizenship and adherence to those ideals and principles which are symbolized by the glorious flag of America. Woe to the foreign-born American who betrays the splendid trust which you have reposed in him! Woe to him who considers his American citizenship merely as a convenient garment to be worn in fair weather but to be exchanged for another one in time of storm and stress! Woe to the German-American, so called, who, in this sacred war for a cause as high as any for which ever people took up arms, does not feel a solemn urge, does not show an eager determination, to be in the very forefront of the struggle; does not prove a patriotic jealousy, in thought, in action, and in speech, to rival and to outdo his nativeborn fellow citizen in devotion and in willing sacrifice for the country of his choice and adoption and sworn allegiance, and of their common affection and pride. As Washington led Americans of British blood to fight against Great Britain, as Lincoln called upon Americans of the North to fight their very brothers of the South, so Americans of German descent are now summoned to join in our country's righteous struggle against a people of their own blood, which, under the evil spell of a dreadful obsession, and, Heaven knows! through no fault of ours, has made itself the enemy of this peace-loving Nation, as it is the enemy of peace and right and freedom throughout the world. THE FREEDOM OF THE LAND L. LAMPREY Long, long ago our people made our Land for us, Braving all the perils of the earth and sky and sea, Toiling in their loneliness, All in love and loyalty to make their children free. Long years ago our people made our Law for us, Braving Kings and Emperors, they labored for their own, Men of every faith and name, Out of every land they came, Winning us our liberty to reap where they had sown. Far, far away our people make our Name for us, For the birthright of the free, All for truth and loyalty they spend their lives today. God guard our Land the land our people gave to us, Grant us faith unfaltering for the days that are to be, So to keep in steadfastness, Honor, truth, and kindliness, The glory of America, the birthright of the free! AMERICA FIRST1 WOODROW WILSON (1856- ) The singular fascination of American history is that it has been a process of constant re-creation, of making 1 Address delivered before the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C., October 11, 1915. From official pamphlet printed by the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1915. over again in each generation the thing which was conceived at first. You know how peculiarly necessary that has been in our case, because America has not grown by the mere multiplication of the original stock. It is easy to preserve tradition with continuity of blood; it is easy in a single family to remember the origins of the race and the purposes of its organization; but it is not so easy when that race is constantly being renewed and augmented from other sources, from stocks that did not carry or originate the same principles. So from generation to generation strangers have had to be indoctrinated with the principles of the American family, and the wonder and the beauty of it all has been that the infection has been so generously easy. For the principles of liberty are united with the principles of hope. Every individual, as well as every Nation, wishes to realize the best thing that is in him, the best thing that can be conceived out of the materials of which his spirit is constructed. It has happened in a way that fascinates the imagination that we have not only been augmented by additions from outside, but that we have been greatly stimulated by those additions. Living in the easy prosperity of a free people, knowing that the sun had always been free to shine upon us and prosper our undertakings, we did not realize how hard the task of liberty is and how rare the privilege of liberty is; but men were drawn out of every climate and out of every race because of an irresistible attraction of their spirits to the American ideal. They thought of America as lifting, like that great statue in the harbor of New York, a torch to light the pathway of men to the things that they desire, and men of all sorts and conditions struggled toward that light and came to our shores with an eager desire to realize it, and a hunger |