World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The _Chicago Evening American_ places on its editorial page on August
10, 1916, a letter to which it gives editorial approval. The letter
says: "There are thousands of German-born citizens, in fact the
writer knows of no others, whose very German origin has made them
immune against such influences as ancestry, literature, sentiment
and language, which count for so much in their effect upon a great
percentage of our population. These very men continue to be loyal
Americans. If we are disloyal, what then do you call the Choates, the
Roosevelts, the Eliots, and the foreign-born Haven Putnams?"
The letter is signed M. Kirchberger. Mr. Hearst finds this statement of
sufficient importance to spread out before five or six million readers
of his newspapers. It is of importance, because it voices the belief of
an ever-increasing element in our population. Our ancestry, literature,
sentiment and language do produce such men as Joseph Choate, Theodore
Roosevelt, Charles William Eliot and George Haven Putnam. Those names
do go straight back in our national history to the original stock,
which shaped our national policy and ideals. It was their ancestry,
English and American literature, their racial sentiment, and the
English language, which made the historic America. Mr. Kirchberger
believes them to be disloyal to the New America. I trust he and his
numerous clan will define what sort of country he wants to make of
us, what ancestry he wishes to have prevail, what literature he will
introduce into our schools, what sentiment and what language. I hope
his group will come out into the open with their program of action. For
they have one. He sees clearly that the civilization of a nation is the
resultant of its racial inheritance, its literature, its language and
its ideas about life. He means that our civilization shall go his way,
not the way of the Choates and Eliots. He has no quarrel whatever with
the vague internationalism of many of our social workers because under
that fog he and his kind can operate unobserved. I do not underestimate
the influence of such thought as his. It is growing stronger every day.
It is sharply defined, forceful, and it will prevail unless we fight it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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