XV

_The Challenge of the American Spirit_

I am sure the Herr Director will not object if I have the last word; for

while he was with me that privilege was seldom mine and obtained only by

dint of strategy.

Since his departure, the great war which he prophesied has moved over

Europe and hides every bit of fair and peaceful sky like a storm-cloud;

its thunder and destructive lightning fill the air, leaving scarcely a

place safe and undisturbed.

Not a soul is unafraid, not a heart is without pain and sorrow, and the

Herr Director himself, although past middle age, has volunteered to

serve in the trenches, slippery from oozing blood and foul from the

spattered brains of men. The "fiddling, twiddling diplomats, the

haggling, calculating merchants of Babylon, the sleek lords with their

plumes and spurs" have had their way, and the poor, blind, ignorant

millions, made mad by hate, do their brutal bidding.

We, on this safer side, who as yet have not loosed the dogs of war, have

calculated the loss to Europe in the fratricidal slaughter of its most

virile men, in the loss of its arts and trades, in the wreck and ruin to

houses and homes and in the age-long poverty which awaits. Much counting

has been done as to what we shall make out of this sure bankruptcy that

is to come to the nations which are our competitors for the world's

trade, and what glory shall be ours when New York, and not London shall

be the new Babylon, with power to make the "Epha small and the Shekel

great."

With the incalculable loss to the European nations there has come to

some of them a gain in national unity upon which under no circumstances

we may count.

It has been with no small sense of pride that I have demonstrated to the

Herr Director and to others the fact that, in spite of our youth as a

nation, and the varied national, linguistic and religious rootage of

our population even in the Colonial period, we have grown to be one

people. Even the constant inflow of new and more varied human material

has not weakened us but indeed the sense of national unity has grown

stronger. I have watched with joy the processes by which this alien

element was becoming one with us, the fading away of animosities and

inherited prejudices, and the making of a new people out of the world's

conglomerate.

The war has brought about a retardation of this process, and we shall

have great cause for gratitude if no permanent damage is done to our

nation's spirit, a loss for which no possible gain in any direction

could compensate. The term "Hyphenated American," which has now come

into use, if it indicates anything more than the place of a man's

national or racial origin, and the very natural sympathies arising

therefrom, is an insult to the man to whom it is applied, and a

confession of divided allegiance, if voluntarily assumed.

It may be interesting to note that it was His Majesty, the Emperor of

Germany, who repudiated the hyphen when a German-American delegation

called on him on the occasion of some royal anniversary.

When the delegation was introduced in this hyphenated manner, he said:

"Germans I know, Americans I know, but German-Americans I do not know."

Although the hyphen has always existed, it has assumed new meaning in

these troubled days and is applied as a term of opprobrium, largely to

Americans of German birth; people who have always been loyal to the

country of their adoption, and, I think, are no less loyal now.

If there has been wavering in their devotion, if the process of yielding

themselves to the ideals and interests of this country has been

arrested, they are not altogether to blame, and we ourselves are not

altogether blameless.

It was thoroughly in harmony with the American Spirit that our

sympathies should go out to brave little Belgium, and turn from the

ruthless conqueror who was much nearer to us culturally and in greater

harmony with us spiritually. It was also natural for the German people

in this country to challenge the evident bias of the press, and the

resultant prejudices arising in the minds of their friends and

neighbors. Being German they knew what a German soldier is capable of

doing, and of what atrocities he is guiltless; although in the attempt

to defend their people they in turn became as unfair as we, condoning

every act of the Germans and besmirching their enemies.

How far this bias can carry one is illustrated by the German pastor in a

neighboring town, one of the gentlest souls I know, who, when told of

the destruction of the _Lusitania_, said: "Thanks be to God, let the

good work go on." He will not have to live very long to repent of this.

To match him I may quote a most lovable Quaker lady nearly ninety years

of age, who, with a violence in striking contrast to the Quaker

character, expressed as her dearest wish that she might be permitted to

kill the Emperor of Germany, and I am almost sure she was not alone in

that pious desire, even among the members of her family.

The German press and the German pulpit have fanned this reawakened

Germanic spirit, not always from lofty motives, and many an editor and

pastor have found this antagonism a source of revenue and a hope of

perpetuating their influence.

If the American press both in its news and editorial columns has been

painful reading to any one who loves fair play, it did not help him to

turn to the German press, whose utterances were made more distressing by

the fact that not infrequently they contained expressions bordering on

treason. Had their editors lived in Germany and spoken of the Emperor in

the same words which they applied to their President, their terms of

imprisonment, if combined, would reach into eternity.

Even after the war the attempt will be made to keep alive this

antagonism, and if possible to widen the breach. It will be a serious

challenge to our national spirit, for I doubt that we can maintain a

vital unity unless it represents one country, one people, and one

language.

I know of no way in which to meet this danger effectively; but I do know

that it is not through reprisals or punishments. Perhaps it is best to

hope that at the close of the war we shall all recover our sanity.

Certain it is that the American people have in the Germans in this

country too valuable and powerful an element to alienate, and the German

people who have made this country their home have too great a sense of

the value of it and its institutions, to them and their children, to be

willing to jeopardize the American Spirit, because of that which must be

but a passing phase in the history of our poor, misguided, human race.

Besides the threatened break in unity, the American Spirit is being

challenged by a call to arms, not merely to avert any momentary,

threatened danger, but to be permanently safeguarded, prepared against

its predatory neighbors all around the globe. Whether those who join in

this call know it or not, or wish it or not, it means militarism. When

just such arguments were used for Germany's preparedness, when that

gospel was being preached with all possible fervor, one of the wisest

Germans said: "_Wehrkraft wird immer Mehrkraft_" ("Defensive power

always becomes offensive power"), and I am sure that the average

American will say that, in the case of Germany, this has proved true.

If I were arguing for military preparedness, I would not be so insistent

upon the building of new fortresses, or the accumulation of ammunition.

I would insist upon training our children in obedience and reverence. I

would give them schoolmasters who know what they teach and who would

demand strict application to the curriculum. I would oppose the growing

pedagogic idea that the schoolroom is a playground, and that knowledge

may be acquired without hard work. I would restore the rod and banish

the coddler. I would call in our high school boys from the side lines,

from their vicarious athletics and their slavish imitation of college

customs, and teach them how to dig trenches and serve cannon, which

seem to be the chief need in modern military operations.

It is folly to believe that the _fiasco_ of the Russian armies was due

to the lack of ammunition or of sufficient fortresses; it was due to the

lack of good schools and to the lack of discipline among its educated

classes.

With the decay of our pioneer spirit, which is inevitable, with the

growth of a leisure class, with groups of men and women who know no

other way to justify their existence than to play bridge or go to Tango

teas; with a large class of people less unfortunately situated, who have

to work for their living, but from whom the state asks nothing in the

way of service except the payment of taxes which are easily evaded, it

is a great question how to keep our virility and how to foster a

patriotism which may be counted upon in the time of national danger. I

am fairly sure that some other way than the militaristic way ought to be

found. I am not sure that we shall find it; because only those who seek

shall find.

There are some things we may profitably learn from Germany, and one is

the maintenance of a state which by its very nature will compel

devotion. A state deeply concerned with the well-being of every

individual; a state which sees to it that impartial judgment shall be

meted out, and that the scales do not tip to those who weight them with

gold.

A state which eliminates graft and is able to train an efficient army of

public servants is more likely to gain and keep the loyalty of its

citizens than one which, although technically free, is shackled by

corruption and graft, and which, while giving each man the power to

become a king, places the major emphasis upon property rather than upon

person. Yes, we have a great deal to do to be properly prepared, besides

authorizing congress to spend millions for "reeking tube and iron

shard."

What I most fear for the American Spirit is the loss of that which makes

it really American and truly Spirit, the loss of its democracy. I am

confident that the form of our government is not endangered, and

whatever military success may come to monarchic governments we shall

not envy them their kings nor put ourselves in bondage to them. If this

republic is still an experiment then we shall see the experiment through

to the end as a republic.

I am also sure that we shall work out the problem which confronts us in

the relationship between capital and labor, and that we shall create

here an industrial democracy. The dissatisfaction with the present

system is growing daily, even among the so-called privileged classes,

and many a man, well favored by circumstances, is crying out with Walt

Whitman, "By God! I will not have anything which others cannot have on

the same terms."

What I most dread is, that we shall be increasingly unable to be

democratic in our spirit, in our relation to those who are in any marked

way differentiated from us racially. Our caste system is daily growing

in strength, the social taboos are increasing in number, the spirit is

barred from moving freely among all classes and races, and thus is bound

to perish.

The social boycott practiced against the Jews, and which is even more

thorough here than it is in Russia, may be followed by an economic

boycott, and what has but recently happened in Georgia makes such

occurrences on a larger scale not impossible. The attitude of the

American people both South and North towards the Negro is not growing

better, and it will take more than all the brave optimism of Booker T.

Washington to convince me that this is not true.

It is anything but the American Spirit which greets the Japanese and

Chinese at the Pacific Coast, and the decadence of that spirit is daily

creating for itself new victims for its prejudices and hates.

It seems to be a growing conviction that in order to foster our racial

integrity and self-respect we need to have contempt for other people and

make of them a sort of mental cuspidore.

I know the difficulty involved in this problem. I believe it is the most

serious challenge which the American Spirit has to meet, and here and

here alone I confess my doubt as to its ability to meet it.

This is no time, though, to turn doubt into despair, nor is it the time

for the calling of conventions and the organization of societies. It is

a time, however, for the strengthening of our faith in one another, for

renewed allegiance to humanity no matter how it is encased, for a

patriotism based upon something bigger than identity of race. It is a

time for mutual forbearance, for the divine gift to see ourselves as

others see us; for a supreme loyalty to our country, and a determination

stronger than death to make this country capable of winning the loyalty

of all its citizens.

It is a time to glory in being an American and to become desperately

sure we have something in which to glory. Now as never before should

there be serious self-examination to see whether we have not sinned

against the Spirit.

This is the time to accept the Challenge of the American Spirit and

prove that we are loyal enough to follow its guidance.