THE UNITED AMERICAN
I AUGUST, 1923
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I
I
I
the coarse and crude fare of personalities and malic-
ious slander emanating from the local press fountain
of the Oregon Klan. This is what the Night Hawk
has to say:
About the Religion of Our President’s Wife
In a certain publication the other day appeared a statement
I to the effect that the wife of Calvin Coolidge, President of the
I United States, was a member of the Roman Catholic church.
I The innuendo was implied that she might think more of her
I religion than her country.
Mrs. Calvin Coolidge as a matter of fact is not a Roman
I Catholic, she is a Congregationalist, coming from that type
I of New England religious stock which forms the very basis of
I this Protestant country of ours.
But concerning Mrs. Coolidge’s religious affiliations, which
I are nobody’s business but her own and which should call for
I no malicious and busy body comment, it makes no difference
I what church she attends, she as the wife of our chief magis-
I trate typifies American womanhood in all its loyalty, sweet
I sympathy and gentleness. As such she is an inspiration to
I things better on the part of all Americans.
It has been remarkable in years gone past how slimy gos-
I sipers and scandal mongers have peered and peeked into the
I family life of America’s greatest men, alert to cast a doubt,
I an innundo or a sneer. Those who start such rumors do so
I with a view of creating an insidious and hateful propaganda
I for the purpose of breaking down the morale and the respect
I of Americans for the men whom they have chosen as their
I leaders. Those who idly pass such rumors along are merely
I tools and fools of influences who hate America and who seek
I this country’s downfall.
Klansmen, smash the propagandists. Do not be misled by
■ every lying, baseless rumor which ill report brings to your
■ ears. And the lowest down rumor monger is the one who will
I talk about a woman.
The Imperial Palace is evidently not a criterion of
I Klan expression throughout its imperial realm. It is
■ evidently not even consulted in the matter of propa
ganda and where the lines shall be drawn.
The stinging rebuke administered by the Imperial
I Palace publication against the “unruly factions,” for
I their unwarranted attacks on the president’s wife,
¡leaves no room for doubt that the Klan “authors”
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realize that the machinery they set in motion has be
come too unwieldy and that opportunists have de
clared any number of little independent Klan states
where Klan constituents are running amuck, both in
expressions and in actions.
Members of the Klan who, in spite of their belief
that the Klan is the embodiment of true Americanism,
are independent in their views as American citizens,
should at once begin carefully to revise their opinion
and seek the terra firma of common sense in citizen
ship before they sink too deep in the mire of the in
visible state of Klancraft where the vista of reason
has been obstructed and closed from view.
If you feel “out of tune” with the music of the oft-
repeated patriotic expression, “I am an American,” you ought
to suspect yourself of not being much of an American >n spite
of the citizenship certificate Uncle Sam gave you with your
name written boldly across the face of it. If on the other
hand there is a responsive chord in your very soul when you
are in your nationality group where the enthusiasm In your
native language is given air in the expression: “I am an
Italian” or “I am an Englishman” or “I am a Swede” or “I
am a Norwegian” or whatever nationality you happen to be,
you should need no further proof that you are still a misfit
as “an American” irrespective of the American citizenship
certificate you possess and use for whatever selfish, economic
and political interests you have in America. In citizenship you
can not be “this” and “that” at the same time. You will
either be ALL for the “one” or ALL for the “other.” Which is
it to be—from now on—your native country or your American
Uncle Sam?
The adopted citizens who are always tooting the
horn of their nationality’s superior virtues and the native
citizens, who are boasting a superlative Americanism, marked
by bigotry, hate and intolerance, are two elements of citizens
in our country that are equally undesirable. Their kind are
never to be found in the front line trenches where the army
of altruistic citizens are fighting for the common good.
The man with a straw lid wears hay while the sun shines.
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