Page Ten
THE UNITED AMERICAN
EDITORIAL
“THE BATTLE AGAINST INTOLERANCE IS ON”
w ITH THE terse statement that “the battle against
intolerance is on,” Chester I. Long, of Kansas,
president of the American Bar Association, sounded a
battle cry in a dinner speech he delivered in Chicago on
November 27th, before a large representation of the
Illinois Bar Association.
With a zeal worthy of an American he challenged
that “Liberty is imperiled” in our country today, and
pleading with his audience, fellow members of the legal
profession in America, he said:
The forces are gathering to preserve local self-government,
liberty of opinion, liberty of the teacher to teach, -liberty of
parents or guardian to choose the school for the child and the
liberty of the child to learn. Let us join these forces.
In reference to the recent evolution trial in Ten
nessee he asserted that the lawyers of America were
not interested in the fundamentalist-modernist quarrel,
but in “whether the liberty of the teacher to teach and
the child to learn has been impaired” by the statute
that brought fourth the famous trial. He asserted that
“the freedom of learning is in peril” and cited several
supreme court decisions, wherein intolerance statutes
have been nulified. As instances he cited the rulings of
the supreme courts in Ohio, Nebraska and Iowa setting
aside state laws forbidding the instruction in the Ger
man language. “The child does not belong to the state”
was his terse comment in referring to the Oregon law
abolishing private and parochial schools, which also has
been set aside by the higher courts.
What a sordid story to relate of an enlightened
nation, such as America is today, that it became so
swayed by passion that it lost it’s mental poise and
equilibrium and commenced to set up laws restricting
religious teachings and barring from the public schools
a modern language, the language of a people with whom
America had been at war.
The victor in a conflict that stands celebrated in all
history, is the victor who showed himself the intellec
tual giant, capable of that magnanimity and extrava
gance of soul that cast out the spell of enmity when the
treaty of peace was signed, wiped the slate clean and
stood four square as a friend to his enemy of a regret
able yesterday.
The late President Harding signed a formal peace
treaty with Germany in 1921, committing America to
a state of friendly relations with that country. Since
then much of the intolerance Jegislation in question has
been passed. The real American soldier who followed his
country’s flag on the field of battle promptly saluted his
erstwhile enemy, gave him the hand of fellowship and
proved himself capable of backing his country as read
ily in its declaration of peace as he backed it in its
declaration of war, but the little tinhorn soldiers, the
men who never could make the grade in civil life, who
love to don the uniform with one, two, or three bars,
indicating rank — often won through pull — and who
love the opportunity to play around as commanding
officers, with men superior to them in private life stand
ing at attention at their beck and call, these are the men
NOVEMBER 1925 1
who are keeping the war spirit alive with every available!
means of artificial respiration.
There is a major distinction between reasonable!
preparedness, rendering our nation capable of defensive!
military action at all times, and the tinhorn soldier’s
little war of malice and prejudice in repudiation of his!
country’s solemn peace pledge. If our patriotism is sol
shallow that it can’t function unless we keep on rehears-!
ing our recent war propaganda, we are in a bad way.
If we could silence the source of our fictitious and]
varicolored patriotism, from whence come the dis
cordant notes of strife, we should at once observe a]
steadier mental attitude in our country. The mind that]
is agitated by constant discord will become calm when]
the disharmonious clamor has been quelled.
Act on the suggestion of Chester Long and muster]
in to put down the post war rebellion of the tinhorn]
brigade.
WHEN STUPIDITY IS CORNERED BY LOGIC
WHEN THE “know nothings” of our day are]
cornered on the question of justice and fairl
dealings with the immigrants who have come here!
on America’s own condition of immigration, they I
squirm, snort and pooh-pooh, contenting themselves I
with giving in reply this stale, stereotyped phrase from!
the “know nothings” propaganda factory: “Well, if I
they ain’t satisfied the way we do things over here,!
they can go back to the country they came from.”
If that is an adequate American sentiment, let us I
look it over to see if sound American public opinion I
can put its stamp of approval on it.
The large number of the healthy, clean, morally I
sound and strong-limbed immigrants have always g
furnished the American nation a high percentage oil
its home-providing population. They have furnished I
America her children, and toiled, without complaint,!
to give them an .American education.
The larger number of the aliens in America today!
who through intolerant legislation are being harassed!
and unduly restricted in their pursuit of honest liveli-1
hood are home owners tax-payers and the happy!
parents of good sized families of healthy American born!
children. The future of these children, their proper!
care and educational development, depends on the!
paternal parents’ ability and opportunity to earn enough!
to provide them proper care and means of education. The!
children of these aliens are not “foreigners.” Their]
American title is as good as any title of native birth]
of which the “know nothings” are so proud that they]
do not hesitate to refer to it in such a way as to make]
every foreign born feel that they consider it as denoting]
superiority. A solon in a neighboring state, a member]
of the legislative body in that commonwealth, in a]
recent interview, declared himself emphatically against
the aliens in America, and reiterated to the editor of
the United American the intelligence contained in the
above quoted stereotyped phrase, as his own idea of
how the aliens—who have been legislated out of their]
jobs and who have had the opportunities formerly en-|
joyed to earn the means of livelihood for their families]
taken away from them by arbitrary laws— might settle]
the matter by “going right back to the old countries]
from which they had come” many years ago.
We ventured the query: “But how about their]