Page Four
THE UNITED AMERICAN
January 1927
The Straight and Narrow Path to An Acceptable Americanism
'T' HERE IS nothing which detracts quite so much
from citizenship as does the erroneous idea of the
individual that only some of our people are by race
and religion endowed with the essential engredients
for its obligations. Cultivating the idea has brought
some people in America beyond the pale of civic use
fulness. Indeed some have become so obsessed with
the idea that America is in danger because people of
different complexion and different shades of religious
faith hold citizenship and claim rights on a common
level, that they no longer contribute to the common
good of all, but are endangering the safety valves of
the American reservoir of our common civic faith.
Some months ago former Secretary of State,
Charles Evans Hughes—as a guest at a good will
dinner, given by a large number of citizens of different
races, at the Hotel Astor in New York—flayed these
false pronouncements of Americanism, and in the
following unmistakable language challenged their
brand of sectional citizenship.
Ours is a Nation which was founded in neither
race nor creed, but rather in the adherence to
principles of liberty and brotherhood. From the
earliest beginning of our history as a people it was
our need and our privilege to invite all mankind to
come and work together toward the building of a
new world conceived in liberty and dedicated to
equality. To this end our forefathers guaranteed
to every man freedom of worship and the rights
of citizenship, regardless of faith or place of
origin.
It is fitting that we, the heirs, of a noble past,
should remind ourselves, and our fellow citizens,
of those great principles and that all should dedi
cate ourselves anew to observing them by mutual
understanding, friendly accord and earnest cooper
ation for the common good.
It is a wholesome brand of Americanism this.
Who is he who dares add anything to it or take any
thing from it ? It nails the lie of the false contenders
and puts every citizen on the same level irrespective
of race, religion and nationality origin. What a
wholesome conception of citizenship and what and
who it embraces.
A little further on in his discourse he strikes at
another manifest weakness by stressing this point in
good citizenship:
The most important thing for us to do in this
country now is to reaffirm our old ideal of Ameri
can liberty. It is extraordinary that in this
twentieth century we should see a recrudescence
of bigotry, and that in the name of American
ism, which it soils. Let us take pride in our
institutions of learning, the freedom of learning.
A bigoted person is unintelligent. I get beyond
the point of reasoning with him. We need an
emancipation of culture.
The fundamental basis of Americanism is
not of the flesh. It is of the spirit. Some are
Americans the moment they land on these shores.
Some never become Americans, although they
and their forebears have lived here for genera
tions.
How beautiful are the ideals of America when
arranged in the lingual coloring of a scholar and a
master patriot ? When we review the setting it seems
as though the work of the traducers is almost neces
sary to quicken our senses so that we may enjoy a
fuller measure of appreciation.
And again we are forcefully reminded that neither
an American birth certificate nor a naturalization
paper can furnish positive proof that a man is an
American..
WHEN WE LEARN TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND
EACH OTHER?
HEN THE Republic was established it was our greatest
American, George Washington, in his address to the
Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, who declared that, “All
possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizen
ship.” It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it
were by the indulgence of one class of people that another
enjoys the exercise of their inherent natural rights... During
the intervening years many Americans have fallen from the
high ideals of Washington. In restoring this attitude of mind,
that one religion or one class of citizens does not ‘tolerate’
another is in itself a sign of retrogression. Even before
these utterances of Washington there were evidences of good
will. It is extraordinary, When one considers the attitude in
other parts of the world, that Jews contributed funds to the
completion of the steeple of Trinity Church in New York in
1711 and that Christians under the leadership of so eminent
an American as Benjamin Franklin aided in the mainte
nance of a Jewish synagog in Philadelphia some seventy
years later. In endeavoring, as religious men and women,
to re-establish this good-will which has undeniably lapsed
in many quarters, we are also serving the Republic which
cannot exist in its broadest foundations if its citizens do
not hold each other in mutual confidence and respect...
When we get to know each other and understand each other,
when we are willing to give full faith to the professions of
one another, then indeed the era of ill-will will have dis
appeared; the greatly to be desired age of good will between
Jews and Christians, between men all religions, will have
arrived and we may look for the Kingdom of God upon earth.
(Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Jewish Theological Semi
nary).
A PLEA FOR AMERICAN UNITY.
ROUP STRIFE is the rock upon which every civilization
has split. The man who cherishes hate is part of the
great conspiracy that draws us into universal struggle about
every twenty years and that makes the white man the most
dangerous being on all the earth. As affairs now stand we
too often meet to emphasize our differences and minimize
our agreements. Destruction lies that way. Our mission
is rather to emphasize our agreements and respect our differ
ences and labor for the development of a common mind. In the
war we had it. If it was possible to find a common mind
in the business of murdering, then surely it is possible to
find a common mind in the business of peace. If it was
possible for Locarno to declare the reign of peace over Central
Europe, then it is more than possible for America to rally
around the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man
and declare peace and good will to all in our land. What
shall be the central principle in. this common mind of peace.
Is it not that sublime gift from the genius of Israel that
has made Catholic and Protestant alike her debtor: ‘The
Lord, thy God, is one?’ We must trust and believe in the
diversified races that make up our land.
(From an address by Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, president
of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America).
G