citizens when killed by Mexicans in Mexico or by Germans and Austrians on the high seas, would render any wordy protest on its part a subject-matter for derision-and every one knows that it would not venture beyond a wordy protest.

But in the case of the Armenians some of the professional pacifists and praisers of neutrality have ventured to form committees and speak about-not act about-the "Armenian atrocities." These individuals did not venture to say anything about the Belgian atrocities; but they are willing to speak, although of course not to act, on behalf of Armenia. The explanation is simple. They were afraid of Germany; they were afraid of the German vote. But there is no Turkish vote, and they are not afraid of Turkey.

Under circumstances such as these it is the last note of unpatriotic folly for the pacifists of this country to chatter about peace, when they neither venture to stand up for righteousness nor to fight for real preparedness, so as to enable the United States to insure justice for itself and to demand justice for others. Mr. Taft accepts the presidency of the "League to Enforce Peace," and must of course know that unless the United States had an army of two or three million men it could do nothing at all toward "enforcing peace" in a crisis like the present world war; and yet, ac

cording to the press, he states that even a standing army of a couple of hundred thousand men means "militarism" and "aggression" and is to be opposed. This country will never be able to find its own soul or to play a part of high nobility in the world until it realizes the full extent of the damage done to it, materially and morally/ by the ignoble peace propaganda for which these men and the others like them, whether capitalists, labor leaders, college professors, politicians or publicists, are responsible.

The United States has not a friend in the world. Its conduct, under the leadership of its official representatives, for the last five years and, above all, for the last three years, has deprived it of the respect and has secured for it the contempt of every one of the great civilized nations of mankind. Peace treaties and windy Fourthof-July eloquence and the base materialism which seeks profit as an incident to the abandonment of duty will not help it now. For five years our rulers at Washington have believed that all this people cared for was easy money, absence of risk and effort, and sounding platitudes which were not reduced to action. We have so acted as to convince other nations that in very truth we are too proud to fight; and the man who is too proud to fight is in practice always treated as just proud enough to be kicked. We have held our

CHAPTER V

INTERNATIONAL DUTY AND HYPHENATED

D

AMERICANISM

URING the past year the activities of our professional pacifists have been exercised almost exclusively on behalf of hideous international iniquity. They have struck hands with those evil enemies of America, the hyphenated Americans, and with the greediest representatives of those Americans whose only god is money. They have sought to make this country take her stand against right that was downtrodden, and in favor of wrong that seemed likely to be successful. Every man or woman who has clamored for peace without daring to say that peace would be a crime unless Belgium was restored to her own people and the repetition of such wrongdoing as that from which she has suffered provided against, has served the Devil and not the Lord. Every man or woman who in the name of peace now advocates the refusal on the part of the United States to furnish arms and munitions of war to those nations who have had the manliness to fight for the redressing of Bel

gium's wrongs, is serving the Devil and not the Lord.

As for the hyphenated Americans, among the very many lessons taught by the last year has been the lesson that the effort to combine fealty to the flag of an immigrant's natal land with fealty to the flag of his adopted land, in practice means not merely disregard of, but hostility to, the flag of the United States. When two flags are hoisted on the same pole, one is always hoisted undermost. The hyphenated American always hoists the American flag undermost. The American citizen of German birth or descent who is a good American and nothing but a good American, and whose whole loyalty is undividedly given to this country and its flag, stands on an exact level with every other American, and is entitled to precisely the same consideration and treatment as if his ancestors had come over on the Mayflower or had settled on the banks of the James three centuries ago. I am partly of German blood, and I am exactly as proud of this blood as of the blood of other strains that flows in my veins. But-I am an American, and nothing else!

The German-Americans who call themselves such and who have agitated as such during the past year, have shown that they are not Americans at all, but Germans in America. Their ac

tion has been hostile to the honor and the interest of this country. The man who sings "Deutschland über Alles" means exactly what he sings. He means that he puts Deutschland above the American flag, above the honor of the United States, and above the well-being of Americans as a whole.

The Americans of German origin have been a peculiarly valuable element in our population. I believe that they are, in overwhelming proportion, thoroughgoing Americans. As I have said, I am partly of German blood. A large number of my closest friends, a large number of the men whom I most respect and honor in American life, are Americans of German parentage or descent or of German birth. One such American, a descendant of one of Blucher's colonels, sat in my Cabinet; and he sat beside another American, a descendant of one of Napoleon's brothers. But each was an American and nothing else! The scientific book of which I was proudest, I wrote in partnership with a close friend, a naturalist who was with me in Africa; he is of German parentage; but he is an American and nothing else. The man who was closest to me politically during the ten years of my service as Governor and President was of German parentage; but he was absolutely straight American. Some of the best men in my regiment, including