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 YOUR FLAG AND MY FLAG 
 
 ANDREAS BARD, D. D. 
 
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Your Flag and My Flag 
 
Your Flag and My Flag 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES 
 Delivered bg 
 
 DR. ANDREAS BARD. 
 
 Pastor of the First English Lutheran Church 
 of Kansas Citp, Mo. 
 
 1918 
 
 THE LUTHERAN UTERARY BOARD 
 BURLINGTON. IOWA 
 

 Copyright 1918 by 
 R. NEUMANN 
 BurlingtoD, Iowa. 
 
 DEC -3 1918 
 
 )CI.A5067()9 
 
Address delivered at Patriotic Mass Meeting at Con- 
 vention Hall, Kansas City, Mo., April 15th, 1917. 
 
 I FEEL somewhat embarrassed at the prom- 
 inent place assigned to me this afternoon. 
 There are so many orators in this city, 
 so many statesmen who could present to you 
 more ably and more eloquently the purpose 
 of this meeting that I should have preferred 
 a quiet afternoon at my fireside. But when 
 the Committee on Arrangements called on 
 me I realized that this was the first oppor- 
 tunity I had of proving my patriotic sincer- 
 ity, and I hasten to state, not only for myself, 
 but for this large gathering of Americans — 
 born in Germany and other foreign lands — 
 that we are not luke warm hyphens, nor men 
 without a country, but that we are 100 per 
 cent Americans. We came to these shores 
 not by predestination; we came here by 
 
choice. Our citizenship is entirely of our 
 own free will and accord. 
 
 We furthermore state that we fully com- 
 prehend the meaning of true Americanism. 
 It means that we recognize no king but Jus- 
 tice. We bow to no crown save Liberty. We 
 have no Kaiser but our conscience. When 
 we set foot on the shores of New York we 
 ceased to be subjects ; we became citizens. 
 
 If any one would look down on the immi- 
 grant, he would have to despise the Pilgrim 
 Fathers who came here in the Mayfiovs^er. 
 He would have to belittle the pioneers who 
 in all times and climes have blazed the trail 
 of progress. I recall the pointed remark 
 made recently in the United States Senate: 
 "A sponge never migrates ; it is born and dies 
 upon the same rock, but the game fish finds 
 its way to the headwaters of every creek and 
 river of the earth." Day before yesterday 
 we were all foreigners; today we are all 
 Americans. 
 
 There is no one here who detests war more 
 than I do. As long as I have been in the 
 ministry I have shown its absurdity and de- 
 picted its cruelty. But lilies sometimes spring 
 
from swampy ground, and one golden sheaf 
 that has been gleaned from the world-wide 
 battlefield is a meeting of this kind when na- 
 tives of many lands are forced to inquire into 
 the meaning of American citizenship and 
 study the folds of Old Glory as they never 
 studied them before. 
 
 I do not believe in suspecting anyone. Noth- 
 ing is gained by scenting a spy or a traitor in 
 everybody who does not fully agree with us. 
 The only way to bring out the best there is in 
 our fellowmen is to trust them until they 
 prove unworthy of our trust. Such is my 
 faith in American patriotism that if all Prot- 
 estants should be wiped out, as if by magic, 
 the Catholics of this country would protect 
 the flag against the enemies from without or 
 within ; that if all the men of the North were 
 dead, the men of the South would see to it 
 that Old Glory should not be lowered; that 
 if all the native Americans would cease to be, 
 the foreigners who found a home here would 
 fight for their adopted fatherland, even 
 though it be against the country which they 
 left behind. 
 
 I am not statesman enough to analyze the 
 
meaning of the present war. To me it looks 
 like an unpardonable slaughter. I almost 
 feel like the backwoodsman who by mistake 
 found himself between two battle lines and 
 not knowing what it meant shouted like ten 
 bulls of Bashan : "Will you stop shooting, you 
 scoundrels, can't you see that people are 
 standing there." 
 
 But if our national leaders are right in 
 their diagnosis, no American patriot can re- 
 fuse to endorse their measures of defence. 
 If there is any nation which by its will to 
 conquer opposes the world's will to live, we 
 are bound by our democratic ideals to oppose 
 such a nation. If there is any people on the 
 face of the earth which places the nation 
 above the individual, such a people has un- 
 American ideals. "The world must be made 
 safe for democracy." This statement of 
 President Wilson is statesmanlike and cor- 
 rect. No red-blooded American, native or 
 foreign born, will be satisfied until the prin- 
 ciples of life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
 piness are extended, not only to the great 
 powers of Europe, but to the smallest nation 
 on earth, whether it be Greece or Poland or 
 
 8 
 
Belgium. Nations are not born with saddles 
 on their back nor others with spurs to ride 
 them. 
 
 The question which at this crisis agitates 
 the nation is this : Will Americans of German 
 blood be loyal to their adopted country? 
 Now, it would be an easy matter to pour forth 
 a Niagara of words. But we want more than 
 words. Regan and Goneril protested their 
 love for King Lear while Cordelia was silent ; 
 in the real crisis none was more faithful than 
 Cordelia. 
 
 Let us apply the test of Henry Clay: "I 
 have no lamp to guide my feet save the lamp 
 of experience." What has been the experi- 
 ence of this nation in regard to Americans of 
 German birth ? Speaking to the Co-operative 
 Club a few weeks ago, I stated that the first 
 regiment to reach Washington after his call 
 to arms was the York County regiment com- 
 posed of Germans under Lieutenant Heinrich 
 Miller. I stated that the first force to reach 
 Lincoln was a regiment from Pennsylvania 
 composed almost entirely of descendants of 
 the Revolutionary patriots who first respond- 
 ed to Washington's call. I referred to the 
 
 9 
 
victor of Santiago, Admiral Schley. I said 
 that the first shot fired in Manila Bay was 
 fired by Chief Gunner Leonard G. F. Kuehl- 
 wein, a German. Since then I have been bom- 
 barded with letters denying these facts. In- 
 stead of retracting a single statement, I am 
 going to amplify and extend my assertions. 
 Of the ill-starred sailors of the Maine twenty- 
 seven were Germans. When a plea was sent 
 out for financial assistance for the army at 
 Valley Forge nine Germans responded with 
 a subscription of $100,000.00. Over 400,000 
 Americans of German origin served in the 
 Union army, 8,000 of whom were officers. 
 There was a German in Hobson's little band. 
 There were thirteen German officers among 
 Roosevelt's Rough Riders. It was a Lutheran 
 minister of Teutonic blood, the Rev. Peter 
 Muehlenberg, of Woodstock, Va., who threw 
 aside his clerical gown, displayed a military 
 uniform, gathered a company of 300 of his 
 own flock and went through the war until he 
 became a Major General. Look over the 
 pages of American history if you would have 
 an answer to the question : Can Americans of 
 German blood be trusted in a crisis? Aye, 
 
 10 
 
the soil is red with German blood that flowed 
 for the Stars and Stripes. We were born in 
 Germany, but in a deeper sense we are the 
 children of the heroes I have mentioned. 
 
 It would hardly be candid, of course, to 
 ignore the difference of the present situation 
 and that of former wars. The first great con- 
 flict was with England, the second between 
 the North and South. Today Germans see 
 their adopted country at war with the land 
 where they first saw the light of day. Will 
 this fact leave them cold and indifferent? 
 Will they rejoice in such a declaration of 
 war? One thing is certain: if a man is in- 
 sensible to his early training, to the bene- 
 fits he received in the parental home, if he re- 
 mains cold while his mother, father, brother 
 and sister are starving, and while the land of 
 his adoption is about to increase their suffer- 
 ing; I say, if a man is utterly indifferent to 
 so tragic a situation, he is incapable of the 
 fundamental instincts of humanity and his 
 presence is no credit to any country. You 
 may well doubt his patriotic braggadocio, 
 since he proved traitor to the very voice of 
 nature. 
 
 11 
 
I am frank to admit that my heart bleeds 
 amid this conflict of sentiments. I feel like 
 a man who marries and invites his mother 
 to share his home with him. The time comes 
 when the wife and mother can no longer get 
 along in peace. One must go. We know that 
 when a man marries he swears fealty for bet- 
 ter, for worse, for richer, for poorer, even 
 until death. We know that he must decide 
 in favor of his wife and that he must ask his 
 mother to go, but in the name of all that is 
 sacred in human emotion I plead with you not 
 to censure him when tears fill his eyes as he 
 bids his mother good-bye. Just so we have 
 left the shores of Hamburg and chosen the 
 shores of New York. We have linked our 
 fate to the fate of this great Republic. It is 
 for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. 
 We have allied our lives to a new country. 
 And while our hearts are wounded and touch- 
 ed with emotion beyond our power of speech 
 we remember the oath we have sworn. We 
 cannot go back on our word. Here we have 
 built our homes. Here we have enjoyed our 
 citizenship. Here we eat the daily bread. 
 Shall it be said of us that we spat on the hand 
 
 12 
 
that fed us? In the history of German- 
 Americanism one word stands out clearly and 
 persistently. This word is REASON. In the 
 history of German-Americanism one word is 
 utterly unknown and that word is TREASON. 
 No man has a right to call us copperheads 
 because we used every legitimate means to 
 prevent this war. We held mass meetings. 
 We published books. We wrote to our con- 
 gressmen. We insisted that Germany was 
 merely fighting for her existence. In short 
 we left nothing undone to forestall the final 
 decision. Was this un-American? Should 
 we have kept still ? Let me answer. No man 
 is a good citizen who keeps silent when he 
 honestly believes that his words may prevent 
 a national calamity. We have a right to argue 
 while arguments are being presented. We 
 have been in this country long enough to 
 cherish the right of free speech and to fight 
 for this right in true American fashion. I 
 agree with Jefferson's declaration: "Error is 
 harmless when Truth is left free to defeat 
 it." I do not agree with men who denounced 
 argument in Congress as to the advisability 
 of the war. We want no gag rule. We want 
 
 13 
 
the men whom we send to Congress to ex- 
 press their convictions fearlessly and without 
 bias. This is the patriotic way. It cannot 
 possibly give comfort to our enemies when 
 they discover that the nation was not rail- 
 roaded into war, but decided to go into it 
 after all sides of the question had been 
 lengthily discussed on the floor of the House. 
 There is only one democratic way for us to 
 enter war and that is by vote of Congress. 
 There is but one way to get a straight vote 
 of Congress and that is by cool and deliberate 
 debate. If these two conditions have been 
 fulfilled there is but one democratic form of 
 patriotism. We must back the President ; we 
 must hang together or, by the Eternal, we 
 must all hang separately. 
 
 While demanding every right to express 
 my preference in national questions subject 
 to debate, I concede the same right to every 
 other American citizen. President Wilson 
 and his advisers are entitled to their prefer- 
 ences and convictions. They are, in fact, in 
 a better position than we to judge the signifi- 
 cance of the gigantic conflict. They have 
 stated their conclusions and the great bulk 
 
 14 
 
of our representatives have concurred with 
 them. The die is cast. I go still further. Not 
 only have these American statesmen, backed 
 by a majority, a right to declare war: if they 
 candidly think that a victorious Germany 
 would endanger the welfare of the Republic, 
 it was their duty to say so and to act accord- 
 ingly. However erroneous their decision may 
 seem to us, there is but one American way. 
 The Stars and Stripes are more to us than 
 any other flag, more sacred than the flag of 
 Germany. Old Glory must never trail in the 
 dust. The worst shame we can heap on the 
 land of our birth is to double-cross the land 
 of our adoption. 
 
 The history of this flag surpasses in sub- 
 limity the records of any other nation. Every 
 war it has waged has been waged in the 
 cause of freedom and humanity. It has not 
 endorsed the ancient rule that everybody is 
 for himself and the devil take the hindmost. 
 In the case of Cuba, the Philippines and China 
 it has clearly fought for the right of the 
 weak. We want no dollar mark on Old 
 Glory. Were it not for these facts one might 
 doubt the lofty sentiment expressed in Presi- 
 
 15 
 
dent Wilson's message. But when he says 
 that this nation does not go into the conflict 
 for the sake of indemnity, that it scorns ma- 
 terial gain, that it only wishes the recogni- 
 tion by all nations of the right of every nation 
 to live and to be free, then I can see a star 
 amid the encircling gloom. Just as the South 
 has learned to appreciate the necessity of the 
 Civil War, though at the time it meant oceans 
 of blood and tears, so the entrance of the 
 United States into the arena may in the end 
 turn out to be the greatest blessing not only 
 for the Allies, but for Germany as well. This 
 country has gone on record as having charity 
 for all and malice toward none. It recognizes 
 the good in every nation. From England it 
 borrowed Shakespeare, from Germany Baron 
 Von Steuben, from France Lafayette. It is 
 an international nation. And if Germany is 
 sincere in her claim that she does not wish 
 to annex any territory, if England has no in- 
 tention of blocking the world's demand for 
 the freedom of the seas, if France has no 
 ambitions but to work out her pacific ideals, 
 if all the nations will agree to live and to let 
 live, our great Republic's advent on the bat- 
 
 16 
 
tie ground is perhaps the surest indication of 
 an early peace. With heart and soul I endorse 
 the President's plea that future wars must be 
 averted. If this can only be done by a great 
 international navy, such a navy would be 
 safer under the control of the American Re- 
 public than under that of any other nation 
 on earth. Let me believe in this threatening 
 hour of our nation's career that the Presi- 
 dent's dream of a world peace may be fulfilled 
 and that henceforth civilization will cease to 
 be a fratricidal struggle for supremacy and 
 become a fraternal struggle for the legiti- 
 mate development of every nation on earth. 
 It is assumed that every country repre- 
 sents some peculiar talent. France has sym- 
 bolized art, Germany science, England com- 
 merce, Italy music. To each nation God en- 
 trusted a special talent. What is the special 
 contribution of America, her mission among 
 the nations ? The United States are to give to 
 the world a practical illustration of the fact 
 that French and British, Germans and Ital- 
 ians, Russians and Poles are not naturally 
 and instinctively enemies. Here they live 
 together in peace, breathe the same air, read 
 
 17 
 
the same papers, ride together on the same 
 street cars, work alongside of each other in 
 the fields or at the office desk. Here they 
 salute the same flag, here they join soul and 
 hand in the cause of liberty. Surely no na- 
 tion has had a higher mission nor fulfilled a 
 grander destiny than the good old United 
 States, which is about to make war against 
 war and whose very existence has proven the 
 ancient prophecy that swords can be turned 
 into plough shares and spears into pruning 
 hooks. May Old Glory's triumph be the an- 
 swer to the poet's prayer : 
 
 "That man and man the world o'er 
 Shall brothers be and a' that." 
 
 18 
 
An address delivered at Otis, Kan,, on Decoration 
 Day, 1918. 
 
 WE ARE gathered here, at the request 
 of the President, to honor the noble 
 dead. A neglected grave is a sad 
 comment on the survivors. It brands them 
 not only as ingrates, but as ignoramuses, 
 for the mind that takes things for granted 
 is a blank. Certain it is, that if it v^ere not 
 for yesterday's sacrifices we should still be 
 savages in the jungle. Civilization in all its 
 phases is the accumuated treasure of genera- 
 tions that long since crumbled into dust. 
 Moses in solitude, Ezekiel in exile, Paul on 
 the scaffold, Joan of Arc in flames, Lincoln 
 assassinated and, slain on a thousand battle- 
 fields, the soldiers of all lands — these are the 
 milestones on humanity's path of progress. 
 History is not the island of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 21 
 
an isolated spot in the ocean of chance. His- 
 tory is a mountain range beginning at Mt. 
 Sinai, ascending toward Calvary and thence 
 continuing through the ages until it touches 
 Mt. Zion, the city of God, where man at last 
 will return to his Maker. When Mr. Wilson 
 exhorts us "to pray God that he may forgive 
 our shortcomings," he was thinking, no 
 doubt, of our self-sufficiency, our disregard of 
 the mighty past. Let the man of the Twen- 
 tieth Century bear in mind this fact: If we 
 can see farther today than our fathers and 
 forefathers, it is because we stand on the 
 scaffolding reared by them. Even a dwarf 
 on the shoulders of the giant can see farther 
 than his pedestal. To recognize this is an 
 act of true patriotism, for the greatest na- 
 tions are those who have a proper apprecia- 
 tion of its heroes, its leaders and its martyrs. 
 Consider the Jews. In spite of innumer- 
 able persecutions they survive amid dying 
 races. They have been mobbed, stoned, exiled, 
 imprisoned, but they are here. Their per- 
 sistence is the miracle of the ages. Would 
 you know why ? Because they honored their 
 great leader and heeded his commandment, 
 
 22 
 
"Honor thy father and thy mother I'' At a 
 time when the art of printing was unheard 
 of the Hebrew parents would gather their 
 little ones about them, telling them of Abra- 
 ham, of Isaac, of Jacob. In their children 
 they stimulated the spirit of reverence and 
 roused them to emulate their deeds. A fine 
 illustration of this is found in the eleventh 
 chapter of Hebrews, which has been caUed 
 the roll-call of heroes. Here history* appears 
 "freighted with sacred and stimulating me- 
 mories" whhich in the eyes of the listening 
 youth kindled the flame of inspiration. The 
 question is asked sometimes how the first 
 pages of the Bible could have been recorded 
 since no contemporaries could have written 
 them. The answer is clear. These records 
 were preserved in the stories which mothers 
 told their children, handing them down from 
 generation to generation. K the Hebrews are 
 still with us, in spite of time that destroys 
 and persecutions that kill, we must consider 
 their love of ancestrj', as a reward for which 
 Moses promised that their "days should be 
 long upon the earth." 
 
 How valuable this lesson to a people who 
 
 23 
 
speak of their mother as "the old woman" 
 and who call their father "the governor." 
 When the rights of old age are laid into the 
 cradle of saucy children, when white hair and 
 bowed shoulders cease to inspire reverence in 
 the young, we shall soon perish from the 
 stage of existence. Our generation, pam- 
 pered by prosperity, has become a corpse at- 
 tracting the birds of prey. And when the 
 President speaks of "dark days of perlexity 
 and struggle," we may reasonably infer that 
 God's punishment is at hand. 
 
 The spirit of the dead is ever present. 
 Every book you open should remind you of 
 Gutenberg, every railroad train of James 
 Watt, every Bible of Martin Luther, every 
 flag of George Washington. A British author 
 compares the past to an invisible choir. The 
 music of yesterday accompanies the strug- 
 giers of today. When an old man, sowing the 
 seed, was asked why he went to the trouble 
 of planting an apple tree, since he would not 
 live to eat the fruit thereof, he answered: 
 "Because others who lived before me have 
 planted trees for me." This is the spirit of 
 Decoration Day: 
 
 24 
 
"Lives of great men remind us 
 We may make our lives sublime, 
 And departing leave behind us 
 Footprints in the sand of time." 
 
 While God's hand is heavily upon us we 
 should turn from our ways and seek new life 
 in reverence and gratitude. It is not enough 
 to place flowers upon the tomb. Let the tomb 
 become an altar where we consecrate our- 
 selves to holier effort ! A great many of you 
 have come here from Germany. While our 
 country is at war with the Hohenzollerns you 
 need not be ashamed of your Teuton origin. 
 In the first place it is clear that no man can 
 help where he is born, but a man can help 
 what he is. Listening to a number of native 
 Americans who declared that they were 100 
 per cent American, I made bold to assert: 
 "If you who came here by accident are 100 
 per cent American, I can claim to be 150 per 
 cent American, because I came here not by 
 accident, but by. choice." This is true of the 
 great majority of German-born Americans. 
 There are exceptions, of course, and the pub- 
 lic press makes a great ado about those ex- 
 ceptions. When you pass through a pasture 
 you hear more racket from a few grasshop- 
 
 25 
 
pers than from a multitude of peaceful kine. 
 But surely it would be the height of folly to 
 conclude that there was nothing but grass- 
 hoppers in the field ! 
 
 And if we need not be ashamed of the 
 place of our birth because we had no say 
 about our parentage, neither need we dis- 
 claim what we have inherited from our Teu- 
 ton ancestors. Says President Wilson in his 
 speech of Jan. 8, 1918: "We grudge her 
 (Germany) no achievement or distinction of 
 learning or of specific enterprise, such as 
 have made her record very bright and very 
 enviable." It is not the intention of intelli- 
 gent Americans to fight the Germany of art 
 and letters. It has been made clear again 
 and again that whatever Germany has con- 
 tributed toward the wealth of humanity shall 
 not suffer from this war. If our German 
 parents taught us thrift and honesty, we 
 shall treasure this heritage. We are proud 
 of the long line of great musicians who from 
 Bach to Wagner have sprung from this race. 
 We cherish the lyrics of Heine, the dramas 
 of Schiller, the discoveries of Roentgen, the 
 manliness of Luther. But we are not going 
 
 26 
 
to stop there. We are not going to limit our 
 vision to the banks of the Rhine. As soon as 
 we set foot on American soil we learned that 
 there were other nations worthy of recogni- 
 tion, that there were principles not taught in 
 German schools, ideals foreign to the land of 
 our birth. The human spirit cannot be put 
 in a cage. The soul resents limitations. We 
 found that the world is a much broader, 
 grander and more significant place than was 
 dreamed of in the brain of our schoolmasters. 
 God, who places the stars in his heaven that 
 we may every night behold the vastness of 
 the universe, has called us to a nobler point 
 point of view. In this land where French and 
 English and Irish and Teuton and Belgian 
 meet we have buried the provincialism of Eu- 
 rope. New light has been thrown on Christ's 
 question: **Who is my neighbor?" While 
 German boys are trained to look upon the 
 French in the West and the Russians in the 
 East as enemies to be cut down, we meet 
 them under the Stars and Stripes and call 
 them brothers. We have no grudge, no axe 
 to grind. Together we go to the polls and do 
 our duty as citizens. Nor shall we limit our- 
 
 27 
 
selves to German culture. We refuse to say 
 that Germany is the only land that has pro- 
 duced real music. Italy has given us Verdi 
 and Rossini. The English Shakespeare is 
 greater than the German Goethe, and for real 
 inspiration we go to Victor Hugo, the French- 
 man. I congratulate you on your double her- 
 itage. Whatever good there was in Germany 
 you have retained. But when you saw life 
 under the torch of liberty new worlds have 
 been disclosed to your sight. No more Pan- 
 Germanism. Thank God, there are others! 
 And I do not hesitate to state that there 
 are flaws in the German system. No man can 
 be an American who upholds the spirit of 
 caste. It is true that we have snobocrats in 
 this country. They are a self-styled "supe- 
 rior" set who ''sow not, neither do they spin, 
 while even Solomon in all his glory was not 
 arrayed like one of these." They crowd into 
 the society column and clamor for notoriety. 
 What they lack in pedigree, they make up in 
 money, and what they miss in intelligence 
 they supplant with arrogance. But these 
 "Four Hundred" exist not because of, but in 
 spite of our American democracy. They are 
 
 28 
 
not being taken seriously. They are being 
 tolerated as clowns in a circus whose gambols 
 amuse us. But in Germany they strut along 
 with the pomp of ancient kings. When we 
 behold these artificial puppets we recall the 
 Shakespearian words: 
 ''On what meat does this, our Caesar, feed 
 That makes him grow so great?" 
 Caste may be excusable in benighted India, 
 but by what flights of fancy can we justify 
 it in the land of Luther and Kant ? Any man 
 who makes distinctions of birth is an enemy 
 of the human race. *'We are all the children 
 of God," says St. John. For this credo Wash- 
 ington drew the sword and after him that 
 great commoner, Abraham Lincoln. I speak 
 of the martyred President as a ''Great Com- 
 moner." I could pay him no higher tribute. 
 From the American viewpoint this is the su- 
 preme compliment. Germany has counts who 
 are "no-counts," her "junkers" — as the word 
 indicates — even worse than "junk," while we 
 cannot conceive of a higher tribute than that 
 which Napoleon paid to Goethe when he said, 
 "A man indeed !" 
 
 However, I should fall short of the serious- 
 
 29 
 
ness of this day were I to ignore the "sins" 
 for the forgiveness of which the President 
 exhorts us to pray. Even in this land of 
 liberty there are evils which threaten our 
 future. For the past fifty years we have been 
 tearing down the faith of our fathers. We 
 have drifted from the old moorings. We 
 have neglected the altars reared by God- 
 fearing men. The Puritans attended divine 
 worship amid the greatest hardships. In one 
 hand they held the Bible, in the other the 
 gun. Going to church, they had to guard 
 against the scalping knife of the savage, but 
 still they went! Nowadays fashionable 
 churches gather their audiences by giving 
 them free auto rides, and still men stay at 
 home ! The cynic has become popular in our 
 midst. While great statesmen like Webster, 
 Lincoln, Gladstone and Wilson recognize that 
 without the Bible our civilization would be 
 untenable, Ingersoll declared before applaud- 
 ing audiences that "we have become civilized 
 in spite of the Bible." The voice of the fa- 
 mous agnostic has found a thousand echoes, 
 and we have those who, like Herostratus, 
 would burn the temple to make their names 
 
 30 
 
immortal. They impugn every motive, sneer 
 at ideals, discourage religion. 
 
 0, ye who love Old Glory, remember that it 
 is planted in the soil of Christianity ! If our 
 young men are to go forward to die on for- 
 eign fields, what can the cynic do to strength- 
 en their morale ? He will tell them that they 
 are nothing but animals, that death is the 
 end and that self-sacrifice is folly. Will such 
 a creed win any battles ? Only when I believe 
 that "duty" is more than self-preservation, 
 that to be right is better than to be rich, that 
 to die free is better than to live a slave, only 
 then can I do my best. There is but one flag 
 that floats above the Stars and stripes — the 
 Banner of the Cross. And well to the boys 
 in khaki, when in the thick of the conflict 
 they recognize "the White Companion" lead- 
 ing them on to light! 
 
 General Pershing has warned us against 
 the "Hun at home." Who is he? First, 
 there is the profiteer who coins gold out of 
 his brother's blood. They say that since the 
 beginning of the war we have a thousand new 
 millionaires in this country. There are men 
 who would betray their brothers as Judas be- 
 
 31 
 
trayed Christ, but unlike Judas he does not 
 ask for thirty pieces of silver, but for mil- 
 lions. Unfortunately, he is further unlike 
 Judas in that he does not go and hang him- 
 self ! Shall we crucify our citizens on a cross 
 of gold? Shall we place a crown of thorns 
 on the brow of our soldiers that plutocrats 
 may wax fat ? 
 
 I am proud that this is not the spirit of the 
 country. Germany used to speak of America 
 as the "dollar land." We want William II to 
 know that America is the most idealistic 
 country on earth ! When our President says 
 we want no conquests, no indemnities, he pro- 
 claims a principle as startling to the Hohen- 
 zollern as if they had seen a new sun in the 
 sky! 
 
 Another *'Hun at home" is the everlasting 
 hyphenate. This does not only refer to the 
 Germans. Why should we have French- 
 Americans, Swedish-Americans, why "Little 
 Italys" and "Chinatowns?" I believe in 
 America, one nation indivisible ! 
 
 Again there is the sower of discord. He 
 would start a family row while the house is 
 burning. I mean the trickster who uses the 
 
 32 
 
present crisis to brand his enemy as "Pro- 
 German." This practice has sunk to such a 
 depth of absurdity that they have called 
 "Pro-German" that full-orbed American, 
 Theodore Roosevelt, and accused of Pro-Ger- 
 manism the Kansas City Star. Let every in- 
 nocent sufferer be content to remain in that 
 company! This is the spirit denounced by 
 our President when he says : "I want to say 
 to every man who does join such a mob that 
 I do not recognize him as worthy of the free 
 institutions of the United States." He who 
 casts reflections upon trustworthy men is 
 himself a Hun of the deepest dye. He is so 
 low that he must climb a ladder to get into 
 hell. 
 
 In his Gettysburg address Lincoln declared 
 that we could not dedicate the ground, but 
 that men should dedicate themselves to the 
 work which the dead had begun. Not other- 
 wise we shall find the meaning of Decoration 
 Day. Over our graves rise thyme and 
 mignonette. But more than that. Over our 
 graves rise the spirits of noble fathers and 
 mothers. We think of their struggles today ; 
 we glory in their achievements. We are "a 
 
 33 
 
part of all that we have met." Men of all 
 races have given to us freely. Let us repay, 
 in a small measure, what we have received! 
 Let us instil in our children those principles 
 which inspired the Constitution! Let us 
 inspire them with the vision of Washington, 
 the Americanism of Jefferson, the humanity 
 of Lincoln, the idealism of Wilson. Welcome 
 the stars in every sky and gather the pearls 
 in every ocean ! We are not ashamed that we 
 were born in Germany and we cherish what- 
 ever wholesome influence has come from that 
 source. But we are not in tune with any 
 policy that encourages the slaughter of men, 
 the ethics of the brute! We love America 
 because she has made us acquainted with the 
 good qualities in all nations, has revealed to 
 us the supremacy of the human soul and on 
 our brow placed freedom's matchless crown ! 
 And at the time of our country's need she 
 will not call on us in vain ! Whether it be in 
 manhood or in money, at home or abroad, 
 our citizens will respond whenever they are 
 wanted, especially those of German birth, for 
 this is : 
 
 34 
 
"Your flag and my flag and how much it holds: 
 Your land and my land, secure within its folds. 
 Rose-red and blood-red the stripes forever gleam, 
 Snow-white and soul- white, the good forefathers' 
 
 dream ! 
 Sky-blue and true blue with stars that gleam aright, 
 A mighty symbol in the day, a pilot through the 
 
 night!" 
 
 35 
 
An address delivered to the Rotary Club of St. 
 Joseph, Mo., Aug. 13th, 1918. 
 
 ON THE first day of August in the year 
 1914 the world discovered that after 
 nineteen centuries of Christian civih- 
 zation we were nineteen centuries behind 
 Jesus Christ ! Somehow we had lost sight of 
 this fact. We had groped our way like som- 
 nambulists and only awoke when the canons 
 began to roar. We found ourselves at the 
 edge of a precipice. "Men's hearts failing 
 them for fear and for looking for those things 
 which are coming upon the earth.'' We pulled 
 ourselves together and began to think. Some 
 said that Christianity had been a failure. 
 But upon second consideration we arrived at 
 a saner conclusion. We had been a failure 
 because we had discarded Christianity. In 
 spite of the common God we worshipped, in 
 
 37 
 
spite of our catechisms and Confessions of 
 Faith we had confined religion to the church 
 and had recommended it for limited use. 
 Commerce had taken little note of it and cer- 
 tain statesmen had no more of it than you 
 could blow through a quill in a mosquito's eye 
 without making it wink. Unless we should 
 be able to produce a radical change all 'round, 
 our doom seemed certain. It is due to the 
 statesmanship of President Wilson that a re- 
 turn to Christ was pointed to as the one 
 thing needful. Some years ago W. E. Glad- 
 stone had told us that the wheel of history 
 must swing around the Gospel. You Rotar- 
 ians — many spokes and one wheel — make 
 business swing around the Golden Rule. That 
 is the hub. But I have never heard a more 
 distinct call to righteousness and truth than 
 that issued by the present occupant of the 
 White House. He speaks of mercy and jus- 
 tice. He considers "the least" of these our 
 brethren. He would use his strong hand not 
 to knock down, but to lift up. Identifying 
 his statesmanship with the principles of 
 Jesus he holds the torch that illumines the 
 world. 
 
I am not sure that this fact has been fully- 
 appreciated. Certainly not in Germany. 
 There it is ridiculed as baseless ''camouflage." 
 It is branded as hypocrisy. But what else 
 was to be expected ? A man who will tell his 
 soldiers that at his command they must shoot 
 their own brothers and sisters has never 
 seen the gentle Christ. And when he talks 
 of God such words seem idle blasphemy. Our 
 mind is the window through which we see the 
 world. As all things are pure to the pure, so 
 cynicism paints the whole world black. 
 
 But in charity to the skeptic it must be 
 admitted that our ideals startled all the 
 world. The great majority rejoiced at this 
 new turn of events. It was wonderfully satis- 
 factory to those nobler souls who in grief had 
 witnessed the sordidness of modern life. 
 They lifted up their heads, for their redemp- 
 tion drew nigh. But the hardened diplomats 
 were not sure that they could trust their ears. 
 They slunk back into darkness and mur- 
 mured : 
 
 'The message well I hear ; 
 
 If I could but believe it." 
 
 There seemed to be no precedent for an atti- 
 
 39 
 
tude of altruism on the part of a great na- 
 tion. Conquest had been the ruling passion. 
 The superman had reigned supreme. History 
 is a multitudinous Calvary where the inno- 
 cent dies for the guilty. Complacently we 
 read of Caesar and Alexander, forgetting the 
 millions who perished in the strife. Since 
 Cain slew Abel the world has adopted fratri- 
 cide as a convenient policy. The story is told 
 that one of the Pharaohs was offered the in- 
 vention of steam. He could use it to lift 
 stones into the pyramid. But he waved his 
 hand and said that.it was cheaper to employ 
 slaves. It matters not whether this is a fable 
 or a fact. Certain it is that love was a for- 
 eigner in the Egyptian court. We might as- 
 sume that the advent of Christ would change 
 this ruthless law. But wars continued. The 
 Borgias in Italy and France, Cortez in Mexico, 
 Pizarro in Peru, what are they but tigers 
 Strangling the lamb? Germany herself w^as 
 devastated for thirty years by a religious 
 war that has no equal in history. Back of it 
 all was the desire for conquest and for gold. 
 In denouncing this policy the British states- 
 man uncovers its source: "w^hen slavery 
 
 40 
 
brought in 100 per cent, while it was seen to 
 be immoral, not all the navies of the world 
 could stop it. When it brought 200 per cent 
 it became a peculiar institution, patterned 
 after the system of the patriarchs. When it 
 brought 300 per cent master and slave be- 
 came a Christian relation and slavery was 
 baptized with quotations from the Old Testa- 
 ment." Our thoughts should inspire our ac- 
 tions, but, unfortunately, our actions inspire 
 our thoughts. Napoleon boldly stated that 
 God was on the side of the heaviest artillery. 
 When missionaries landed in China the ships 
 that brought them held opium as well as 
 Bibles. The souls of the ignorant were first 
 bought with the blood of Christ and then sold 
 for the gold of the devil. The history of 
 civilization is full of such events. They are 
 too numerous to mention. But it is of inter- 
 est to note that out of such records the Ger- 
 man war lords construed their present policy. 
 Bismarck and William II, however they might 
 have differed in other matters, agreed in this 
 respect. Both believed in the right of the 
 sword. They knew no higher law. 
 
 President Wilson believes that "the old or- 
 
 41 
 
der changeth, giving way to new." He is 
 convinced that henceforth the world will be 
 free. He has gone so far that he has spoken 
 of a Federation of Nations after the present 
 war. He has even intimated that the day 
 may be at hand when with universal disarm- 
 ament peace will forever reign. And while 
 in some quarters such a message may sound 
 idealistic, it is not altogether without some 
 basis in fact. I rejoice in the thought that 
 America has never drawn her sword to op- 
 press another nation. When Washington 
 fought England he was so clearly in the right 
 that Englands greatest statesman defended 
 his course. It was Pitt who said that if three 
 million colonists were willing to bow their 
 heads in slavery, they would endanger the 
 safety of the world. It was a war for liberty ; 
 it was a holy war. The conflict between the 
 North and the South presents a still loftier 
 spectacle. When we see the flower of Ameri- 
 can manhood perishing that the poor blacks 
 might be free we have the picture of Christ 
 washing the feet of His disciples. Consider 
 America's fight against Spain. Did McKin- 
 ley encourage conquest ? Nay, Cuba v/as freed 
 
 42 
 
and her territory left untouched. As to the 
 Philippine Islands, it was clearly understood 
 that their possession would be but temporary, 
 pending the daj^ when the natives would be 
 able to take hold of their own. In de- 
 
 fence of Venezuela America nearly got into 
 war with Great Britain. To guard the rights 
 of South America she issued the Monroe doc- 
 trine. While, after the Boxer uprising, Eu- 
 rope was clamoring for indemnity, this coun- 
 try waved all money considerations. I say, I 
 rejoice in the records of American history 
 which cannot be equalled by those of any 
 other nation on the face of the earth. 
 
 And when we speak of a Federation of Na- 
 tions and of a general disarmament, we are 
 not quite as visionary as we may appear. One 
 hundred years ago President Monroe issued 
 a proclamation limiting American armed 
 forces on the Great Lakes. It was arranged 
 that both Canada and the United States 
 should have two boats each with a crew not 
 exceeding twenty-six men to guard the fron- 
 tier. The arrangement has worked. Three 
 thousand miles of border have remained un- 
 protected by any kind of a fort. Nobody was 
 
 43 
 
loaded and nothing exploded. Wars have 
 been averted. 
 
 The blood of our boys shall not have flown 
 in vain. Out of this conflict must rise the 
 dawn of universal peace ! The heavy price is 
 worthy of a grand result : 
 
 "As He died to make men holy 
 Let us live to make men free !" 
 
 It is eminently proper, therefore, that the 
 President of this great Republic should be 
 the first to herald the dawn, to point the way, 
 to light the torch of peace! 
 
 And we believe that his voice is not merely 
 national; it has been echoed the wide world 
 'round. Especially this is the case in France. 
 There, too, the new spirit is taking life. The 
 land which has given us Zola, Flaubert and 
 Maupassant is returning to the idealism of 
 Joan of Arc and to the prophecies of Victor 
 Hugo. It is strange that Voltaire, a French- 
 man, should have besmirched the character 
 of the Maid of Orleans and that Schiller, a 
 German, should have first hailed her star. 
 But such are the facts. They prove that 
 great souls live in every land and that truth 
 
 44 
 
knows no limitations. Not all the Huns are 
 in Germany. Old Glory symbolizes an ideal 
 and there are those in every country who 
 love this flag. It was Victor Hugo who in 
 1870 spoke of the time when the ^'United 
 States of Europe" would clasp across the 
 ocean the hand of the United States of Amer- 
 ica. Noble dreamer, how much thou wouldst 
 have given to witness all the world made 
 free! 
 
 If Germany will not see this vision, she 
 must be made to see it. We shall not tolerate 
 terrorism in our midst. We are tired of 
 bloodshed and bayonets. Mothers do not 
 raise their sons to be shot down by Krupp 
 guns ! There is sorrow enough in this world 
 without the devil and his diplomats ! It would 
 be better that every throne in Christendom 
 should totter than that another young life 
 should be prematurely blown out by the blast 
 of war! I am sure that there are human 
 hearts on German soil that bleed as much as 
 ours. In a printed lecture which appeared 
 some twenty years ago my father closes with 
 these eloquent words : "If Germany will per- 
 sist in deserting the altars of God, if she will 
 
 45 
 
deliberately abandon the principles of the 
 Gospel, if the lust of gold and the desire for 
 conquest will continue to monopolize her 
 mind I need not be a prophet to say that the 
 day of judgment is near. Neither our army 
 nor our navy, neither our commercial gran- 
 deur nor the emperor's power can stem the 
 tide of destruction. It will be the end of Ger- 
 many." You can imagine that many a time 
 in these dark days I have recalled those 
 words. They have grown large with mean- 
 ing. Yes, there are people in Germany who 
 have a vision of the truth. But there are 
 others who cannot be convinced except by 
 force. Many a convict gazes out of his prison 
 cells not because he has visions of moral re- 
 form, but because he is looking for the kit of 
 tools with which he can cut his way out. For 
 such we have another remedy. The war lords 
 have a set of figures : Agriculture pays 8 per 
 cent, commerce 15 per cent, wars 100 per 
 cent. As long as these figures will prove cor- 
 rect war will oppress the world. It behooves 
 us to prove that wars are the poorest invest- 
 ment on earth and we have reason to hope 
 
 46 
 
that the traffickers in blood will at last see 
 the light! 
 
 No, it is not moonshine and sentimental- 
 ism when Wilson speaks of the World Peace. 
 It is ideal, but it is practical. The man who 
 asserts that it is not practical would have to 
 doubt the words of the Master that at last 
 He would draw all men unto Him. 
 
 People have wondered how I could drift 
 away from the land of my birth and repu- 
 diate my relationship. They point to the fact 
 that one of my brothers is a chaplain in the 
 German army, that my cousin is a German 
 admiral and that my father is a bishop in a 
 German diocese. They argue that every hu- 
 man being loves the home of his childhood 
 and that my attitude is puzzling and abnor- 
 mal. I want to say in reply that I was always 
 taught to place my religion above everything 
 and that when I am asked to decide between 
 what is clearly wrong and what is clearly 
 right I refuse to hesitate. I know that duty 
 is sometimes hard. I understand why tears 
 are streaming down the cheeks of Schuman- 
 Heinck— one of her sons with the Kaiser and 
 two under Old Glory. I say, I understand her 
 
 47 
 
tears as she sings 'The Star Spangled Ban- 
 ner." Surely, the mother heart is rent asun- 
 der. Have not I a mother living in Germany 
 and a father and sisters and brothers ? Years 
 have passed since I have heard from them. 
 But if a letter from home could come to me, 
 what would it say? I know what it would 
 say. It would say : "My son, this is a terrible 
 war; all the more so because the family is 
 divided under different flags. But since you 
 have chosen America be true to the land of 
 your adoption. Be loyal ; be worthy ! Stain not 
 the family record with the name of a trai- 
 tor!" I tell you that there are great souls 
 this wide world over. There are true Ameri- 
 cans who do not live in this land. Wherever 
 men love righteousness and truth, wherever 
 they demand justice and fair play, there is 
 the flag that we love, there waves Old Glory ! 
 Let me congratulate you on your citizen- 
 ship ! Today more than ever the mighty tides 
 of God are sweeping over our land and flow- 
 ers of rarest beauty are springing into life. 
 Not long ago it was said that we cared for 
 nothing but money, that if the Yankee boy 
 would see a dollar on the other side of hell 
 
 48 
 
he would make a bee line for it and the Yan- 
 kee girl would hold on to his coat tails. That 
 day has passed. In the America of tomor- 
 row manhood will be mightier than money. 
 Our "eyes have seen the glory of the Lord !" 
 
 49 
 
Our Heritage 
 
 An address delivered to the Kansas City Society of 
 the Sons of Revolution Feb. 25th, 1917. 
 
 THEY who honor their fathers honor 
 themselves. You have come here to 
 link the present to the past. You real- 
 ize that today is the child of yesterday and 
 the parent of tomorrow. You know that 
 civilization is a great tree whose roots are 
 in the thoughts and deeds of the noble dead 
 and whose branches reach out into the great 
 unknown. To the extent of your hold on 
 this fact, you possess true culture. Without 
 a history to contemplate and without a vision 
 of things to come we move like shadows be- 
 tween blank walls. The stars of the soul are 
 Memory and Hope. 
 
 Yours is a special heritage. You are the 
 descendants of noble sires. You trace your 
 origin to the dauntless pioneers of the Ameri- 
 
 51 
 
can dawn. Your forebears were not man- 
 made kings. They wore no crowns of gold. 
 They held no sceptres. They did not tyran- 
 nize their brothers. Yet they were born to 
 the purple. Theirs was the royalty of right- 
 eousness. Their grandeur was character. 
 Their majesty was of the soul. The heroes 
 of the Mayflower, the prophets of freedom, 
 the martyrs of Bunker Hill, the writers of 
 the American Constitution — these are the 
 sires whose glory thrills your hearts. 
 
 We live in the age of democracy. But the 
 aristocracy of noble ideals will never die. 
 While crowns are fading and thrones are tot- 
 tering, genius continues to rule. The great 
 thinkers, Plato, Paul Pascal ; the great poets, 
 Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe; the great 
 statesmen, Washington, Lincoln, Gladstone 
 — woe to the age that fails to pay them 
 homage ! Everyone who helps to uplift man- 
 kind has royal blood in his veins. "Thou hast 
 made us kings," says St. John, "and we shall 
 reign on the earth !" 
 
 God planned democracy for the Jews. He 
 wanted them to live as the children of the 
 divine fatherhood. Their law : the Ten Com- 
 
 52 
 
mandments; their ideal: the kingtlom of 
 heaven. 
 
 But Israel murmured and demanded a king. 
 This accounts for Saul, David and Solomon. 
 They ruled because the age was not ripe for 
 democracy. **Milk for babes," says St. Paul, 
 and Christ declares that God has tolerated 
 Jewish perversion because of "the hardness 
 of their hearts." Eventually the little stream 
 of human rebellion will merge into the ocean 
 of infinite truth. When a discussion arose 
 among the disciples who should have a seat 
 of honor at the table Jesus administered a 
 stinging rebuke to the would-be aristocrats 
 by himself washing the feet of all present. 
 Paul proclaimed the gospel of equality when 
 he said that henceforth there should be no 
 more Jews or pagans, rich or poor, high or 
 low, and that all were one family in the 
 household of God. These truths were revo- 
 lutionary. 'They have turned the world up- 
 side down." Not until fifteen centuries latef 
 the Wittenberg monk proclaimed the sov- 
 reignty of every soul, humanity began to real- 
 ize the significance of Christ's Gospel. Hence- 
 forth no church authority will dare to stand 
 
 53 
 
between man and his Maker. Each soul is 
 supreme before the tribunal of God. Thus 
 came the dawn of spiritual democracy. 
 
 To establish this truth in a new country, 
 Columbus was called out of obscurity. The 
 Lord of heaven guided the Santa Maria and 
 saw to it that she reached her destination. 
 America at once moved into the foreground 
 of history. Here the divine ideal was to be 
 worked out. Men would flock here from every 
 part of the globe. Races trained in enmity 
 would meet and mingle as brothers. When 
 the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock the 
 Pilgrim Fathers recognized the invisible 
 pilot. They knew that God had been their 
 help. They would establish a republic based 
 on the principles of the Gospel. Listen to 
 the public declaration : "this nation, UNDER 
 GOD." There are those who would strike 
 the word *'God" out of the Constitution. But 
 as long as we have sons of those early set- 
 tlers the memory of great sires shall not be 
 outraged! They who built our country on 
 the Rock of Ages "builded better than they 
 knew." A democracy without God is a house 
 
 54 
 
without a foundation, a tree without a root, 
 a bulb without a dynamo ! 
 
 This is an annual service commemorative 
 of the birth of George Washington. Surely 
 a man divinely planned! As history sails 
 away from the past and lesser heights of hu- 
 manity vanish on the receding shore George 
 Washington stands out in solitary grandeur. 
 This mountain is clearly visible among the 
 clouds of yesterday. What was the great 
 merit of Washington? He realized that 
 America had her own ideals and that Euro- 
 pean interference would be fatal to her exist- 
 ence. He knew that the lofty principles of 
 freedom were at stake. Behind the dream 
 of the Pilgrim Fathers he placed the sword 
 of the soldier and the genius of statesman- 
 ship. If there is a God of battles and a Ruler 
 of the universe we cannot but glory in the 
 visible and mighty assistance he gave to our 
 cause when it was endangered by English 
 oppression. Humanly speaking it was a con- 
 flict most unequal. But America had a divine 
 mission and every Revolutionary soldier felt 
 the inspiration which Joshua breathed into 
 
 55 
 
the Hebrew army when he said : "One man of 
 you shall slay a thousand!" 
 
 When we mention our flag we think of our 
 fathers ; we remember Yorktown and Gettys- 
 burg. Whatever has been accomplished for 
 this nation has been accomplished by the 
 heroes of yesterday. The roll of our martyrs 
 brings back the shadowy past. Behold their 
 flag ! It is red, white and blue. The red is a 
 symbol of the blood they shed ; the white ex- 
 presses the purity of their ideals; the blue 
 the nobility of their manhood. Affectionately 
 we place the colors upon their dust, while 
 their souls are marching on ! 
 
 But while I am speaking you hear the roll 
 of distant thunder. All Europe is aflame 
 with war. Shall we, too, be involved in this 
 maelstrom of horrors ? The day may not be 
 distant when you will be called upon to make 
 sacrifices. The flag will be unfurled for bat- 
 tle. The nation will sift her manhood. There 
 will be a division of wheat and chaff. When 
 our money has been given, when our sons 
 have been sacrificed, when our lives have 
 been consecrated, then we shall be justified 
 in hugging Old Glory to our hearts and to 
 
 56 
 
say: "Not only their flag, but my flag. I, too, 
 have paid the price !" 
 
 Note that I make no distinction between 
 you and myself. I do not belong to your so- 
 ciety. I was born in Europe. But while 
 there are no ties of blood between me and the 
 Pilgrim Fathers, I am in very truth a son of 
 the Revolution and an heir of American 
 ideals. When the great Master met Nico- 
 demus he shattered material standards with 
 the declaration : 'That which is flesh, is flesh, 
 and that which is spirit, is spirit." Applying 
 this to the present argument, what does it 
 mean? It means that it takes more than a 
 pedigree and a family Bible to make a Son of 
 the Revolution. What is the accident of 
 birth when the soul is out of tune? There 
 are Aaron Burrs and Benedict Arnolds in 
 mansions of noblest ancestry. The glory of 
 our Republic consists in the fact that we 
 recognize infinite possibilities in the lowliest 
 bootblack. If anyone calls himself a son of 
 the Revolution and uses this proud distinc- 
 tion to draw a line between man and man, he 
 thereby becomes unworthy of the very dis- 
 tinction he claims. That all men were born 
 
 57 
 
equal is the cornerstone of the American 
 credo. Destroy it and the Republic falls. If 
 you are true sons of your sires, you will draw 
 your swords for the principles you profess. 
 You will not aspire to the shams of aristoc- 
 racy. You will claim no more nor less than 
 the honor of being plain citizens. In doing 
 that you honor your forebears and are 
 worthy to carry their flag. Woe to America 
 when she begins to ape Europe! We have 
 ideals of our own. We have a history. When 
 Napoleon visited the tomb of Frederick the 
 Great someone suggested that the Corsican 
 might appropriate the Prussian's sword. In- 
 dignantly Napoleon waved his hand, 'Tool, I 
 have my own sword!" Whenever Europe 
 would ask us to follow her way let us remem- 
 ber this saying. Look through the Almanac 
 de Gotha. Count So and So, Baron X, His 
 Highness, etc. In this carneval of conceit let 
 us rise like men and be proud in affirming: 
 "I am a plain American." 
 
 And if you are a plain American, you are 
 the peer of any prince that ever usurped a 
 throne! Because I am heart and soul with 
 the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, be- 
 
 68 
 
cause I love the Constitution, because my 
 spirit is attuned to that of George Washing- 
 ton, I am as truly a son of the Revolution as 
 the President of your honored society. Some- 
 one interrupted Christ and said, *Thy mother 
 and thy brethren stand without." And he 
 answered : *'My mother and my brethren are 
 these which hear the word of God and do it." 
 The real sons of the Revolution are they who 
 personify the spirit of the early Americans. 
 It is for this reason that you and I are one. 
 When you asked me — the foreign-born — to 
 address you this morning you knew that our 
 differences were purely formal and that in 
 reality we were made of the same full-orbed 
 Americanism. We meet in the soul of George 
 Washington. 
 
 The past rises before me. I look upon it 
 as one standing on the summit and reviewing 
 the mountain. 
 
 "In an age on ages telling 
 To be living is sublime!" 
 
 Moses, the cornerstone. The Decalogue an 
 unerring foundation. Centuries have rolled 
 by, but none can surpass this moral code. 
 
 59 
 
While giving the Commandments the legisla- 
 tor dreams of the future. He dies with visions 
 of the promised land. 
 
 Isaiah, the pathfinder. Around him chaos. 
 Nation rising against nation. Israel follow- 
 ing false Gods. But in the distance he sees 
 the dawn. The lion will peacefully lie down 
 beside the lamb. Swords will be turned into 
 plough shares and spears into pruning hooks. 
 He leaves his star in the dark of history. 
 
 Christ on Mt. Olivet. His first word: 
 "Blessed !" Gone are the clouds of Mt. Sinai 
 and Love illumines the sky! "Greater love 
 hath no man than that he lay down his life 
 for his friends !" 
 
 Savonarola on the scaffold. He would free 
 Christianity of corruption. His body is 
 burned, but his soul goes on, and rises anew 
 in the monk of Erfurt. 
 
 Luther appears with the Bible in his arm. 
 Every man accountable for his own soul. This 
 means religious liberty. 
 
 Columbus crossing the unknown seas. He 
 discovers the country where Luther's ideals 
 shall be perpetuated. 
 
 The progressives of many lands arrive at 
 
 60 
 
our shores. They are pilgrims, pioneers. 
 They came to worship God according to their 
 own conscience. They have no king but God. 
 
 The fall of the Bastille. Tyranny trembles. 
 A tide of democracy touches the shore of 
 every land. Over the crumbling bulwarks of 
 feudalism arises the flag of freedom. 
 
 But what France attained through a civil 
 war was given to the American colonies by 
 the statesmanship of George Washington. 
 No guillotine was reared in our midst. It was 
 a war against foreign foes. But at home we 
 had a united people. 
 
 How many stars in our horizon : Hamilton, 
 Jefferson, Patrick Henry! The spirit of 
 Nathan Hale ! the courage of Paul Jones ! The 
 genius of Andrew Jackson ! And as we turn 
 the page new names arrest our attention. 
 Longfellow, the poet. Beecher, the orator. 
 Grant, the soldier; Lee, the gentleman. Lin- 
 coln, the incomparable! Within a century 
 and a half what marvelous constellations, 
 what illustrious names, what glorious attain- 
 ments! Philanthropists like Peter Cooper, 
 inventors like Edison, scientists like Burbank. 
 A continent vast in resources of every kind. 
 
 61 
 
A mingling of all races. A civilization com- 
 bining the virtures of many lands. All na- 
 tionalities merged in the grand ideal — sym- 
 bolical of the kingdom where there shall be 
 but one shepherd and one flock! 
 
 But words are nothing. They merely sug- 
 gest the wealth still unrevealed. It is your 
 mission, gentlemen, to treasure this heritage ; 
 be sons of the Revolution not merely in name 
 but in fact ! What does this mean ? It means 
 that you are to protect the ancestral trust. 
 Hand it not over to designing politicians ! De- 
 liver it not to the demagogue! Defend it 
 against foreign foes! When Wellington 
 threatened the French Guard and asked them 
 to surrender he received the reply: "The 
 Guard will die; it will not surrender." This 
 was the spirit of '76. Let it be the spirit of 
 1917 ! Thus George Washington will be more 
 than a venerable name. He will be a living 
 force in the hearts of this generation and 
 the heritage which he left will be handed 
 down to our childrens children till all the 
 world will follow freedom's star! 
 
 62 
 
Uncle Sam Using His Man Power 
 
 Commencement address delivered at the Central 
 High School, Kansas City, Mo., June, 1917. 
 
 THE GRADUATES of this school have 
 reached a milestone. Behind them a 
 period of preparation. Before them 
 life with its innumerable duties. They are 
 standing on the threshold. As they look 
 ahead they face the question : "Which way ?" 
 The fact that hitherto they have gone stead- 
 ily forward would indicate that they will 
 move on in the right direction. We know 
 that life tends toward sameness. The first 
 seven years of childhood are supremely im- 
 portant. Youth lays the foundation. We 
 are justified in thinking that the certificate 
 you hold is an index to your soul. You are 
 progressives. You will not drift with the 
 idlers, the loafers, the parasites. You will 
 fill a useful place in the world. You will 
 
 65 
 
carry a stone to the pyramid of civilization. 
 You will add to the wealth of mankind. Great 
 has been your effort in the past. Greater 
 will be your task in the future. To graduate 
 does not mean to "finish." This is Commence- 
 ment Day. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington declared that the 
 battle of Waterloo was won on the play- 
 grounds of the Eton School. The training he 
 received there equipped him for his mighty 
 triumph. 
 
 You graduate in times that try men's souls. 
 Your country is at war. Our democracy is 
 on trial. A steady stream of the nation's 
 manhood is proceeding to far-off battlefields. 
 That which we thought of as a nightmare 
 has become an accomplished fact. Men are 
 preparing to kill each other. Civilization has 
 become a welter of blood. Some of you will 
 enlist. You will be soldiers under our glori- 
 ous flag. But others will stay at home. Tasks 
 equally important demand their attention. 
 One fact is certain. Whether we go or stay, 
 we must do something. The country has no 
 room for drones. Uncle Sam will make use 
 of his man power. 
 
 66 
 
Consider the change that has taken place. 
 Not long ago the American man cared for 
 nothing but himself. He made money, built 
 skyscrapers, fondled his golf stick and lived 
 in supremest luxury. Not so today. We 
 gauge manhood no longer by what we can 
 get, but by what we can give. Every idle 
 dollar is branded as an enemy alien. If the 
 blood of our young men is not too precious 
 to be offered on the country's altar, what of 
 silver and gold? Compared to the sacrifices 
 of our youth, all wealth appears as miserable 
 pelf. I well understand the reply of the 
 father whose boys were facing shot anid 
 shell. He was talking to a neighbor who com- 
 plained because the war had deprived him of 
 a chance of making money. "Sir," he ex- 
 claimed, "all that I have in this wide world 
 is trembling in the balances and you talk to 
 me of your filthy dollars !" One thing is so 
 clear that even bats and moles can see it. 
 The dollar has ceased to be "almighty." 
 
 And what is true of American manhood is 
 equally true of American womanhood. Not 
 long ago our ladies spent their time in squan- 
 dering money. They rode in French limou- 
 
 67 
 
sines, gave tea parties, killed time and com- 
 peted in dress parades. Food enough was 
 wasted to feed all Europe. But this, too, is a 
 thing of the past. The great woman of today 
 has learned to knit, to sew, to serve. She has 
 become an expert in cooking. Whether she 
 solicitis for starving Armenians, entertains 
 the ''Sammies," dons the uniform of a nurse 
 or figures how she can deduct a nickel from 
 her grocery bill, she is great to the extent 
 that she saves and serves. 
 
 This is the mighty American Revolution of 
 the year 1917, as significant, as important, 
 as beneficent as any great movement in our 
 history ! The old order changeth, giving way 
 to new! Accumulation was the watchword 
 of the past. Service is the motto of today. 
 After centuries of infidelity to our religious 
 heritage we have come back to the Master's 
 declaration: **He that is greatest is he that 
 serves !" 
 
 It is natural, therefore, that you have 
 caught the spirit of the hour. You feel that 
 you must do something to aid your country. 
 You will not be slackers. In Paris you find 
 Delaroche's "Court of Genius." It illustrates 
 
 68 
 
the meaning of service. The central figure 
 welcomes all those who have given something 
 to the world. A laurel for the patriot, the 
 poet, the musician, the soldier, the philan- 
 thropist ! But through the crack in the door 
 the glutton beholds this wonderful group. 
 He has not the courage to enter. He has 
 made no mark, not even an effort. He is a 
 superfluous pawn on the chess board. He 
 has wasted time and talent. He is a cancer- 
 ous growth in the human organism. Death 
 throws him into oblivion. I tell you, my 
 friends, that no man is so poorly endowed 
 that he can afford to squander his time whit- 
 tling sticks and spitting tobacco juice ! It is 
 true that we cannot all be Caesars, Dantes, 
 Angelos, Mozarts or Savanarolas. For every 
 ten-talent man God makes millions that have 
 less than one talent. It seems that Lincoln 
 is not far from right when he says that, "God 
 must love the common people because he 
 made so many of them." But remember this. 
 The humble task is as essential as the big one. 
 Pershing represents our army. But he is 
 doing no more than the lowliest private suf- 
 fering in the trenches. Not all our boys will 
 
come home ,vith decorations. But God is 
 mindful of His own. He sees the glory of 
 the forgotten hero. He knows that shoulder 
 straps do not always indicate merit. He 
 knows that there are divine souls on earth 
 who '^sweep the house to the glory of God." 
 Surely quaint was the philosophy of the hod- 
 carrier. "Are you working hard?" queried 
 the stranger. 0, I am just carrying bricks 
 to the top of the building. The fellow on the 
 roof does all the work.' Emerson has re- 
 corded a dialogue between the squirrel and 
 the mountain. Says the mountain to the 
 squirrel: "You cannot carry forests on your 
 back." Answers the squirrel: "Neither can 
 you crack a nut." 
 
 "Let me do my work from day to day, 
 
 In field or forest, at the desk or loom, 
 
 In roaring market place or tranquil room; 
 
 Let me but find it in my heart to say, 
 
 When vagrant wishes beckon me astray. 
 
 This is my work — my blessing, not my doom; 
 
 Of all who live I am the one by whom 
 
 This work can best be done in the right way." 
 
 But we have a right to assume that you 
 have risen beyond the average. You have 
 finished the High School. The master minds 
 of the past have given you of their w^isdom. 
 
 70 
 
The State has paid your way. You are privi- 
 leged and set aside. And while we admit that 
 even the plainest and most ignorant are per- 
 forming valuable service we are also certain 
 that intelligence plus is an asset in any situa- 
 tion. Whether you go into the White House 
 or into the kitchen, whether you write edi- 
 torials or plough corn, whether you shoulder 
 a gun or build a ship, education will facilitate 
 labor and hasten results. Will you pay back 
 your debt to the State which reared these 
 buildings, to the parents who eased your 
 path, to the nation that believes in free citi- 
 zens and free schools? 
 
 Uncle Sam depends on his man power. The 
 Master has need of you. Ships must be built, 
 trains must be run, armies must be equipped. 
 The task is infinite. To feed the babies, to do 
 the chores, to dam the socks, to wash the 
 dishes, to edit the papers, to teach the chil- 
 dren, to write to the soldiers, to improve the 
 roads, to watch the politicians — nothing must 
 remain undone. Civilization is a chain of 
 many links. Neglect one and the chain is 
 broken. Never before have we so keenly ap- 
 preciated the scriptural axiom: "the eye 
 
 71 
 
cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of 
 thee; nor again the head of the feet, I have 
 no need of you." I have noticed that what- 
 ever finger I bruised always appeared to be 
 the most indispensable of all the digits. And 
 whenever a certain class of laborers strike 
 we discover how necessary was their contri- 
 bution to the general welfare. It is proper 
 and right that when our whole civilization is 
 at stake every hand, every eye, every foot, 
 every mind is being conscripted for the sal- 
 vation of the country. When the boys re- 
 turn from the front they will roll back their 
 sleeves or their collars and show the scars 
 they received in fighting the foe. Will you 
 and I have anything to prove that we par- 
 took in the struggle and made some sacri- 
 fices for the rights of men- 
 There are two lines of defense. One in 
 France. That line is formed by the boys in 
 khaki and we pray that it may hold. The 
 second line of defense is at home. It means 
 you and me. It furnishes the morale to the 
 soldier. Behind the eye that aims at the 
 enemy is the heart cheered by a sweetheart's 
 "God-speed." Behind the heroism of the 
 
 72 
 
trenches is the prayer of a faithful mother! 
 We are one nation indivisible. We need the 
 hand, the head and the heart. We need life, 
 light and love. We must fight, farm or 
 finance! Someone was carried away by 
 patriotism and exclaimed "every drop of my 
 blood is red, white and blue!" Certain it is 
 that the great need of the hour are American 
 men and women with plenty of red corpuscles 
 in their blood. The most dangerous appendix 
 to our civilization is the I. W. W. "If any 
 would not work, neither should he eat." 
 
 And the spirit of work is here to stay. Our 
 boys are in touch with other countries. They 
 see France and her wondrous civilization. 
 They will see perfect highways, masterpieces 
 of art. They will see beautified farms and 
 cities ideally planned. They will return with 
 visions enlarged. They will bring to their 
 country whatever is worthy of imitation. 
 After destruction has run its course, recon- 
 struction will begin with passionate zeal. 
 Well may I congratulate you on your youth. 
 You will take part in the coming renaissance. 
 What you have learned in these halls will 
 
 73 
 
equip you for the giant's task. You will be 
 
 the leaders of tomorrow. 
 
 It is difficult to say just what is the work 
 best adapted to our tendencies. Man is not 
 like a sewing machine which comes to the 
 house with a book of directions. Reading the 
 pages the seamstress can easily follow in- 
 structions. But the babe is a myster\^ to the 
 mother. Robert Burns and Martin Luther, 
 William Shakespeare and Peter Dummy, all 
 make their debut as pudgy protoplasms. 
 Wliat was the intention of the Creator ? Our 
 birth is as silent as the sphynx. The book of 
 life will not open its pages. By struggle we 
 discover one syllable after another until we 
 find ourselves in a congenial sphere. It is a 
 great day when you understand your mission 
 on earth. And this is the rule: Not by 
 thought, but by action we come into our own. 
 Doing the duty that lies nearest the circle of 
 our usefulness will gradually broaden until 
 at last we tit into our environment like a cap- 
 stone on the pyramid. The fact that you 
 graduate proves that you were worthy of the 
 pri^'ileges of education. 
 
 Freely you have received, freely give ! Let 
 
 74 
 
others share the light that is within you. Be 
 leaders of those who need guidance. Our 
 country has great faith in human nature. It 
 trusts itself to the voter. It places its wel- 
 fare into the hands of the people. Every 
 ballot should be a lift. But it may be a dag- 
 ger. Power in the hands of a criminal is a 
 terrible thing. A fool entrusted with a torch 
 may become an incendiary. In a monarchy 
 every advantage is given to the ruler. He 
 listens to great teachers of law, of science, 
 of art, of statesmanship. He rises above his 
 fellowmen like a giant above dwarfs. But in 
 a democracy we try to make a giant of the 
 lowliest man. Surely a mighty task. Your 
 government needs your help. You can be 
 useful in training the ignorant that he may 
 understand his privileges as a citizen. You 
 may inspire him with the vision of his coun- 
 try's splendor. You can share with him the 
 mental and moral food whhich you so freely 
 received. Here is your chance. America has 
 the grain, the forests, the prairies, the ore, 
 the cattle and the population. But all the 
 wealth will not suffice when ignorance and 
 graft control the ballot. 
 
 75 
 
I am certain that if every man, v/oman and 
 child in this Republic will do their part in 
 this critical hour we shall not only utterly 
 crush the conqueror's design, but we shall 
 rise from this war the most efficient people 
 in the world. There has been too much ex- 
 travagance, too much idleness, too much 
 waste, too much graft. The storm has broken 
 and the atmosphere is being swept clean of 
 its foul ingredients. Uncle Sam is calling us. 
 Let every one put his hand to the plough. 
 We have adopted the motto: "Do your bit!" 
 But this means limitation. It is better to 
 say: ''Do your best!" Not how little, but 
 how much ! After his famous reply to Hayne 
 Webster was generally applauded as the 
 greatest orator of his time. But amid the 
 general congratulations an old farmer took 
 the speaker's hand and said : "Dan, you have 
 not done your best yet." This gave Webster 
 food for thought. A wonderful oration, but 
 not yet the best ! 
 
 In this spirit I want you to go forth. You 
 have graduated. You have done well. Your 
 parents are proud of you. Your school gives 
 you a certificate. But the best of life is yet 
 
 76 
 
to be, the last for which the first was made ! 
 With your equipment comes your grand op- 
 portunity. Your country has need of you. 
 Go wherever the flag calls you. Whether the 
 task be menial or mental, civil or military, 
 be not a shirker ! "Whatever thy hands find 
 to do, do it with thy might !" 
 
 77 
 
The Climax of History 
 
 Chautaqua lecture at Blue Hill, Neb., 
 Aug. 4th, 1918. 
 
 THIS is a nation of peace-lovers. Our 
 land is rich enough and vast enough 
 and generous enough to give every man 
 a chance to live. We open our harbors to 
 newcomers from all directions. We believe 
 in the ballot, not in the bayonet. A short 
 time ago we had no army and our navy was 
 altogether insignificant. Aeroplanes did not 
 exist. We tried a few of them and they did 
 not seem to work. Europe looked on and 
 was amused. 
 
 But a great change has taken place. We 
 are in the midst of the war. Our shipyards 
 are busy as bee hives. The woodman's ax is 
 heard in the forest. All hands are at work 
 on the farms. We need grain, cattle, horses, 
 
 79 
 
timber, cotton, wool, copper, iron. We hear 
 the ringing of the Liberty Bell : 
 
 "To arms, ye sons of light, 
 And fight for freedom's right, 
 A new day breaks, 
 The world awakes 
 To crush oppression's might; 
 We'd rather die for liberty 
 Than live secure in slavery; 
 Red, White and Blue- 
 Brave, pure and true — 
 Fight till the world is free!" 
 
 Surely a marvelous transformation of our 
 pacific land ! What has happened ? Millions 
 of our young men are crossing the ocean. Our 
 armies are breasting the storm. We hold 
 our own against the military masters of the 
 world. Nothing but the most unbearable 
 provocation could have induced us to aban- 
 don our time-honored policy of peace. For 
 there are limits to pacifism. The story is 
 told of a Christian gentlemen who was struck 
 on the cheek by an unprincipled ruffian. "Why 
 don't you live up to the Bible and offer the 
 other cheek," queried the rowdy. "Very well," 
 said the Christian, and he was struck again. 
 "But now," he added while pulling off his 
 coat, "I have fulfilled the Scriptures. Watch 
 
 80 
 
your step." With a couple of wallops and up- 
 per cuts he rolled Goliath over in the dust. 
 
 Uncle Sam at war reminds me of the statue 
 of Jupiter by Phidias. It is the gigantic fig- 
 ure of a God in sitting posture. So vast are 
 the dimensions that in case he should rise his 
 head would stick through the roof. The 
 world has witnessed this very spectacle. The 
 most peaceful nation has begun to stretch 
 itself and its shadow overtowers all Europe. 
 A few days ago some of our troops met the 
 Fourth Imperial Prussian Division. These 
 are the Kaiser^s crack soldiers. But the boys 
 in khaki held their own. What does this 
 mean? It means that militarism as a meas- 
 ure of efficiency is utterly futile. The Yanks 
 are the equal of any soldiers in the world. 
 After a few months' training they are more 
 than a match for German, French or British 
 troops with long records of preparation. No 
 matter what terms will be agreed upon at the 
 conclusion of the war our country is safe 
 without militarism ! 
 
 We are in the war. This is the outstanding 
 fact. The day of discussion has passed. The 
 hour for action has arrived. We are facing 
 
 81 
 
what Cleveland calls, "a condition, not a 
 theory." This is why we cannot tolerate dis- 
 sent. Free speech is commendable, as long 
 as it does not endanger the very existence of 
 the government which makes free speech per- 
 missible. He that kicks down the ladder on 
 which he has climbed is both a fool and a 
 knave. If Russia had offered a solid front to 
 the enemy, she could never have been con- 
 quered! If the Slavs had had the spirit of 
 Belgium, they would be victors today! Put 
 Bolshivekism on American soil and Old Glory 
 would have to come down. As sure as self- 
 preservation is the first law of life. Uncle 
 Sam will not now tolerate the critic that tears 
 down. Win we must and win we can be- 
 neath the flag of loyalty ? 
 
 There is nothing so good that it might not 
 be better and there is nothing so bad that it 
 could not be worse. And while we can con- 
 ceive of no greater calamity than war, it be- 
 hooves us to look for the silver lining of the 
 cloud. It is unthinkable that such a mighty 
 historical event should have happened with- 
 out some divine purpose. I do not mean to 
 hold God responsible for this conflict. I am 
 
 82 
 
sure that the Infinite is not a party to the 
 transaction. Above the battle 's din we hear 
 the ancient pronunciamento : ''Blessed are 
 the Peace-makers!" The Bible says, ''of- 
 fences must come, but woe to the man by 
 whom they come!" Christ had to be be- 
 trayed, but that does not exonerate Judas. 
 And while no remorse can wash blood from 
 the hands of the war lords, we still hold that 
 the world will rise like a Phoenix rejuvenated 
 over its own ashes. God can make use of 
 Caesar and of Napoeon. He allows Alexander 
 to conquer Persia, thus scattering the knowl- 
 edge of Greek. Shortly afterwards the New 
 Testament, written in Greek, was received 
 and appreciated by the conquered nations. 
 Samson gathered honey from the dead lion. 
 Not otherwise we shall have a purer and a 
 nobler world because of this terrible slaugh- 
 ter. The crosses marking the soldiers graves 
 will be crosses of salvation. Like Calvary 
 they will mean light and life. We have al- 
 ready begun to "gather grapes of thorns and 
 figs of thistles." 
 
 The war has taught us to value the bless- 
 ings of peace. It has taught us to appreciate 
 
 83 
 
the land in which we live. It has called at- 
 tention to the oneness of the human race. 
 Even if we had stayed out of the war we 
 should be sad and bowed down because of the 
 orphans crying for their murdered fathers, 
 the children made homeless by devastating 
 arinies. You cannot have one half of the 
 world in heaven and the other half in hell. 
 God so linked heart to heart that whatever 
 befalls the race befalls us all. I heard of 
 three young men who were roped together 
 as they climbed the Alps. One stumbled and 
 fell, the second fell with him, the third got 
 home safely. But at the little Alpine inn 
 none would speak to him. The host shunned 
 him. His sweetheart shunned him. His 
 mother shunned him. A whisper was heard 
 on every side: ''He cut the rope." No man 
 lives unto himself. As a pain in the body 
 will reach every nerve, so a disorder in hu- 
 man society is bound to touch us all. We 
 cannot cut the rope. 
 
 The war has shown the glory of self-sacri- 
 fice. People have learned to give. Self-denial 
 has become a passion. A new meaning has 
 been given to the petition : "Give us this day 
 
 84 
 
our daily bread." We no longer take things 
 for granted. We realize that we are con- 
 stantly receiving life and nutriment by the 
 grace of God. Waste is looked upon as a 
 crime. In the dark sky there are innumerable 
 stars. Surely the war has a divine purpose. 
 What does it mean? 
 
 This question is not irrelevant. It is su- 
 preme in the human mind. We are so consti- 
 tuted that we must know cause and effect. 
 We look before and after. Unlike the cattle 
 which is content to chew the cud, we inquire 
 into the heart of things. "Whence" and 
 "whither" are problems as old as humanity. 
 They are not easily answered. Especially 
 at the present moment, when civilizations 
 totter and kingdoms perish, philosophy is 
 hard pressed. How will the war end ? What 
 will be the terms of peace ? What will be the 
 effect of this period of destruction? Our 
 statesmen are puzzled. Our prophets are si- 
 lent. Just now the world looks like a laby- 
 rinth. It is all confusion. No light, no exit. 
 A few years ago Germany was considered 
 the land of supreme efficiency. Our young 
 people flocked to her universities, our scien- 
 
 85 
 
tists studied her libraries, our city builders 
 got maps of Hamburg and Dusseldorf . Down 
 goes the idol with a crash! Our ministers 
 copied Teuton theology, our thinkers lauded 
 Nietzsche and Schopenhauer! That, too, is 
 a thing of the past. We spoke of the pen- 
 sions for the old, the kindergarten for the 
 children, the paternalism which benefitted 
 the German public. All of this is effaced from 
 our minds. "Made in Germany" is no longer 
 a label. It is considered a libel. Not long 
 ago we were told that "Hell was made in 
 Germany." 
 
 In stating this fact I have no other pur- 
 pose but to emphasize the fact that nothing 
 human is permanent and that our highest at- 
 tainments are but a mirage in the desert. 
 Where is the glory that was Greece and 
 where the splendor that was Rome? Where 
 are the idols of the Twentieth Century ? Lost 
 in the scrap pile of oblivion ! The great trou- 
 ble of modern civilization was its God-defy- 
 ing arrogance. Like those who rebelled 
 against their Maker and built the tower of 
 Babel, we have reared the building without 
 the Master Mason. The design was faulty 
 
 86 
 
and the hurricane has blown it away! We 
 have planned a program without the Christ 
 and the program has utterly failed. Cynics 
 and atheists have held the rudder. The 
 philosophy of Bernard Shaw has permeated 
 England. France has listened to Zola. Ger- 
 many has bowed to Nietzsche. Whatever 
 difference there may be between these men, 
 they are alike in that they have no faith in 
 God and no love for the Sermon on the Mount. 
 Ask me what these writers have to do with 
 the war and I shall answer: "As a man 
 thinketh in his heart, so he is." I can give 
 you an index to your soul when I look at the 
 books on your library shelf. There is a close 
 relation between hand and head. The French 
 Revolution would not and could not have 
 taken place had not a man named Rousseau 
 written a certain book that made possible 
 this mighty upheaval. 
 
 But back of Zola, Shaw and Nietzsche there 
 is a still darker shadow. I am referring to that 
 science, falsely so called, which would drag 
 man to the level of the brute. It began with 
 Charles Darwin, was perpetuated by Huxley 
 and Spencer and reached the apex of absurd- 
 
 87 
 
ity in Earnest Haeckel of Germany. Gen- 
 erally speaking these men took the vim out 
 of our idealism. They told us that we were 
 nothing but animals, that the soul was not 
 immortal, that morality was a matter of ex- 
 pediency, that "the struggle for existence" 
 and "self-preservation" accounted for prac- 
 tically everything in human history. When 
 their theories were universally accepted, is 
 it a wonder that the ethics of the jungle have 
 monopolized the stage? If we are superior 
 guerillas, why should we have any credo save 
 "might makes right ?" The big fish swallows 
 the little one. The big nation overrides Bel- 
 gium. Militarism means new claws for the 
 beast; why not have militarism? The eagle 
 takes the hawk, the hawk the sparrow, the 
 sparrow the worm. Let us all be eagles ! Let 
 us all be supermen! This was the ruling 
 philosophy. The world became a grab bag. 
 The mailed fist held sway. 
 
 In a general way this policy has been the 
 policy of all great nations. Not long ago 
 President Wilson referred to the Congress of 
 Vienna and called its deliberations "covenants 
 of selfishness and compromise." Russia, 
 
 88 
 
Prussia, Austria and England gathered like 
 vultures around the carcass of Napoleon's 
 empire and began to divide the spoils. They 
 haggled for bargains, using bribes and in- 
 trigues. This was in 1814. Preceding that 
 date we find similar occurences on every page 
 of history. On the face of it such a method 
 is utterly incompatible with the principles of 
 Christianity. He who made many nations 
 and wished each nation to develop its in- 
 herent talents would not encourage the rob- 
 ber barons. 
 
 But while such principles have co-existed 
 with the teaching of the Gospel they were 
 systematically encouraged by the new mate- 
 rialism. Men lost their sense of accountabil- 
 ity to God. Everyone looked after his own 
 interest. The weak were pushed against the 
 wall. The world became an arena. In a 
 volume of sermons I published in 1910 oc- 
 curred this prophecy: "the great Christian 
 nations build their dreadnaughts, arranging 
 for a frightful carnage; our civilization is 
 rent asunder by conflicting interests of rich 
 and poor." That fact was so obvious that I 
 need not pose as a prophet. When Ibsen re- 
 
 89 
 
marked that to him it was immaterial 
 whether the dogs ate the pigs or the pigs the 
 dogs he expressed the cynicism of the age. 
 
 Over against these irritating voices we dis- 
 cern a new note. It comes from the White 
 House. Listen: "The thought of the plain 
 people here and everywhere throughout the 
 world, the people who enjoy no privilege, is 
 the air all governments must henceforth 
 breathe if they would live." Is not this an 
 echo to the words of Christ: "He that oi- 
 fendeth one of these little ones, it were bet- 
 ter that a millstone be tied about his neck ?" 
 Listen again: "When I said that the nations 
 of the world were entitled to free pathways 
 upon the sea I was thinking of our present 
 enemies as well as our present associates." 
 What is this but the application of the Golden 
 Rule. Listen once more: "The hand of God 
 is upon the nations. He will show them 
 favor only if they rise to the clear heights 
 of His own justice and mercy!" What does 
 this mean but a repetition of the ^Master*s 
 words : "Without me ye can do nothing !" 
 
 Such words from the lips of a responsible 
 statesman have thrilled my soul. They make 
 
 90 
 
me look for the dawn. Surely medieval 
 darkness is being swept from the horizon. 
 It was medieval darkness that said: "No 
 mercy will be shown! No prisoners will be 
 taken! As the Huns under Attila made a 
 name for themselves, so may the name of 
 German be fixed in China." It was me- 
 dieval darkness that declared: "the treaty 
 with Belgium is a scrap of paper." Behold 
 the herald of a new day! Says President 
 Wilson : "We believe that our own desire for 
 a new international order, under which rea- 
 son and justice and the common interests of 
 mankind shall prevail, is the desire of en- 
 lightened men everywhere," and on another 
 occasion he boldly expresses the hope that 
 after this war the world may witness a gen- 
 eral disarmament. 
 
 If this is the spirit of our army, we have 
 a right to speak of our boys as "Pershing's 
 Crusaders." The war is lifted out of its nar- 
 row limitations into a world movement of 
 immeasurable dimensions. "The supreme 
 moment of history has come." We are no 
 longer to meet in fratricidal struggle. We 
 are to co-operate in fraternal progress. Out 
 
 91 
 
of the clash of arms will rise the spirit of the 
 new age. Isaiah dreamed of it when he said 
 that, *'swords would be turned into plough 
 shares." Paul prophecied the time when 
 God would be all in all. John saw **the Holy 
 City.'* If we are approaching such marvel- 
 ous results, the war has been a blessing in 
 disguise. It has exterminated infidelity and 
 cynicism. It has banished material stand- 
 ards. It has raised the flag of idealism. All 
 social questions soon become national ques- 
 tions and all national questions soon become 
 religious questions and the deepest theme of 
 history is the conflict between belief and un- 
 belief. Clearly America sounds the note of 
 faith. She identifies her cause with the 
 cause of the Almighty. In this sign we shall 
 conquer. No matter what clever generals 
 may outline the plan of battle, one thing is 
 certain. God will win the war. ''Let us not 
 pray,'* said Lincoln, "that the Almighty 
 should be on our side. Let us make sure that 
 we are on the side of the Almighty." The 
 Christian religion can interpret the problem 
 of the present war. It says that "the whole 
 creation groaneth and waiteth for the mani- 
 
 92 
 
festation of the sons of God." If humanity 
 emerges from this ocean of blood and tears, 
 it will emerge purified and invigorated. It 
 will have reached the greatest attainments 
 which history has recorded. 
 
 93 
 
The Greatest Mother in the World 
 
 Red Cross Speech Delivered in the Public Square of 
 Grant City, Mo., May 18, 1918. 
 
 AT THE invitation of your Council of 
 Defense I am permitted to raise my 
 voice in honor of the Red Cross. And, 
 indeed, if there is one issue vastly overtower- 
 ing all others, an issue which might cause 
 the sphinx to descend from her pedestal and 
 to burst into eloquence, it is this symbol of 
 a world-wide love. Today more than ever, 
 when ancient ties and national agreements 
 have been broken, when diplomats have been 
 sent home and treaties abolished, all civiliza- 
 tion would reel and stagger like a drunken 
 man were it not for this final bulwark of fra- 
 ternity. The world resembles the maiden 
 tossed about by angry waves and cleaving 
 with a last effort to the arms of the cross. 
 
 95 
 
This is the ultimate refuge. Let it break and 
 the deluge will cover all ! 
 
 Woe to Germany if she fails to respect the 
 Red Cross ! Cursed be the gun that aims at 
 this sacred emblem ! Abolish it and the night 
 of the middle ages will overwhelm us. 
 
 The Red Cross can be traced back to Flor- 
 ence Nightingale. It is a creature of the 
 nineteenth century. It is the Greek cross 
 antedating the passion cross to emphasize its 
 world-wide meaning. Even the Turks bow 
 to this symbol. It is red because it is flaming 
 with the fire of love. Above the British lion, 
 the Prussian eagle, the Chinese dragon, aye, 
 even above the Stars and Stripes, it can be 
 clearly discerned. It is the flag of flags. It 
 is the banner of humanity. 
 
 Hatred and prejudice have swept every- 
 thing aside. Art used to furnish interna- 
 tional ties. Goethe, a German, wrote "Faust" 
 and Gounod, a Frenchman, set it to music. 
 Carlyle, a Scotchman, eulogized Teutonic 
 writers and Berlin prided itself on giving 
 more Shakespearian performances than Lon- 
 don. Verdi, an Italian, drew inspiration from 
 Wagner, a German, and Victor Hugo com- 
 
 96 
 
posed a poem adaptable to an air of Beetho- 
 ven. But when war broke loose this graceful 
 bridge was shattered. The dream of poets 
 and the voice of music could not retard the 
 rising tide. 
 
 Science, too, failed to avert the crisis. 
 There has always existed a natural tie be- 
 tween men of science. Oliver Lodge and 
 Ernest Haeckel, Roentgen and Marconi, 
 Eucken and Bergson are bound together by 
 common ideals. True scientists are not an- 
 tagonistic to each other. They are fellow- 
 students in the laboratory of Nature. They 
 are seekers after truth. Their work is not 
 dedicated to any one nation. It is given to 
 the world. But when war was declared this 
 chain was also broken. 
 
 In 1908, while engaged as a teacher in St. 
 John's Seminary, Hamburg, I had the privi- 
 lege of serving as a guide to the British 
 clergy who had gone to Germany to strength- 
 en fraternal ties with that country. Their 
 purpose seemed to be sincere. On the basis 
 of our common religion they advocated a 
 closer union, a heartier fellowship. Speeches 
 of welcome were delivered by representative 
 
 97 
 
bishops and statesmen and the occasion 
 seemed to indicate most wholesome results. 
 Ten years have passed and all this oratory is 
 lost in the cyclone of war. 
 
 Commerce has been variously defined. 
 Roughly speaking it is the art of taking 
 things from where they are plentiful and of 
 putting them where they are needed. Every 
 nation has a very natural reason for wishing 
 this art to flourish. The energy now used in 
 producing ammunition could be much more 
 profitably spent in plowing the fields. Car- 
 lyle expresses this truth in the quaint remark 
 that every time a squaw quarrels with her 
 husband on the banks of the Hudson the 
 price of beaver is being raised by such a 
 waste of words. The United States pays al- 
 most two million dollars per hour for the 
 continuation of the war. Surely, from a ma- 
 terial point of view war is a poor investment. 
 But when the crisis came money considera- 
 tions could not hold us back. Commerce is a 
 mighty factor, but there are things mightier 
 than commercial ties. The President has 
 pledged this nation to the last man and to the 
 last dollar. Let the world take notice. America 
 
is the most idealistic nation on earth. 
 
 I do not hold that this war could have been 
 averted. Our government hesitated a long 
 time. Mr. Wilson was so patient that some 
 became impatient. But the President realized 
 all the war would mean. He would not take 
 the step unless it was inevitable in the light 
 of honor and right. But having come to the 
 conclusion that justice and humanity de- 
 manded a decision, he pledged the whole na- 
 tion until victory would be assured. The 
 spirit of the nation was well expressed by the 
 American officer who, w^hen asked by a for- 
 eign general how deep the American line 
 really was replied : "It reaches from No Man's 
 Land to San Francisco." 
 
 From our viewpoint the war was inevitable. 
 On the face of this globe there is not room 
 enough for two irreconcilable principles, em- 
 bodied by our government on the one hand 
 and Hohenzollerism on the other. William II 
 not only told us that he wanted a place in the 
 sun, but he began to put out the lights of the 
 world. Under such circumstances the sword 
 had to be unsheathed and it will not be 
 sheathed until the flag of feudalism has gone 
 
 99 
 
down forever ! We have believed in the serv- 
 ices of diplomacy, in conferences at the 
 Hague, in kindly messages and fraternal 
 greetings. We have progressed without 
 armies and navies. But when the sword is 
 forced into our hands we shall use force, force 
 without stint and limit, until the believers in 
 force are forced to forever surrender their 
 credo of force. This is the real meaning of 
 the war. 
 
 Art and science and commerce failed, 
 when the great nations met in deadly slaugh- 
 ter, but the Red Cross did not go down. It 
 is the last hope of the millions who were the 
 innocent victims of unscrupulous rulers. Na- 
 tional ties are now stronger and grander than 
 ever before, but international ideals are natu- 
 rally wanting. And yet, what is more pre- 
 cious than a common basis where we at last 
 can meet. When the sword has been put back 
 in its scabbard, when militarists have been 
 humbled and humanity been reinstated, when 
 the wounds that have been inflicted must be 
 healed, where shall we go? We must meet 
 at the heart of the Greatest Mother. We 
 
 100 
 
must find ourselves in the soul of the Red 
 Cross. 
 
 Our boys have gone to foreign battlefields. 
 Shivering in the trenches, besieged by ver- 
 min and rats, enveloped by shot and shell, 
 face to face with mutilation and death, thou- 
 sands of miles from their mothers and sweet- 
 hearts, aye, from the land they love — who 
 can sustain them against such odds except 
 this flag of flags which follows them whither- 
 soever they may be sent. They know that 
 they will not lie forgotten on lonely fields. 
 They know that the Red Cross nurse will 
 minister to their needs and symbolize in her 
 lofty devotion all that is worth while in this 
 struggling world. Just as the sun is the light 
 of day, so love is the light of the heart. It 
 is the true morale without which no army 
 can win, no soldier do his best. Wherever 
 Old Glory leads the Red Cross must follow. 
 The one means duty, the other means love. 
 They belong together. 
 
 While it is only natural that each nation 
 favors its own patriots, the Red Cross is 
 boundless as the sky. It has no limit. Even 
 the wounded foe will be looked after. The 
 
 101 
 
story is told of two soldiers, one a Russian 
 and the other a Pole, who lay side by side, 
 each with a deadly wound in his breast. The 
 Russian, rising with a last effort, called for 
 a drop of water. The Pole, thinking him to 
 be a Pole, rose to help his comrade. But he 
 recognized the uniform of the foe. With a 
 last effort he flung his arms around the Rus- 
 sion and would not let go until his enemy was 
 strangled. With his dying breath he re- 
 ported this dead of patriotism. But if the 
 Red Cross had found these two men they 
 would not look at the uniforms. They would 
 not discriminate. They would only realize 
 that they were dealing with two brave sol- 
 diers who had fought valiantly for what they 
 had considered their duty, two heroic men 
 who were suffering from painful wounds, two 
 human souls ready to return to the Father 
 of all men, two hearts crying out in anguish 
 and loneliness. They would pour ointment 
 into their wounds, would comfort their shat- 
 tered souls, would lighten them home with a 
 last token of sympathy and love and comfort. 
 The battle of Santiago presents two power- 
 ful scenes. The Spanish fleet is escaping 
 
 102 
 
from the harbor. As soon as it shoots into 
 view the big guns of the American battle- 
 ships come into action. One after the other 
 the Spanish ships become mountains of flame. 
 The hapless Spaniards, mutilated and roasted 
 alive in the hulls of the ships, try to escape 
 by leaping into the water. The sharks await 
 their victims. Fearful screams can be clearly 
 discerned. Schley is the victor of the day. 
 But there is another picture. The white flag 
 has gone up. The guns are immediately si- 
 lenced and the American admiral orders the 
 launching of rescue boats. Everywhere the 
 wounded are being picked up. Their fevered 
 heads rest on cool pillows. Kindly faces bend 
 over them. Chaplains offer prayers at their 
 bedside. It was Old Glory that served the 
 nation ; it was the Red Cross that served hu- 
 manity. How significant that in the pur- 
 poses of the war our President has empha- 
 tically united the cause of the nation and the 
 cause of humanity ! 
 
 The service rendered by the Red Cross to 
 the wounded is perhaps the most conspicuous 
 of its duties. But the activity of this organi- 
 zation is practically without bounds. When 
 
 103 
 
the weary soldier returns and finds his home 
 burned, his children gone, he stands at the 
 brink of despair. What has life in store for 
 him after his loved ones are gone? While 
 he gazes into this abyss he feels a kindly 
 hand on his shoulder and a sympathetic voice 
 advising him. Soon he is taken to a little 
 cottage, where the little ones have been taken 
 care of while father faced the foe. There is 
 his good wife welcoming him with love's 
 holiest kiss. With new life and inspiration 
 he returns to his post of duty. When life 
 seemed darkest he beheld one star. Yes, he 
 will never forget the greatest mother of them 
 all — the Red Cross. 
 
 If we admire the strong arm that shoul- 
 ders a gun and shoots the enemy, let us not 
 forget the hand that heals the wound and 
 comforts the helpless! While we place lau- 
 rels on the brow of the victor who slew the 
 foe let us remember the noble figure who ap- 
 peared to the dying like a vision from heaven ! 
 Let us recall the blessing of Him who men- 
 tioned those who gave a cup of cold water to 
 the least of these! Our ideas of right and 
 wrong are not always clear and many an ac- 
 
 104 
 
tion applauded by men may not stand in the 
 presence of God. But one flower will never 
 fade, one star will never be extinguished, one 
 virtue will never grow old. That is the mis- 
 sion of mercy. 
 
 I am proud to note that the American peo- 
 ple have a stronger Red Cross organization 
 than any other people on earth. When it 
 comes to money contributions all classes 
 hasten to help in this movement. Again and 
 again the government has appealed for help 
 and again and again the response has been 
 generous, glad, universal. Help for the Bel- 
 gians, help for the Serbians, help for the 
 French, help for the Armenians, help for the 
 widows and help for the orphans ! Somehow 
 we seem to realize the words of Cardinal New- 
 man : "Remember we are all living in a hospi- 
 tal." Everybody needs help, encouragement, 
 sympathy, comfort. What nobler use for the 
 hand than to bind the painful wound of a 
 brother fallen among thieves? What better 
 use for the tongue than to utter words of 
 cheer ? What holier use for the feet than to 
 follow the strugglers into the dark unknown? 
 
 105 
 
What worthier use for money than to assist 
 in this cause? 
 
 When will peace come? 
 
 When the lips of "patriots" are dumb 
 
 Throughout the world; 
 
 When the pure white flag of humankind 
 
 Shall be unfurled. 
 
 When will war die? 
 
 When from every land beneath the sky 
 
 "Laws" shall have passed, 
 
 And the higher, truer law of Love 
 
 Shall bind men fast. 
 
 Our country stands for universal justice 
 and for universal love. She is the herald of 
 a new day, the morning star of a nobler 
 civilization. Whenever our flag goes down 
 night has come for the human race. Where- 
 ever our flag will go we shall have liberty and 
 the square deal. Some years ago I returned 
 to Germany and looked for my old associates. 
 Many things were changed. The houses 
 looked different. My friends were scattered. 
 Among the aristocrats and bureaucrats of 
 the empire I felt quite out of place. I had no 
 "von" in front of my name and I had no mili- 
 tary decorations. I was just a plain Ameri- 
 can. A feeling of intense isolation came over 
 
 106 
 
me and I was truly a stranger in the land of 
 my birth. Suddenly as I turned the corner 
 of the street my sight was cheered by a won- 
 derful sight. There, on the roof of the Ameri- 
 can consulate, behold my flag, my country's 
 symbol, Old Glory unfurled to the breeze. 
 Then I knew by the throbbing of my heart 
 that I was every inch an American citizen. 
 And why do we love our flag beyond all 
 others. Because like the flag of the Red Cross 
 it means something to all the world ! 
 
 107 
 
Why I am an American 
 
 Speech delivered in Tulsa, Okla., Sept. 29, 1917. 
 
 SINCE the beginning of this war we have 
 been deluged with pessimism. We are 
 told that this is the darkest period in 
 history. Men representing the pulpit tell us 
 that the world is coming to an end and men 
 opposing the pulpit aver that Christianity- 
 has proven a failure. However much they 
 may disagree in their policies, they concur in 
 the sinister interpretation of the present 
 catastrophe. 
 
 But if it is true that the night is dark, it 
 is als true that because of the night we can 
 see the stars! Behold the wave of idealism 
 rising at the White House an^ touching in 
 ever-widening circles the shores of all hearts ! 
 We think big thoughts: liberty, justice, hu- 
 manity. We use gigantic language: ''the 
 
 109 
 
world safe for democracy." The humblest 
 citizen broadens his vision and feels himself 
 a part of universal history. The common sol- 
 dier realizes that he is an actor in the drama 
 of God. A chain of sympathy has bound the 
 race together. It was reserved for our age, 
 after centuries of infidelity and cynicism, to 
 recover as a basis of international dealing the 
 sermon on the mount ! 'The most vitalizing 
 thing in the world is Christianity," says 
 Woodrow Wilson. Those who have followed 
 the course taken by our President will agree 
 that the outstanding feature of all his words 
 is the application of Christ's teaching to in- 
 ternational ideals. 
 
 If this is true, who will say that the war 
 is an unmitigated evil? Truly the time has 
 come when men must learn the art of gather- 
 ing grapes of thorns, to find the lily in the 
 swamp, to see the stars reflected in the gut- 
 ter ! I do not like to admit it, but it cannot be 
 denied that we needed a good shaking-up. 
 We have had long eras of prosperity and all 
 that we reaped therefrom was a double chin 
 and a pleasant indifference to things ideal. 
 Self-sacrifice had become a poet's dream. 
 
 110 
 
"Jehurun waxed fat and kicked." Out of the 
 deluge came the rainbow, out of the Civil war 
 a united nation and out of this conflict a re- 
 juvenated world! 
 
 Some of us did not know patriotism until 
 our loyalty was put to a test. Columbus did 
 not discover all there was of America, neither 
 did Amerigo Vespucci. We are just getting 
 a hold on it now. Our country has definite 
 ideals. We have a mission in the history of 
 nations. And if there are people still blind 
 toward the innumerable blessings of Ameri- 
 can citizenship, we shall apply to them the 
 words of the guide to a girl in the Louvre, 
 who captiously remarked : "I do not like these 
 pictures" — " 'Excuse me, it is the visitors, 
 not the pictures, who are on trial here.' " He 
 who condemns our country condemns him- 
 self! 
 
 I am an American because I believe in re- 
 ligious liberty. That they might have free- 
 dom to worship God the Pilgrim Fathers 
 came to these shores. We do not want the 
 state to regulate religion. In countries where 
 the government controls the conscience of 
 its citizens oppression has caused spiritual 
 
 111 
 
indifference and hatred of the church. "Give 
 to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what 
 is God's." We admit that the state churches 
 of Europe are more imposing than our places 
 of worship. But it is better to commune 
 with your God in the humblest meeting house 
 than to worship in cathedrals where the gov- 
 ernment cages the soul. We must also admit 
 that freedom of the conscience has caused 
 the rise of innumerable sects. But again it 
 is better to have a separate church for every 
 individual than to have thumbscrews on the 
 soul. Give me the thunder and lightning of 
 thought! Beecher and Brooks can show 
 forth the glory of the Gospel and Ingersoll 
 can assail it. Truth need not be afraid. Con- 
 troversy will clear the issue. Friction will 
 brighten the blade of faith. On the sojl of 
 America everyone can worship according to 
 the dictates of his conscience. To every creed 
 we apply the ancient declaration: If it is of 
 God, it will live ; if it is of men, it will perish. 
 Error is harmless where truth is left free to 
 defeat it. When some ten years ago I visited 
 Hamburg the mighty churches were prac- 
 
 112 
 
tically empty. The free church of America 
 is one of our greatest blessings. 
 
 Again, I am an American because this is 
 the land of social equality. Beneath our flag 
 we recognize nothing superior to the average 
 citizen. We bow to no titles. We have no 
 blue bloods. A London butler, addressing an 
 American bishop: *'My lord, the bishop," re- 
 ceived the reply : "The bishop, my lord !" Peo- 
 ple can, of course, get together and constitute 
 themselves as "the upper ten." But this is 
 a little fad of their own, giving them a great 
 deal of pleasure and doing no harm to the 
 rest of us. The typical American is not to 
 be found in the mansions of the idle rich. He 
 does not live in king's houses and wear soft 
 raiment. The typical American is the pioneer 
 who blazed his way through the wilderness. 
 His is the vision splendid. He dreamed of a 
 golden California and with this dream in his 
 soul he trekked through soggy forests and 
 barren sands. Beneath the canopy of his 
 prairie schooner he has visions as vast as 
 those of Jacob. This man, firm of purpose 
 and lofty of spirit, this hero of forest and 
 field, this conqueror of barriers, this indomin- 
 
 113 
 
table soul is our great representative — the 
 American pioneer ! He holds the heart of our 
 country as the acorn holds the oak. With his 
 picture firmly fixed on the wall of its memory 
 the present will rise to a mighty future ! May 
 our children never forget that the greatest 
 President who ever graced the White House 
 came from a log cabin. It was Abraham 
 Lincoln. There always will be people who will 
 try to pervert the principles of advancing de- 
 mocracy. But those who can read our rec- 
 ords unbiased and intelligently will never 
 cease to emphasize the fact that America's 
 glory is her recognition of social equality. 
 
 Again, I am an American because our land 
 offers the greatest industrial opportunities. 
 This does not mean that we have solved every 
 problem pertaining to capital and labor. 
 There are still many issues that will have to 
 be met before we can claim the ideal. But 
 every year legislation tightens around the 
 wrist of greed. Our nation, which shed her 
 best blood for the liberation of the black man, 
 will not allow little children to perish in 
 sweat shops nor will she tolerate the hovel 
 and the tenement house. No human agency 
 
 114 
 
is strong enough to settle at once the prob- 
 lems of a hundred million people. But the 
 day is dawning in the social conscience. Be- 
 cause we asked the question "who is my 
 neighbor?" we have sent our young manhood 
 to foreign fields of battle. When they return 
 with laurels on their brow, when Belgian or- 
 phans have been placed into pleasant homes 
 and French cripples have been cared for, then 
 we shall begin to ask with zeal renewed: 
 ''what can we do to aid the weak and help- 
 less in our midst?" The poorest American 
 child has a right to play. The humblest citi- 
 zen has a right to be protected against un- 
 lawful greed. We shall not permit the policy 
 of the boy who, when asked why he did not 
 share the sled with his weaker brother, gave 
 the saucy reply : **I do ; he pulls it up hill and 
 I ride it down hill." America is the land of 
 industrial opportunity. She pays larger wages 
 to her workingman than any country on 
 earth. She has a higher regard for his dig- 
 nity as a man. She puts him on the level 
 with his employer. She starts him in life 
 alongside of the son of the millionaire by that 
 greatest of all American institutions — the lit- 
 
 115 
 
tie red schoolhouse! Three cheers for our 
 public school ! 
 
 Finally, I am an American because this is 
 a land of civic democracy. The people rule. 
 Higher than Congress, higher than the Presi- 
 dent is the tribunal of public opinion. Our 
 great statesmen are they who have their ear 
 to the ground. Lincoln said that we could 
 not fool all the people all the time and Lin- 
 coln's greatness consisted in the fact that he 
 was the very voice and expression of the 
 American people. Not otherwise war could 
 have been declared. The President knew 
 himself a minister and servant of the people. 
 He felt the pulse of the public and when 
 Congress finally voted to enter the conflict it 
 was because they had heard from home. Men 
 in an autocracy do not understand this. For 
 some time they have scoffed at the possibility 
 of democratic rule. But when I review 140 
 years of American history I am amazed of 
 what has been accomplished in so short a 
 time. I do not believe that either Washing- 
 ton or Jefferson could ever have dreamed of 
 the marvelous growth of their own princi- 
 ples. After our country has shipped two 
 
 116 
 
million soldiers across the sea and is pro- 
 ceeding to ship five million more let no one 
 say that our government is inefficient. Amer- 
 ica has been the marvel of her friends and 
 foes. She will decide the destiny of the 
 world. I am proud to be an American. 
 
 I admit that perfection is still a long way 
 off. We have "citizens" who will sell their 
 votes for a drink of whisky. We have "citi- 
 zens" who never do their duty at the polls 
 and afterwards howl because the country is 
 going to damnation. If anything is wrong in 
 America, the fault is not the fault of the 
 country. The fault is ours. We have been 
 the slackers. We have failed to appreciate 
 the land of civic democracy. A man who en- 
 joys the privileges of this flag and fails to 
 recognize the duties of citizenship has no 
 place under the folds of Old Glory. He be- 
 longs under the heel of the kaiser or under 
 the Russian knout. Read those two letters — 
 so full of meaning — U. S. Read them again ; 
 they mean "usl" 
 
 There may be flaws in our national policies, 
 but they who doubt democracy on account of 
 such flaws are like the fool who set the house 
 
 117 
 
afire because the plumbing was out of order. 
 They see the hole in the doughnut and do 
 not see the doughnut. The war will force us 
 to study the principles of our republic. Men 
 will learn more patriotism this year than 
 they have learned since the end of the Civil 
 war. Ignorance will die a natural death. It 
 is dangerous to give the ballot to ignorance. 
 Thus the torch which should mean light will 
 mean destruction. Placing the ballot into the 
 hands of the uninformed is to tie firebrands 
 to foxes' tails and to turn them loose amid 
 the standing corn ! The thing most needful 
 today is an intelligent Americanism. Learn 
 to know your country and you cannot but 
 love it ! 
 
 We have condemned Germany because she 
 planned to conquer. We, too, desire to con- 
 quer the world. But we do not want to take 
 territory with the sword. We do not want to 
 set aside the rights of other nations. We 
 want to conquer with the truth. We want to 
 win the world with the square deal. We want 
 all nations to know that if a child is born in 
 the palace of Potsdam it has no more crown 
 on its head than the babe which God gives 
 
 118 
 
to the lowliest peasant. These truths are 
 self-evident. They come with the force of 
 the rising tide. They will soon flood the 
 world and Germany herself will take her 
 place with the democracies of mankind. Ger- 
 many will rue the day when she bowed to the 
 ambitions of Bismarck. What benefit is it to 
 the German mother that Alsace-Lorraine is 
 ruled by the Teutons ? Is it worth the death 
 of her child? What is the use of conquered 
 territory? It does not enrich the conqueror. 
 No, as soon as he has conquered he carries a 
 live fox under his belly band. Conquered ter- 
 ritory means additional responsibility; it 
 means extension of administration. England 
 owns half the world, but the people in Eng- 
 land are not richer than the people in Swit- 
 zerland or Holland. Russia is vast in terri- 
 tory, but her common people have almost 
 nothing. If our country will defeat Germany, 
 she will give to the German people a blessing 
 in disguise. She will defeat the Germany of 
 the militarists. She will restore the Ger- 
 many of art and letters, the Germany of the 
 peaceful past. 
 
 What boundless conceit in this policy 
 
 119 
 
known as Pan-Germanism! I cannot under- 
 stand how any intelligent man could dream 
 of such a monstrosity! The world has been 
 generous in appreciating Germany's contribu- 
 tion to civilization. Our young people have 
 studied at Leipzig and at Munich. Our mu- 
 sicians have gone to Berlin. A degree from 
 German universities has been placed at the 
 highest value. Is it because of this fact that 
 the Germans want it all ? The greatest mod- 
 ern inventor is Marconi, an Italian ; the brain- 
 iest thinker, Bergson, a Frenchman; the 
 most important statesman, Wilson, an Amer- 
 ican. Does Germany claim supremacy on 
 account of her military machine? We have 
 seen that our boys after six months' training 
 are more than a match for the Kaiser's crack 
 regiments ! 
 
 Germany is one key on the organ and woe 
 to the world if its civilization is but one key. 
 The music of God is made of that harmony 
 which comes from the co-operation of all 
 nations. Representatives of all peoples have 
 come to our shores. They have made their 
 homes here. They have merged their ideals 
 with ours. In a sense we are an international 
 
 120 
 
nation, and if any nation could reasonably 
 meet the demands of civilization, it might be 
 ours, because French and German, Greek and 
 Italian, Belgian and Serbian meet on our 
 soil. Here all nations co-operate. But it 
 never has occurred to any of our statesmen 
 to think of Pan-Americanism. We do not 
 wish to coerce our neighbors. We let Mexico 
 work out her own salvation and we do not 
 interfere with the national aspirations of the 
 republics of the south. Only in the bigoted 
 brains of the Bismarcks and the Bernhardis 
 such nightmares could be evolved ! 
 
 In the early history of our navy Captain 
 Paul Jones gave voice to patriotism: "This 
 flag and I are twins ; we cannot be parted in 
 life or death. So long as we can float we shall 
 float together. If we must sink, we will go 
 down as one!" After a century of heroic 
 records cannot we say as much? Never be- 
 fore has the flag meant as much as today! 
 Never before has the world recognized it as 
 it recognizes it today ! Do you know the soul 
 of **01d Glory," its holy significance ? 
 
 The story is told of an American boy who 
 with his father visited the world's fair in a 
 
 121 
 
foreign land. At night they went to the Hall 
 of Flags, a vast amphitheatre under the open 
 sky. The boy admired the emblems of the 
 different nations. "What is that lion, father," 
 he queried. 'That is the flag of Great Bri- 
 tain.'^ "And that eagle?" "The eagle of Prus- 
 sia." "And that dragon?" "The dragon of 
 China." The boy looked around and suddenly 
 he added with a plaintive voice : "And where, 
 father, is the American flag?" The father 
 looked around and did not see it. But it was 
 a beautiful summer night. The stars had 
 come out and shone in wondrous lustre from 
 the wide, blue sky. An inspiration seized the 
 father: "Look up, my son, behold the heav- 
 ens, star-spangled and beautiful! Men may 
 forget your flag, but God has unrolled it 
 above all the world, the symbol of liberty and 
 love, the hope of the human race !" 
 
 May our patriotism be as pure as that ! We 
 are a peace-loving people. We prefer to de- 
 vote our minds to the pursuits of brotherly 
 concourse. But if we must fight, let us fight 
 like men with an ideal ! Let us fight till we 
 win, and after we have won let all the world 
 be blessed by our victory ! 
 
 122 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Your Flag and My Flag 5 
 
 Freighted with Sacred Memories 21 
 
 American Ideals 37 
 
 Our Heritage 5 1 
 
 Uncle Sam Using His Man Power 65 
 
 The Climax of History 79 
 
 The Greatest Mother in the World 95 
 
 Why I Am an American 109