Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1917 — “Americanism” Goal Toward Which the World Has Aimed Since Time Began [ARTICLE]

“Americanism” Goal Toward Which the World Has Aimed Since Time Began

By Representative Burton E. Sweet

of lowa

To me “Americanism” is one of the grandest words in the English language. It has become symbolical of civil and religious liberty on the western continent. It represents the shining goal toward which the human race- has been tending since lime began. We find epitomized in it the struggles, the hopes, the dreams and the aspirations of man for better days and better things since the time when he cringed and crawled in the dens and caverns of barbarism, and groped and felt his way through the long night of the stagnant centuries toward the dawn of a grander day up to the present hour when we behold him revealed, standing upright, with the sunlight of heaven in his face, or walking with uncovered head beneath the silent stars, contemplating as to the handiwork of the Creator and the betterment of the human race. Americanism is the new civilization. Americanism has become synonymous with the spirit of civil and religious freedom throughout the world. With us and all thinking men Americanism has become like a mighty and ever-widening stream. Its source lies hidden somewhere in the swamps and lowlands of barbarism. Its origin is coeval with the human race. It has been fed by passing clouds that drop their garnered fullness down, by innumerable rills that gush from the mountainside, by springs that well up into its unseen depths, and by subterranean rivers that joyously swell its everincreasing volume as it moves on in solemn majesty toward the eternal sea. On its surface serenely rides our ship of state, amid the storms of war, unchecked by devious currents or adverse winds that blow. ’ “The hopes of humanity are hanging breathless on its fate.” The waters at times seem troubled, but our course is plain. An enlightened public opinion is our pilot and our Constitution is our chart and compass. Let the stream of Americanism flow on until it engulfs the world. Let it flow on until all the races and all the children of men shall receive its blessings and enjoy its energizing and revivifying influences. Let it flow on until it ends with the consummation of all things earthly at the throne of God. »