Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 233, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1920 — Americanism [ARTICLE]

Americanism

By LEONARD WOOD

It is all right and inevitable that we should divide on party line*, bat woe to us if we are not Americans first and party men second.—Theodore Roosevelt: Speech September 2, 1902.

Theodore roosevelt believed that when the nation’s life was at stake Americanism should know no party except the one which the word implies, a gathering into one party of all men when matters vital to the country are at issue. The strength of Roosevelt’s words .shows how solemnly he regarded the obligation of every citizen of the United States to be first an American and something else afterward. In. times of great national peril party lines almost entirely disappear, as in the war when the Republicans supported the administration almost without question. If the day should come when they do not, the beginning of the end is not far off. Seemingly It Is so obvious a thing that considerations of country should rise superior to those of party that it may seem almost useless to stress the point It is necessary, however, to do so today because there are groups in this country which, while they may call themselves political parties, are not truly such. Men recently, not In great numbers, it is true, but In large enough groups to cause some apprehension, have been advocating theories 'which if turned into actual conditions would put a false idealism above tryIt is the endeavor of these men to paint on the canvas a picture alluringly beautiful, but which is a picture only. Roughly speaking, it represents every man as the follower of his own inclinations and desires without regard to the welfare of the members of the community as a body. It is a picture of government without a government—a free-to-do-as-you-wlll sort of portrayal which can appeal only to the passions of men. When these painters turn preachers and urge'that their false ideas be accepted, it might seem perhaps that they would be dangerous only to’ the unthinking. The trouble is, however, that many of them buttress their pleas with arguments which seemingly have weight. It is for the stable minded to offset with plain statements of fact the attempts of the enemies of good government to destroy existing institutions.