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PROBLEM OF ALIENS

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ship do not in any way imply that the good citizen, man or woman, should omit the work for war organization-Red Cross, Special Aid, and Food Conservation. But, Preparedness means Intelligent Thinking and Intelligent Co-operation concerning the acts which make up every-day citizenship in the community. It is this intelligence which we wish to create at this psychological moment.

(Economics of Citizenship, Bulletin II.)

I. [$295] PROBLEM OF THE ALIENS.

See $128 above.

1. Specific References on the Section.

Van Dyne. Citizenship.

Scott, J. B. Reference on Citizenship.

2. Descendants of Aliens.

(a) The status of all citizens of the United States except Indians. (b) Citizens born in America other than of English descent.

(c) Children of the foreign born.

3. Naturalized Aliens.

(a) Ease of naturalization.

(b)

(c)

Number of naturalized aliens.

Status of those who have filed "first papers" (declaration of intention).

(d) Aliens from allied countries.

(e) Aliens from Germany and other central powers.

4. Alien Friends.

(a) From neutral nations.

(b) From allied nations.

(c)

Question of obligatory service in the American Army.

(d) Question of service for armies of the country of their origin.

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(f) Internment of vessel crews.

(g) Seizure of vessel property.

(h) Possible internment of residents and aliens.

6. Documents and Extracts on the Section.

(a) [$296] Confidence in German Citizens.

BY GEORGE A. PLIMPTON.

We in the United States trace our origin to no one nationality. While our original settlers before the Revolutionary War were the English, Spanish, French and Germans, since then every nationality on the face of the earth has contributed more or less to the upbuilding of our country. The greatness of America and the position which it holds in the world today are due to no one of these races, but to the contributions of all. Our country has been rightly called the melting pot of the world. Here all races become Americans.

GERMAN-AMERICAN CITIZENS.

A war with the mother country of any of our fellow-citizens should make the rest of us exceedingly charitable and liberal towards these fellow-citizens in all our dealings. We should take especial care to guard ourselves from taking an attitude of suspicion towards them. We should always act on the assumption, stated in some of our German-American newspapers, "They are now American citizens, and they should be treated as American citizens." Of course, if any overt act should be committed the offenders will be punished.

My feeling is, however, that in case of a war with Germany we should find that some of the very strongest upholders of our Government would be our German-American citizens, whether naturalized or not. I cannot conceive of any German here wishing to see America worsted. There are many reasons why we should feel confident of the patriotism of our German population.

WHY THE GERMANS CAME HERE.

In the first place, the Germans have come to this country to better their condition, and statistics show that no part of our population have prospered more generally or contributed more to the prosperity of the community. Successful Germans will be found in every class of our population: our bankers, our manufacturers, our farmers, our educators, our musicians, our scientists, our skilled mechanics, and these classes all add to our lawabiding citizens.

Second, a large number of our German population came to this country to escape the very institution for which Germany now predominantly stands before the world—her military system. They do not believe that a nation should be dominated by its military caste-they believe that the army and the navy should be subject to the civil authorities.

Third, while those whose early life was spent in Germany naturally have an affection for the home country-just as Englishmen have for England, Frenchmen for France and the Spaniard for Spain-this affection is not so dominating or so unaffected by reason as to lead the German to stand by Germany, right or wrong, or to approve of unlawful acts which she may commit.

Another thing for us to remember, too, is that the major part of our German population is not of recent immigration, but has been here for at least a full generation, and their German ideas and feelings are honeycombed, so to speak, by American influences.

WAR WITH THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.

I feel, therefore, that we have no reason to doubt the loyalty of our German fellow-citizens, in any event. I have also confidence in the sanity and tolerance of all Americans. As a people, we must bear in mind, in case of a war, that the war is with the German Government, and not with the German people.

Japan, notwithstanding her stand with the Allies and against Germany, is not only allowing the Germans within her borders to transact their business and go about their work unmolested,

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but she is treating these Germans with especial courtesy and graciousness, considering that these Germans are her guests. Surely America can be even more just and generous to our fellow-citizens of German descent.

(Independent, LXXXIX, 346; Feb. 26, 1917.)

(b) [8297] To Our Citizens of German Descent.

BY GUSTAVUS OHLINGER.

(Mr. Ohlinger is a lawyer of Toledo, Ohio. His book, Their True Faith and Allegiance, published a year or more ago, called the attention of the American people for the first time to the perils involved in the widespread net of German propaganda in the United States.)

ARE GERMAN-AMERICANS ISOLATED?

"Have we deceived ourselves? Are we Americans of German descend staanding in the way of our own progress? Why are we isolated in this country of our adoption? Why, in this crisis, this feeling of estrangement which meets us on every side?"

These questions, recently propounded by a newspaper published in the German language, are the most promising indication that has come from the German language press for many years. Many German-Americans are asking themselves the same questions. That they may result in serious heart-searching is the prayer of every patriotic American who has the welfare not only of his country, but of every section of its population at heart.

The German element in the United States finds itself isolated' because for twenty years it has been deceived and led astray by men who have sought to exploit its traditions and sentiments: for ulterior ends. Some of these would-be leaders have been paid emissaries of the German Government-others, mere nonentities, who, flattered by decorations, gewgaws and audiences bestowed by the "All-Highest," have bartered themselves to further the aims of Pan-Germanism. For twenty years these false prophets have been industriously spreading the tenets of Kultur in the United States, telling Americans of German descent of Anglo-Saxon decadence, extolling German scientific and industrial efficiency, deluding and flattering their hearers with a sense of racial superiority as compared with other elements in our population, warning them against the jealousies and enmities of the "nativists," "Anglo-Americans," and others, and urging them to maintain racial solidarity, so that they might participate in the glories of the day when German thought, German science, and the German language would dominate the world.

GERMAN LANGUAGE PRESS.

Twenty years ago the German language press had fulfilled its mission--the only mission which it ever had in this country— that of serving as a medium between the German immigrants of the 80's and their new environment in the United States. In the 90's that immigration practically ceased, and the German

language press was presented with the alternatives of either adopting the language of the country or of facing extinction. Just at this juncture it received an artificial recrudescence from this new propaganda. It prolonged its life as an alien language press by making itself the mistress and hand-maid of PanGermanism.

EFFECT OF. KULTUR.

Kultur has produced its proper fruit in the theory of the state as supreme over the individual, a theory that denies to government every moral attribute and makes power devoid of every ethical consideration the only end to be attained. Against this Frankenstein we invoke the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, with its concept of government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.

Let our German-American friends expel these false prophets in their midst, renounce forever Kultur and all its works and turn to the life-giving principles which underlie our government. In countless churches throughout this land congregations daily repeat the Apostles' Creed. No believer has ever suggested that this frequent iteration was a reflection either upon his faith or his piety.

Let our citizens of German descent, by word and deed, pledge again and again their devotion to their country and its ideals. Their isolation and their estrangement will cease and they will be children in their father's house.

(Vigilantes Special Service.)

(c) [§298] The Children of the Crucible.

DRAFTED BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT; SIGNED BY OSCAR S. STRAUS AND MANY OTHER PERSONS OF FOREIGN DESCENT. (September 11, 1917.)

THE MELTING POT.

We Americans are the children of the crucible. It has been our boast that out of the crucible, the melting pot of life in this free land, all the men and women of all the nations who come hither emerge as Americans and as nothing else; Americans who proudly challenge as a right, not as a favor, that they "belong" just exactly as much as any other Americans and that they stand on a full and complete equality with them; Americans therefore, who must, even more strongly, insist that they have renounced completely and without reserve, all allegiance to the lands from which they or their forefathers came, and that it is a binding duty on every citizen of this country in every important crisis, to act solidly with all his fellow Americans, having regard only to the honor and interest of America and treating every other nation purely on its conduct in that crisis, without reference to his ancestral predilections or antipathies. he does not so act, he is false to the teachings and the lives of Washington and Lincoln, he is not entitled to any part or lot in our country, and he should be sent out of it. If he does not act purely as an American, he shows that in his case the crucible

If

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CHILDREN OF THE CRUCIBLE

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has failed to do its work. The crucible must melt all who are cast in it; it must turn them out in one American mould; and this must be the mould shaped a hundred and forty years ago by the men who under Washington founded this as nation, separate from all others. Even at that time, true Americans were of many different race strains; Paul Revere and Charles Carroll, Marion Herkimer, Sullivan, Schuyler and Muhlenberg, stood on an equality of service and achieved respect with Lighthorse Harry Lee and Israel Putnam. But the majority of the leaders and of their followers were of English blood. They did not, because of this, hesitate to resist and antagonize Great Britain when Great Britain wronged this nation; they stood for liberty and for the eternal rule of right and justice and they stood as Americans and as nothing else.

ATTITUDE TOWARD THE NATIVE COUNTRIES.

All Americans of other race origin must act towards the countries from which their ancestors severally sprang as Washington and his associates in their day acted. Otherwise they are traitors to America. This applies especially today to all Americans of German blood who directly or indirectly in any manner support Germany as against the United States and the Allies of the United States; it applies no less specifically to all American citizens of Irish blood who are led into following the same course not by their love of Germany but by their hatred of England. One motive is as inexcusable as the other; and in each case the action is treasonable to the United States.

THE PACIFISTS.

The professional pacifists have, during the last three years, proved themselves the evil enemies of their country. They now advocate an inconclusive peace. In so doing they have shown themselves to be the spiritual heirs of the Tories who in the name of peace opposed Washington, and of the Copperheads who in the name of peace opposed Lincoln. We regard these men and women as traitors to the republic; we regard them as traitors to the great cause of justice and humanity. This war is a war for the vital interests of America. When we fight for America abroad we save our children from fighting for America at home beside their own ruined hearthstones. We believe that the large majority of Americans are proudly ready to fight to the last for the overthrow of the brutal German militarism which threatens America no less than every other civilized nation. We believe that it would be an act of baseness and infamy, an act of unworthy cowardice and a betrayal of this country and of mankind to accept any peace except the peace of overwhelming victory, a peace based on the complete overthrow of the Prussianized Germany of the Hohenzollerns.

We hold that the true test of loyal Americanism today is effective service against Germany. We should exert as speedily as possible every particle of our vast lazy strength to win the triumph over Germany. Therefore we should demand that the Government act at once with unrelenting severity against the traitors here at home, whether their treasonable activity take

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