L I B R AR Y
UN I VE R S I T Y OF CAL IF OR N IA
DA VIS
T h e C o n fe ssio n
f
o
a
H y phen at e d A m e ric a n
B Y ED $ A R D
T HE C ON F ES S I ON
A
S T EI N ER
.
H YPH E NATE D
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A M ER I C AN
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ev s e
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ve o
n er
e
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.
.
T h e C o n fe ss io n
a
o
f
H y ph e nat e d A m e ric an
By
E D WA R D A
Aut hor of
N E$
LO N D O N
S T E I N ER
Fr om Alien t o
YOR K
F le m in g
.
H
TO R O NT O
C H I C AG O
.
R e v e ll
AND
C o m pany
E D I N B UR GH
r
C o p y igh
F LEM I N G H
.
t
,
1 9 1 6,
by
R EVE L L
d e l ive r ed u n d e r th e
A
A u spzees of Tlee L e agu ef o r Po lit
ica l E d u ca tio n , N e w
'
New Yo rk $ 1 5 8 Fifth Avenue
Ch i cago $ 1 7 No rt h $ ab as h Av e
.
To ro nt o $ 2 5
Lo ndo n
°
21
Edinb urgh $
tre t $
Pat erno st r S quar
Pri nc s S treet
l oo
Rich mo nd S
e
e
e
,
.
e
T he C o n fe ssio n
o
f
a
H y ph en at e d A m e ric a n
O L I VE R
W E N D E LL H O LM E S
who was as much metaph y sician
as physician decl a red that every
man has a blind spot If he were living
in these war clouded days he would say
it he were capable o f reasoning at a time
w hen the whole world has gone mad
that every man has a seeing spot and
that all the rest o f him is b lind H e might
declare a large portion of humanity stone
blind ; f or even the wisest and the fairest
among us are in that happ y f rame of
min d in which we b elieve that w e alone
have retained vision now that the world
“
has gone back to the To / m Va wo l m
which reigned before th e C reator said
”
Let there be light
Living as we are at a time when we
have lost faith in one another 8 intellectual
R
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[
5
]
THE C ONFESS ION
integrity it is as diffi cult to speak clearl y
,
and dispassionately as it is to listen p a
t ie n tly
B oth processes become doubly
di fficult if the speaker belongs to that
class of citizens upon whom a famous
phrase-maker has bestowed the now
malodorous title
H yphenated Ameri
cans
“
T h e word h yphenated h as led a very
honourable and innocent existence in the
ample bosom of Webster s dictionary ever
since that volume became the longer cate
chism of a large portion of the E nglish
speaking world ; and according to that
“
authority it means something which is
united by hyphens
T h e hyphen itself
which boasts of Greek lineage means in
“
that classic language
under one into
”
one or together
E ven where it is used
to separate two words it indicates that
they belong together although they have
a distinct origin E vidently the afore
mentioned phrase maker permitted his
mood to influence his definition o f the
hyphen with the result that the short
very innocent and proper dash has by
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[
6
]
OF
A HYPH E N A T E D
.
A MER IC AN
brooding over it become an elongate d
damnable damn S o that which had the
same significance as the ring at a wed
ding ceremony has suddenly become the
symbol of divorce and is being given the
same place in the sphere of patriotism
that adultery has in married li f e
,
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,
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C O N F E S S I N G TH E
HY P HE N
I am in the env iable position denied
most of my kind in which before my
peers I can present my cause ; and I
plead guilty to the charge of being a
hyphenated American according to Web
—
ster not according to R oosevelt I am
proud of the fact and happy in it j ust as
e
i
roud
and
happy
as
I
am
in
n
mar
b
a
p
g
ried man rather than a divorced man
T hat I was born in another country
subj ect of a m o n a rc h I was for certain
well esta b lished reasons unable to avoid
T o my credit be it stated that as soon
as I disco vered my deplorable condition I
sought to make amends in the only way
I knew $ the way taken by millions b e
—
fore and after me emigrating to a coun
[7]
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T HE
CONFES S I ON
w hich w as generous enough to admit
us all
N o t only did that country admit us to
h er shores she did not bar our way into
”
her H oly of H olies
T hus we were
b ound to her so closely that we became
hyphenated before we knew it w edded
“
to her for b etter and for worse for richer
”
and for poorer
married to her as swiftly
as marriages take place in this country
where everything is $rightfull y a cce le r
ated
We were b ound to her with a sense of
loyalty and devotion which the native
b orn American cannot al ways feel What
she has done for us is su fficient to b ind us
”
“
to her till death us do part no matter
what she may have done or not have done
in these unhappy days in which every
one of us has spoken harshly j udged
partially and condemned hastily T h e
time will come and that very soon when
all of us remembering the wild words we
h ave let loose t h e ill we have approved
and the good we h ave condemned will
smite our b reasts saying $ M ea cu lpa
8
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OF A
HYPHE NATED AM ER IC AN
Again speaking for myself I had quite
f orgotten that I possessed even the in
nocent hyphen as interpreted b y Web
ster not by R oosevelt T here was not
a drop of American blood in my veins
when I landed in N e w York scarcely
thirty years ago Yet I can say to-day
without a bit of cant which I al ways
detest and which is doubly detestable in
these trying days that if you drained
—
every drop of my blood and I am will
ing to give the last drop if needed if
—
thus my words might be proved you
would find in my veins American blood
only
I regarded myself so thoroughly an
American that I forgot the very names
of the ships on which I chronically mi
grated and remembered only one of
them which it seemed had brought me
—
here the M ayfl o w e r Whenever I re
turned to the lan d of my birt h it was like
going to a foreign country When I
stood before the E mperor s palace in the
city of Vienna with no great patriotic
e motions stirring in my b reast I could
,
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”
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$
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[
9
]
T HE
C ONFESS I ON
hear the questioning voice of the poet
ringing accusingly in my ears $
L ives
the r e a man with so ul so d ead
$ h o neve r to him self h a th said
T his is m y o wn m y native l and
,
,
and I had to admit that I was the miser
able wretch whose existence he doubted
When my face was turned Westward
and the odours O f the steerage filled my
nostrils then indeed I knew that I was
going home and the Alpine horn from
the mountains snow crowned and glori
ous had no such welcoming sound as
the fog horn from the low dunes at S a ndy
H ook
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,
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O TH E R S
MY KI N D
OF
H ow often I have stood among thou
sands o i my kind on the great ships
those wombs out of which mill i ons of us
were bo rn full grown into this new land
Men and women were there going back
to their native land from which they
thought themselves as yet unweaned
I
o
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OE A HYPH EN A I ED AMER IC AN
'
‘
Many of them more successful than I
were returning with small fortunes which
they intende d to spend in the towns and
villages where they were born and where
they expected to d ie T hey soon d isc o v
ered however that they were pilgrims
and soj ourners in the land of their birth
and again they were seeking another
”
country even an H eavenly
or to use
the language of the street they wanted
to get back to God s C ountry
I have been a chronic immigrant fol
lowing so frequently the trail worn by
millions of weary feet across this conti
nent that it has become a sort of White
Way for me straighter than that on
B roadway and not so dangerous
I
have visited every foreign colony b e
t ween Angel Gate on the P acific and
H ell Gate on the Atlantic ; and wh ile l
have f ound the mother tongue surviving
in mutilated form among the older gen
e ra t io n
and discovered that the most
loyal part of o u r anatomy the stomach
”
“
still craves the leeks and garlics of
the H omeland I have also f ound the
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[
H
]
,
T HE
CONF ESS I ON
S p irit o f America brooding over th ese
aliens w ooing them and winning them
$ h ile b ut ver y fe w do not finally yield it
f ull alle giance
I have guided many distinguished for
e ign guests who came here to study t h e
strange ways of this country which the y
”
“
had called the D ollar Land
If they
were discerning and some of them were
they discovered that this country is held
together by a finer metal than gold and
by a nobler symbol than the eagle of our
coinage
T hey found that although there have
come here in the last twenty years some
thirteen millions of aliens broken bits
torn patches of all nationalities and races
w e are being knitted to one another as a
nation At no time in our history has the
sense of nationality been stronger and
never before were we more truly the
U nited S tates of America than now
T hese students of our national life were
amaz ed and confounded as they observed
the change in the expression b earing and
deportment of the peoples w h om they
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[
12
]
TH E
C ON FESS I ON
g i i g c ri es o f th o se mi ll io ns o f o ur kin
wh o a re sti ll gr o a n i ng u nd e r t h e O ppressi o n o f in
h u m an l aws and th e t y r anny o f a sel fish pri v i l eged
th e
a on z n
,
c ass, a nd
l
th at t h e Am e ri c an h eart al ways
beats in sy mp ath y with th e O ppr essed nati o ns o f
t h e ea rth a nd a l wa y s h as b e e n wi ll i ng to l end to
su c h o ppr e sse d p eo p l es its m o r a l a nd even m a t e
ri al suppo rt
T h e S l o vak L e ag ue o f A m eri c a a fed er ati o n
o f th e S l o v ak o rg a ni za ti o ns and ne wsp a p ers o f thi s
c o u ntr y d edi c at es t h i s M e m o r and um to t h e A mer i
$
e
ll
kno wi ng
,
,
,
ca n
People
.
No t
long ago I spoke at the F ord H all
F orum in B oston where democracy can
be seen in the making under the guidance
of that superb American George W
It is the most heterogeneous
C oleman
audience I ever address the maj ority
being R ussian j ews temperamentally the
most di fficult material I know for this ex
rim e nt
e
I
have
seen
them
at
t
h
e
great
p
$ ionistic C ongress at B asle and they
were like a seething boiling mass u n
manageable and dangerous T heodore
H erzl that kingly Je w a master of as
s e mb lie s
was incapable of controllin g
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[
I4
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OF A HYPHENATE D A M ER ICAN
“
them I have heard him say $
T he y
are impossible they will kill me $
If his spirit could have hovered over
that audience in F ord H all he would have
said that a miracle had been wrought
among his people for at F ord H all they
not only yield themselves to the speaker s
fervent speech but in the discussion fol
lowing they show that their fiery individ
u a lis m has been subdued if not conquered
T hey are making themselves ready to
play their part in an orderly democracy
It is o f course well known that before
the war those institutions among the
older groups which depended upon the
maintenance of the mother tongue lan
i
h
h
e
u
s
e
d
and
were
ready
to
die
T
g
newspaper the church the theater if sup
ported a t all relied entirely upon the
newcomers even the first generation
after a time being weaned from them
T his swift process was ruthless destroying
much that w a s best in the immigrant s
inheritance and frequently not putting
anything of value in its place It separa
ted families destroyed parenta l au t hority
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[
15
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T HE
CONFES S I ON
rushed out the fine flavours of tradition
and left the raw human material a prey
to the low the coarse and th e vulgar
We who had the shaping of it in our
hands saved our skirts from the contami
nating touch talking much about the im
migrant problem b ut doing little to solve
it in the one way in which it could be
solved
Wherever the idealistic American man
or woman heard the call to service —and
—
thank God many of them heard it there
they wrought some such miracle as I
have seen performed in F ord H all F orum
Go among the settlements generously
scattered through your great cities and
you will find a hunger for ideals a thirst
for the b est things and a passion for
brotherly relationship hard to satisfy even
by that noble army of men and women
who have become the H igh P riests of our
national spirit ministering in the name o f
our common country
I said that I had forgotten I had a
hyphen and it is true If I thought of it
at all it appeared to me like the lo b es
1
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OF A HYPHE NATE D AM ER ICAN
and glands and other now useless im
which
I
in
common
with
other
i
m
n
e
d
e
t
a
p
human beings have inherited from my
ancestors of varied species who knew
how to use them T hat these useless
parts may b ecome inflamed and dan
gero ns those of us know who have had
the case diagnosed by a physician who
knew not only what ailed us but also
knew the size of our bank a ccount T h e
di fficulty is not with the hyphen but
with the inflamed hyphen ; and because
it has become a somewhat contagious
disease manifesting itself in diflere nt
ways I shall after enumerating them
discuss t h e various remedies proposed
and o ffer a cure which I b elieve would
be e ffective
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T HE
A T LA N TI C O C E AN HY PH E N
O ne hyphen is the Atlantic O cean
hyphen ; and that I discovered in the first
cabin not in t h e steerage S ometimes I
do travel in the cabin my obj ection to it
being not constitution al but financial
O n one of those rare occasions I had
,
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[
1
7
]
.
T HE
C ONFE S S ION
the good fortune to have as a fellow pas
senger a real live countess N aturally
she would not speak to me because she
had ancestors and I had none O nce
she did graciously bridge the gulf b e
tween u s and that under the stress of a
great storm S h e asked me w hether I
thought the storm was going to be seri
ous or not ; common danger makes for
at least temporary democracy When
she was assured that there was no
danger she relapsed into dignified and
proper aristocratic silence S h e had one
C hild and a number of pedigreed dogs
all of them kept from the contaminating
touch of mere Americans I knew her
father by sight and by reputation he was
a very celebrated man who fought and
bled
others on Wal l S treet and
he had purchased a title as well as
various and sundry ancestors for his
daughter T his was the first case of the
inflamed hyphen which I discovered and
I ca n assure you it was a hopeless one
It was in that cabin and not in the
steerage that I had to fight real b attl es
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[
I
8
]
OF A HYPHE N A TE D AM ER IC A N
for the U nited S tates for its democracy
and inherent high ideals
T h e real
hyphenated Americans whose hyphen
signified dual loyalty badly diluted at
that I found in C harlottenburgh D resden
and Munich in Paris and the R iviera
among those Americans who had ex
patriated themselves for cultural or fina n
reasons T heir patriotism showed
c ia l
itself in eating turkey on T hanksgiving
D a y or habitually using a certain brand
of soap which is supposed to be ninety
nine per cent pure still leaving one per
cent for patriotism
I found widows of American soldiers
drawing pensions and repudiating our
democracy while they spent their money
in the gracious if faint shadow of
royalty and near widows whose incomes
were derived from the toil of American
workmen yet who b elieved so thoroughly
in preparedness that they never were
without milita ry escort
I have seen the children of our mer
chant princes in E nglish and S wiss
sc h ool s passing throug h educa tional
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[
I9
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THE
C ONFESS I ON
processes which were designed to sweat
out of them their American blood ; while
in their father s shops and m i lls foreign
b orn men and women were sweated to
get the dollars with w hich to pay for
those sons foreign education
I have seen rivers of gold poured into
the pockets of the P rince of Monaco ;
stacks of gold good plain pure U nited
S tates coin o ffered upon the green altar
o f his highness by men and women who
thought it disloyal for our immigrants to
send their honest savings mere crumbs
from rich men s tables to the same old
poverty stricken world
O ne o f the many effects of the E uro
ean
war
upon
our
country
is
that
these
p
H yphenated Americans have had to
return to the U nited S tates and that
many of them had to come even as
their grandfathers came in the steerage
T hen I hope they realized what it meant
to have a country ; a country which a l
though imperfect in many things is one in
which the individual may help it strive for
perf ection and consciously strive for it
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[
20
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T HE
CONF ESS I ON
I have always regretted that I was not
in E urope when the war broke out j ust
because I would have had a chance to
come back in the steerage when it was
crowded by Americans If I had been
in that steerage I would have rej oiced to
see them glad for once as supremely
glad as any emigrants when they passed
under the shadow of the Goddess o f
Liberty
T h e real treason against the demo
cratic ideals of America has been com
m it te d n o t on the E ast S ide of N e w York
but on the West S ide I find more real
patriotism on F ifth S treet than I find on
“
government by
F ifth Avenue ; and if
the people of the people and for the
”
people perishes from the earth it will
perish from the exclusive suburb down
and not from the inclusive Ghetto up
We who b y the grace of God have
been delivered from the tyranny of mon
archies are not among those who return
to the O ld World to exchange our for
tunes for baronetcies ; we do not covet
the condescending smiles of the nobility ;
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[
22
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OF A HYPHENATED A MER ICAN
nor are we a
mong those who prate about
the failure o f democracy We are pro
fo u nd ly grate ful for th i s inheritance of
”
government o f the people and if we
are dissatisfied it is because that govern
”
“
ment is not su fficiently b y the peop l e
“
or for the
T h e most hopeful material for the reali
z a t io n of our democratic ideals is the
immigrant and not t h e American emi
grant ; and the biggest hyphen I know
is the Atlantic O cean which so many
wealthy native Americans have put b e
tween themselves and their U nited S tates
to which they have now returned not
from inclination but from necessity
.
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T HE
I M P O U N D E D HY P H E N
B esides this Atlan t ic O cean hyphen of
which we have been temporarily cured
b y the war we have to face the stern fact
that there is among the newer immigrants
a large group which P rof Edward A R oss
“
appropriately calls the impounded im
”
migrants
C ertain organizati ons have natural ly
,
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[
23
]
.
T HE
CONFESS I ON
resisted the process of Americanization
T his is especially true of the churches in
which nationality and religion are either
identical or so related to one another
b ecause of common historic experiences
as to make them indistinguishable to
their adherents T h e Greek O rthodox
C hurches which are al ways nationalistic
have most to fear but are the le a st ca
l
a
b
e
of
resisting
the
forces
at
work
p
T h e R oman C atholic C hurches have
been able to impound successfully one or
two S lavic groups but e fle ct iv e ly only in
agricultural colonies E ven there certain
tendencies among them have resisted
complete su bj ugation Among the P oles
there is considerable schism which from
the religious standpoint has little to com
mend it ; but is an indication of the fact
that there are forces working towards
liberation if not towards Americanization
It is rather interesting and disquieting
to find that the most persistent impounded
hyphen is found among certain P rotestant
T hey are supported by their
C hurches
governments which maintain close super
.
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,
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,
.
.
,
,
.
.
[
24
]
OF A HYPHENATE D A M ER IC AN
vision over them B ecause of the historic
relation of th ese churches to similar Amer
ican bodies th is supervision has proved
rather ine fl e c tiv e and wherever such fel
lo wship has been established the process
of Americanizatio n could not be resisted
It would be easy to grow too optimistic
as to the future of the impounded immi
grants by believing that through the in
filtration o f American ideals these groups
would be set free to develop in harmony
with their new environment O ne or two
generations are bound to grow up poorl y
acquainted with the language the ideals
and the principles of the country destined
to be their home and that of their children
with the result that they and this coun
try alike will b e the su fferers
It is also easy to foresee that if E urope
should continue to be in a state of national
ferment and there is noth i ng to indicate
that it will not the reaction will be felt by
these impounded groups and the churches
which guard their souls will with equal
zeal guard their hyphens
We have as yet no effective remedy
25 ]
[
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
.
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
T HE
CONFE SS I ON
against this impounded hyphen because
by the establishment of parochial schools
access to the child has been denied us
S ome way will have to be found however
a way which on one side will guard the
religious sensibilities of our fellow citi
zens and on the other side open a way
for the child to enter into its new national
inheritance
,
.
,
,
.
T HE
P O L ITI C A L HY PH E N
In addition to the impounded hyphen
for which we seem to have no effective
cure our country is visited periodically
by the political hyphen ; an inflammatory
epidemic of the hyphen at election time
T h e seat of the contagion has always
b een in the bosom of one or the other of
our political parties and is spread largely
by O fli ce seekers H aving mixed liberal
quantities of illy prepared tables of sta
t is t ics and the names of national heroes
which they cannot pronounce correctly
with racial and nat i onal virtues the whole
is fed to groups of ignorant foreigners
who are taught the one privilege of de
,
,
.
,
-
.
,
,
,
[
26
]
OF A HYPHE NATE D A ME R ICAN
mo cra cy ,
—to vote— and to vote as often
as possi b le
—
May I ask in all fairness and I do wish
to be fair who is responsible for these
H ebre w R epublican these Lithuanian
D emocratic and other hyphenated clubs
which were and are so frequently used
and misused for personal and party ends $
Ma y I al so ask of the men who have
been loud in their condemnation of the
hyphen and to whom we owe the ill
odour attached to it whether they are
entirely guiltless $
May I ask who it was who went to our
”
“
Little H ungary and ate gu ly a s to the
glory o f— the U nited S tates $ And who
partook of fr a n kf u r ter s frequently im
ported sometimes domesticated and
always hyphenated to prove how much
they loved the Germans $
I may be doing these people an in
”
j ustice P erhaps they ate gu ly a s and
a n l n r té r s
r
j
ust
because
they
were
f
y
hungry ; perhaps they went to Little
H ungary to see the sights perhaps they
appointed certain Little H ungarians and
.
—
-
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
‘
[
27
]
T HE
CON FE SS I ON
Little Italians to o ffice because they
above all others were fitted for it
C ertain it is that one cannot over
estimate the wrong done to our national
ideals by those Americans who have thus
emphasized the hyphen and gloried in
it who have rewarded it by petty o ffices
and have stimulated its growth T he y
have appealed only to the most ignorant
and the most degraded of the immigrants
and have thus done damage to our de
m o c ra cy in its most vulnerable point
My own introduction into this sphere
of the political hyphen may be illuminat
—
ing ii any illumination upon this subj ect
is needed
D uring one of my j ourneys
O n the
”
T rail of the Im migra nt I attached m y
self to a group of P oles who were in that
confused mental stage of the recently
arrived immigrant w hich we designate as
”
“
green
We had returned to our boarding
house which like most of its class in that
industrial state furnished more beer than
b oard While w e were sitting about
,
,
.
.
.
.
,
.
,
,
,
.
[
28
]
T HE
CONF ESS I ON
that the identical procedure had taken
place there When I finally told it in
the very city where I knew that par
t ic u la r treason against the ballot box had
occurred I asked the audience what they
did to the man who had thus betrayed
them Instantly the reply came from the
floor We sent him to the U nited S tates
”
“
T hat S enator is dead
P eace
S enate
”
to his ashes
and more ashes to his
.
,
.
,
.
.
T here
are b ut few well known poli
t ic ia ns w ho have not b een guilty of cater
ing to the hyphen in a more or less
damaging way ; and the most guilty
among them are those who have taken
up the slogan and cry $ H yphenated
American
with the same expressions of
fear as if they were shouting $ Mad
”
dog $
T here are mem b ers of C ongress candi
dates for our highest o ffices mayors of
our large cities and politicians great and
small who drag forth the hyphenated
American for his country s c o nd e mna
tion in th e same spirit with whic h t he
-
,
,
,
,
$
OF A HYPHE NATE D
A M E R IC AN
P harisees dragged a woman taken in
adultery before Jesus of N azareth I ask
them in the light of their own guilty con
sciences who will be the first man to cast
a stone $
N o w that the hyphen is in such bad
repute I trust that it will be entirely
severed from party names and political
slogans ; for if there is one place where
we have no use for the hyphen and
never had any it is at the b allot b ox If
the war has cured us of the Atlantic h y
phen and if it cures us of the political
”
hyphen then Go d oe M a n /tit that some
good has come out of this mass of ill
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
.
T H E S Y M PA T H E TI C
HY P H E N
U nfortunately the war is the direct
cause of the fourth kind of hyphen and
that I call the sympathetic hyphen
It is the nature of war to arouse sym
pathy with one s own people and a ntip
athy to their foes ; and both these feel
ings have been stimulated in an unusual
degree b y the present conflict u np rec
e d e nte d in extent and intensit y
t
s
[
]
,
,
.
$
,
.
T HE
CONFES S I ON
When the damage done by this wa r
the greatest
S hall finally be estimated
loss will be found not in the national
treasure wasted nor in the burden of
taxes to be carried by unborn genera
tions predestin e d to live even nearer the
hunger line than the generation they suc
c e e d ; not in the ruin of priceless works
of art those precious bequests to all h u
manity ; not even in the loss of human
l i fe w hich cannot be counted by mere
figures T h e overwhelming loss will be
that of the ideal of internationalism
whose realization seemed so near that we
believed we needed but to stretch out
our hands to touch it and make it real
T hose of us who believed in it believe
in it still but we realize that those forces
which worked for it worked j ust as much
against it ; that commerce science in
and all other factors which we
v e n t io n
so j oyously hailed and so confidently
acclaimed as progress hindered as much
as helped
When we b egin the slow task of re
covering w h at has been lost we may
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
[
2
3
]
OF A HYPHE NA TED A M E R ICA N
have to b egin with the eighteenth cen
tury rather than with the nineteenth and
early twentieth the age of great d isillu
It may not be too much to
s io n me n t
say that humanity has lost at least a cen
tury in its march upward from the brute
and that it may take another century to
dig away this avalanche of hate
T hat we should su ffer in the great
E uropean
disaster we might have
known ; but that we should believe
our national unity to be threatened
that in this broadcast sowing of hate so
much of it should fall upon our shores
take root and grow as swiftly as the
palm tree of the H indu fakir none of
us foresaw It was perfectl y natural
however that those who cherished the
ideals and memories of the H omeland
shou ld under this cal umny of hate de
fend it both unwisely and irrationally ;
for at a time like this when wisdom is
”
more precious than ru b ies the fact that
man is a rational being is open to dou b t
Who are we to complain $ We in
who m th e English and F renc h h y p hens
,
,
.
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
[
33
]
T HE
CONFESS I ON
are supposed to have been atrophied long
ago until suddenly they swelled to dan
gero ns proportions $
E very man who has taken a decisive
stand in this war j ustifies it by the blood
of his ancestors and every diluted drop
of blood inherited from some fighting
progenitor has multiplied suddenly and
infected the whole body till most of us
feel ourselves to be fighting S cotch H igh
landers or Anglo S axons or worse sav
age cavemen rather than the twentieth
century Americans w e ought to be
Moreover this kind of hyphen we have
always had with us T o be an Irish
American has been equal to a patent of
nobility and great was the reward o f
those who marched on S t P atrick s D ay
under the green flag which on that o c
casion was more in evidence than the
stars and stripes
H ave not the Irish kept alive in us the
hate of England $ H ave they not influ
e nc e d
if not controlled C ongress in its
relations to the mother country $ H ave
the Iris h not plotted and planned with
,
,
,
-
,
,
,
.
,
.
,
$
.
,
.
,
,
[
34
]
OF
A H YPHE NATED AM ER IC AN
our knowledge and our money towards
the freeing of Ireland from the yoke of
the oppressor $ H ave they not broken
our laws to help their land $
What w ould happen in N e w York to
day if England and Ireland were at war
and the U nited S tates were to favour E n g
land and ship munitions of war to shoot
down the Irish $ D o you know what
would happen $ T here is no dou b t a b out
it You know and I kno w
T here would be war fierce war upon
our streets ; for while the Irish are no
militarists like the Germans they are
riotous fighters which the Germans are
not ; and every Irishman were he red
headed or not would fight for E rin I
am neither indicting the Irish nor apolo
for
the
Germans
I
am
merely
i
z
i
n
;
g
g
giving you good cause to be grateful that
the Germans are usually not red headed
and never Irish
T h e sporadic lawlessness of some Ger
mans their interference with our national
neutrality greatly exaggerated by a p reju
diced press are trifling in comparison
,
.
.
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
-
.
,
,
,
,
[
35
]
with the lawlessness of the Irish b e nt
upon gaining their national or local p o
lit ica l ends
If you remember that there are about
e leven
million Germans and so -called
German Americans in this country that
there h as been no riot or bloodshed th at
the violent language used was used by
the few and that the actual lawbrea k
ing was done by fewer still you may b e
convinced that the Germans were and
are and will prove to be loyal American
citizens T hey may not agree with our
national policy ; b ut in that they often
have strong support from many influ e n
tial A mericans If t hey have spoken ill
o f P resident Wilson to the point of dis t e
spect and have heaped undeserved cal
u mny upon him they have merely fol
lo wed the example set them by the press
in general and by certain influential
Americans in particular
Moreover this is th e first time our Ge r
man American citizens have had a rea lly
worthy cause for collective endea vour
T o o many of them have resolved and
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
[
6
3
]
THE CONFESS ION
ent
man
ought
to
know
for
the
strengt
h
g
of the German E mpire lies in its unity
and that unity was achieved b y con
formity to th e P russian ide al Where
conformity was not yielded volun tarily it
was imposed by force and where that
force was opposed the opposition was
treated as one of the worst crimes against
the state
In this respect the U nited S tates has
been remarkably lenient and to my
mind wisely so ; for people are rarely
assimilated by force T hat method is
cruel uncertain and too costly If it had
been used in this country we would have
achieved much less than w e have and
C ongress might have been divided upon
national or linguistic lines which in the
end would have b een disastrous to the
unity that is one o f the chief character
is tics of this nation
I am somewhat more fortunate than
many of my hyphenated and u nh y p h e n
ated fellow citizens in not having allowed
myself to be swept along by the prevail
ing mob spirit which has divided the
,
,
.
,
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
[
8
3
]
OF A HYPH ENATED A ME R ICAN
untry into two hostile camps I have
ren a in e d sane because I had no faith
f
in ld iplo ma t ic papers whether they were
white or pink or blue I know
by their very nature they are all
th
moreor less black I have remembered
the characterization of a diplomat by
the Ge rman writer and satirist B Orne
“
who s a
id $
E in D ip l o m a t m u s s d r ei
co
.
,
.
,
.
,
,
F r a nz bs iscn sp r ee/ze n ,
'
L icge n
'
p
s
”
l
r e e/i e n
.
Of
languages which he says a
”
“
l age n
diplomat rnu st speak
is the
most in evidence in these papers
‘
,
.
HY P HE N A TE D PA T R I O TI S M
My sympathies from the first were
pro American ; not only because I love
America above every country in the
world but because it seems to me that to
be pro American is the nearest which
humanity has as yet come to being pro
human
I have nothing but loathing for this
”
foul and unthinkable war for I have
lived where it was bred and I have
-
,
-
,
,
[
39
]
TH E
CONF ESS I ON
watc h e d the dastardly and da mnabl e
process A generation of men was be
gotten and trained to be fo d der for
cannon and to wal k j oyously into that
hell
T here was aroused in them the
very noblest emotion of which the h uman
heart is capable and then it was poisoned
b y hate to be used for t h e b ase purpose
o f human slaughter
I re fuse to be pa t riotic in the European
—
sense which means to believe every
thing bad about other na tions and
nothing but good about your own and
to hate with desperate hatred the people
living yonder where they have painted
ano t her colour on the custom house
‘
.
,
.
,
,
.
,
,
I f to b e an American a real American
an d a patriot is merely that same thing
then frankly I am neither an American
nor a patriot ; for in America I have been
emancipated from the pa t riotism of hate
I have found that here men work to
gether harmoniously for t he common
good and the glory of a great country
though their historic roots lie b uried in
,
,
‘
,
,
.
,
[
0
4
]
OF A
HY PHE NATE D AM ER ICAN
lands and colonies among peo
different re ligio ns and social
6; with
id
living in states which have con
fli
economic in t erests speaking di
vers languages and expressin g their
faith n God through di fferent creeds
H e fe two nations exist upon the same
c o nt inlent one of which has its political
a ffilia t ih
n across the sea ; yet no line o f
fo rt re s
divides to create fear and no
battle
float menacingly along its
inland
All
facts and the faith into which
I was
again in this country a faith
which has neither political nor racial
boundary and whose F ounder called
H imself the S o n of Man have made me
an American which is or ought to be
something radically different from b eing
a E uropean
While I have been emancipated from
the patriotism of hate I have had my
love of country increased because I re
gard it as a country worth living for and
even if need be worth dying for
I must confess that it is not easy to
fle re nt
,
,
°
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
[
1
4
]
T HE
C ONFE SS I ON
keep faith in America these da y s wh en
it seems at times that we are not a bit
b etter than the country from which I
have alienated myself and from w hose
monarch I have forsworn allegiance
T h e reading of the metropolita n press
and the weak echoes of the pres s of the
country have often caused my faith to
waver
It has seemed to me t h a L a
war broth was being brewed in editorial
sanctums and poured down the throats
of the public ; a hellish broth com
pounded of greed political opportunism
and prej udice T h e noteworthy e xc e p
tions merely serve the well known pur
pose
T h e press has been and is a
telescope rather than a mirror holding
up to the public the large or small end
as best serves its purpose
I am not speaking merely of the papers
printed in the E nglish language ; the
German press with a few exceptions has
been j ust as bad j ust as u n American
and not infrequently treasonable T here
is one particular sheet printed in N e w
York C ity w h ich gives me a feeling akin
,
,
.
.
,
,
,
,
.
-
.
,
.
,
,
-
,
,
.
[
2
4
]
A HYPHENA I ED AMERI C AN
OF
'‘
to madness every time I see it and I tear
it to pieces and trample upon it in my
wrath
T h e reading of war books either in
prose or verse does not conduce to
change my opinion and going to church
in these latter days has not helped in
crease my fai th in the religion of the
N azarene
In fact if much of what I
have heard from the pulpit is C hris
t ia n it y then my place is with anarchists
and atheists in their curbstone church
If I believed that the press of to day re
fle e ts the American spirit I should per
force be driven from a country w hich ]
love with a lover s passion but could not
then respect
It is not easy to keep one s poise in
these days when if one does not con
dem u Germany in toto his friends call
him pro German and if one ventures to
criticize and censure Germany his fello w
countryme n look upon him as a traitor
If it had not been so obviously rid ic u
lous it would have been di fficult to be
civil the other day when I was told b y
,
.
,
.
,
,
.
-
,
$
,
.
$
,
,
,
-
,
,
.
,
[
43
]
THE
CONFES S I ON
my hostess that she was sure t here were
German spies in N orthern Maine all sum
mer S h e saw them prowling about in
the woods during the day and they spent
their nights writing reports to their gov
”
“
e rn me nt
sp i es were
D oubtless those
taking a census of the pine stumps and
mapping out the route for a German in
v as io n by way of N orthern Maine 1
I wonder if y o u can picture j ust what
happens on the inside of a man who is
told in the home of a professor in one of
America s foremost universities that an
e ntire German army corps is al ready in
the U nited S tates merely waiting for
word from the F atherland to commit the
same butchery which was committed
in B elgium T h e seemingly intelligent
woman who made this remark and
whose statement went unchallenged
looked askance at me not sure but that
underneath my rather tightly fit ting
afternoon coat I wore a Prussian U hlan s
uniform
H ow would you feel if at every turn
y ou were suspected of being one of the
.
,
.
,
‘
$
,
.
,
,
,
$
.
[
44
]
T H E CONFES S I ON
our nostrils E ven as dogs who are
trained to guard sheep and to give their
lives for them begin to eat them as soon
as they smell their blood so we feel the
passion of primitive man ; the mouldy
odour of the cave is upon us and we have
fallen back several thousand years
I am not afraid of war ; not afraid that
house and home reared in the j oy of
love and labour may be destroyed
I am not afraid of dying —I sho uld
rather be riddled by bullets than eaten
by cancer I should sooner perish b y a
submar ine than from B right s disease
I do fea r frankly fear killing and des
M ost of all I am afraid of de
t ro y in g
m o lish in g the structure we have reared
here ; a rare commonwealth made up of
th e flotsam and j etsam of the world
which has drifted in through the longer
—
and shorter years We are a nation a
great nation— a united nation although
composed of the most diverse materials
M en talk of our democracy s being a
failure If it had achieved nothing more
th a n th e making of the U nited S tates
.
,
,
,
,
.
-
,
.
,
.
$
.
,
,
.
,
,
.
,
.
$
.
,
[
6
4
]
OF A HY PHENATE D A M ER IC AN
faulty but great defective but united
democracy w ould be j ustified ; for no
monarchy has ever succeeded in so d iffi
cult and dangerous an experiment
What shall we do a b out it $
It
T h e great cry is for preparedness
has been shouted from the housetops it
fills the public press and the pulpit until
the word fairly reeks from its two ele
ments fear and hate
I have no obj ection to preparedness ;
b ut I do obj ect to the attending hysteria
which may accomplish the very opposite of
w hat is desired and weaken rather than
strengthen the nation Guns and b attle
ships can b e bought for money but fid e l
ity and devotion cannot be ga ined by
breeding suspicion of those w ho happen
to have been born in another country
I plead guilty to being one of those
“
mollycoddles
and
college S issies
held up to the ridicule of the populace I
do not believe in war ; not until every re
source to settle the di fficulty without it
has been exhausted If however war
should come and the vital interests o f the
,
,
.
.
,
.
,
,
.
.
.
.
[
47
,
]
,
T HE
CONFESS I ON
nation be attacked if this government
were in danger of perishing from the
earth l a n d my son would stand some
“
where in the line j ust as countless h y
”
h
n
t
e
d
Americans
and
their
children
e
a
p
w ould even if we had to face our own
brothers w ho came to do the brutal b id
ding of their monarchs
I am sure of myself under an y circum
stances I a m not so sure of the millions
if we question their loyalty and suspect
their motives becaus e in this desperate
struggle their sympathies are with the
mot her country rather than with its ene
mies
What shall we do then with these
”
“
millions of H yphenated Americans $
What a b out the hyphen $
,
,
,
,
,
.
-
,
.
,
.
T H E R EMED I ES
T h ree
remedies are proposed O ne o f
them by C olonel R oosevelt who if he
was rightly quoted ( which is open to
”
doubt) said $ T o hell with the hyphen
It is a very drastic remedy which as
th e C olonel knows has b een mentioned
.
,
,
.
,
,
,
[
8
4
]
OF A
HYPHE NATE D
AM ER ICA N
once or twice in connection with the still
unsolved pro b lem which he himself re pre
sents
I have always strenuously opposed any
such stringent measure for I had a great
deal of respect and admiration for the
T hen too I have some regard
C olonel
for the poor unregenerate souls in tor
ment
N o the time when anathe mas were
effective has passed long ago ; for men
discovered that most evils prospered by
cursing them and that so much of good
was destroyed S ince the phrase was
coined and this particular strenuous
method of doing away with it was pro
posed we who were born in one country
and born again in another are beginning
to question our innermost experience s
We are wondering whether we have
not thrown away our birthright and
w hether we ought not to defend and per
e
t
u
a
t
e
this
hyphen
We
who
alwa
s
y
p
interpreted it as binding us to America
are beginning to wonder whether it should
no t b ind us to the mother country instead
.
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
”
.
,
,
.
[ 49 ]
T HE
C ONF ESS I ON
It has aroused this questioning mood
and the man who is congratulating him
self upon coining the happy ( P
phrase
may
)
find its persistent use in connection with
the elongated dash disastrous
It may undo all that has b een done
throughout the generous years in w hich
we voluntarily yielded ourselves to the
forces and processes which made us into
what we and our children were proud to
cal l ourselves— A mericans
O thers have proposed that b ecause th e
Germans have not b ecome pro E nglish
which seems to them equivalent to their
not having become Americans we must
adopt a national policy which will bring
about the desired result
In the editorial columns of one of our
nation al weeklies there appeared re
c e n tly a complaint because the U niver
s it y of Wisconsin had sent out circulars
announcing in German a short course
for farmers T h e inference was that this
was u n American and that we would be
better o ff if these farmers remained poor
farmers rather than to b e made good
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[
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,
OF A HYPHENATED AM ER ICAN
ones through the aid of their mother
tongue
T his means a drift towards the very
methods employed in E urope ; a sort of
“
which has made th e
Sp r a c/ze n ka mp
P oles of Germany more P olish and the
D anes of S chleswig H olstein more D anish
T his method has made of the Austro
H ungarian monarchy a Babel in w hich
the builders whose tongues have been
confounded threw b ricks at each other
rather than keep on building
In my j udgment we have succeeded
in keeping America a country of E nglish
speech j ust because we have not insisted
upon it If there had been governmental
pressure brought to bear upon the im
migrant s use of English we would have
fallen heir to the confusion of B abel and
to the never ending language problems of
many of the countries of E urope
ust
because
we
have
not
obj
ected
to
J
religion s being preached in the tongue in
which men were born the second genera
tion demanded to hear it in E nglish
We have permitted the P oles to build
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[
51
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T HE
CONF ES S I ON
a P olish college which will languish and
ultimately pass away j ust as the purely
German colleges have languished and
died T h e one thing we need to make
the hyphen permanent or worse still
make this a country of warring hyphens
is to demand through pressure that noth
ing but the E nglish lan guage shall be
taught and spoken here
I am not sure that w e can or that w e
ought to accelerate Americanization
T hus far it has been a contagion with
no artificial stimulus When we shall
”
say
GO to we w ill Americanize you
there will be organized e ffort to resist us
and the resistance will grow with our in
sistence
We have I am sure lost man y o p po r
tu n it ie s to interpret America to the im
migrant especially to the adult H e does
not come in contact with any of our
national institutions except the saloon
and the police court If h e does b ecome
a citizen he usually attains to that high
and holy privilege throu gh th e venal
olitician
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T HE
C ONFES S I ON
We should apply a test more searching
than the mere answering of a fe w ques
tions which may be learned by rote N O
man should b e allowed to become a citizen
unless his conduct during five years
residence in this country has proved that
he is already an American in spirit that
he knows the meaning of liberty and has
not abused it ; and that he is capable o f
c o d p e ra tin g with others in realizing that
freedom
H e ought to be able to prove that he
has left behind him Europe s racial
religious and nation al animosities and
prej udices H e ought not to become a
child of this democracy and as O ften
happens an added care until he has
proved that he knows its meaning and
has lived up to it
T hese rigid tests might be d iflic ult to
apply but certainly I should be greatly o p
posed to any cheapening of the process
T h e exploited immigrant is very poor
material for good C itizenship whether
that exploitation has been made by the
shrewder and earlier come rs among his
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[
54
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OF A HYPHE NATED A M E R IC AN
own which is frequently the case by
heartless corporations or by petty o i
fic ia ls who are supposed to protect him
O u r satellite cities crude huge S pring
ing up to day and ready to perish to
morrow are poor places in which to
train men for citizenship T h e hovels
in which the immigrants live or are per
m itte d to live the vulgarity and brutality
of the li f e which surrounds them are
also poor places for the training of future
American citizens from whom we expect
self respect respect for others and power
to control themselves and others
T h e greatest enemy of the immigrant
is the saloon and if he could not obtain
liquor it would prove one of the greatest
blessings to him and to the community in
which he lives
It is more necessary to prohibit the
sale of liquor to cert ain groups of immi
grants than to the Indians $ for the most
docile a nd law abiding among them are
turned into fiends by its use It has
been one of the most potent agencies in
despoiling and corrupting them
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[
55
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THE
CONF ESS I ON
A rigid insistence upon economic and
social j ustice and the assurance that the
state looks upon them as something
more than animated machines to be
used and abused at the owners will
would bind these millions in gratitude to
the country of which they now know
little or nothing except when they are
punished for breaking its laws
I have strongly urged b ut thus far in
vain that every ship which carries emi
grants S hould have on board a U nited
S tates o fficer who would use the time
of transit to instruct the people coming
to us T hey should be told of their
privileges and their duties the nature of
our government and the part they may
ultimately have in it
I have often acted voluntarily in such a
capacity and have found that by the aid
of immigrants who are returning to us
such instruction can be effectively given
Much of the p rell m i na ry work of in
I know
s pe c t io n could t h us be done
there are di fficulties in the way b ut they
are not insurmounta b le
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[
56
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OF A HYPHE NATED AM E R IC AN
T he
immigrant receiving station should
not be merely a heartless machine f or
sifting this human material T h e gov
ern me nt ou ght to do something more f or
these people than put a chalk mark upon
their coats or open the gate of a strange
and new country without a word of a d
vice o r warning
O u r national holidays might gain new
significance for us if in some public man
ner we would share them with these new
comers for whom festivals have always
had great religious and nation al mean
ing
T h e machinery of electing our public
servants might be made elevating rather
than degrading to the new sharers of the
great privileges of our democracy
I have the utmost faith in the power
of a good example and firmly believe
that we must develop a finer type o f na
tive American citizen
C onsider the attitude of the average
American towards the government of his
city or country the low tone of our dis
cuss io n
o f public issues the ridicule
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[
57
]
T HE
CONF ESS I ON
which we heap upon our o fficials fro m
which even the chief magis trate is not
spared ; the person al and partisan se l f
is h ne ss so strongly in evide
nce even in
this most critical moment of our national
life N eed we then wond e
r if every h y
h
ed
e
n
a
t
citizen
does
manifest
the
t
n
p
o
gracious u nse lfish ness of aGeorge Wash
ingto n or the sacrificial devotion o f an
Abraham Lincoln $
At least one Ameri can writer shows
ignorance regarding the immigrant s
character b y calling him ungrateful
Among all his shortcomings this is the
least and among his virtues it is the
greatest as every one knows who h as
sensed the soul of these grateful people
T here are among them those who
bitterly assail our social order with its
glaring inj ustice to the many T hey
criticize our laws which protect property
to th e neglect of person which is in fi
n ite ly
more sacred T hey are merely
doing in their crude way what is being
done every day in our colleges in a
somewhat more refined but more incisive
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[
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OF A HYPHE NATE D AM E R IC AN
way T h e di fference is that the agitator
prints his protest in pamphlets and
binds them in red ; while the professor
writes a volume which he calls a text
book
N o they are not an ungrateful people
It is true that one of them has said in
ublic
print
that
when
the
war
is
over
p
the Germans will return to the F at h erland
e n m a ss e beca use all they sought here was
economic betterment T here may be an
exodus of some Germans In fact every
German who has ceased to be a loyal
American who has no confidence in her
institutions who has no faith in her ideals
ought to return for he would be a menace
to those o f us who remain and who will
find it diffi cult enough to be trusted at a
time when we shall be eager to prove our
love and loyalty to our adopted country
T h e larger number which will expatriate
itself from this country will be certain
Americans returning to their cnd tea u x in
F rance their p e n s io ns and Villas in Italy
and their sp a s and cn r sa a ls in Germany
All th ese are now deserted nearly b ank
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[
59
]
THE
CONF ESS ION
ru pt and will be glad when th e America n s
return
T h e problem will not be to keep the
immigrants who are here from going
b ack ; the real problem will be how
wisely to regulate t h e inflow which is
bound to come when the war ceases
We the H yphenated Americans will
stay because w e need this country b e
cause humanity needs it and its inst it u
tions now as never b efore We wish to
help it become such a country as it ought
to be kept from E urope s plagu es and
healed from its diseases We wish to
live and work so that we shall have the
right to call it o u r country We ought
to have the same right to it as had those
of our kin who followed your rivers
the M ohawk the O hio and the M issis
sippi drawing their plows through your
marshes defying fever and pestilence
laying the foundations of your national
wealth and shedding their blood upon
your battle fie ld s
We want this to become our country
throug h the la b our of the men who mine
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[
60
]
T HE
C ONF ESS I ON
T reat
them as you would the child b orn
—
late into your own family as one of you ;
have confidence in them even in these
days when their loyalty may be waver
ing and when in their confusion they do
not know where to turn
T his is a time of heart searching for us
who have accepted America s sanctuary
and also for those born in this lan d o f the
free T o the native American there comes
a call to curb his individualism without
sacrificing his individuality ; to quicken
his patriotic impulses without dulling his
feeling for humanity It is an insistent
call to prepare for war and a still more in
sistent call to prepare for peace a deep
down reaching peace a high uplifting
peace
H yphenated Ameri
F o r us so called
”
ca ns this period is one to severely test
our loyalty to this country which has b e
come ours by the grace of its people
T hey are a generous people who mean
to b e j ust a people whom we know to be
far better than they appear to us now
and to whom we are b ound for all time
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[
62
]
OF A
H Y PHEN ATE D
A M ER ICAN
In our heart of hearts we love this
country more than Germany or Austr i a
or Englan d or F rance ; we love it above
the holy names of j erusalem or R ome
—
T h e S anctuary of H umanity America
,
.
Printed
in
Me United S ta tes
f
o
A rnerrca
'
RET UR N T O t h e
i ul a ti o n de s k o f a ny
o f C a l i fo rni a L i b ra ry
c rc
Uni ve rs i ty
o r to
th e
NO RT HER N R EG IO NAL
Bl d g 4 00,
.
L IB RARY FAC IL ITY
Ri c h mo nd Fi e l d S t ati o n
o f C a l i fo rni a
Unive rs i ty
4
4
Ri c h mo nd C A 9 80 4 6 98
,
A L L BOO KS MAY B E REC A LL ED AFT ER 7 DA
2 mo nth l o a ns ma y b e re ne we d b y c all i ng
4
1
5
6
4
2
6
7
5
3
(
)
1 -y e a r l o a ns
may b e
re c h a rge d
b y b ri ngi ng Do c
to NR LF
Re ne wa l s
a nd
re c h a rge s
p ri o r to d ue d ate
may b e ma d e
4 d
N
St
a
ei
5 9 4292
$
ne r E A
Th e c on f e s s i o n o f
hyp h e n a t e d Ame r i c a n
,
.
.
.
LIBRARY
UN IVERS ITY O F C A LIF RN IA
DAVIS
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