Page:The heart of Europe; an address delivered by Charles Pergler in Washington, December 11, 1916, at a conference of oppressed or dependent nationalities (IA heartofeuropeadd00pergrich).pdf/21

ity of outlook and uniformity of language outweigh many centrifugal tendencies, caused, for instance, by divergent economic interests; tendencies which otherwise might seriously endanger the stability of the American state—using the term state in its broadest sense, and not speaking of our American political subdivisions. In various press comments upon the death of Emperor Francis Joseph one could even notice statements referring to Austrian hyphenism, as if American hyphenism and the aspirations of the various Austrian nationalities could be compared! It must never be forgotten that, for instance, the Czechs in Europe live within their own historic boundaries, within their own old home, where once they were masters of their own destiny, and where they enjoyed rights of which they were deprived, and still are being deprived, by force. The difference between European nations and the United States was strikingly set forth some years ago by Mr. Joaquim Nabuco, late Brazilian Ambassador to this country, in the following words: “You are a nation in some respects of a unique type. . . . Every other nation is, or was, composed of a race or of separate races, speaking each its own language; you are a nation formed by the fusion of races of different languages, brought, by superior inducements, to speak only the hereditary language of the country. In other words, you are a nation formed of nations by their own will. Here lies all the difference: you are formed by free immigration, not by conquest. . . . This is the first and greatest influence I would point out of the discovery of America on civilization: the appearance on