But we are not at peace. Our dead stand at the table with all those other gallant dead, to demand their hearing through all time. We must be done with foresworn citizenship in America. We could forgive a soldier; but we cannot forgive a naturalized German who foreswore himself when he took the oath of allegiance to our country. That treachery is one thing which must go—that is one thing which shall never be forgotten or forgiven in America. Such men as these lost their war. There is no injustice, no unfairness in any of these words, which sound so harsh. They set lightly on the innocent, heavily on those who have guilt in their hearts.
It is for every man of foreign blood to know his own heart—we cannot know his heart for him. He alone knows whether he is German or American. He knows which he wants to be. We know that he cannot be both. That is the one test—the impossibility of a man being both a good German and a good American. Let him choose. Let him read his own heart. And let him remember that he is not the victor but the vanquished in this war.
One great American—I fancy even his enemies will allow him that title now—wrote as his final message to America the real answer to this war as it applies to us in America. Colonel Roosevelt's last plea was for Americanism. It was read at an All-American Benefit Concert by a trustee of the society, because of the Colonel's indisposition:
I cannot be with you, and so all I can do is wish you
Godspeed. There must be no sagging back in the fight for
Americanism merely because the war is over. There are
plenty of persons who have already made the assertion that
they believe the American people have a short memory, and
that they intend to revive all the foreign associations which
most directly interfere with the complete Americanization of
our people.
Our principle in this matter should be absolutely simple. In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant, who comes here in good faith, becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin.
But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep
