The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission, Part 23

Author: Weber, Jessie (Palmer) 1863-1926, comp
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: [Springfield, Illinois State Journal Co., State Printers
Number of Pages: 1038


USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 23


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Let me give you a couple of other examples. The other day I spoke at Martinsville, Indiana. I was introduced by Mayor Schmidt, of German origin. He has two boys overseas in the


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army. One of them was in my boy Archie's regiment and was wounded about the same time that Archie was wounded. They were lying in the same hospital. Do you think they are not com- rades? Don't put it to them if you don't think so. Major Sim- mons of the Red Cross told me the other day, just after he had returned, that he went into the hospital to see my boy Archie. The next cot to Archie's was occupied by a young fellow from Massachusetts, and the next cot to him was occupied by a young lieutenant. A bullet had gone through the point of his heart. They had to keep him there for eight days without moving a finger until the muscle could heal, because, if he had moved, it would have meant instant death. He was feeling pretty good when Major Simmons came to see him. Simmons began talking to him, getting messages for his family and for a young lady who did not belong to the family. He finally asked him his name and the boy turned with a grin and said, "My name is von Holzenheimer." Wouldn't the Huns feel good if they knew they had got a man with that name? There were three boys lying alongside in the hospital, wounded in the same cause. All three were of different race origin. All three Americans and nothing but Americans. And infamy shall be the portion of any one who tries to sunder one from the other two.


And remember-I wish to speak this to that small body of men of German origin who have tried to remain American and something else, who have tried to be half American and half Ger- man -- the Germans, the newspapers and the officers in Germany feel more bitterness toward the Americans of German origin than they do toward any other people here. They are not placated in the least by any half-and-half loyalty. You cannot make yourself an ally of Germany except by doing Germany's bidding. If you act sulky, half and half. a little American, but not very much American, its only effect is that you do not remain American at all, and you do not become a German, because you lose all place in their country. Do one thing or the other. If you stay in this country, become wholeheartedly and absolutely and without reser- vation an American. If you are not prepared to do that, then


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get out of the country and go back to Germany. That is all, one thing or the other.


There is another point in connection with Americanism. There has recently been some talk about internationalism as a substitute for patriotism. It was talked about and indulged in by the Russian Bolsheviki a year ago, when they said they loved all mankind. They have shown their love by cutting the throats of 30,000 of their brothers and by betraying the free nations of the earth and by throwing Russia, bound and helpless, under the feet of German autocracy. Internationalism stands to national- ism exactly as the love of one's self stands to the love of one's family. It is an invaluable addition, but a mighty poor substi- tute. We are American nationalists. We intend to do justice to all other nations, but the professed internationalists during the past four years have played Germany's game exactly as the pro- fessed pacifists played it during the same time.


And I wish to say how glad and proud I am that we should sit here and listen to the invocation by a Bishop who wears the button of the Loyal Legion, because, when the choice was between peace and righteousness, he stood for righteousness. Whenever you meet a man who tells you that he loves other countries as much as he loves his own, treat him as you would the very affectionate gentleman who tells you that he loves other women as much as he loves his own wife. Professional internationalism stands toward patrioti-m just exactly as that form of diffused affection stands towards an honorable family life. I like a good neighbor. I want him to treat me squarely. If any neighbor tells me he loves me as much as he does his own wife and children, I distrust him. If he does not care more for his family than he does for me, I am dead sure he cares very little for me. I want to have nothing to do with that kind of a man.


American pacifism has been the tool and ally of German militarism and in just the same way the professional international- ist has been the foe of nationalism of America. For the moment the pacifists and the internationalists are moderately quiet, but just as soon as peace comes they will begin to be noisy again. It is only four years and a month ago that those men were seream-


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ing that there was no more chance for war; that the capitalists would not allow it; that the socialists would not allow it. And they said that men like myself were poor maniacs because we asked this country to prepare, and they went on and said during the next three years, up to a year and a half ago, "No, don't prepare; if you prepare you will have war; keep harmless; if you are harm- less enough, nobody will hurt you." Well, we tried it. We kept unprepared and we got into war. We tried being harmless and we are still busily engaged in trying to undo our harmlessness, notably in the matter of flying machines. We have been exceed- ingly harmless in air craft.


Now that is what the pacifists said in the past. Don't trust them in the future. A pacifist does not keep you out of war. Even a pacifist will fight if you kick him long enough. The trouble is, when he does fight, he isn't any earthly good. He has not been trained so as to make hiniself effective. I asked for pre- paredness, not because I wished war, because I did not wish war. Events have proved that I was right, for, if we had prepared our strength in advance, the chances are a hundred to one that no nation would have invited a trial of strength with ns.


Now, when peace comes, do not trust the pacifists. They are the enemies of righteousness. Do not trust the internationalists. They are the enemies of nationalism-the enemies of American- ism. Do not trust the illusionists, the people who promise you peace with ease, with the absence of effort, and who say if you would only let your heart grow timid and your muscles flabby, you will be doing the Lord's will. That is a poor type of Christ- ianity, isn't it? Not the Peter Cartwright type.


Take the view, you women, that you expect your husbands. the fathers of your children to take. You expect them to be good neighbors, but you expect them to have their first thought for their wives and children, for their mothers. Isn't that so? Same way with a man in international matters. Treat. every other nation squarely. Behave toward every other nation as you would wish every other nation to behave toward you. But remember, if you do not treat this nation squarely first, you cannot be any good to any other nation.


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Let us accept any reasonable proposal when peace comes, whether it be called a League of Nations, or a League to Enforce Peace, or by some other title, any reasonable proposal upon which we can in good faith act, and which really does offer some chance of lessening the probability of future wars and diminishing their area, but never let us forget that a promise that any such league or other piece of machinery will bring about permanently the alo- lition of war is a sham. No machinery will avail until by degrees the heart of man is changed. Use the machinery. Take hold of it, but treat it not as a substitute for, but as a supplement to, preparing our own souls and bodies to protect our own hearth- stones in time of need.


Agreements! Every agreement that the mind of man could devise had been called into being to protect Belgium from Ger- many, but when the hour came that the ruthless Prussian German Hohenzollerns thought it to their interest to disregard those treat- ies, they treated them as seraps of paper, as they themselves said.


You cannot devise any treaty that will not be a serap of paper in the future, unless the law abiding nations have their strength prepared to put back of that treaty if it is violated. That is the way in which you can secure the greatest likelihood of peace for this nation. I would be willing to risk my case with the mothers of the land. I would be perfectly willing to prevent every one else from voting except the mothers, if I could put the case fairly before them and say "if you do not raise your boys so that they can be soldiers for the right, some time or other you shall see them go against the cannon unprepared, you will see your daughters turned over to the merey of a foreign enemy."


I asked for preparedness, not because I wished war, but because I did not wish it. I asked it in the name of those who do not wish war, because, if war comes, their sons and they themselves will have to go. You don't find the pacifists doing that. The paci- fists stay at home. They have important business elsewhere. It is the men who practice the fundamental virtues of the days of Washington and the days of Lincoln, upon whom you have to rest for safety in time of trial, and not upon the glib tongued creatures who try to teach you that rhetoric is an effective substitute for action.


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And when I say prepare our strength, I do not mean to let George do it; I don't mean to stand by and plead while somebody else prepares-I mean for vs. I mean that our sons and grand sons shall train themselves in times of peace, and that they so train themselves that an enemy shall know that it will not be 1S months after war has begun, but that it will not be longer than 18 days after war is begun before they are ready for action. And if every nation understands that, you will not be able to get any power in the world to look crosseved at us.


And as for the pacifists. I suppose you have had his type out here-the conscientious objector. You have heard of him? Yes. We had plenty of them in New York. Men used to write to me a year and a half ago and say, "Are you going to respect my conscience?" I would answer, "Certainly, only you have got to respect mine." I wanted to find out first what the man was conscientious about. If he is merely conscientious about shooting somebody else, I would say, "All right, I'll put you in the army and send you up to the front to dig trenches. After you have dug them, I will put other men in with rifles. You will not hurt any- body. You may get hurt yourself, but you will not hurt anybody else." Or, if he prefers the navy, I'll say, "All right, I will put you on a mine sweeper." A mine sweeper never hurts any other vessel. It hunts for mines. If it finds them-if it is not awfully careful it is apt to go up. The man himself may go skyward, but he will not hurt anybody else. If a man will do that kind of work, he is all right. But if he says he is conscientious about risk- ing his own worthless carcass to fight for his country, then I would say to him, "I am too conscientious to allow you to abide in a land that must be protected by the ones who are willing to fight for it."


We are in the war. Our duty is to speed up the war to the utmost limit of speed and be prepared to fight it through, no mat- ter how long it takes to fight it through. We must insist upon a peace by a complete and overwhelming victory. Remember, that if you put an army in the field by dribleis, the war will last four times as long as it will if you put your army in in the biggest possible mass at once. If you put it in en masse it is much more apt to end the right way.


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Above all things, let us distrust the man who wants to fight the war a little but not much ; who says raise an army but not too big an army, that will make us uncomfortable here.


I feel about nations as I do about individuals. I don't ac- cept the view that there is one standard for national honor and another standard for private honor. Neither do I accept such a view in matters of courage and common sense. I would advise a nation as I would advise a man. Any one of us who has a son wants to feel that the son is not a brawler and is not a coward; that he never bullies a weaker man, but that he will stand up for his rights. When a man will stand up for his rights, the other man had better look ont for himn.


I would advise any man in private life just as I would a nation. Don't lit any man if you can honorably avoid it, but never hit SOFT. No body is crippled if you hit him a little, but not much. If you hit him SOFT, he will hurt you in response. Don't hit him at all if you can help it. If you do hit him, put him to sleep. I see the Bishop gathers my meaning.


That's the same way with a nation. Don't go into war if you can honorably keep out of it, but make it understood that if any nation goes to war with you, it is a War. If you go into war, put it through, and do it NOW. Send our troops over by the millions. Accept no excuse if we do not have our cannon and our aeroplanes by the tens of thousands for them and our ships by the thousands. Remember that the longer the war lags, the more terrible the toll of bloodshed, of lose, of suffering, of misery, will be. Put the war through. Stand by every government official from the highest to the lowest insofar as he stands by the people in putting the war through and not one minute longer than he so stands.


That is the Abraham Lincoln doctrine. In this state (I am not at all sure it was not in Springfield-at any rate in one of yonr cities in Illinois) in 1854 when Lincoln was reproached for standing with certain men on certain things, although he was against them on other things, he answered: "Stand by any man who is right : stand by him as long as he is right, but stand against him when he is wrong." And to do less than that is to show your-


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selves less than a man and less than an American. Good sound doctrine. Any man who tries to get you to stand by any one who is wrong is trying to get you to do a servile, an un-American and an unpatriotic thing.


When we shall have won the war, when those of our sons who are to come back do come back, some of them sound, some of them crippled, when the young men of the nation, the flower of the nation who have fought for us and have done their work, when they come back, let us see to it that they have come back to a better country than they left.


This terrible war with all of its lamentable accompaniments may nevertheless be of lasting value to this nation, for it may scourge us out of the wallow of materialism made only worse by a mockish sham of sentimentality into which we were tending to sink. The finest, the best, the bravest of our young men havo gone forward to face death for the sake of a high ideal, and there- by they have brought home to all of us the great truth that life consists of more than easy going pleasure and more than hard, conscienceless, brutal strife for purely material success. We must rightly care for the body and the things of the body, but such care leads nowhere unless we also have fought for our own souls and for the souls of our brothers. When these gallant boys on the golden crest of life gladly face death for the sake of a high ideal, shall not we, who stay behind, we who have not been found worthy of the great adventure, shall not we in our turn try to shape our lives so as to make this country the ideal, which we in our hearts acknowledge, and to make that ideal and the actual work-a-day business of the world come a little corresponding, a little closer one to the other? Let us resolve to make this country a better place to live in for those men and for the women who send them to battle and for the children who are to come after them to inhabit the land.


When peace comes and even before peace comes. let us weigh and ponder the mighty spiritual forces called into being by this war and turn them to the social and industrial betterment of the nation. Abraham Lincoln, with his usual homely common sense and unerring instinct for the truth bade our people remember


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that the dollar has its place, a place that no one but a fool will deny, but that the man stands above and not below the dollar.


Of late we have worshipped the dollar over much and have been smugly content with service to mammon, heedless of the fact that devotion to dollars is almost equally damaging to those who have too many as to those who have too few. For, when success is treated as tested and measured not by the achieving, self-re- specting, hard-working family life and the performance of duty to one's self and to others with pleasure as an accompaniment of the duty, but as measured sin:ply by the mass of dollars collected, the result is inevitable that the successful greedy ones develop a mean arrogance toward others, and the unsuccessful greedy ones a mean envy toward others, and the envy and the arrogance alike are but the two sides of the same evil shield.


In this country let our purpose be to seeure justice to human- ity. At this moment we hold our heads high because our sons and brothers overseas have placed love of a great cause above ma- terial success. Let us see that that position is not reversed in this country for a long time to come.


The other day I read the statement that there were a hun- dred thousand undernourished children in New York City. If we had a like number of undernourished soldiers, what a cry would go up. Yet these children are the citizens of the future and the industrial army is of the same consequence as the military army ; and if we do not realize this truth, some day this republic will rock to its foundations. In achieving this purpose, we must be equally on our guard against the American Romanoff's and the reaction- aries of industry and polities and against the vultures who appeal to the base spirit of envy and class hatred. who strive for disorder and anarchy. The history of Russia during the last eighteen months teaches this country what to avoid. If you avoid the Scylla of the Romanoff's and plunge into the Charybdis of the Bolsheviki, it don't help. The fact that you have been wrecked on one side of the strait does not give you any cause for congratu- lation because you got away over this side of the strait. Avoid both. Avoid the man who is afraid of progress and avoid the man who would plunge you into the abyss in the name of progress.


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One of the lessons we should learn is that the most sordid corruptionist can do no more harm -- and heaven knows how much harm he can do-that the most sordid corruptionist can do no more harm to the nation than the consciencless demagogue or the impracticable and fanatical visionary. We must take the role of justice and fair play as our guide in dealing alike with capital and labor; with the business man and with the working man, with the man who lives in the town and the man of the open country.


During the war there should be no profiteering, no unusual and abnormal profit. Yet I would like to call this to the atten- tion of some possibly well meaning persons-unless there are legitimate profits you cannot tax them. If there are no profits to tax, there will be no taxes and no wages. People will not per- manently run a business when you do away with the profits. Re- member that. In a very real sense we should see that the govern- ment supervises in this way. It should be done, keeping clearly in view the fact that business must succeed or no good will come to any one and the fact that when it does succeed, there must be a reasonable share of the success go to the men who have put in the capital and to the men who do the labor, who are entitled themselves to the right of collective bargaining in their own in- terests and who are entitled to be treated as in a whole and now in an unlimited sense, partners in the enterprise. There must be the fullest recognition in honor and in material rewards. There must be the fullest recognition of this kind for successful, con- seientions, intelligent, hard working men. And when I say recog- nition, I mean recognition that they accept as such and not that that somebody says they ought to accept as such.


But there must be no limiting of production ; no limiting of output; no insistence on reducing the efficiency of the skilled and hard working to the plain of the shiftless and the inefficient.


So with the farmer. Our aim should be to bring about in this country not merely the maintenance, but the increase of the farmer who tills the soil he owns. Our legislation should be shaped to favor the growth of that class rather than the class of the great land owners who rent their land, or of the renting class -17 C C


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itself. Our aim should be to use whatever means may be found necessary to put a premium upon the maintenance and upbuilding of the class which, in the past, has always been the bedrock of the nation, the class of farmers who live on the land, who till with their own hands, who, themselves and through their sons and through one or two hired nien do the work on the farm on which they live. Make the farm more attractive for them, giving a chance to the tenant to own the farm. Make it possible for the man who wants to buy his farm to get the money from the nation on reasonable terms. Do all of that that we can. And when it has been all done, remember that nothing that the government can do can more than aid the man himself to do the work. No use of trying to carry any man. If you carry him and he lets himself be carried, you will exhaust yourself and you will kill him. There is only one efficient way to help any one and that is to help him to help himself.


So, while the government can and must do certain things, the farmer acting for himself and acting by and with the cooper- ation of other farmers, must himself do certain things. Let us try to introduce gradually and cautiously by adapting to our own needs, the helps, the cooperation and control that have been found effective in Denmark and elsewhere and that have revolutionized the status of the farmers in those countries, and proceed as regards all business men, as regards the wage workers, as regards the farmer, all alike, on the one safe theory in American life, that unless this country in the future is a pretty good place to live in for the children of all of us, it will be a mighty poor place for the children of any of us. Proceed on that assumption. Work together, in unions, in farmers' leagues, in cooperation. When you make class unions, don't work politically. You farmers, recollect if you call a non- partisan league non-partisan and yet make it a party league, it doesn't mean anything. You haven't ealled it what it is, that is hypocrisy. Work with the unions, work with organizations of any kind, business, labor, farmers, but don't forget that there is one union above any other union, and that is the union to which we all belong-the Union of the United States of America.


THE VANDALIA AND FAYETTE COUNTY CELEBRATION


The Centennial Celebration at Vandalia, the second capital of Illinois, on September 24-25-26, was one of the most interesting in the State.


The exercises on the 24th and 26th were under the direction of the Fayette County Centennial Committee, and the program on the 25th was turned over to the Illinois Centennial Commission, which attended in a body.


At a mass meeting held in the old capitol grounds in the afternoon, Dr. Otto L. Selonidt, chairman of the Commission pre- sided, the invocation was delivered by Rev. Frederic Siedenburg. S. J., of Chicago, a member of the Centennial Commission, and addresses were made by Governor Frank O. Lowden, and Justice Orrin N. Carter. Governor Lowden spoke on the significance of the defeat of slavery under Edward Coles, and showed how the de- cision of Illinois at that time had an influence on the present day crisis since it had much to do with the preservation of the Union. Justice Carter's address was an historical discussion of the early history of Vandalia and Southern Illinois.


It had been intended to present Mr. Rice's "Masque" at an open-air amphitheater, prepared for the occasion, on the evening of the 25th, but inclement weather prevented. "The Masque" was presented on the following afternoon and evening, and was greatly enjoyed. Mrs. J. V. Waddell took the part of "Illinois" and the "Prologue" was spoken by Adjutant General Frank S. Dick- son. The cast was selected from various parts of Fayette County.


The program at the mass meeting was as follows: Music.


Shelbyville Glee Club


Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, Chairman of the Centennial Commission, Presiding


Music-The Centennial Ilymn


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Invocation Rev. Frederic Siedenburg, S. J.


Musie. Shelbyville Glee Club Address. Hon. Frank O. Lowden, Governor of Illinois Community Songs




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