It begins to look as if some of the belligerent powers of Europe would like to make us dance to the crash of diplomatic notes and unjustifiable war measures. In any street row it is usually the innocent bystander that suffers most, and the belligerents evidently don’t care how much this neutral nation may suffer if they can have their own way.
But if we are not mistaken in our guess, Uncle Sam will distinctively and decisively decline to play the rôle of “tenderfoot” for the amusement or profit of European gunmen. The people of this nation will insist upon full recognition of their rights as neutrals—and not only that, but on their privilege to carry on their accustomed activities of travel, trade and industry in accordance with the universally recognized rules of international law. In so far as the administration at Washington insists upon the assertion and exercise of these rights and privileges, in so far will it be backed up by the public sentiment of the nation. In so far as it falls short of maintaining the full height of the dignity of American manhood, in so far will it fall short of its duty and the demands of our intelligent and responsible citizenship.
The people of this country do not want war with any of the belligerent nations, nor do they expect that we will be drawn into the war by the manly assertion of our rights. But dreadful as war is, they would prefer it to seeing our country and our flag made a ridiculous spectacle of pusillanimity and helplessness.
On the other hand, no reasonable citizen wants our government to be bumptious and insulting, or to invite reprisals by exceeding the measure of our just demands. Nor is it likely that a firm and reasonable attitude assumed by the Washington administration will draw us into the war. It is not at all probable that any of the great powers arrayed against each other on European battle fields or the high seas want war with the United States now. On the contrary, any one of them would undoubtedly make sacrifices to avoid it. We do not, however, ask of any of them any sacrifice beyond the observance of the recognized rules of international law and the dictates of humanity. If any nation would declare war against us because we call a halt upon its savagery so far as our own citizens are concerned, we could fight with a good conscience and with a confident trust in the God of justice and mercy.
The United States is not called upon to go to war to protect any of the nations of the Eastern Hemisphere, or the rights and immunities of their citizens. We are not called upon to take sides in the conflict now raging; but we are called upon to protect our own citizens in their lives, their immunities and their world-rights, and if we fall below the measure of this duty history will judge us as a pitiful and decadent race.
MUTUAL OBLIGATION
The obligation of our foreign-born naturalized citizens and of our government is mutual. The naturalized citizens owe loyalty to the United States and the United States owes them protection. The foreigner, taking out his citizenship papers, forswears allegiance to the country of his birth and specifically to the ruler or rulers thereof, and swears to be a true and faithful citizen to the country of his adoption. With this oath upon his soul, any divided allegiance upon his part is treasonable. Politically he stands precisely upon the basis of a native-born citizen. So do his children, whether born in this country or not. His minor children, born abroad, if they have come to the United States with him, become citizens through his naturalization.
While the naturalized citizens thus owe the same undivided allegiance to the country of their adoption that her native citizens owe, the country of their adoption owes them precisely the same protection that it owes the native-born. It owes them and their families the same protection of the laws, the same opportunities for a vocation, the same right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our government also owes them the same protection while traveling or temporarily sojourning in foreign countries.
Having exacted from the naturalized citizen the forswearing of his allegiance to the country of his former domicile and its rulers, the United States perhaps owes even a more punctilious obligation to him to protect him in his rights of American citizenship. For if the native country of the naturalized citizen does not recognize his right of expatriation, and insists upon holding him, for instance, to military service, the United States should be ready and able to protect him in his right of exemption from such service. A country that cannot protect its own citizens, whether native or naturalized, has no right to independent existence. In these times the bearing of this point upon the physical power of this government to assert itself and to command respectful attention to its just demands, needs no extended discussion. It is a time when no virile nation can afford to leave itself denuded of defensive power and helpless.