AMERICANISM By Edward Garstin Smith | I hold it to be an irrefutable proposition that a government of the people by the people, when the people are in vast numbers, is an utter im- possibility, except by means of definitely consti- tuted restraints and limitations. A popular government, under our Constitu- tional, representative, Republican form with its checks and balances, some of them applied to the people themselves, is the best. I am for the public welfare, but I differentiate in terms. I am for public liberty and rights al- ways; but I do not always approve of public opinion; facts, evidence, law and truth I place far above and before it. To me the howl of the mob is not the voice of the people; nor is the voice of the people always the expression of wisdom. The vital issue in this country is, not the amendment of the Constitution, not in the re- vision of the basic law, but in the reformation of the basic standard of public morality and a bet- terment of the general understanding. EDWARD GARSTIN SMITH. AMERICANISM By Edward Garstin Smith Price 25 Cents Published by EDWARH) GAIRSTIN SMITH 20 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois Copyright 1920 by EDWARD GARSTIN SMITH Chicago GEORGE WASHINGTON 1732-1799, 67 THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY AMERICANISM My Americanism is a matter of selection—of rejection and retention; rejection of the new and retention of the Old Americanism. First of all, mine is - THE SPIRIT OF 76. I am for the Declaration of Independence. I am for its maintenance. I am unalterably opposed to the Wilsonian DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE. Next, I am for THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U. S. A. My Americanism is of the dauntless spirit of the men who, throughout the viscissitudinous Revolutionary war, fought with sword in hand and courage in heart. These men are dead, but the spirit still lives. The noble spirit is in the universe. It is for us to seek it. If we have it not it is because we want it not. THE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution of the U. S. A. is the most nearly perfect instrument ever devised for the government of a civilized people. Its wisdom was disclosed in its operation, and all the people of this country are its beneficiaries. However, today, a knowledge of it is almost a total blank in the minds of the people, including those in office and government. Therefore it has been disregarded, violated and dangerously amended: until, now, the people have deprived themselves of nearly all the liberties guaranteed and guard. ed for them in the Constitution. THE AMERICAN CHARACTER HAS CHANGED My Americanism embodies the spirit of the courageous soldiers who fought for liberty, the wisdom of the legislators who framed the Con- stitution, the poets, orators and writers who told the rising generations of the noble deeds of their ancestors, the pioneers who opened the way through the wilderness and the builders who created the wonderful fairyland of ease and con- venience which we call American Civilization. OLD FASHIONED AMERICANISM IS IN THE DISCARD. AMERICANs HAVE discarded their Constitution, disregarded the Ten Commandments, discontinued the Golden Rule, distrusted each other, - - disturbed business, disrupted government, disheartened the honest, discouraged efficiency, dismissed thrift, disarranged everything orderly, disgusted the world, and distorted the rules of arithmetic and astronomy. By an Imperial decree one equals six; and 12 o'clock is called 11 o'clock one day and 12 o'oclck some other day. Likewise 14 points equals noth- in. - To understand the changed American way of doing things it is necessary to GRADUATE FROM A LUNATIC ASYLUM. 5 COMMERCIAL ADVERTIs ER. "*" Yoºk, January 17, 1920. --- -- SHORTAGE OF TEACHERSIS CRITICAL Schools Face Situation Which Is Menace to the Future of Education in This Country. - MANY LEAVE WORK By TRISTRAM w. METGALFE. Teacher shortage has developed into a national public school crisis. ; i - - TEACHERS IN AMERICA. For two generations there was no demand for good teachers. Now, in this generation, there is no supply of good teachers. Money can not buy competent teachers. They are as scarce as honest men in Congress. AMERICA SUFFERS FROM 1. An overproduction of rich men; 2. An underproduction of educated men; 3. Women, ever increasingly, seizing more privileges and enlarged rights, while utter- ly disregarding every sense of duty; 4. and children growing up, even worse than their parents. AMERICA. HAS GONE TO WEEDS. Uncle Sam could get a large supply of compet- ent English language teachers by putting adver- tisements in the daily papers of Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Jena, Stuttgart, Halle, Tubingen, Heid- elberg, Gotha and other cities in Germany. 7 IBEFORE AMERICANIZING ALIENS WHY NOT FIRST AMERICANIZE AMERICANS. WHAT HOPE IS THERE FOR AMERICA2 Where is there a constitutional, conservative, constructive, safe and same organized force. Is it 1. The Government? – No. 2. The Press? – No. 3. The Public Schools? – No. 4. The Churches? — No. 5. The Suffragettes? — No. 6. The Prohibitionists? — No. 7. The Ex-Saloonkeepers? – No. S. The Plutocrats? — No. 9. The Labor Unions? — No. 10. The Existing Political Parties? — No. THE ONLY HOPE - IS IN - A RETURN TO THE CONSTITUTION IN GOVERNMENT AND TO FUNDAMENTALs IN EDUCATION AND CONDUCT. 8 HOW IT HAPPENED. The philosophy of history consists in the con- sideration of the relation of elements to events— the action and re-action of cause and effect upon each other. In a sense it is an assay. It is a chemical question containing the protoplasmic - elements of life, in which the struggle for exist. ence is supreme. In its spawning we discern pro- pagandic propagation. In the womb of society various segregated elements aggregate, combine and separate, conflict and amalgamate; finally unifying in some form or other. The United States of America has passed through several such formative periods, passing from one transformation to another. Each of these periods happened to be about a generation in duration; showing distinct and varying chemical qualities in the breed of human beings. It is my purpose to trace now, briefly and clearly, the present degeneracy of the American people. This degeneracy took place during one whole generation and another uncompleted generation. The first of these generations began and ended in violence—with the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and william McKinley-from 1865 to 1901; from the end of the civil war to the end of Constitutional govern- 9 ment in America. Beginning with President Roosevelt in 1901 America entered an era of democracy, demagogues, moral disintigration and the lawlessness of law. The first few years of the post bellum era is known as the “Recon- struction Period;” which soon merged into a vast and intensive Material Construction Era. The ravages of the civil war were soon healed, except in the Southern States, that for a long time re- mained unreconstructed. The whole north was busy from east to west. The vast areas of wild lands beyond the Mis- sissippi were pierced with railways, scattering energetic immigrants from the eastern states and the best of European countries. The Con- necticut Yankee and the orderly German, the man from the woods of Maine and the man from the forests of Norway, the New Yorker and the Swede worked side by side to build new and opulent states; and grew rich, themselves, in so doing. A just system of representative government combined with the utilization of railways, steam- boats, inventions of all kinds, wonderful labor saving and produce-increasing devices, the print- ing press, telegraph, telephone, type-writer, stupendious extractions of minerals from the bosom of nature and the skillful cultivation of 10 the earth's surface brought forth such vast and various fruits of labor, that America became, for the living generation, a very fairyland. However, the chemistry of humanity had en- tered upon its particular evolution. The microbes were busy, imperceptible to most per- sons, insiduous, gradual and steady; until in the fullness of time the work was done and the evolu- tion completed. The energy proceeded from labor to the enjoyment of the fruits of labor, sometimes by the laborer himself and often by others. The land swarmed with the “newly rich.” The wildest dreams of ease and luxury had been realized. Millions of people were cursed with a heritage of riches they did not deserve; and were blessed with liberties they cast away like baubles. The desire for enjoyment over- came the desire for work. The intellectual activities gradually took a course that dissolved the union of the moral and material forces; and finally gave the material desires of the people an ascendancy over their moral forces. This degeneracy, now complete, worked its way through several channels; the most important of them is the deterioration of the public schools. 11 MARCH 9, 1920. NN", woiti.D. “SINISTER FEMINISM” IS DUE TO THE ABDICATION OF MAN, SAYS CARDINAL O'CONNELL Women Are Becoming Masculine and Men Effeminate, and This Is Disorder, He Declares—Father of a Family Should Not Let His Girls Run Rampant–Warns Against Tendency to “Perpetual Strikes." that there are signs of decadence or (sºcial to The world BOSTON, March 8 -Cardinal O'Connell made a vigorous protest against what he termed "sinister feminism" at the closing exercises of the mission for men in the Holy Cross Cathedral yesterday "The very fact that women are so often clamoring to take an power and authority into their hands is certainly no compliment to the manhood of the Nation And really we must admi- lack of proper authority and self- respect in fathers of families “The one thing that will preserve proper order in your house is the Christian authority of the Christian father or a family" said the Cardi- man ºthere is no doubt that one of uhe main causes of this sinister tem- inism, of which we read so much and see quite enough, is what would a p- pear to be a growing weakness on the part of the manhood of the Nation At last I have the gratification of presenting an endorsement of my views by a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. 12 AMERICAN SCHOOLS: America has the best school houses in the world and almost the poorest teaching inside. I went to school in Germany, likewise in America. I know the difference. The German is thorough; the American is superficial. For instance, in Germany, under normal con- (litions, they seldom had more than 40 pupils to one teacher; a man well qualified for the respon- sible and honorable task. In America they have from 50 to 70 pupils to one teacher; a girl, only too often, unfitted and unprepared for the great duties of an instructor. Ten years ago, in print, I said that America was “sissifying;" that women were becoming “mannish” and men “womanish”; that it was having “skirt education;" and that “petticoat” government was impending. I also said that in Hermany the father is the head of the family and woman keeps her proper place. In Germany they make a boy a man and a girl a woman. Nature is honored; and there is no unsexing. I am in favor of the double standard and not the single standard of morals. The single stan- dard brings each sex down to the lowest level of the other and elevates neither. 13 As one result of the existing molly coddle bringing up of boys, few American men today could teach—they are too ignorant. In America the words millionaire and ignoramus have be come synonyms. Those who have acquired knowledge and from it derived wisdom know that seldom is the first acquaintance with a statement sufficient to permanently fix it on the mind. Hence, persistent reviews are neccessary. In the American system of education, there is very little reviewing of studies. Progress is the idea, pushing ahead–a speed mania, a joy ride. In Germany pupils are not promoted from one grade to another according to the calendar. They are advanced from one range of studies to others, only after having been thoroughly tested as to their knowledge and understanding of the studies they have pursued. In America millions of boys and girls are sent annually from the eighth grade of the public schools to the high school; who, instead, should be sent back to the primary grades. They proceed to study Latin and are unfamiliar with English grammar; they struggle with algebra and geometry and hesitate at the multiplication tables. 14 The more you “educate” a man who is defec tive in the intellectual and moral fundamentals, the more dangerous a man you make him. American schools and colleges are continually issuing handsome diplomas to the young victims of a defective education. Hallucinated with this certificate Young America considers his educa. tion completed and proceeds to live “the dollar life”; forgetting what he learned. The diploma soon becomes a mere souvenir. School teaching is a job for a full-sized man. But what is there to invite him, when hod- carriers get better pay than teachers. Young Americans have failed to cultivate their minds. Consequently, after they grew up there cropped out great harvests of intellectual weeds and moral thistles. The American is ignorant, in a fundamental sense. Broadly speaking he is smart, but not educated. He acts quickly and thinks incor- rectly. He thinks he thinks, but he does not think at all—he acts; and he has become– A BAD ACTOR. In the first place he does not understand the simplest underlying principles concerning the operation of the mind. His memory is not orderly. It lacks proper training. He can not 15 reason; and does not reflect. Consequently, his utterances are hap-hazard impressions; or else repetitions of what he has heard or read. His knowledge is undigested. The American no longer seeks to properly in- form himself on any subject; to reason it out to a correct conclusion, with a view of reaching the truth and doing right. Often the American reasons well enough along the line of facts that should constitute the premises in a logical procedure—but fails to continue to the right conclusion;–because he switches in order to make his conclusion har- monize with his own interests or prejudices. He does not consider the ethical aspect; but only the practical view. His sole purpose is to do some thing in order to get something—to gratify some desire. His whole purpose is “to put one over.” He is bent entirely on the accom- plishment of the object in quest, regardless of consequences to others, or even to himself. In this he resembles the wild beast in the jungle. As long as men consider that the end justifies the means, there can be no civilization among them. This intellectual condition applies to all grades and class of Americans: there being here and there merely isolated exceptions. 16 No people in the history of the “world ever developed a keener instinct for “getting” than the present day Americans. Under the modern, so-called, system of civiliza- tion the game of getting is played with chips called money. Money has become the potential purchaser. The possessors of money say: “Money will buy brains.” The possessors of money being ignorant, unscrupulous, narrowly selfish and conceited, it is easily seen that those intellectual thinkers, writers and speakers purchased, like their master's chauffeurs, must obey them. Therefore the intellectuals must either become debased and debauched or else be starved from non-support. Thus the dollar creates intellectual servitude. Today, in America, there is a demand for everything except intellect–intellect in its purest sense. Neither the rich nor the masses in America care anything for good literature. Up to thirty years ago the book agent was a welcomed visitor everywhere in America; people wanted to learn. But he was driven out of existence long ago, the bespattered target of ink wells, brick bats and other missiles thrown by the angry hands of ignorant business men. 17 The other day I bought for ten cents in a second-hand book store a book printed in 1851, entitled “Lives of James Madison and James Monroe,” by John Quincy Adams. Americans know nothing about these men who helped to make possible the fairyland of ease and con- venience called American civilization. They care neither for ancestry nor for posterity. All they want is to work as little as possible and enjoy themselves as much as possible. They are feeders and speeders; but not thinkers. With them it is pleasure not principle, “doing” and not duty. They are victims of speed mania and sensation. They want automobiles, movies, jazz-music, paintings with large daubs of red and yellow, and sensuously exciting literature such as: “A Night Off,” “Mama's Affair,” “The Bed-room Scene,” “The Honest Thief,” etc. The money man in America looks down on the intellectual man. He seeks to impress on him his own importance. He shows how busy he is and how rich he is. But his triumph of im: pudence consists in pretending to know all that the intellectual one knows—and then some. But . when he meets the intellectual who has attained great fame and fortune he fawns upon him. The money man secretly envies the intellectual, jealousy ripening into contempt and hatred. 12 This becomes hereditary, being transmitted from parents to children. newspaper clipping. DETROIT FREE PRESS, M A R C H 18, 1920. JEAlous laps | SLAY Boy who LED CLASSES Indigent, But Brilliant, Pupil is Attacked by Gang of Older Students. Pueblo, Colo March 17–ted. the 11-year-old son of Mrs. H. A. Kuy- kendall in a statement today shortly before his death charged he had been kicked and injured by five *hºolboys Physicians say the lad died as a result of these injuries Look at the following Behind the death of the lad is a schoolboy feud. Ted's mother is poor His clothes earned for him the name of “Poverty” among school- mates. Despite handicaps, the boy led his classes. Ted, according to his statement. "whipped" two boys of his own age Thursday when they jeered at his clothes. Friday five older boys at- tacked him and kicked him into un- consciousness. Neighbors found him behind a billboard Five school boys under arrest in connection with the death of Ted. confessed, according to the police that they kicked the boy to death because they were jealous or hts high standing in the school the boys attended - THIS IS MY AMERICANISM THOMAS JEFFERSON 1743-1826. S3 He bought Louisiana 20 THIS IS NOT MY AMERICANIsM THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1858-1919. 61 He stole Panama. 21 THIS IS MY AMERICANISM JAMES MAI) ISON 1751-1836. 85 He supervised the building of the Constitution. 22 THIS IS NOT MY AMERICANISM WOODROW WILSON 1856 He wrecked the Constitution. 23 SEED AND ITS FRUIT; Ol' A ROOT AND WHAT IT SPROUTS. Inefficiency. Dishonesty. Crime. Bigotry. Selfishness Intolerance Ignorance Dissimulation. Maleducation Hypocrisy Conceit Cowardice. Subserviency. Tyranny. The most serious hinderance to betterment in America lies in the American's conceit: which prevents him from seeing his own fault, so neces- sary for the correction of one's errors. The American can not bear criticism. He wants flatterers and entertainers—the jester with cap and bells and not—the teacher. The American indulges in superlatives—he has the biggest farms, the biggest factories, the biggest cataract and—the biggest lobsters.” 24 The American people's minds have shown a strong tendency to the exclusive consideration of their stomachs and physical comforts and plea- sures, to the exclusion of the consideration of moral principles. Hence, they readily developed the subjective mind. The American, having be- come incapable of individual thinking, swallows whatever intellectual food that is handed out to him for public consumption. The American is an intellectual “Poll-parrot.” For many years the American people have been both molded and controlled by an invisible government, that is now becoming quite visible and arrogant in the exercises of its powers. The churches were fostered in order to make the growing children believers; thereby assuring that the “grown ups” would not become thinkers. The invisible government wants the thinkers in its own circle and not in the public's. The movies were universally corrupted, dis- playing everywhere every crime in its most allur- ing and romantic aspect, encouraging licentious- ness and domestic infelicity. The automobile industry has become the third greatest business in America. The automobile has destroyed the “After Supper Round Table” of the American home and made the speed maniac 25 in place of the reflective mind. But the Master Mesmerist of all is the daily press. It has become the daily sewer, serving its filth at the breakfast table. Insiduously it feeds out to the public whatever misinformation the invisible govern- ment chooses and withholds whatever informa- tion the public should not be allowed to have. It is a daily injection of virus that keeps the American mind “doped” and in the absolute control of the invisible government. The invisible government understands the elemental in its human live stock, just as the herder knows how to handle his sheep and cattle. Individual cowardice makes organized force potential. The war gave the invisible government an opportunity to guage the character of its sub- ject people and place the yoke upon them. The public tendency is to faith without deeds: to hope without proper action; to an avoidance of individual responsibility, duty or risk; and an effort to make itself believe that all things that are wrong will right themselves without individual effort. America is praying for a Lincoln or the second coming of Christ; but, in reality inviting a Napoleon while actually being ruled by a Caesar. 26 TYRANNY The quality of tyranny is the same at all times and in all places. - The tyrant is also a coward; and he breeds tyranny among the victims of his tyranny. So, in time, a whole people become tyrannized ty. rants—grading down and down. President Wilson inaugurated a reign of tyranny. Popu- lar cowardice made it possible. The spirit of liberty is still in the land; but it is in the breast of only a few. However, the contest is on again. During the past three years I have fought this tyranny in America with my tongue and pen, impelled by reason and courage, using only the weapons of intellectual warfare. On the other hand the Government has used the dreadful weapons of force and coercion. It is an unfair and unequal contest. But, then, tyranny never fights fair. A tyrannical Government always wants a monopoly of the use of FORCE AND VIOLENCE It invites hypocrisy, rewards subserviency and forbids the utterance of the truth. Yet tyranny fears Real Manhood. 27 FOR A MESS THEY WANT A MESSIAH. For human negligence they want divine inter- vention; and the deity is already rising from the lower regions. The masses of mankind do not improve in thousands of years. The human beast remains the same. The best efforts of intellectuals in generations of time are wiped out by the masses in a generation or two, destroying civilizations and plunging mankind back into barbarism. America is on the brink of the abyss of “Dark Ages,” with hypocrisy as a guide and honesty frightened away. The draft law, the espionage law, the suppres- sion of the freedom of speech and the press and the right of assemblage, the confiscations, intern- ments, deportations, lynchings, the increasing burdens of taxation, the successive forced loans called “Liberty Bonds,” because no man was at liberty to refuse to buy, the dissolute expendi. tures of vast sums of public monies, creating 23,000 new millionaires, as if by magic and put- ting the cost of living beyond the reach of the masses, with prohibition to depress the spirits of men, the ease with which men were forced to do what they did not like and then pretended to 28 like it, the public's deprivation of constitutional rights and their defense of their own oppressors, the facility with which hatred was spread, demonstrated the subservient spirit of the peo- ple and the power of tyranny—The public was cowed and subserviency was called loyalty. AM ERICA IS SICK. On the maturity of the sons and daughters of the Civil War Veterans, at the dawn of the 20th century, the climax of civilization in America was reached. The people were enjoying the fruits of the genius, wisdom, statesmanship, integrity and intrepidity of the men of preceeding genera- tions. Since the Civil war America has produced millions of very rich men; but not a single great man. Why this impotence? There came discontentment at contentment. Then came demagogues, sky pilots, quacks, female “uplifters” and other down-graders. These quacks offered the people quack-nostrums for imaginary ills; which the public swallowed with rapacity and without scrutiny. Figur- atively speaking the milk was soured and the food was poisoned. Soon the people developed many complicated diseases from these “cure-alls. 29 The dawn of the American Republic disclosed a Washington, a Jefferson and a Hamilton. The dawn of democracy disclosed a Bryan, a Roosevelt and a Billy Sunday. The dawn of autocracy disclosed WOODROW WILSON, the first of the American Caesars, uncrowned, but boldly wielding usurped powers. The average American does not care what his government is, if only he may continue to MAKE MONEY. Oh, this is 1920 and an election year. That is a joke. It is the quadrennial CATTLE DRIVE. The tendency of the times is to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and all classes more ignorant and brutal. America lacks manhood among the people and statesmen in government. The rich at banquets applaud references to the Americanism that makes them richer; and the poor conspire to destroy the government. The American people have gotten themselves into an inextricable mess without having the intelli- gence to get out of it. 30 THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO is To improve yourself, mentally, morally and physically. Yes, I mean you, YOU SEIIRECER. It is you that keeps down the low average of citizenship. REFORM YOURSELF and thus help the General Reformation. TEIE REMEDY To escape the ills of America there is one remedy– A STEAMSBIP TICKET. To those remaining in the U. S. A. there is the choice of one of two courses open: 1. To fight the evils, or 2. To submit to the conditions. 1 If you want to be a candidate for posthumous heroic honors as an Arnold von Winkelried or a Joseph Warren—stay. 2 If you wish to be a hypocrite among hypo- crites, a crook among crook, a coward among tyrants or a tyrant among cowards—stay. 31 LET Us ope, N THE Book of or AcLEs AND READ WHAT JAMES MADISON SAID: “No instance has heretofore occurred, nor ean any instance be expected hereafter to occurr, in which the unadulterated forms of republican government can pretend to so fair an oportunity of justifying themselves by their fruits.” “Let it be remembered, that it has ever been the pride and boast of America, that the rights for which she contended, were the rights of human nature. “If on the other side, our Government should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal and essential virtues, the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed; and the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against them.” 32 LIBRARY EDITION OF THE WORKS OF EDWARD GARSTIN SMITH IN CLOTE Life and Reminiscences of Robert G. Ingersoll - $3.00 Conservative Governemnt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00 After the War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 The Real Roosevelt and Billy Sunday. . . . . 3.00 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 Messages to Congress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00 PAMPHILETS WRITTEN BY EDWARD GARSTIN SMITH The European War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 How to Read. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Right Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Billy Sunday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - - - - - 25 Prohibition is Wrong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Americanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ALSO The Real Roosevelt, 4th Edition, cloth. . . . 1.75 EDWARD GARSTIN SMITH Publisher 20 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. MODERN AMERICANS HAVE TOO MANY DOLLARS AND TOO LITTLE SENSE LIKE ALL IGNORANT PEOPLE THEY LIKE TO BE FLATTERED AND SWINDLED IN ADMIRATION THEY TAKE THEIR HAT'S OFF TO THE SUCCESSFUL SWINDLER. EDWARD GARSTIN SMITH Publisher 20 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, Illinois.