voted the editor out of membership. The American Protective League might have been drawn into politics if it had lived much longer—perforce would be and ought to be drawn. One thing is sure, if a man must cater in business to a class which has disloyalty inborn and ingrained, that man is not catering to America and a great future for her.
It is all a question of the high heart of the gentleman unafraid—individual courage, clear-headedness, honest self-searching. That is as true for the native born as for the naturalized citizen. Perhaps for all these warring Iowans, some of whom were zealous and interested, there might very well, in these grave, troubled days of our country and of all the world, be put on the wall of our house the old Bible motto: "Blessed are the pure in heart."
You ask, indeed, what shall we do with all these chameleon propagandists, these foreigners? How shall we classify them—as Americans or as enemies? Who is the American?
It is simple to answer that. It is he who himself knows in his own soul whether or not he is done with the damnable hyphen which has almost ruined America, and yet may do so. Liberty Bonds and public speaking do not prove Americanism. Not even service stars in a window make a man American. Blessed are the pure in heart, of Mason City or of Des Moines, of the Greater Iowa Association or the Non-Partisan League, of the Peoples' Council, of the A. P. L., or of German or American birth. And when individual American courage is common enough to make a man fight pro-Germanism until it is dead forever, one thinks we shall indeed see God manifested again in the great civilization which once was promised for America. It can be had now in only one way, and that way will cost dear. If you are interested in your son's future, see to it that he—and you yourself—shall be pure in heart. We want and will have no others for Americans to-day or to-morrow.
