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The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, April 07, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 9

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-04-07/ed-2/seq-9/

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ONE MAN'S OPINIONS
BY N. D. COCHRAN.
Patriotism. I am not sure that I
am what you call a patriot. J am not
sure that I know what patriotism is.
There are various kinds of patriots.
There are German patriots, French
patriots, English patriots, Italian pa
triots, Greek, Turkish and other na
tional patriots.
I said English patriots instead of
saying British patriots, because there
are many kinds of British patriots if
there are any British patriots at all.
There are Scotch patriots, Cana
dian patriots, and at least two kinds
of Irish patriots just now.
bo the British patriot divides up in
to lesser patriots, including the Irish;
and the Irish divide up into Ulster pa
triots and other patriots. When fac
1 tions develop among the factions
then there will be lesser patriots still.
I suppose we could reduce every
man until finally his patriotism would
be confined 'to his own fireside.
I like that kind of patriotism. After
that I would jump over all the kinds
between and shout for the patriotism
of the United States of the World.
That's my country.
I suppose there are men who would
call themselves Illinois patriots. Then
there are Cook county patriots, Chi
cago patriots and even ward and pre
cinct patriots.
Somewhere there is an imaginary
line that separates Illinois from In
diana. Walking along a country road
or traveling on a railway train, the
line isn't visible to the naked eye.
There is no difference between hu
manity on one side of the line and
numanityon tne otner side. The man
who is an Indiana patriot today can
move across the line and become an
Illinois patriot tomorrow. Yet there
is no difference in the man. He'sthe
same man. 0
. The German patriot may'cross the
ocean, take up his residence. here.
become a citizen and an American 1
patriot I might go to France and be
come a French patriot But I would
still be I. And I think I would be just '
as happy as a Frenchman, German
or any other kind of flag-man as an
American flag-man. Certainly I
wouldn't be more or less of a manin
one place than in another.
Birds fly across state lines and na
tional boundaries and never know of
their existence. There is no difference
in the trees, flowers, the fruit or the
earth on opposite sides of the line.
Fish swim freely over the imagi
nary line in Lake Erie between Can
ada and the United States; and they
don't know the difference. To them
there is no difference. They are not
Canadian fish or American fish; they
are just fish.
Men and women can love, even
though neither understands the lan
guage of the other. I mean the word
language. The eye language is uni
versal. I can talk in but one language, but
I can drink in several; and I think
the same thoughts, undoubtedly, that
men think in every corner of the
globe.
There is but one human family.
There can be but one patriotism that
isn't selfishness. I wish there were
but one country all over this e.arth,
and that we had but one flag.
And I would have that flag have no
lesser significance than the brother
hood of man.
If -we lived the Golden Bule every?
where under that flag we could have
a glorious bonfire, burn upv all the
man-made law books in the world
and be happy.
Unions and Granges. I noticed a
news item in the papers the other.
day about some getting together, of
labor unions and farmers' granges to
resist applying the Sherman anti
trust law ,to them.
There is significance In that Item.
I don't know how far it will go now,
bu J "will feel kindjy: toward thos
who have tried to "use the Sherman

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