FOURTEEN POINTS FOX-HUNTING
therefore on the Fourth of July we should all get
together simply as Americans and celebrate the day as
such without regard to our several racial origins. (June
23, 1918.) Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star, 166.
FOX-HUNTING. Fox-hunting is a great sport, but it is
as foolish to make a fetich of it as it is to decry it. The
fox is hunted merely because there is no larger game to
follow. As long as wolves, deer, or antelope remain in
the land, and in a country where hounds and horsemen
can work, no one would think of following the fox. It is
pursued because the bigger beasts of the chase have
been killed out. In England it has reached its present
prominence only within two centuries; nobody followed
the fox while the stag and the boar were common. At
the present day, on Exmoor, where the wild stag is still
found, its chase ranks ahead of that of the fox. It is not
really the hunting proper which is the point in fox-
hunting. It is the horsemanship, the galloping and
jumping, and the being out in the open air. (1893.)
Mem. Ed. II, 347; Nat. Ed. II, 298.
____________. As is always the case when an attempt
is made to introduce anything new or out of the
common, the effort to make riding to hounds a
recognized amusement in the Northern States has given
rise to a great deal of criticism, mostly of a singularly
senseless sort, characterized by the sheerest and densest
ignorance of the whole subject. Much of this criticism
comes from men themselves too weak or too timid to
do anything needing daring or involving the slightest
personal risk, and who are actuated simply by jealousy
of those who possess the attributes that they themselves
lack. A favorite cry is that hunting is with us artificial
and un-American. Of course it is artificial; so is every
other form of sport in civilized countries, from
tobogganing or ice-yachting to a game of base-ball.
Anything more artificial than shooting quail on the
wing over a trained setter could not be imagined.
Hunting large game in the West with the rifle
undoubtedly calls for the presence of a greater number
of manly and hardy qualities in those who take part in it
than is the case with riding to drag-hounds; but, unless
the quarry is the grizzly bear, it does not need nearly as
much personal daring. To object to hunting because
they hunt in England is about as sensible as to object to
lacrosse because the Indians play it. We do not have to
concern ourselves in the least as to whether a pastime
originated with Indians, or Englishmen, or Hottentots,
for that matter, so long as it is attractive and health-
giving. It goes
seas warfare than Germany is at present.
Point fourteen proposes a general association of
nations to guarantee to great and small States alike
political independence and territorial integrity. It is
dishonorable to make this proposition so long as
President Wilson continues to act as he is now acting in
Haiti and San Domingo. In its essence Mr. Wilson's
proposition for a league of nations seems to be akin to
the holy alliance of the nations of Europe a century ago,
which worked such mischief that the Monroe Doctrine
was called into being especially to combat it. If it is
designed to do away with nationalism, it will work
nothing but mischief. If it is devised in sane fashion as
an addition to nationalism and as an addition to
preparing our own strength for our own defense, it may
do a small amount of good; but it will certainly
accomplish nothing if more than a moderate amount is
attempted and probably the best first step would be to
make the existing league of the Allies a going concern.
(Kansas City Star, October 30, 1918.) Mem. Ed. XXI,
420-423; Nat. Ed., XIX, 380-383.
FOURTEEN POINTS. See also LEAGUE OF NATIONS;
OPEN COVENANTS; WORLD WAR—PEACE SETTLEMENT
OF.
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. Actual experience
with the Fourteenth Amendment to the National
Constitution, . . . has shown us that an amendment
passed by the people with one purpose may be given by
the courts a construction which makes it apply to
wholly different purposes and in a wholly different
manner. The Fourteenth Amendment has been
construed by the courts to apply to a multitude of cases
to which it is positive the people who passed the
amendment had not the remotest idea of applying it. (At
Philadelphia, April 10, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 262; Nat.
Ed. XVII, 196.
FOURTH OF JULY. It is announced that on the
Fourth of July the celebration is to be by race groups—
that is, by Scandinavians, Slavs, Germans, Italians, and
so forth. In sport organizations it may be necessary to
have such a kind of divided celebration in some places,
but I most emphatically protest against such a type of
celebration being general, and I doubt whether it is
advisable to have it anywhere. On the contrary, I
believe that we should make the Fourth of July a
genuine Americanization day, and should use it to teach
the prime lesson of Americanism, which is that there is
no room in the country for the perpetuation of separate
race groups or racial divisions; that we must all be
Americans and nothing but Americans, and that
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