Quotes Suitable for Framing: John Ireland

 

Be ambitious, seek to elevate yourselves, to better your lot;  too often we are too easily satisfied.  When a man is poor, let him live in a hovel.  I esteem him;  at any moment I tend him the right hand of fellowship;  but if by labor, by energy, he can secure to his family comfort and respectability, and does not, then I despise him.

Father, later Archbishop, John Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day sermon, St. Paul, Minnesota 1865

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Old Soldiers Never Die

I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams.

The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-by.

General Douglas MacArthur, Conclusion to speech to Congress-April 19, 1951

 

Something for the weekend.  A parody of the hymn Kind Words Never Die, the Army ballad Old Soldiers Never Die enjoyed new popularity when General MacArthur mentioned it in his farewell address.  The version at the beginning of this post was the seventh most popular song based on sales in 1951.

No Irish Need Apply

(I originally posted this at The American Catholic, and I thought the history mavens of Almost Chosen People would enjoy it.)

It is always a matter of rejoicing when bad history bites the dust:

The Internet has been buzzing about how discrimination against the Irish was a myth. All it took was a high schooler to prove them wrong.

Rebecca Fried had no intention of preserving the record of a persecuted people whose strife was ready to be permanently written off in the eyes of history as exaggerated, imagined, or even invented.

That’s because Rebecca was too busy trying to get through the 8th grade.

In 2002, University of Illinois-Chicago history professor Richard J. Jensen printed “No Irish Need Apply: A Myth of Victimization.” His abstract begins:

“Irish Catholics in America have a vibrant memory of humiliating job discrimination, which featured omnipresent signs proclaiming ‘Help Wanted—No Irish Need Apply!’ No one has ever seen one of these NINA signs because they were extremely rare or nonexistent.”

In short, those famous “No Irish Need Apply” signs—ones that proved Irish Americans faced explicit job discrimination in the 19th and 20th centuries? Professor Jensen came to the blockbuster conclusion that they never existed.

The theory picked up traction over the last decade, but seemed to reach an unexpected fever pitch in the last few months. Explainer websites this year used it to highlight popular myths of persecution complexes that are, as Vox put it, “stand-ins for an entire narrative about how immigrants are treated in America.” That’s from the lede of an article printed in March called “‘No Irish Need Apply’: the fake sign at the heart of a real movement.”

Here, of course, is the problem: After only couple of hours Googling it, Rebecca, a 14-year-old, had found out these signs had, in fact, existed all along. Not only in newspaper listings—in which they appeared in droves—but, after further research, in shop windows, too.

The Irish were persecuted in the American job market—and precisely in the overt, literally written-down way that was always believed.

All of this would have been written off as a myth if it weren’t for Rebecca Fried, a rising high school freshman—who one of the preeminent scholars on the Irish diaspora in the United States now calls a “hero” and “quite extraordinary”—and who simply couldn’t believe it, either.

Rebecca never set out to prove the thesis wrong. She was just interested in an article her dad brought home from work one day.

“Now and then I bring home stuff for the kids to read if I think they will find it interesting or will convey some lesson,” says Michael Fried, Rebecca’s father. “Half the time they don’t read them at all. Sometimes they’ll read something if I suggest it. Nothing has ever come of any of these things other than this one.”

Rebecca wasn’t even trying to disprove her dad—let alone an academic at the University of Illiniois-Chicago. She just figured she’d Google the words and see what came up over 100 years ago.

Japan Remains One Country

 

One of the more decisive decisions of the Occupation of Japan, that Japan would remain one state, was made early in the process by General MacArthur.  The Soviets planned to occupy the northern island of Hokkaido and establish a puppet Soviet regime, identical to what was occurring in East Germany.  If this had succeeded, Japan could have been divided into a Communist North Japan and a Democratic South Japan for the length of the Cold War.  Appeasement of the Soviets was still very much in favor at the State Department, and it is possible that if the Soviets had simply begun landing in Hokkaido, that Washington may have capitulated on that point.  After all, the Soviets were full members, with Great Britain, in the Allied commission to supervise and monitor the Supreme Commander in Tokyo.  The Soviets also insisted upon a tri-partite division of Tokyo, similar to what was being done in Berlin.  MacArthur would have none of it.

September 19: International Speak Like A Pirate Day-Pirate Lincoln

 

 

Ar, it be about four score and seven years ago since our fathers made ye new nation, a liberty port for all hands from end to end, and dedicated t’ t’ truth that all swabs be created equal.

Now we be fightin’ a great ruckus, testin’ whether ye nation, or any nation so minted like it, can last through the long watch. We be met on a great boardin’ fight o’ that war. We have come t’ dedicate a spot o’ that field, as a final restin’ place for those who here swallowed the anchor forever that that nation might live. It be altogether fittin’ and proper that we be doin’ this.

But, truth be told, we can not set aside, we can not pray over, we can not hallow this ground. T’ brave swabs, livin’ and went t’ Davy Jones’ locker, who fit here, have blessed it, far over our poor power t’ add or swipe back. T’ world won’t writ what we say here, but it can never forget what those swabs did here. It be for us t’ livin’, rather, t’ be dedicated here t’  finishin’ t’ work which they who fit here have begun.   It be rather for us t’ be here dedicated t’ t’ great chore remainin’ before us—that from these honored swabs we take increased love t’ what they died for—that we here Bible swear that these shipmates shall not have went t’ Davy Jones’ locker for nothin’—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth o’ freedom—and that government o’ t’ crew, by t’ crew, for t’ crew, shall not perish from t’ earth.

 

 

On t’ occasion like this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed t’ an impendin’ civil war. All were scared of it, all sought t’ stop it.”

While t’ startin’ talk was bein’ delivered from this place, devoted altogether t’ savin’ t’ port without war, swabs were in t’ city seekin’ t’ destroy it without war–seekin’ t’ dissolve t’ port and divide t’ port by parley. Both parties deprecated war, but one o’ them would make a ruckus rather than let t’ nation survive, and t’ other would accept a ruckus rather than let it perish, and t’ war came. ”

One-eighth o’ all the swabs were black slaves, not livin’ all over t’ port, but localized in t’ southern part o’ it. These slaves made a peculiar and powerful interest for the swabs who owned ’em. All knew that this interest was somehow t’ cause o’ t’ ruckus. T’ strengthen, keep through the long watch, and spread slavery was t’ object for which t’ insurgents would rend t’ Union even by war, while t’ Government claimed no starboard t’ do more than t’ restrict t’ spread o’ it.

Neither party expected for t’ ruckus t’ size or t’ time of it. Neither reckoned that t’ cause o’ t’ fight might cease with or even before t’ conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier win, less great and astoundin’. Both read t’ same Bible and pray t’ t’ same Good Lord, and each invokes His help against t’ other.”

It may seem passin’ odd that any swabs should dare t’ ask a the Good  Lord’s assistance in wrin’in’ their bread from t’ sweat o’ other swab’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. T’ prayers o’ both could not be answered. That o’ neither has been answered fully. T’ Almighty has His own chart. “Woe unto t’ world because o’ sins; for it must needs be that sins come, but woe t’ that man by whom t’ offense cometh.”

If we shall guess that American slavery be one o’ those sins which, in t’ will o’ the Good Lord, must needs come, but which, havin’ lasted through His appointed time, He now wills t’ remove, and that He gives t’ both North and South this terrible war as t’ woe due t’ those by whom t’ evil came, shall we ahoy tharin any difference from those divine likenesses which t’ believers in a livin’ God always ascribe t’ Him?

Sweetly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty plague o’ war may speedily pass away. Yet, if the Good Lord wills that it continue until all t’ wealth piled by t’ slave’s two hundred and fifty years o’ pressed toil shall be sunk, and until every drop o’ blood drawn with t’ lash shall be paid by another drawn with t’ cutlas, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “t’ judgments o’ t’ Lord be true and starboardeous altogether.” ”

With evil toward none, with helpin’ for all, with firmness in t’ starboard as the Good Lord gives us t’ see t’ starboard, let us strive on t’ finish t’ chore we be in, t’ bind up t’ nation’s wounds, t’ care for him who shall have borne t’ fight and for his widow and his orphan, t’ do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lastin’ peace among ourselves and with all other crews. “

Jefferson and Liberty Too

Something for the weekend:  Jefferson and Liberty Too.  The hotly contested election of 1800 brought to the nation many of the trappings of subsequent campaigns including campaign songs.   The most popular was the tune Jefferson and Liberty Too, sung to the tune of Irish jig The Gobby O, which was quite popular in America during the colonial period and thereafter, familiar as a fiddle tune at virtually every ball:

Our Job in Japan

 

A film produced by the Army Signal Corps for troops who would serve on occupation duty in Japan.  Written by Theodore Geisel, who would later achieve immortality as Dr. Seuss, the film explains why it was necessary to occupy Japan and convert the nation to the ways of peace and Democracy.

September 12, 1683: I Came, I Saw, God Conquered

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjdvf01pJXg

(I posted this at The American Catholic, and I thought the history mavens of Almost Chosen People would enjoy it.)

 

Something for the weekend.  A video clip on the charge of the winged Polish hussars on September 12, 1683, 332 years ago, that broke the back of the Turkish army besieging Vienna.  John Sobieski, the Polish King, fifty-four years old, had been fighting the Turks since his youth.  College educated at a time when that was rare, he had spent two years traveling in Western Europe.  Multi-lingual, in addition to his native Polish he could also speak Latin, German, Italian, French, Tatar and Turkish.  A scholar as well as a fighting man, he made a careful study of Turkish military methods.  His skill on the battlefield and in diplomacy led to him being crowned King of Poland in 1676.

In 1683 he gained immortality in History by literally riding to the rescue of Vienna with his Polish army.  A letter he wrote to his wife in the tent of the defeated Turkish general details what happened:

A Great Victory Courtesy of the American Worker

 

Seventy years ago American industry was converting from wartime to peacetime production.  American workers during the War had performed a miracle.  The figures of the items produced are absolutely stunning.

During the War the US produced 324,000 military planes, 102,410 tanks, 2,382,311 other vehicles, 257,390 pieces of artillery, 105,055 mortars, 2,679,840 machine guns, 124 carriers, 8 battleships, 48 cruisers, 349 destroyers, 245 submarines, and 35,000 landing craft.  These figures only scratch the surface as the US also had to produce the tens of thousands of categories of other items, ranging from uniforms to Liberty transport ships, without which American, and Allied, forces would have ground to a halt.

Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill

Something for the weekend.  A lively rendition of the classic railroad song, Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill.  First published in 1888, the words are attributed to Thomas Casey, and the music to Charles Connolly.