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| YOU talk of this and that, of that and this: | |
| Have you ever tried, since you’ve been over here, | |
| Just being a plain American, my friend? | |
| |
| Have you ever lived in one of our little towns, | |
| Worked side by side with fellow-citizens | 5 |
| And shared the ups and downs of life with them? | |
| Have you ever honestly striven to accept | |
| This country of ours that has accepted you? | |
| If you have not, what right have you to speak? | |
| |
| Have you ever been upon our Western plains | 10 |
| Waving with untold miles of ripened wheat? | |
| Have you known our mountains and our farms and forests, | |
| Our townships and our populated cities | |
| Or got into the inside of our life | |
| Built up through years of order, progress, law? | 15 |
| If you have not, what right have you to speak? | |
| |
| Do you think that what the Pilgrim Fathers sought, | |
| Yes, sought and found, was sought and found in vain? | |
| Is Washington a myth and name to you? | |
| Have you ever learned from Franklin’s homely wisdom | 20 |
| Or from the large humanity of Lincoln | |
| Or studied in the school of our great men | |
| From whom we draw our widening heritage? | |
| If you have not, what right have you to speak? | |
| |
| You talk of this and that, of that and this: | 25 |
| Have you ever tried, since you’ve been over here,. | |
| Just being a plain American, my friend? | |
If you have not, what right have you to speak?
The Outlook | |
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