cooperate with us. But, still, the Jap has us _tiron_ in other ways."

"Has us what?" Parker interrupted.

"_Tiron_. Spanish slang. I mean he has us where the hair is short;
we're hobbled."

"How?" Kay demanded.

His bright smile was triumphant.

"By shibboleths, of course. My friends, we're a race of sentimental
idiots, and the Japanese know this and capitalize it. We have
promulgated other fool shibboleths which we are too proud or too stupid
to repudiate. 'America, the refuge for all the oppressed of the
earth!' Ever hear that perfectly damnable shibboleth shouted by a
Fourth of July orator? 'America, the hope of the world!' What kind of
hope? Hope of freedom, social and political equality, equality of
opportunity? Nonsense! Hope of more money, shorter hours, and license
misnamed liberty; and when that hope has been fulfilled, back they go
to the countries that denied them all that we give. How many of them
feel, when they land at Ellis Island, that the ground whereon they
tread is holy, sanctified by the blood and tears of a handful of great,
brave souls who really had an ideal and died for it. Mighty few of the
cattle realize what that hope is, even in the second generation."

"I fear," quoth Parker, "that your army experience has embittered you."

"On the contrary, it has broadened and developed me. It has been a
liberal education, and it has strengthened my love for my country."