In a previous article, I made public the documents supplied to me by the Holland Society of Chicago for my personal information. The readers have gathered from these documents the attitudes of such men as Dr. Kuiper and Professor Bavinck on the subject of the establishment of a chair in Dutch History, language, and literature at the University of Chicago. Both of these men, it is evident from their writings, are heartily in favor of the movement.

And we can add to this that the most influential persons in every walk of life in Holland are of the same opinion, even Queen Wilhelmina, who indicated her favor toward it lately. And because it is to the interest of the Dutch in America, it is imperative to know what the purpose of this movement is, how it has progressed thus far, and how it can be brought to a successful conclusion.

A few years ago, a committee consisting of members of the Holland Society in Chicago and of the General Dutch League went to the president of the University of Chicago. This committee presented to the president a petition which was the result of a great and noble movement over the entire United States, and which was signed by well-known men from every corner of the country. The Holland Society was so good as to give me a copy of the petition, as well as a complete copy of all signatures, plus a letter written by ex-President Roosevelt signifying his whole-hearted sympathy with the movement.

The petition is a masterpiece; written on eight folio pages, it is a credit to the composers and the signatories alike. At the start it was signified in good and plain language what was meant by the petitioners: "We, the undersigned, either of Dutch birth or descent, or sympathizing with all just causes which tend to promote a better knowledge of the Dutch nation, its history, art, literature, and language, among the American people, humbly petition you to establish a chair for the study of Dutch history, Dutch literature, and 3Dutch language at the University of Chicago, said chair to comprise also the existing subdivision of Dutch art of the Department of Art at the University." This is in short the entire purpose of the petition and of a movement which found favor among men of reputation over nearly all the United States." This purpose is now further clarified, and to this clarification is devoted the entire contents of the petition.

The meaning of this petition and its broad clarification should not be underestimated; we are convinced that, in future days, it will be protected as an important document in the history of the Dutch in America. The [falsehood of the] accusation often made against the Dutch, that they are too sectarian, too narrow-minded, too selfish, ever to be able to co-operate for a Dutch national purpose and much less to seek the best that the Dutch, with their glorious history, could do for the American nation, is clearly illustrated in the petition. The fact that nearly six hundred signatures are attached to the petition proves that the broad understandings inspired by national consciousness have not in the least been undermined by partisanship and sectarian 4frugality. When I, being in America only a couple of months, and having been introduced in most American circles, read the petition for the first time, it was as though a current of enthusiasm and love for the glorious past of our nation went through my soul. May it please God, I thought, to do right by the Netherlands in the great center of the American nation; so that, through all the good that has been accomplished by that nation, we may serve to a higher degree than heretofore and work as yeast within that great nation which is in the making between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

How boundlessly were men praised many times in this land, how often were they held up as examples and showered with love, men who could not conceivably rank with our Father William, with our De Ruyter, with our Rembrandt, with our Vondel, and with so many others.

Only on the first and most famous men of America, only on Washington and Lincoln, was the honor bestowed of being likened unto William the Silent by the best historians. And then consider that long line of great men in every 5walk of life who have played a role in the Netherland's glorious history, in all those fearful struggles of the people of the Low Countries to acquire freedom of religion, freedom of Protestantism for the entire world all those struggles to reach the highest point on the economic field and in the field of knowledge.

Is it not beautiful for the Dutch heart, for the American of Dutch descent, yes, for every genuine American, to know that a long line of earnest men are busy with a movement to make Dutch history, art, and literature better known in the center of American national life? To create a chair of learning for that purpose in one of the Dutch Colleges, either in Hope College or in the Theological School at Grand Rapids, would in a way be a superfluous luxury. There, Dutch History naturally plays an important role in the exclusive circle of the Dutch. But this was not the purpose of the movement and of all those men who have felt the inspiration of it. The inspiring thought with which those men were possessed did not point to a certain circle of our own people, but to the American nation and the blessing which is contained in the glorious 6past of the Netherlands as a people, encircling in its entirety all parties and elements in every walk of life where this nation has founded something noble and great.

There is a blessing for America in the history of every nation whose thousands of emigrants found a new fatherland within her borders, and it is the holy obligation of each nationality to actually pass that blessing, providentially entrusted to it, on to the American nation.

In this perspective there is laid a great and noble task upon the shoulders of the Dutch. The men who have signed this petition have felt it deeply. In the preamble of the petition we read: "They ask, as American citizens, that the deep lessons in the history of the Netherlands, the sonorous strength and majesty of the Dutch language, and the classic beauty of its prose and poetry, as well as the brilliant art of Holland and Flanders, be taught at your university. They ask, as American citizens, about this instruction, because they earnestly believe America needs such instruction, needs to know the example 7of her sister republic, and, as it becomes a great nation, needs the inspiration of the ideals and exaltation that flow from Dutch history, Dutch literature, and Dutch art."

It is clear that the men who signed the petition did not consider their task limited to only one great university in America. In every great center, in every great university, they would like to see a similar chair established, and Chicago, around which the greatest number of Dutch settlements were established, was chosen as their first objective.

Already we Hollanders have neglected too long this great role in America, and the task which rested upon our shoulders is in danger of being taken out of our hands. The names of Motley, Miss Putnam, Dr. Griffin and Alexander Young Barker say enough in themselves, and only recently a professor has called the meaning of "Vondel and Lucifer" the highest project ever to be brought forth by them.

Have we Hollanders sunk so low and become so insignificant and powerless that we must give the handling of our own national history, national honor, and national glory to others;--give into strange hands a task which providentially rests on us?