Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-18
BUILDING A NATION
Genuine Patriotism the Only Antidote
for Sectionalism.
LOCAL JEAL0USIES GOING OUT
In America Before the Influences Drawing
People Together.
THE PACE PFnOMING MORE FIEXIRLE
lOCAL JEALOUSIES GOING OUT
TIE RACE BECOMING MORE FLEXIBLE
WRITTEN ron THE pIsrArcn.l

The American in England is constantly
struck with the fact that not merely is the
union between England and Ireland still
nominal, but that existing between England
and Scotland is almost as imperfect. HI
often hears Englishmen of education ant
standing speak of both these other parts c.
the nationality as if they were occupied BY
alien races. DR.. johnson grudglngly ad
mitted, 100 years ago, that something Nigh
be made of Scotchman if he were caugh
young; and Matthew Arnold, while satir
iEing the extreme absurdity of an Ameri
can S having an opinion of his own upon any
matter of style or language, points mora
by telling a story of similar conceit as once
manifested by Scotchman.
All this might seem childish enough in
view of the fact that students now go beyond
the English-speaking world itself and ind
the best authorities on the English language
in the German universities; and that the
most important pathological study OF
Shakespeare is TO be found in Schmidt S
Shakespeare-Lexic But the point most
important to Americans is this: If among
The inhabitants of little island, traversed
in its whole length by a railway journey Of
8 dozen or fifteen hours, these petty local
iealousies maintain themselves in this man.
uer, what are we to expect in a nation which
spreads from the Atlantic to the Pacific?
Passing Away of Sectionalism.
The answer is that we have already be-
come, BY change of climate and a greater
variety of admixture, a far more flexible
and adaptable race than our fathers. Un-
willing as Matthew Arnold was to admit it,
that added drop of nervous fluid" makes
itself more perceptible year bv year in its
consequences; and renders us, now that the
one great source of contention is removed,
less and less liable to sectional differ ences.
Whether for good or for evil. our blood is
already too widely intermingled for us to
keep up the old English habit of internal
antaConism.
Theodore Roosevelt never rendered a
greater service in public life than when he
once said before an audience, Here am 1,
representing seven generations of descent
on this continent, yet without a drop OF
English blood in my veins" 1t was con-
elusive object lesson, a crucial experiment
as to the ioliy of local or racial prejuGices
among Americans. The Civil War itself
was finally factor in the same direction.
When visiting the field Of Gettysburg
with party of veterans representing many
States, a man at nv elbow said, "What
folly is all this talk about Eastern and
Western regiments! The greater part of
every Western command consisted of men
who had migrated from the Atlantic States
or whose fathers had"
Accentuating the Comm on Tie.
Even the great division between Union
and Confederate forces only accentuated the
common tie. l myself, a Massachusetts,
man, had five own cousins born in Virginia,
and dear to me from childhood. -Four fthem,
women. had husbands in the Confederate
army; while their only brother was a sur
geon in the regular army of the Union
throughout the war. Such instances oc-
CURED IN almost every family connection.
Since the war, all influences are rapidly
wiping out minor distinctions of habits and
of pronunciation. The Pullman car, an ab-
sOlUtelv national institution, runs like q
steam-roller over all llocal prejudices. In
every corner of the laud We fee the same
black porter to teach us the self-same code of
travelling manners. The dialect of Lowell's
"Bigelow Papers" is fast becoming thing
OF the past; and so are some of the pretty
South Carolina and Georgia intonations
Constantly changing our residences, we adapt
ourselves to an universal, perhaps an ave-
rage, standard.
Meeting last summer among the hills of
New Hampshire typical Western Colonel,
loud-voiced, decisive, generous, OPEN
handed, l chanced to inquire his birth
place, and found that he, like myself, was
born under the shadow of Harvard Uni
verstv. How much has that great institu-
ton itself done for the young colleges of the
West, but how much has it received in re-
turn? All the modern Transformation
which has made it a new institution really
took its rise from the alumni Grafton de-
livered by Rev. L. II. Hedge on "Univer-
sity Reform" in 1SS6-before the inaugura-
ton of President Eliot-in which he held
up the State University of Michigan as the
only American example Of true univer-
sitv, and said frankly Compared with this,
our other colleges are provincial.
Tendency Toward Tariff Reform.
So far as these iealousies remain and
flourish, they are now based either on local
interests or on social habits and feelings
Tne iealousies based on interest will be sus-
tanned no doubt until the nation ceases to
attempt by higher aud higher tariffs, to bal
ance one local claim against another-trying
to reconcile jarring claims. always at the ex-
pense of the consumer. On the other hand
the tendency toward tariff reform, SO strongly
manifested at the late elections, points to a
time when demand and supply will have
fair and free play; ana each portion of the
country Will produce what it can most
economically yield without artificial inter
ference.
Most of the questions raised by such
movements as the Farmers Alliance or the
Granger organizations are not really Sec
tional but are issues between classes; and
representatives of each class are to be found
in every State, though in some particular
States the one or the other class may tempo
rarilv preponderate. While State is poor,
it naturally contains more of the debtor
class, FOR instance; but as fast as it becomes
rich, ii has capitalists of Its own and the
cred tor represented. Even the silver
question is not properly a sectional question,
when we consider that the ST. Louis mer-
chants, like those of the Atlantic cities,
sent a delegation 10 Washington to remon-
strate against any extreme measures.
Southern Race Problem.
The race antagonisms of the Southern
States have two powerful influences tending
TO mitigate them-education and emigration.
The exodus of hundreds of colored families
TO Kansas 4 few years since, and their sub
sequent prosperity there, have done more
than all possible legislation to adjust the
Southern problem. No race will long tyran-
nize over another race which has the power
of locomotion and which it cannot afford to
lose.
And so of local jealousies growing out of
habits and education. All the foolish and
disparagIng things said by the Saturday
Reuier about Americans may be matched
by things equally silly said by people in
the Atlantic cities about "Westerners;" and
all the over-sensitiveness manifested by
Americans toward the Saturday ReuieD can
be equalled by the undue sensitlveness
shown by "Westerners' toward residents in
the Atlantic cities. 1t is all microscoplcal