New-York tribune., 1901-06-16
FREDERIC HARRIsoNS IMPRESSIONS.

OF all the innumerable caravan of foreign OBJ
servers who have come and seen and written
their impressions of America. from the DAYS Of
Mrs. TrOllOpe and Charles Dickens TO the pres
ent, there has been no one who might more
naturally be expected 10 take an unfavorable
view of this country than Mr. Frederic Harri-
son. His temperament and the whole trend Of
his critical intellect have seemed TO be antipa-
thetc TO the salient features of American life
Indeed, he himself declares such 10 be measu-
rably the case. Speaking-in his Nineteenth
Century article-Of the rush and whirl of af-
fairs in the United States with all the tele-
phones motors and other time saving and dis
tanee lessening devices, he says frankly that 10
him "such life would not be worth living and
1.-The mere sight of 1t is incompatible with con-
"tinGous thought" Nevertheless we have not
often met with a more just, appreciative and
almost sympathetic estimate of America from n
foreign observer than he gives in his "impres-
sions"
The first thing which impressed Mr. Harrison
was the intense Americanism OF America We
use the expression advisedly. This country is
composite, not only in remote origin. but i'm
present growth, and there are those who have
feared that thus IL might become divided
against itself. and be merely a congeries of
sees clearly that our assimilatlye powers keep
pace with our receptive capacity. Despite the
enormous influx Of them, foreigners are actually
less In evidence In American cities than In Eng
lish cities In language, character and habits
all foreign elements are rapidly absorbed and
incorporated into the native American mass; I'm
the second third generation all exotic differ
ences disappear. and ''the American world is
practically run by genuine Americans" And
so Mr. Harrison is profoundly impressed with
the existence OF such a thing as Americanism
differentiated from all other national types in
the world
He does not, as we have said sympathIze with
II, at any rate with its most salient and
strenuous features. But he does admire il. and
he appreciates its strength and its enormous
possibilities. In every department of material
progress he is confident that in a few years the
United States will undisputedly lead all the
world. III is only their national egotism he
thinks, which prevents Europeans from realiz-
ing this fact. The winning factors are num-
bers, national unity, physical resources, geo
graphical opportunities, trained intelligence and
restless ambition. These the United States pos
sesses, and il will be idle for Great Britain.
France and Germany TO contend against them
Nor are Americans nearly so much given up to
sordid utilitarianism many have thought
Mr.. Harrison found even Chicago leavened with
learning and culture 10 considerable degree
and he found vulgarity, ostentation, social i'm
morality and political corruption far less IA
grant than they have been represented-in fact.
FAR less common and offensive than they are In
| European countries.
He is not Of course. an unqualified eulogist OF
America lie sees and condemns grave faults
In this country. He reminds us that libraries
are not learning, museums and laboratories are
not knowledge, wide reading is not literature
Nevertheless. he looks one day. for the appear
anee OF an American scholarship and literature
as distinctive and triumphant as American
| Industry now is. He two great problems
before us-the struggle between capital and
labor, and the gulf between the white race and
tne piack- But In the end these will be solved,
] through the zeal for learning, Justice and hu.