Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-15
INTERESTING NOTES ON AMERICA.

INTERESTING NOTES ON AMERICA.
Mr.. Frederic Harrfson's Impressions
on the People and Things He Found
Here Recently.
From the Nineteenth Century.
My own impression is that in spite OF the
vast proportion of immigrant population.
the language. character. habits Of native
Americans rapidly absorb and incorporate
all foreign elements In the second or third
generation all exotic differences are merged.
In one sense the United. States seemed to
me more homogeneous than the United
Kingdom. There is no state. city or large
area which has distinct race of its own.
as Ireland, Wales and Scotland have. and
of course there is nothing analogous to
the diverse nationalities of the British en-
pire. From Long Island to San Francisco,
from Florida bay to Nancouver's Island,
there is one dominant race and civilization,
one language, one type of law, one sense
Of nationality. That race, that nationality,
is American to the core. And the con-
seriousness Of Its vast expansion and col
lective force fills the mind of American
citizens. as nothing can do to this degree
in the nations of western Europe.
Vast expansion, collective force. mex
haustible energy-theSe are the impress
sions forced on the visitor, beyond all that
he could have conceived OF had expected
to find.
No competent observer can doubt that In
wealth. manufactures, material progress Of
all kinds, the United States, in a very few
years. must hold the first place in the world
without dispute. The natural resources of
their country exceed those of all Europe
put together. Their energy exceeds that
Of the British: their intelligence is hardly
second to that of Germany and France.
And their social and political system is
more favorable to material development
other society devised
man.
OF course. for the American citizen and
the thoughtful visitor. the real problem is
whether this vast prosperity, this boundless
future OF theirs. rests upon an equal ex-
pansion in the social. intellectual and
moral sphere. They would be bold critics
who should maintain II, and few thinking
men in the United States do so without
qualifications and misgivings.
The whole educational machinery must
be at least tenfold that Of the united king
| dom.
| This ingrained sense of the absolute
| equality OF all white citizens reacts on all
| things: Men who manage affairs of state
| IN their shirt sleeves are too apt to make
| rough-and-ready view of life and of that
which is becoming and right. AS Mr..
Bryce has so well said, the sense Of no
| blesse oblige, which still survives in Eu-
rope as force constraining men in high
| office or in great social position, has hard
| ly any equivalent in American life.
Not that the representatives Of the re-
| *.
| The President sat through the ceremonies
| of the Inauguration with placid dignity,
| his fine features. in their stern repose, look
| ing like bronze figure of the Elder RrlItus
or Cato the Censor. But at a personal re-
ception in the White House Mr. Mckinley
Will snow as much grace and courtesy OF
demeanor as any sovereign by divine right,
and his smile and his voice are pronounced
| mot only by women to be perfectly win
| ming. The diplomatsts of Europe agree in
| assuring us that nothing can exceed the
| tact and correctness which distinguish
Mr. Hay, the accomplished Secretary of
state. 1t is true that congressman lin their
| shirt sleeves have not that repose of man.
ner which marks the caste of We're de We're
But the men who are charged to speak in
| the name of the state will usually be found
| to rise to the occasion with that facility
which enables every genuine American to
| ADAPT himself to play a new part and TO
| fulfill an unaccustomed duty. The CapitoI
| at Washington struck me as being the
most effective mass Of public buildings in
| the world, especially when viewed at some
distance, and from the park in which 1t
STANDS As an effective public edifice of a
grandIose kind. doubt IL any capitaI city
can show its equal.
Washington the youngest canitaI city ~
the world, bids fair to become. before the
twentieth century is ended, the most beau
tiful and certainly the most commodious
America is making violent efforts to
evolve a national architecture; but as vet
1t has produced little but miscellaneous
limitations OF European types and some
wonderful constructive devices
AS to the worship of the Almighty Doll
lar neither saw 1t nor heard of 1T: hard
ly as much we do at home | NAV saw
the same to official corruption and no.
litical intrigue. New York of course has
the vices of great cities but they are
not visible to the eye, and they are a
drop In the ocean of the American people
Even the passing tourist must note The en-
tire freedom Of American towns from the
indecencies that are paraded In European
cities. 1 received deep impression that
In America the relations Of the sexes are
In a state far more sound and pure than
they are in the old world; that the origi-
nal feeling of the Pilgrim fathers about
woman and about man has sufficed to
color the mental and moral atmosphere
/ close my impressions with a sense
that the new world offers a great field
both moral and intellectual, to a peaceful
development OF an Industrial society; that
this society is in the main sound, honest
and wholesome; that vast numbers and
the passion Of equality tend to low aver
ages in thought, In manners and in public
opinion, which the zeal of the devoted mi
nority tends gradually to raise to higher
planes of thought and conduct; that man.
ners If more boisterous, are more hearty
than with US, and, If less refined, are free
from some conventional morgue and hypoc-
risy; that in casting of many OF the bonds
walls, the American democracy has cast OF
also something of the esthetic and moral
inheritance left in the old world; that the
zeal for learning. justice and humanity lies
so deep in the American heart that II will
in the end solve the two grave problems
eternal struggle between capital and labor
the gulf between people of color and the
people of European blood.