The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-05-26
MANY STAYS COMING.
q DRIVEN TO AMERICA BY
UNTowARD CONDITIONS.
Number of Arrivals During Last Year
800, 00o-Among Them Rep
resentatives of Many
Glasses.

Charities published In a recent
number the results of a detailed study
Of Slavic immigration in the United
states. In spite of the proportions
which it has reached-some 100000
slavs came over last y~ear-popular
ignorance on the subject is marked,
states the New York Post. In north
ern Pennsylvania the great hordes of
Ruthenian, Polish and Sloyak miners
are contemptuously classed as Huns"
and eyen the NOR intelligent are dis
posed to associate them with the fol-
lowers of Attila, For good or i'll,
however, the Slavic strain promises to
mix largely in the blood of the future
composite American. In the daily ar
rivals at Ellis island it is outnumbered
only by the Italian and possibly by the
Jewish; hence it is encouraging to
note that the Slavs, too, improve on
closer acquaintance.
Properly Slavic immigrants should
not be classed as a single group. They
are really a congerles of some II
peoples, differing in race, language
and frequently in religion. They
range all the way from the highly-civ-
ilized Bohemian, almost invariably
literate and skilled of labor, to the
ignorant Ruthene OF Galicia, econom-
ically and educationally on the lowest
plane. Practically all religions are
repTesented-Orthodox Greek, Roman
Catholic, Protestant and Lutheran,
with such eccentricities as the Douk-
hobors and regularly organized sects
Of Freethinkers. They thus form a
much more complex element than the
comparatively homogeneous Italians
and the Jews-the various elements in
each Of which races, in the main,
speak the same language, belong to the
same religious denomination, and are
Influenced by the same ethical ideas.
The largest Slavic immigration comes
from Austria Hungary, which gave us
100000 last year; practically all the
rest came from Russia, whose contri-
button in 1903 was about 10000.
According to Miss Kate Holiday
Claghorn, the cause of this immigra-
ton are largely political, Thus it is
almost invariably the subject races
that leave home. From Russia the
genuine Muscovite seldom emigrates:
it is the Pole, the Lithuanian, the
IrYtt a,j 4ho Ltpp Thu dominant
German does not abandon Austria in
large numbers; 1t is the more or less
subject Slav. Roumanians do not
emigrate from their own country,
Roumania; but from Hungary. Ruthen-
ians come from Galicia, not from Rus
aia. Economic causes, too, are infiu-
entail. According to Ivan Ardan, the
peasants of Galicia subsist almost en-
tirely on potatoes and cabbage; 80 per
cent. eat no bread for six months In
the year. Under these conditions a
high standard of education and mana
ners could hardly be expected. They
have some traits, indeed, not unlike
the Asiatic hordes from which many
of them are sprung. They are hard
drinkers, ready fighters, though sell
dom quarrelsome. With the exception
Of the Bohemians and Magyars (the
latter, of course, are not slavs, though
loosely so reckoned by Charities), the
rate of illiteracy is high; and the
skilled trades are sparsely represented.
Like the Italians, the Slavs come here
first without their wives; send home
their savings, and, when work IS
slack, go Back themselves. Also like
The Italians, however, they are not
contented to remain away; but 500
this time with their families,
and definitely establish here their
homes.
!