The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-20
AN INTERESTING PAPER.

In the August number of The National Review, London. there appears a very interesting communication from Mrs. Cor Miss) Jane H. Findlater on "The Land of Effort" as she calls America, in which she discusses people and af- fairs on. this side the water with unusual intelligence and observation. for a foreigner. One thing that struck her very forcibly in New York, was the fact, as she expresses 1t, that the American may look bad, or hard, or horrid-he seldom looks hopeless" "The faces of the crowd on the dock," she tells us. fare eager and alert, and above all hopeful"
 It was this almost universal appear remarkable contrast to the looks of the English immlgrants--"the unmis- takable East-end expression" she calls 1t. and she was not particularly enam- cured of the class of immigrants that are coming over by millions. On this point she says: T am afraid there Is rather too much thought, in many cases, of the migrants good. and too little of whether he will benefit the land he goes to; and this Is scarcely fair to America" In this she is un- doubtedly correct, for the countries of Europe are too anxious to get rid of their undesirable population. believing that they will thus benefit the depart ing citizen and the land he emigrates from, regardless of the effect such ar rivals may have on this country. In spite of all our laws and regulations it Is well known that we are constantly receiving immigrants from Europe who cannot be welcome here and whose de- parture from their old homes Is well comed and encouraged there. We agree with the writer that this Is scarcely fair to America"
 l But this writer was astonished at what we may call the adaptability of these incongruous clements. As they pour onto our shores Ignorant and dirty for the most part" representing every country and people of the old world, the task of amalgamation would seem impossible, but If we observe any American crowd we realize that by some process and in some way all these varying nations and races have been boiled down into a new natlon," and 1 in searching for the cause of this amal- gamation and hopefulness she expresses the opinion that the American-born child, of whatever race or people, is apparently governed by a mental ex- pression which she calls "the probability for this feeling she contrasts the con dItion of working people in the United States with conditions in London, and the comparison Is not complimentary to her own land.
 But this writer, like all foreigners who travel with eyes and ears open, was bound to bump against "the great question that is irresistibly forced upon ones attention everywhere" In plain words, she found the negro question confronting her North and South. and she discusses it with unusual intelli
 genco, and judgment. considering It's strangeness. ' She admits that Tt Is a solid black fact that has to be reckon ed with" She has evidently travelled pretty extensively in the South and has been a close observer of the complex conditions down here. Unlike many others who come among us, she doesn't preach, or attempt to tell us what we should No She describes conditions as she fndsAthem. speaks of the many and varied chsgaeteristics of the negro, and