Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-05-17
sLAVs COME TO AMERICA.
About 100000 Arrive During 1904

ed in recent number the results of
a detailed study of Slavic immigra
ton in the United States. In spite
| OF the proportions which it has reach
ed-solne 100000 Slays came over
! last year-popular ignorance on the
subject is marked In northern Penn
/ sylyania the great hordes of Ruthe-
nian. Polish and Slovak miners are
tcontemptuously classed as Huns,
and even the more intelligent are dis
posed to associate them with the TO-
| lowers of Attila For good or ILL
however, the Slavic strain promis es
| to mix largely in the blood OF the fat
lure composite american In the dai.
ly arrival at Ellis Island it is outnum-
! bered only by the Italian and posi-.
bly, by the Jewish; hence it is encour-
aging TO note that the Slays, too, i'm
prove on closer acquaintance.
Properly Slavic immigrants should
not be classed in a single group. They
are really a eongeries of some twenty.
one peoples. differing in race, Ian.
guage, and frequently in religion.
They range all the way from the
highly civilized Bohemian, almost in
variably literate and skilled of labor,
tc the ignorant Ruthene of Galicia,
economically and educltionally on
iAe lowest plane. Pract cally all re-
ligions are represent ed-OrthodoX
Greek, Roman Catholic. Protestant
and Lutheran, with such eccentrici-
ties as the Doukbobors and regularly
organized sects of F1eethinkers. They
thus form a much more complex ele-
ment that the comparatively homo
/ geneous Italians and the Jews-the
various elements in each of which
races. in the main, speak the same
language, belong to the same religi-
Gus denomination and ale influenced
by the same ethical ideas The larg-
est Slavic immigration comes from
Austria Hungary. which gave lis 100
600 last year; practically all the rest
came from Russia. whose contribu-
ton in 1903 was about 10000.
According to Miss Kate Holiday
Claghorn, the causes of this immigra-
tion are largely political, Thus it is
that leave home = IA Russia the
genuine Museovite seldom emigrates
it is the Pole the Lithuanian, the
Jew, and the Finn. The dominant
German does not abandon Austria in
| large numbers: it is the more or less
Il,
emigrate from their own country
Roumania; but from Hungary Ruthe-
mans come from Galicia. not from
Russia. Economic causes, too. are
/ influential. According to Ivan Arden
the peasants OF Galicia subsiSt al
most entirely on potatoes and cab
bage: 80 per cent eat no bread for sir
months in the year. under these
conditions 4 high standard OF educa
ton and manners could hardly be eX
pected They have some traits. in
deed not unlike the Asiatic hordes
from which many ol them are sprung
They are hard rinkers, ready fighters
though seldom quarrelsome. With the
exception of the Bohemians and Mag
vars (the latter, of course, are nor
Slavs Though loosely so reckOned by
Charitiesl. the rate of iliiteracy is
high: and the skilled trades are
sparsely represented Like the Ital
ians, the SIavs come here first with
out their wives; send home their say
( ing, and when work is slack, go bail
/ themselves. Also like the Italians
however. they are not contented to re-
main away; but soon return. this
time with their families, and definite
ily establish here their homes.
| PROFESSIONALLY, the Slavs are more
assimilable than some other elements
4 in the new immigration. They meet
/ the supreme test-that of distribution
They do not huddle in the great cities
! like the Italians and Jews: there are
/ Slay colonies in New York, but they
are comparatively unimportant. They
/ They are distributed pretty generally
/ from the Atlantic coast to the Miss
issippi river, in accordance with the
demands of labor. They have one
great advantage in that the part oil
/ Europe fro mNhich they come is
physically and climatically. almost
Identical with our own. The fertile
plains of the Danube are reproduced
here in those of the Mississippi: great
wheat fields. forests and mines are
familiar in both the old and the new
lands.
! The Russian Jew here takes uD q
new trade in the sweat shop. tbs
/ italian from the farms Of Sicily and
! Basilicata here has to daDt himself
to rough IabOrer's work but the Slav
in large measure. simply resumes tbs
occupations to which he has been
bred at home They arc miners in ;ht
anthracite fields and iron mines OF
, Pennsylvania wheat growers in Wis
I consiu and Illinois, where they are
frequently proprietors: tobacco-rais
crs in Connectlcut abandoned far
mecs" in New England. They are en-
pIoyed in the steel shops of Pittsburs
the snoe factories of Lynn, the oi
ana sugar redners Of Greater New
York and he hat shops of Newark
They WORK as stevedores on tho
docks ot Jersey City and in the pack
ing houses OF Chicago.
They are found in largest number.
in PennSN tvania. where, in the iron
and coal mines. there are now about
lopooo-in the main Poles, Rutheni
ans and Sloyaks. To New York State