Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-04-10

-EE ~ ~ W. oRSAA
them that the duty of A~mericanizing
the emigrants would fall.
The English Quakers.
He said in part: Upon the path
made by the English Quakers came
our German f%orefathers. There in the
land, where in truth the Penn was
mightier than the sword, they settled.
They were idealists of the highest
type. They were the first to abolish
human slavery. the first to legislate
among themselves great reforms for
others.
after them came others from the
races of Central Europe similar to u
selves in racial characteristics and
language. But about twenty-five years
ago the surplus population of these
countries became exhausted and these
things began to change. The demands
of the industrial growth of, this coun-
try began to reach out into southern
and eastern or northern Europe for
the men to fill the needs Of growing
Industries. From those villages where
twenty-five years ago the name of
America was unknown, today there is
pouring forth a steady stream of emil
grants coming to this land of promise.
The day of embarkment of this
stream of humanity is one full Of
pathos. It brings a mighty tearing at
the heart strings to those leaving their
native land, that you American men,
whose home is where your bank ac-
count is, and you American women,
who are at home where your trunk is,
cannot realize.
"And then the trip; to the awful
Inconsistencies is added the other sick
ness and the result is too terrible to
be described in words. AS we look
down from the cabin decks at the las
of filthy, dirty, uncultured, unschooled
and untutored humanity, we wonder
what will become Of u If these
streams keep pouring in. And your
apprehension is well founded.
who are they? How will they touch
our national life? What will we do
with them? We don't know yet. Mod
ern emigration is divided into three
great divisions; the Slavic, the Latin
and the Semetic. The Slavs come
from that great untutored northern
land, from the villages where there is
the old, not the new idea Of brother
hood, where the idea Of the individual
has not yet asserted itself, where their
life has been poor, degraded, depend
ent and enslaved.
The Latin.
1.-THE Latin is better known. He like
the Slav has come because of eco
nomic distress. But perhaps the most
hopeless appearing of all is the Seine
tic, nearly altogether composed of Rus
sian Jews. He comes not because Of
economic distress, but because he has
to, because he is driven from the land
where for centuries he has striven to
make lis home.
GAS you seem them, as they are, you
well wonder what is going to be-
come of us. But it is not only compul-
sion or the desire to get along that
brings emigrants to this country.
Many of them are actuated by as high
ideals as their mental condition will
allow them to conceive. 1t is probable
that the sensation that pulses through
the hearts OF the assembled steerage
passengers when the cry of Land,
land, is heard Is not much different
from that which leaped to the hearts
of Columbus and his seamen at the
sound of the same cry.
"America stands to them, then, for
all that is great and good and as a
Of freedom to the human
"At the very entrance to our coun-
try they see us at our worst he said,
'and If they ever come to know us, it
must be by the breaking down of the
prejudices formed at this time"
Making American Citizens.
The speaker then took under con
s%ideration the possibility of these em-
igrants becoming good American cit
liens. He said that all of them come
to this country to work. That while
they work for low wages at first, be-
cause of their low standard of living.
this standard becomes higher at a
most remarkable rate. That they be-
come A~mericanized very shortly in
their social life and that externally at
least they soon become American citi-
But the great question u.s." he con
tinued, "are we touching them down
in the bottom of their hearts and max
ing them real Americans? Are we sup
planting the ideals which they have
brought with them from their native
heaths with the ideals that enabled
our fathers to found and maintain this
nation?
Has this generation enough
strength and fibre to assimilate this
foreign element, or are we in danger
of being assimilated What does it
mean to have this mass Of foreigners
directly under the corrupt tutelage of
such an organization as Tammany
hall. They are as clay in the hands Of
the politicians, and the results of this
may be awful in the time that is to
come.
Nothing can help this influence so
much as the raising and maintaining
of the old ideals of American citizen
ship. This will come to a great extent
when the American teachers take to
brooding over their children, to rails
ing their ideals, and undoing the cor
rupt influences.
"Be assured that these people are
receptive and what you put into them
shall come out of them. If the inlu-
ences by which they are surrounded
are corrupt, corruption shall reign SUI
preme within their ranks, but on the
- . " af-