Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1906-04-11


sMSg Sz9 rant from the American viewpoint,
- but all of them, who are OF an age
permitting thought or purpose,
touched with something like ambition, touched at
least with discomfort which was not merely pas
sive; but OF sufficient nature to bring them across
the ocean, says the st. Louis Republic.
Shortly after their advent at Castle Garden a
small group of them, Poles, came into Union Sta
ten at st. Louis on their way to Texas There were
three or four young men, two or three OF middle
age, several women youthful or comparatively
yOnng and dozen or mere children. Plus their
railroad fare, they had but few dollars among
them Save the clothes they wore, they had little
or none and they had lived on bread during the
railway journey and would continue to live on bread
until they reached Texas and collectively secured
sufficient employment to enable them to purchase
meat.
1t is surprising thought that in a decade all Of
these PERSONS except possibly the elder OF the men,
will be good Americans and possess an economic
or Industrial value. They will be absorbed by the
high. pressure process OF Americanization, OF edu
cative end industrial forces, and they will be O
value--of additional man power-in this vast devel
oped and developing country.
A century ago the advent of IL, 600 immigrants in
single day would have been viewed as national
calamity. Then the civilizing and assimiatiDg pro
cess OF the country coul1 not have digested immi
grafton at the rate OF million or half million
year. Two centuries ago or more for purposes o
colonization sfOr the better peOpling his Majesty
coloniesn as the wrts of deportation read-theJ
might have been available. But in reality they
would have OvercrowdeG, overtaxed, swamped his
Majesty plantations, such as they were.
The evolution of relatively harmonious people,
the forming of q national character from the most
heterogeneous and seemingly hopeless elements has
been the history of this country The formation was
slow, almost imperceptiule, apparently impossible
at frst AS late as the day Of James Madison We
and that statesman bemoaning 'dabOlical, hell,cOn
cetved conditions of difference and ant8gOnism
Benjamin Franklin In his day was deeply concerned
about che differences, and the probable length
of time necessary to evolve harmonious result out
| OF the raw material-frOm the mass OF inherited
prcudices the conflict of national traits ignorance
habits Of mind, sect differences, diverse speech As
an instance he regretted particularly the nOnassimi
( lation of the Germans in Pennsylvania Said he:
ssFew of their children know English They i'm
port many books from Germany, and OF the six
printing Offices in the Province two entirely
German, two half German and half English, and
but two entirely EnGlish.'' Advertisements in the
Philadelphia papers were in both English and Ger
man, as we're the streets signs, and legal documents
we're in either language. Franklin sarcastically pre-
dcted that it would be necessary in time to have In
terpIeters in the State Assembly to tell one hall
what the other half said In those days there were
acute troubles between the Pennsylvania Quakers
and the Presbyterians The "PaxtOn War; was
typical OF the disharmony, discordance and incOn
Igruty OF the times. New York had discordanl
element in the Netherlands, for many years an OBJ
stacle to Americanization. To the eyes of q for
Ieigner our differences in natural disposition and
peculiarties Of manners andcnstOms made a"malev'
olent burlesque." PeteriKalm, the Swedish botan
let and philosopher, writing homo to his people ir
E1748, found in New Jersey, "Low Dutch, Germans
English, Scotch, Irish, and New Englanders,
whose national manners, sustoms and character are
still preserved especially among the lower classes
Isl people, who have little intercourse among any
bnt those OF their own natiOn.n
Says historian, Doctor Sparks Of the Chicago
University sI interior migration separated friends
and neighbOrs sectional feeling Immediately sprane
lup.'' When the southwark movement peopled the
valleys Of Western Virginia and North Carolina
with Pennsylvanians, the Colonel Magazine, 81
Philadelphia, pronounced the State 80 sieve, which
kept back the stamina Of industry and virtue, bul
allowed free passage to those accustomed to vice
and violence"
Communication, working side by side, living side
by side, 3 common language, common education,
common ideals and ideas constitute the main pro.
cess Of making Americans, Of forming national
character and imparting national character TO the
Individual. Several wars have had an added In
hpence, knitting, severing, rewelding, unifying
the mass Of the people. What . contrast these
times provide id the rapidity and sureness Of the
Process Of Americanization.