The Washington herald., 1907-04-27

| the Swede and the Dutchman, also came
/ hither as permanent dwellers, who left
/ their seed behind them to help shape and
| partially TO inherit our national life. The
/ German. the Irishman. and the Scotch
man came later, but still IN colonial times.
4 Before the outbreak of the Revolution the
American people. not only because Of
I their surroundings, physical and spirit
I ual. but because OF the mixture of blood
/ that had already begun TO take place,
/ represented new and distinct ethnic
| type This type has never been fixed in
/ blood All through the colonial days new
waves Of immigration from time to time
swept hither across the ocean, now from
one country, now from another The
same thing has gone on ever since our
birth as a nation; and for the last sixty
/ years the tide of immigration has been
at the fun. The newcomers are soon alb
sorbed into our eager national life. and
are radically and profoundly changed
/ thereby. the rapidity of their assimilation
| being marvellous. But each group of new
corners, as il adds its blood to the life,
also changes it somewhat, and this
change and growth and DEVELOPMENT have
gone on steadily, generation by genera
ton, throughout three centuries.
The pioneers Of our people who first
I landed on these shores on that eventful
! day three centuries ago, had before them
a task which during the early years was
of heartbreaking danger and difficulty
1 The conquest of a new continent is iron
work. People who dwell in old civlliza-
tiOns and find that therein so much of
humanitys lot is hard, are apt TO com
plain against the conditions as being sole
/ ly due TO man and TO speak as II life
could be made easy and simple If there
were but a virgin continent in which to
work. II is true that the pioneer life
was simpler. but 1t was certainly not
/ easier. AS a matter of fact, the first
I work of the pioneers in taking posses
I sion Of a lonely wilderness is so rough.
/ SO hard, so dangerous that all but the
/ strongest spirits fail. The early iron days
/ of such a conquest search out alike the
( weak in body and the weak in soul In
the warfare against the rugged steTnness
of primeval nature, only those can con-
/ quer who are themselves unconquerable
/ 1t is not until the first bitter years have
I passed that the life becomes easy enough
TO invite a mass of newcomers. and so
great are the risk, hardship. and toll OF
/ the early years that there always exists
d threat OF lapsiug back from civilization.
/ The history of the pioneers OF James
town, of the founders of Virginia, Illus
trStes the truth OF all this. Famine and
! pesulence and war menaced the little
band of daring men who had planted
themselves alone on the edge Of a frown-
ing continent Moreover. as men ever
find, whether IN the tiniest frontier com
munity or IN the vastest and most high
iy organized and complex civilized So
ciety, their worst foes were In their own
bosoms Dissension. distrust the inabil-
ity of some TO work and the unwilling
/ ness of others, Jealousy, arrogance ard
envy, folly and laZiness-in short all the
shortcomings with which We have to
grapple now were faced by those pioneers
and at moments threatened their whole
/ enterprise with absolute ruin. II was
/ some time before the ground on which
/ they had landed supported them, in spite
/ OF its potential fertility, and they looked
( across the sea for supplies. Al one mo-
ment so hopeless did they become that
/ the whole colony embarked, and was
! only saved from abandoning the country
/ by the Opportune arrival of help from
abroad.
Struggle for independence.
At last they took root in the land, and
/ were already prospecting when the Pill
grims landed at Plymouth. In a few
+ years a great inflow OF settlers began
/ -Four of the present States of New Eng
/ land were founded. Virginia waxed
/ apace. The Carolinas grew up to the
south of it, and Maryland TO the north
| of il. The Dutch colonies between, which
| had already absorbed the Swedish, We're
/ IN their turn absorbed by the English
I Pennsylvania was founded, and later
! still, Georgia. There were many wars
with the Indians and with the dauntless
1 captains whose banners bore the lilies Of
France. At last the British flag flew
/ without a rival in all eastern North
| America. Then came the successful strug-
gle for national independence.
For half a century after we became a
/ separate nation there was comparatively
+ little immigration to this country. Then
/ the tide once again set hither, and has
+ flowed in ever-incTeasing size until in each
/ Of the last three years greater NUM-
/ Der of people came 10 these shores than
( had landed on them during the entire
colonial period. Generation by genera ton
/ these people have been absorbed .nto the
national life. Generally their sons. al
most always their grandsOns, are indis-
/ tInguishable from one another and from
/ their fellow-Amerieans descended from
/ the colonial stock. For all alike the prob
7
/ the same. and for all alike these prob
I lens change from generation to gener-
alton.
Fight Hard for Life,
/ In the colonial period, and for at least
century after its close, the conquest of
/ the continent. the expansion Of cur peO-
pie westward. to the Alleghenies. then
to the Mississippi, then 10 the Pacific.
was always one of the most important
/ tasks. ana sometimes the most important,
/ in our national life. Behind the first set
/ tiers the conditions grew easier, ard in
! the older-settled regions of all the colo
/ MES life speedily assumed much of com
! fort and something Of luxury; and though
/ generally it was on much more demo-
cratic basis than life in the Old World.
I il was by no means democrats when
/ judged by our modern standards: and
/ here and there, as in the tidewater re-
gions of Virginia, a genuine aristoeracy
grew and f0unshed But the mon who
/ first broke ground in the virgin wilder
ness. whether on the Atlantic coast, or
1 IN the interior, fought hard for mere
life In the early stages the frontiers
] man had Ia do Faffla with fho "a x-o "a