Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-11-30
STUDY OF ALIENS.
College Men Follow Immigrant Trail
!. to Its Beginning.

College Men Follow Immigrant Trail
to Its Beginning.
DIR. Z. A. Steiner Of Iowa college,
Grinnell, Ia, author of the most inter
esting books in print which give the
intimate story of the European immi-
grant to America, lately landed in
New York from Europe, where he led
a party of recent college graduates
from Texas to Pennsylvania in
study of the immigrant in his home
The men were sent out by the Penn
sylvania state committee Of Young
Mems Christian associations to spend
year abroad, on their return to take
positions as general secretaries OF
Young Mems Christian associations In
the coal mining regions of that state.
Their trip became a missionary jour
ney from the start. With their popu-
lar songs and hymns, unbounded good
nature and unobtrusive interest In ev
erybody, they made their influence
wholesomely felt. When on the streets
of Rotterdam a young man greeted
them with these words: Boys, you
were a godsend to me-. l came on
board ship drunk after terrible spree,
and 1 want to tell you that your life
in the steerage has made such an i'm
preston upon me that when l return
to the States ] wish to join the Y. Nj.
C. Al
Their plan was to discard railroads,
so they bought bicycles and wheeled
up the Rhine and pedaled up the Car
| pathian mountains to get into close
touch at the source with the vast
stream of humanity which is pouring
into their native land.
Under the lead of DIR. Steiner, who
was born in Austria and commands
nearly dozen European languages
and dialects, the college boys" stud
| led the language, customs and coun-
| try, worked In the harvest fields and
| gathered fruit in the orchards with
| the peasants, learned the villagers
| folk songs in the evening and In their
| turn sang the college and church
| hymns. They found friend in ev-
cry returned immigrant, and the ma
| tives to whom America was the
1
open arms DR. Steiner said that i'm
mediately when they learned that he
was European born they gave their
attention to the boys, the real Ameri-
| cans They had for their schoolmas-
| tiers in a mission school where they
1 stopped In the heart of Poland, Rus
1 slams, Lithuanians, Poles, Bohemians
and Jews, the very best type of men
whom they needed to know.
| Commissioner Robert Watchorn con-
siders this movement Of the V NJ. c.
A. the most significant in its possibili-
ties of influence among the immi-
grants from Europe of any the or
gapization has undertaken. These
men will know the people with whom
they are to live and serve as secre-
taries of associations in. the mining
field of Pennsylvania. Other such
training expeditions directed by DR..
Steiner will undoubtedly follow. The
students will spend the balance Of the
year In Europe with the Bulgarians,
Iithuanians, Austrians and in Italy,
from which countries come the great
er bulk of the immigrants to America
The international and world commit
tees of the Y. NJ. G. A. are stationing
men at the great ports of debarkation
of the old world. who are distribut-
ing literature about America and in
Productions Of the Y. NJ c. AS In
seventeen different languages-a part
in chain Of influence beginning from
the distant interior towns and continu
ing from the ports of sailing. possibly
including later trained association secre
taries who will sail with the immigrant.
in the steerage. Immigrants are nov
met at the ports of New York, Montreal
Boston and Philadelphia by secreta
ries and introduced to branch asso
Citations throughout the country as fal
west as the mining camp of Taft
Mont; a construction camp In Roslyn
Wash; the copper mines of Arizona
and. lumber camps Of Louisiana. DIR
Steiner. said: 1.-The people marvelet
that there was not money making
scheme back of the enterprise, bu
most of all that none Of the colleg,
fellows drank even the light beer O.
the country or smoked and at thei
purity and simplicity of life as wei
as their physical vigor. They wer,
college athletes and took part in tn,
native games They introduced base
ball and gave some Of the American
citizens to be the first lessons in tn