The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1911-09-14

alm With o gesture OF patience, lit
is too tight here"
| L suspect that this eXprcSsed tho
feeling of good many emigrants, who
returning to their native country,
nave emigrated a second time. They
nave found things in the old country
too tight" for comfort. There is still
room IN America for people to spread
out, and grow and find out for them
selves what they are capable of As
long as people find things too tight"
they will move on. The plant stretch
es always toward the light.
| Among the emigrants with whom |
had an opportunity to talk was group
OF RoumanianS who had come up from
Pennsylvania or Sieben Burgen, as
| they called it. They were a dark, sill
cnt sort Of people who hung very
closely together and looked at us out
| of the corners Of their eyes. When I
sought to talk with them, they seem
Ell indisposcd to answer my question,
and finally one Of them told the III
| tcrDrcter that they had been instruct
cd not to talk with any one uncl they
reached America.
| Considering the elaborate rcgula-
lions which their government has i'm
posed upon people seeking to leave
Hungary and the still more elaborate
regulations which our government has
imposed upon people seeking TO enter
the United States, this did NJ par
ticularly surprise me.
Since these people were ROumanians
or Wallachs, from Siebcn Bergen,
they may have other reasons FOR not
telling why thew were leaving tho
lcOuntry. The Roumanians. although
Ithey proudly claimed descent from
the Romanconuuerors Of this part
|of the world. are. nevertheless
classcG among the "inferior". rs thew
are, in fact among the most iGnor-
ant races in Hungary. AS they
nave been particularly Dersis
tent in advertising thtir WRONGS t~
the rest Of Europc and have bctn
Frequently punished for it. they may
perhaps have learned that silence is
golden, particularly in tho presence
| Of Magyar officials.
| When in Vienna / was seeking for in
formation that would help me to I'M
derstand the racial situation in the
dual monarchy, l found that one of the
most learned and brilliant writer's on
that subject was a Roumanian, who
, while he was a student in Roumania
Academy and in 1892 had been ar.
rested with other students and con.
dcmned to four years Imprisonment
! tor writing and circulating a pamphlet
in which were enumerated "acts a.
violence" committed against the othe;
races Of Hungary by the "supcrior'
| Magyars.
The superiority Of the dominant
race seems, as matter of fact, 70 be
the foundation stone of the political
:ollcty Of the present government if
Hungary. In the last analysis il
seems to be the major premise, so to
speak, Of every argument, which hap
pen to have heard or read in iuStifl-
cation Of the policy which the govern
ment has pursued in reference to the
other races of the monarchy. In fact
the superiority Of the Magyar" race.
is responsible Tor most that is good
and evil III the history of Hungary
'or the past seventy years. 1t seems
! 10! example, to have been the chief
"ourcc OF inspiration for the heroic
struggle against Austria, which began
IN 1913 and ended with the indepen.
uence OF Hungary in 1867. 1t seems,
also, to have been the good which has
SDurrcd on the impatient leaders OF
modern Hungary il their hurry to
| oVertake and SurpaSs the progress OF
civilization in the rest of Europe.
| Unfortunately the ambition and
success Of the Magyars in their effort
to gain their political independence
and preserve their peculiar racial type
from being lost and swallowed up by
the other and "inferior" people by
which it is surrounded, has encouraged
every other nationality in a similar
desire and determination.
III it is good Tor the Magyars to
preserve their language, customs ana
'2cial l1aditions", :ay the ether races,
Ill encct, "Why is it not just as I'M
pOrlaut Tor lis, that VIC pleSeryc ours?'
The reply Of the Magyars is, in CT
feet: You have no language, no
history nor tradition worth Keeping
In short you arc an inferior race"
end here. The other nationalitics re-
ply by founding national schools and
colleges to study and preserve their
peculiar language, traditions and Gus