Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-12-20


serious than it is.
The economic distress that
led the pioneers of the south
and eastern European coun-
tries to migrate pressing.
The average earning Of slOvak. for instance, dur
ing the harvest season rs cents a day, and in
other he fortunate to get half that
much, work as scarce as wages were low.
If load Of wood brought to town dozens would
apply for the job of saving it, A strong muscular
servant girl who could scrub and wash attend to the
garden and look after cattle and sheep. besides
helping with the harvest, might get $40 year with
big cake and pair Of shoes thrown in. Hard
bread and an onion constituted the daily diet Ed
ward STEINER. himself immigrant and of
the greatest of authorities immigration, tells
OF seeing pig die OF disease and being buried. Ac
cording was covered with quicklime and coal
oil. Hardly had burial been completed when the
carcass mysteriously disappeared-for the peasants
were hungry and meat was scarce
And so it has been everywhere. Once the tide
starts given country keeps up. growing larger
it A few Joshuas and Calebs travel to
this Canaan and then write back telling OF the
milk honey they find here. or else they go back
with the grapes American gold. and after that the
trail needs no blazing
The rise of the new" immigration is as remark
able as the decline of the "old" Thirty years ago
there less than thirty thousand Austria-Hun-
garians coming to America annually; today the
years ago 126 Greeks to America imm-
grants; last $4,000 Italy's contributions
to population was six times great in 1911 as
in 1882, Russia's ten times great while Turkey
sent $4,000 in 1911 compared with So in 1882.
The attitude OF the governments affected by the
new" immigration depends largely upon the degree
its permanence in America Italy instance, is
very glad to it's people over because they
have demonstrated that they only come back,
by italian into conditions Sicily,
the beneficial effect of the returning Of the emil
grant declared in the strongest terms. It
said that greater than the benefit Of any laws the
government could pass, better than training the
government could give. the benefits conferred
upon the community by the returning emigrants. Not
merely did he bring new wealth thing the commu-
nifty badly needed, but what much impor-
tant brought with him the American spirit of in
tellgent enterprise which did much for his commu-
nifty In short the report indicates. that the re-
turned emigrant helps his community in Italy about
as much as an agricultural school graduate helps the
farmers of his community in America
And so it is proving throughout southern and
eastern Europe The returning immigrant is carry
ing back American money. along with it Ameri-
can thought and American customs. Scarcely a viii
lege there is without its returned immigrants
They bring American monographs American collars
and ties, American taste for modern clothes It is
no novelty in the remote mountain villages to
a American talking machine screeching Amer
lean rag~time.
In every country the returning immigrant is some
body in his little community. He has made much
in America in week he made at home in several
months. and his savings of thousand dollars make
him nabob The people believe his stories of Amer
genius achievement until he gets to telling
about a forty-story building, and then their faith
breaks down. They can believe that the Americans
have machine into which feed iron and
wood and wagon comes out Of it finished; they can
even believe that have machines which will cut
wheat it, grind the flour and then make bread
or cake out of it according which button is
pressed, when it to forty-story building,
that is impossible
The pitiful thing about the new" immigrant is
the fact that usually halls from rural village,
where he worked the farms and in the vineyards
or herded sheep. Landing in a big city he is imme-
diatey beset by those who would exploit him. Off
goes industrial center where he must live
in places scarcely fit for human habtation crowded
with others in shack scarce big enough for
two The work he finds is either filthy or danger
GUS He goes into the bituminous coal mine into the
fertilizer factory, into the woodworking plant into
the slaughtering house-everywhere that there is
work too disagreeabe dangerous for the native
American workingman-
The toll that taken these immigrants IS
fearful. With few them to cast a re-
filming influence them. they spend their time be-
tween working and drinking, rule, and saving
what they with the day In view Wnen they can
return to their native land In the vast majority Of
cases condition the time being is in
America than 1t was in their native lands But they
sacrifice themselves today in America in order that
tomorrow at they may live in comfort If
they lived according to American standards their
wages would barely suffice to keep them going. But
they will half starve themselves and live in the
worst of surroundings for the sake of going back
day.
Where the women along they usually keep
boarding houses, and their husbands compel them
do so long the wives yet without the Amer
lean spirit. But manyis the time when there has
been a declaration of independence proclaimed in
of these boarding houses the wife concluded
longer to play slave her lord The Slav has
of our consideration for wife. has a proverb
that he is happy twice life; when he