The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-10-16
WAR WILL HARM
AMERICAN TYPE
Will Mean a Less Desirable
Glass of Aliens.
BASIS FOR THIS CONTENTION

COmm iSSioner Rowe POINTS TO Dentcf-3f
alizing Effect of Previous Armed.
Conficts-Domestic Life and Civilian
Routine Pail Upon Men Accustomed |
to Excitement of Soldering.
The effect of the European war upon |
America will be felt beyond the bound |
aries of trade and commerce. Even
though we are not numbered among
the combatants the war will involve
cost to us in it's effect upon the brain
and Drawn of the future, just as it w
produce many puzzling social and 10
dustrial problems. Thus writes Ed
ward Marshall in the New York Times.
These conclusions and the detailed
theories upon which they find their
basis were the subject matter of a talk
Mr.. Marshall had with DR.. Frederic
c. Howe. late of the Peoples institute
and now United States commissioner
of immigration in New York.
War Will Bring UndesirabIes.
"Will the war affect US by general
ly lowering the average of the Euro
pean aliens coming to US as immi-
grantsY' DR.. Howe was asked.
1T seems to me that that is inevita-
BILE" he replied. Let us consider the
two essentials of a desirable immi-
grant. The first is moral quality and
the second physical fitness.
History shows that every war which
has continued for any length of time
has had a more or less demoraliZing
effect on its participants. Men who go
| to the front are unsettled in all the
| relationships of life. 1t is the claim
Of militarists that army training pro
| notes discipline. The social records
show that actual war training makes
men subsequently chafe at routine and
| infects them with a moral laXity which
! must permanently deteriorate them.
| After the American civil war the
country suffered for years from the
| consequent moral disturbance. Mill
| tary service divorced men from their
| homes, their families and their employ
ments, and when military service end
ed they did not invariably return to
them.
MANY of those who did return found
| themselves afflicted by unease and
/ could not settle down to a life which
| seemed humdrum to them.
This sequel to our civil war con
tinued for years and might have had
seriously injurious effect upon the ma
tional psychology If its manifestation
had not been coincident with the need
for many men tand women. tool to en-
gage in the development of new west
ern country.
Even after our Spanish war men
who had served as soldiers found it
difficult to settle down, and the effect
on industry and society in general was
appreciable
Dire Consequences.
IF we admit these facts. then what
must we expect in the way of social
and psychological disturbance as the
!, result of this present war?
ut will disrupt or seriously disturb
millions upon millions of homes and
domestic groups 1t has INTERRUPTED
) the education of countless youths and
thereby will render them less efficient
industrially and more likely to lead
unsettled, unsuccessful lives
This wreckage of all Europe's fam
lily life will be a serious matter for the
whole world. 1t is possible that the
! gains of fifty years, due to social leg
islatiOn and the betterment of the hU
man stock of Europe. through medica
2 and other scientific advance, will b,
| more than offset by the war"
= How will this affect American
obviously this will directly hur
: America. 1t will react upon futur,
} | American generations.
: 1--WE have been receiving approx
r mately a million aliens into this coun
a try every year. For the most par
D these have been of good physical type
= and, of course. they have been marke,
6 by high average of initiative and tn
q spirit of adventure. which is the spiri
e of progress. Without these two i'm
/ pulses they would not take the plung
of emigration
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