The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-06
MARY ANTIN

A small, modest looking woman of
foreign appearance and slightly for
eIgn accent, who carries in her express
sion and voice the pain of the perse-
cutions of an ancient race, spoke to
an audience of several hundred peo-
pie Friday night. Mary Antin, the
Russian, Jewish immigrant, whose
writings and lectures have done more
for the strangers in this land than
any other factor, addressed a body of
Topekans in the high school audi
torium- She made a plea for the for
elSnerS who come to this country
for their education after they arrive,
and for an extended permission for
them to come
America has managed to give to
the world the idea that she is a coun-
try with a mission, and that that
mission is her reason for her peculiar
place among the nations. That mis-
sion is founded on the law laid down
in the declaration of independence
that All men are created free and
are equally entitled to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness, 1t was
by the enunciation of this principle
that she won her freedom from Eng
principle, the war of Independence was
nothing better than a colossal land
grab like many of the other wars of
the world.
America has always had the immi-
grant question. In the days of Gov
ernor Winthrop, that man complained
that the Massachusetts Bay Colony
was being overrun by the ragtag and
bobtail of Europe, but the descend
ants of that ragtag and oobtan were
signers of the Declaration of INDIE
pendence and the heroes of '76.
1t is charged against the neWcom-
erS that they are here for what they
can get. They are here for bread. So
were the Pilgrim Fathers here for a
better chance in life. But the imrni-
grants who come voluntarily are here
for other reasons. They are here for
liberty, for free education, the free
libraries. share in the freedom and
the spiritual blessing of which Amer
lea proclaim herself the giver. The
records Of the libraries in the eastern
cities show that the books of phil
osophy, history, the books of educa-
tional value, and the great American
classics are read mostly in the foreign
quarter, and the newest fiction is read
in the palaces on Fifth avenue.
I'VE are told that it is impractical
to apply the law of the Declaration
of Independence and give all men an
equal chance. 1t may have been i'm
practical for the Jewish people
through ages of suffering to stay by
their law, but they have stayed. CIV
ing their bodies to be burned. to star
walton, to wandering, to robbery. but
they have kept their faith.
THE American laborer is afraid OF
immigration, for he thinks it robs his
own Q1nnor pail. ct as l. Travelled
west I found this side of the MISSISSIPPI
pi what is almost an empty continent.
You are so few out here that you rat
tie around like three peas in a hogs
head. There is a menace in the
scheme of the corporations to bring
cheap labor here from Europe, but
that should be dealt with before the
procurer of those laborers leaves
America, and the arrivals should not
be turned back after they get to Ellis
Island.
You people of Topeka have an OPP
portunity to help YOUR own foreign
population before it becomes larger
than it is. You have a chance to teach
them citizenship, the great gospel of
Americanism, liberty and equality. If
there are half a dozen people in To-
peka who are filled with the zeal of
that gospel everything necessary can
be done. The disciples of Jesus were
less than a score, but they dared the
task of evangelizing the whole world
B H