New Britain herald., 1916-02-04

ton with the strikes. The town has a population of 9,7O0, of which 462 are voters. The schools have 1,102 pu- pills, nearly all in the lower grades. i There are nine in the high school, 1 twenty in the eighth grade and 825 in grades 1 and 3. MT. Bronson deplored 1 the fact that there are no klndergart- ems, no night-schools and no churches in the town, but there are nineteen sa- l looms. MT. Bronson then spoke as follows:
 Have you ever been a stranger in a city? If you have, you know some thing of the way the foreigner feels | in America; you know something of the difficulty of getting acquainted and especially of gettin gin touch with the 1 better influences. The evil influences are more aggressive. Have you ever been a stranger in a foreign city where the people about you speak tongue unintelligible to you? If you have, you realize better the situation of our new Americans; you appreciate some thing Of the barrier which confronts i them on every side. As l heard one 1 of them say recently, we are like the children of Israel entering the Prom ised Land and coming face to face with the walls of Jericho Such 
 walls are the strange ways; such walls i are the habits of us older Amerlcans, unused to adapting ourselves to these strangers within our gates. Our sat isfaction with ourselves, our occupa- 1 t1on in our own interests our ability i to get on without associatlng very much with these new Americans--all ! these present a barrier, a wall Of sep | aration. This barrier of separation i surrounds even our churches,-at least most of these strangers feel l there is such a wall about them. In l fact, their experience with the church. es of other lands has often made them fell that there is nothing in our l churches which will be of value or l1A- terest to them. They do not know the 1 spirit of our civilization or ot our l Christianity. They are preJudlceo ! through previous experience agalnst ! some of the best things in our Amer l ican life. It would be an utter sur 1 prise to most of them to discover what we know of some of the f12c ele- ments in our life. The materialistlc 1 side, the self-seeking side of our CIV 1 ilization presents itself to them first i in most cases they are taken adVan- 1 tage of by the steamship companies ! on their arrival here. Too often the conditions under which they work give them a very unfortunate opinion l of the heart1essness and the cruelty 1 of a materialistic and self-seeklns | people, The conditions under which l they live, the houses in which they ] are compelled to find a substitute TOT a home, these things often give them a very unfortunate idea of American life and American ideals.
 Surmounting the Barrier.
 The chief problem of the new Am erican is how to get through this bar rier and our chief problem in connec- tion with him should be how to cause these walls of Jericho to fall. The importance for us of helping to break
 down this barrier cannot be over es- timated It has been important TOT some time but we have been very SLOW to realize it and many of us 60 not now realize what it means that TIT Ct city like New York, for instance one
 quarter of the population are Jews
 from foreign lands. that there are more people speaking German prop ably than in any other city or the l world, more Italians than in any clCy ! save Naples. We are exceedingly 1 slow to realize what it means that Ill a little New England city, proud of US ancestry and of it's culture, city ike New Haven, there are between 45,ooo and 5O,OOO Italians, that one third or 1 those born in New Haven during the l last year were born of Italian parenIs' that one third of the children in the schools are Italian, and that they have come to stay, for one sixth of the tax pavers in New Haven last year were Italians.
 Not only are they here in such num-. bers. and are here to stay, but they 1 are eager to take advantage of all the opportunities offered them. In New York. for instance, although the Jews have only about one fourth or the population, in many of the educatlonai institutions of the city, ninety per 1 cent. of the students are of the He- brew race. and in all the libraries night schools, the proportion of the people of this race is way beyond their
 proportion of the population. Ihe same is true perhaps to a somewhat less degree but it is still true of most | of those who come to use from othef | lands. When we contrast thelr eag- erness to take advantage Of all the op- l portunities offered with the careless,
 indifferent f-satisfied way of the
 older Americans, it is easy to see who
 are to be the leaders in the New Am
 erica of the next generation. How inn l portant, then, is the question what l their ideals shall be and what their 1 knowledge of the best things in our 1 present civilization.
 Learning From America.
 1 But not only is it important for the | America of the coming years, It IS
 equally important for the world ot the
 Gays to come
 Have you ever travelled in foreign