The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1916-08-09

Miss Lily DlSmuke, Oh HIdFeS Qua
ton. who is at Chautauqua, n. Y,
taking a special course, sends The
News the following interesting article
containing an extract from a lecture
by an eminent German-American:
DR.. E. A. Steiner, a hyphenated
American who is graduate of sew
eral German universities and is at
present professor of Applied Christ
ianty of Grinnell College, Iowa, gave
a series of very interesting lectures
last week. The subject for the week
was Americanization, and the follow
ing is a part of DR.. Steiner's lecture
on The Land and the Nation:
Before the war the tide of tourist
travel from Europe had turned to-
wards the United States. Numbers
of wealthy people from Germany,
France, Italy and even England were
attracted by this land. Indeed, there
were so many that New York hotels
employed specially trained men who
could converse with them in their own
language.
Some of these tourists knew enough
not to expect to find Indian wigwams
on Broadway, so they were not sur
prised when they found the children
of Israel clogging the thoroughfare.
Some of them expected to find our
architecture offensive to their beauty
loving eyes, and were surprised to
find our sky-scrapers merely elongat-
ed campanile Greek temples walking
on stills and Gothic cathedrals in
which money is accumulated, not alb
solution from sin received. They eX-
pected New York to be patchwork
reproduction of Europe, and if the
courier knew his business he took the
strangers in the evening over to the
East Side, down the Bowery and to
Chinatown, which is daily growing
smaller and kept intact only for fl
nancial reasons. He took him to the
Italian quarters and to the Ghetto,
where the foreign children are as
many as the sands of the sea only not
as clean. No doubt they saw the
patches, but they were surprised to
find them fading or blending into
each other, or taking on strange new
hues.
The European who has watched
emigration from the Old World, who
has seen the gradual removal of those
reluctant, conservative peasants who
chung to their dialects and their GUS
toms so tenaciously, expects to find
America hodge-podge of people
with no common ideas or ideals. He
does not expect to find a nation.
Sir James Bryce found the Ameri-
can people 10th to admit that they are
a nation, although he found that they
have a demonstrative patriotism un-
equaled in England. A few years
ago the Protestant Episcopal church
was receiving it's liturgy. The pro-
posal was made and accepted that
they insert a short prayer for the
whole people, the words being: 80
Lord, bless our nation" After more
careful consideration and after much
discussion they adopted instead: 80
Lord, bless these United States" Mr..
Maurice Low quotes this as a proof
of our lack Of confidence in the fact
that we are a nation with a proper
history which has made US zone and
distinct from all Others"
This skepticism has been revived
by the great war, which is compell-
ing us to reappraise all our political
and spiritual possessions. However,
there can be but little doubt that we
are a great political unit, more unit
ed than any of the European states |
prior to the war. The German en-
pire has riffs in it which are histori-
cal, and an unsuccessful war may
widen some Of them to dangerous
proportions. Austria Hungary was
so precarious a political unit that its !
dissolution was expected after the |
death of Francis Joseph. In France |
monarchy is slumbering, and swift |
changes may be brought about by a |
great national crisis. England faces |
both Irish revolt and Indian discon-
tent, and even her faithful colonies
will doubtless ask for larger share !
in the government. Italy's and |
SPANS kings are none too secure on
their thrones.
There are no such riffs in the Unit |
ed States, although the original colo
MES were settled by people with diff |
ferent traditions, language and relig |
ion, and the states have maintained !
their own capitals and governors. In |
passing through different states one |!
never knows when one state is left |
and the other is entered. We are so
united politically that we face pres
idential election with platforms so
much the same that candidates are
staying up nights trying to find is
sues.
AS a political institution the United |
States is as remarkable as it is secure. |
1t is wonderful to have retained this
national spirit in spite of the civil
war, to increase it in spite of mil
lions of black men who were brought
from savagery and who in some
places outnumber the white men. 1t
is wonderful to be able to retain Ian
guage, customs, habits and ideals |
practically unchanged although there !
has been an annual influx of a mil
lion people who came with foreign /,
speech and alien ways. Some of these |
people we can never Americanize, |
but they never change US. We may |
A 4,ls