Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1917-10-12

(.
d Canadians are proud to
make war for Uncle Sam.
AsGzf4 Those in Canada have re-
p fused to volunteer for serv-
SSz ice and have fought con-
scription dangerously and fercely.
They declare that fighting for Canada Is
fighting for England once their con-
queror. Why all the rumpus? We pre-
sent here an analysis of the situation
by YvOnne LeMaitre, a French Cana
dian. Her article is taken from the
Boston Transcript, and says in part:
The one great striking fact about
the behavior Of the French Canadians
on the Yankee side of the line-or
French-Americans, as they want to be
called-is the contrast with the atti-
tude of their Quebec cousins. Their
response to the call has been splendid.
According to recruiting officers, they
and the Italians are the two racial
groups which have furnished the larg-
est proportion of volunteers in New
England. And since the coming of the
draft, not only have they been prompt
ly and periodically acquiescent to the
nations demand, but have filed fewer
exemption claims, again according to
official report from the stations, than
any other element in the population
of foreign stock.
Aside from this patriotic American
war spirit, their sympathy and affec-
tionate regard for France is lively;
ics fria Dr;4
and interest in Canadian affairs is
keen among the older people and prac-
tically absent among the younger.
Lowell. with it's population of some
$4,000 people of French name and
race, is shining spot for the study of
dare the term-involving race twice
transplanted and as often de-national-
lied and re-natiOnalized.
The natives of France in Lowell are
few, and chiefly represented by priests
In charge of the largest French Cath
Ollie parish in the city and by members
of a religious brotherhood, the Mar
lists, in charge of the boys parochial
school in the same parish. Several of
these MariSts are at the front, having
ut once responded when the call came
from France early in the war. One
was killed on his first day under fire.
So this calm home of French Cath
Ollie brotherhood in Lowell, surrounded
by a delightful garden, with charm
ing view on the Merrimac, is a spot
where the war Is very much of a
reality and every mail from France an
event.
Lowell's French Canadian stock, like
all others submitted to Uncle Sans
alchemy, varies greatly in degrees of
American assimilation. 1t has the two
extremes, of complete assimilation and
utter "hyphenation," and all the shades
between. BY the newspapers they
read We shall know them! Lowell has
@ large enough contingent of the older
French-Canadians who subscribe to La
Presse and La Patrie of Montreal and
to lie Devoir Bourassa's organ, and to
whom Canada is still very near;
they are the ones interested In the
CONSUMPTION quarrel in the Dominion.
1t has a much larger number who read
only American papers, young people
born in 'les Etats" and who insist that
they are Americans first, last and all
the time-that species of eagle-spread-
ing adopted son which Uncle knows
how and likes to turn out, plus roy
aliste que lie roi," more Catholic than
the pope and more American than the
Father of His Country. 1t mas taken
the French Canadian stock longer to
evolve this type, perhaps, than it has
taken the Irish stock, probably because
of the difference in languages and
greater attachment of the French
Canadians to their own schools. But
there is no questioning the fact that
IT has very much arrived, and is bound
TO be an ever-energizing factor in the
political advancement and general ma
terial progress of the race in New
England.
The American end of the war comes
home wildly TO New England's French
Canadians because of the extraordi- |
nary fecundity of the race, in which |
respect they differ so markedly from |
their cousins de France" The pro-
portion of young men of military age
among them is strikingly large be-
cause their families are so prolific.
one Lowell family alone had five con- |
scripts-not one of whom, by the way, |