New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-11-09

provision of an American home, what
shall we say of the native born who
make their money by keeping the
home Of the so-called foreigners as
un-American as possible? When the
army is sent home shall the Ameri-
canized soldiers come back to foreign
homes in a, foreign community? Let
the real Americans call for IAN Am
erican home for every American SOL
der Why not. if we are really be-
levers in America? Americanism
that is passive, Indifferent. and toll
Grant Of injustice is not Am ricanism
at all; for, in the words Of Lowell:
1T is the brave man chooses,
While the coward stands aside,
Doubling in his abject spirit
Till his Lord is crucifed;
And the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied"
Our Srnugness is q Fault.
One of the most difficult problems
Of characterization is to change the
viewpoint of the native or to arouse
him from that lethargy which says,
why bother?" Why does our good
citizen not recognize that the saloon
has been a community center and
often the only social agency of Amer
iCanization provided for the stranger
and the alien. We may agree that 1t
has not been q desirable means, but
many an Immigrant has been intro
duced to America through the saloon.
The fault has been not his, but ours.
He found hts only friends and his
fellowship there. Add to that the
fact that he found it was favored by
law, or regardless of law, so that 1t
was permitted to remain open at
hours and days when churches
schools and amusement places were
not open.
Then is It any wonder that one i'm
migrant thus expresses the strong i'm
preston gained by him that all re-
formers were hypocrites, and that the
w. c. T. u. was an assoc citation Of
married women who shirked their
home duties, and of old maids who
had no home duties to shirk--nothing
to do but NEEDLE with the affairs of
others? This expression is quoted
from Edward A. Steiner, and may
have been shared by many others.
But it is unfortunate for Americans
to be Indifferent to the impressions
thus established.
The Problem Not Superficial.
How long will intelligent and we'll
meaning people be content to regard
intemperance as a chief cause of pow
erty when it has become we'll accept
ed by social science that the reverse
is true that it is poverty which more
often leads to intemperance, although
the intemperance may in turn lead
on to restitution? Our social work
ers are courageous, but if we mistake
the relation of the cause and the eff
feet, our energies are misdirected and
neither of the evils will be quickly
rem edied. Again we are faced with
the problem of preparation for the
wise spending of leisure time. For If
we increase g. mans leisure or his
earnings without improving his abil-
ity and opportunity to spend them
wisely, we may be increasing his OPP
portunity to get drunk, as eX-Pres1-
dent Eliot of Harvard has so aptly
said.
But is there not a solemn warning
in the fact that SO many Americans
prefer the cheapest movies to an eve
ming at home, where the subjects of
conversation have been exhausted
after the sporting and war news, as
well as clothes and servants, have
been discussed? If Americans are
ever to be regarded as a cultured peo-
pie, the richness of their interests
and subjects of conversation must
keep pace with their fondness for
movies and sports; their interest and
sympathy for other people and other
ideas must not be crowded out by
localized and selfish interest that feels
disturbed by a larger social contact
How all this is to be done is the all
engrossing problem, as the movement
toward democracy goes it's conquer
ing way.