Norwich bulletin., 1918-04-13

After the close of the Civil war, many of the men who returned found
 the conditions of their former lives
 too narrow, and turned to the west for better opportunities, Had noth- ing changed the natural course of events, the northwest would have been settled by the best class of Ameri- cans, filled with the spirit of progress and loyalty, and it would have been far different from what it is today. When the ans-eentinent lines of railroad were proposed congress made a. free gift to them from the land over which they passed, of, each alternate section of land for twenty miles on
 both sides of the road. That Is, half a strip of land forty miles wide across | the continent was given to the rail- road with no. stipulation whatever, ex- cept that the road must be in use in q specified time. This gift was of mo-
 mentous importance to the country,
 and has determined the entire social,
 moral and civil conditions of the northwest.
 l The railroads realized that the land
 would not begin to make money for l them until it was settled, and were not inclined to wait for the slow re- I turns from normal and legitimate i'm
 migration They made contracts with
 ocean passenger ships which enabled
 them to take a person from his home in Europe, bring him to this country, then by rail bring him to their land beside the railroad. for the sum of $60-less than the rate charged one American from New York to the same place. They furnished him with food
 lumber for building, farm machinery seed, and land for a homestead, letting him pay for all in easy payments af- ter the crops were marketable These people were mostly ignorant peasants who came in colonies, generally an entire village at a time, knowing nothing of American standards or ideals, not a word of it's language bringing their religious and social ad- l VisorS. and their low standard of mar sl als, especially of sexual relations, ant
 what was still worse. filled with hate
 of the American nation, and suspicion
 of the motives of every American, TO. ,f day., in the third and fourth genera. tion, there is little change, Most O. ]. the younger people speak English, bu fmperfectly, read only papers printed .l in their own language, and have noth |, iEg to do with Yankees" if they car
 possibly avoid it.
 which the state has established arnons Y II used in reeiting from the text books . and is often taught by one of tthei
 own people. who has managed to ae quire5 just enough English to get . third grade certificate, or permit 1, to teach a certain school for tfre ; nths-and knows very little of tn 5f meaning of English words. They -keel : entirely to themselves-even wher
 americans have come in, they live il i, lentirely separate communities, neve < having common interests. Most 0
 these men took out their first naturali
 zation papers, because they must d ss Eso in order to get land. but they re : gard the whole thing as meaning
 less ceremony. They vote, they hol < I the balance of power-in some state ' they are in the majority; but the vote for the man whom their oW
 leader selects. knowing nothing at a
 of the issue.
 :. These people are the common work . CTS of the I. ". w., are the bulk ( :. :. the socialist and anarchist oFganiza . tions, and are almost all opposed = the war. Most of the non- partisa League members are found anon
 them, and nearly every stacker an = draft evader comes from their colon s ies.
 Many of the New England and mid . de west people who came to thes . states to take up land, found the COT . ditions intolerable, and went on 1 . Canada. Many of our best people al . now Canadians, because their ow