Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1918-02-20

has population that is of pure racial
stock or that is at all homogeneous.
There has always been mixture of
races going on, and it will always
continue. The Tower of Babel infiu-
ence is still working. Even such a
little country as Switzerland is divid-
ed into practically three distinct ele-
ments, namely the Germans, the
French and the Italian, with traces
of various others.
The people of the north of italy
are very different from those of the
south. The people of northern France
are Celts, Flemings, ETC., while those
farther south are of Latin origin.
The people of the British Isles are a
'conglomeration of SeFts, Saxons, Tor
IGermans), Danes, Normans Cor
French) etc. Russia rs really a col
lection of different races, and this is
also true of China and India.
Turkey, as we know, numbers
among her population large sections
of Armenians, Jews, Greeks and 9TH
ers. Germans citizens include not
only Teutons but Dutch, French, Scan
'dinavians, Magyars, Slavs, etc. Aus
trie Hungary presents the greatest
mixture of people of any country
always excepting the United States.
That dual monarchy holds sway not
only over the people of Germanic and
of Hungarian blood, but also over
Slavs, Czechs, Serbs, Italians, Poles,
Jews, Turks and more than a dozen
other distinct strains.
AS we have before remarked in
these columns, such terms, as Ger
man" have no exact meaning. Some
times they are used in broad and
inclusive sense, and again in a mar
row and restrictive sense. A resi-
dent of East Prussia say may be a
Slav by race, but in political sense he
! is a German. Over one-third of Aus
tria's population of 28,000,000 are
German by race, but of course their
nationality is Austrian.
Many wild and conflicting state
ments are being made as to the num-
Der of Germans" in the United
States. 1t is no wonder that these
assertions do not hang together, for
they are based on different meanings
of the trem German" Some of our
citizens count as Germans not only
people of all races who have come
here from Germany, but also those
who came f rom Hungary,
and their descendants.
For example, H. c. Schluter, of
| Waverly Iowa says that the kind of
neutrality that this country has OBJ
served in the war is "an insult to the
% millions of Germans in this coun-
| try" AS we have shown above, how
many Germans" there are in this
country depends very much on whom
you include as German. 1t is there
fore time to look into this matter a
| little more closely so that we may
know just what the facts are and may
not be misled one way or the other.
What is German? The question
| is as hard to determine as the one
(which our government authorities
have been wrestling over and have
never been able to answer. namely,
what is beer? Beer may be under
stood to mean a malt brew containing
a given minimum percentage Of al
cohol, or more, or it may be constru-
ed to cover all beverages which show
any traces Of alcohol, or even none az
all.
Governments in compelling census
statistics cannot go deeply into the
racial extraction of the population. If
persons parents are both born in
Germany, he is listed as German,
though as a matter of fact he might
be a Jew, Slav or almost anything.
On the other hand a person whose
parents were born in Russia would be
classed as a Russian, although it
might be that his parents actually
were Of German stock.
Consequently even government fig
ures are not to be accepted as ac-
curately indicating all the facts, for
in the nature Of things the task is too
great. But they furnish a basis,
from which rough deductions may be
made.
They include persons who were
born in Germany, also those whose
parents were both born in Germany,
also those who have one parent born
in Germany-but they do not include
the descendants of former German
immigrants, as those are supposed to
have been SO completely absorbed in
our population as to be classed as
full-fedged Americans.
The figures show that total Of g.
500, 900 immigrants have come to this
country from Germany from the
founding Of the government up to
I1914-this being out Of grand total
of 81 millions. OF the 100000
people in the country at the time of
the census of 1910, total Of 13,34O,-
900 were Of foreign birth. OF these,
2,500,000 or about 70 per cent, were
Germans, in the sense Of having been
born In Germany.
About 1000, 900 more arc Germans
In the sense that both parents were
born in Germany. And there are
about 1900, 900 more who are German
TO the extent Of having one parent