Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-10-14
LIVING STANDARDS

LIVING STANDARDS
wherever one goes he takes his habits with him.
He may change them soon after his arrival. but before
his change Of location is followed by a changed outlook
and different customs there must be time and opportunity
for his new environment to influence him. The time
necessary for the changed circumstances to exert efec-
tive influence will be governed, naturally, by the circum-
stances of the individual case An Eskimo who by some
chance should be stranded on an island in the Southern
Pacific would neither build himself a snow house nor
feast on seal blubber. Nature would stimulate him to
a rapid change in his habits.
Persons who come to the United States from other
countries bring with then, the tendency to follow the
customs of their old homes. They change those habits
IL they change them at all, In response to natural con-
dit1ons which show that the changes are necessary or
desirable, and In order to conform to the practices Of the
people among whom their lot has been cast. And if
they are thrown among enough people of their own race
and customs to form a compact group of considerable
size-a colony-the change in habit is likely to be very
slow.
It Is no news that there are in the manufacturing
districts Of the east large colonies Of persons of foreign
origin. among whom the language and customs OF the
nome land persist almost unchanged for years, sometimes
for several generations The investigation Of the ma
tionalty Of steel strikers in some of the eastern districts
conveys no new information on this point. It merely
directs attention A1resh to a condition whose existence
has long been a matter Of common knowledge.
It is frequently stated that worknnen in these dis
tricts are not living according to American standards
a tatement which. In many cases, is fully borne ont by
the facts. But there is a flaw in the reasoning which
concludes that American standards are not followed in
these cases because Of the inadequacy Of wages. Wages
may be inadequate. That is a fact to be established sep
arately, Il it is a fact. But in the foreign colony of
which, we have numerous examples there is little con-
nection between what is usually considered the American
rate Of wages and what is usually considered the Ameri-
can standard Of life.
Thousands upon thousands of men have been i'm
ported from southeastern Europe to work in American
mills and factories, and havei been colonized in groups
as foreign in all their characteristics as the populations
of Europe, from which these people were drawn. Their
language, surroundings. customs and ideals are those of
the countries from which. they came. They know moth
ing, and therefore care nothing. of American language,
American houses, American food, American systems Of
sanitation, American education, or anything that is
American, except the opportunity. which they have real
lied, to make more money for a days work than they
could make at home.
To very many Of these people more, wages does not
mean at all a greater degree of conformity to American
standards. 1t means merely more rapid accumulation
Of dollars, and an earlier return In affluenee to their old
homes.
1t is no answer to say that the employers who have
imported this labor faster than 1t could be assimilated
are themselves responsible for whatever undesirable con-
ditions may exist. That may be granted, but granting
it does not solve any Of the problems which are involved
in these conditions. Those problems can be, solved only
through a recognition of all the elements in them. and
the rate of wages is only one of those elements. Merely
to pay a man moro money will not insure his adoption
of American standards. He must know what those stand
ards are. and there must be cultivated in him the ca
pacity and the willingness to make them a part Of him.
self.