Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-07-14
BOLSHEVISN AND
ANARCHY THRIVE
AMONG IGNORANT
DR.. H, R; DeBra Pleads for
Education and AmeriCaniza-
ton of Foreigners Who
Come to j, S, to Locate,

ton OF Foreigners Who
Come to j, S, to Locate,
DR.. II. r. DeBra of Gary. Ind,
spoke at the Lead Avenue Methodist
church yesterday morning on the
theme, The Alien in Our Industrial
Centers, and the ChuTCh's Problem.
DIR. DeBra is one of the men con
nected with the Methodist centenary
and is superintendent Of the Calumet
mission fell. the steel manufacturing
field around the lake eastward from
Chicago, at the center of which is the
city of Gary. He had the distinction
of studying out and discover ne not
only the reason for the great develop
ment of the steel industry there, but
predicted that Gary would be the cen,
ter of the greatest steel industry IN
America and presently of the world,
all of which is being rapidly fulfilled.
But it is with reference to the
human life in this and like centers
that the speaker was concerned. The
population of Gary is so per cent for
eign and that whole region is rs per
cent foreign.
America faces a crisis in the matter
of its speaking population, &C
cording to DR.. DeBra. There are
now 100000 foreign born inhabi-
tants in the country, and with the
first generation of children a total of
So, 100000, or one-th!rd of its popu-
lation.
Josiah Strong said twenty-five
years ago: IF we don't Americanize
these foreigners. they will foreignize
us" Enough things have happened
In this twenty-five year period to
prove that he was a good prophet
Samuel Gompers has just said that
these foreigners are brought to Amer
lea as cheap labor. That may have
been so once but it is not true now
If there is anything cheap about the
labor in the steel mills it has not been
found.
The foreigners. DR., DeBra said are
brought here because they are hardy
and will do the hard. dirty. dangerous
work that Americans will not do, and
it is all folly to talk about driving
them out of the country.
And yet it takes little argument to
prove that Bolshevism and anarchy
find their ready soil in the midst of
the ignorant foreigners. 1t is no far
cry to see the time when America
may face a condition that will make
the French revolution look mild, the
speaker said.
DR.. Zebra contended that these
people can be readily reached and can
be American!zed, but laid down as the
first requirement a complete change
in the attitude of the American people
themselves. They can never BE won
by being mistreated he said. 1t is
a mistake to look down on the Balkan
peoples, he added. They are simply
an oppressed race perfectly capable
of fine intellectual development and
of response to the highest and best in
American civilization.
DR.. DeBra is charged by the church
with the task of studying these people
and learning the best method of
canization program to which the
government, the public schools and
now the churches of all denominations
are giving themselves.
The history of these people throws
flood of light on the problem. They
were "a quiet, pastoral people, settled
in the valleys of eastern and south
eastern Europe, when the terrific
struggle broke out between the Ro'
man empire on the west, and the
Huns, Vandals and Goths, the fierce
Tartar tribes from the east. These
contending forces trampled back ant
forth over these people for 500 years
And then, as if fate had not been crue
enough to them, they were smothered
for 500 years more under the domi'
nance of the unspeakable Turk. But
out from it all these people came
struggling, fighting for liberty.
Although nominally under the east
ern or orthodox Greek church, or part
of them under the western hierarchy
they maintained through all the years
a secret cult which was virtual dec.
laration of ndependence--a refusal &c
submit to the authority of any gov
eminent, political or ecclesiastical
that was not Of their own choosing.
To be sure. this shows itself al
times in violent anarchy and it is this
phase of their life that the Bolshevist
seizes upon, by making them believe
that the Americans despise them, that
the government is against them, and
that they are in danger of being inn
posed upon in this country, just as
they were in the old country, and in
their ignorance of the truth they are
ready for riots.
But on the other hand, the sacred
cult referred was also a strongly re-
ligtous sentiment, a longing to be free
from the dominance of a state church,
which at that time was little more
than a political machine and often
played the people into the hands OF
intolerant political autocracies.
This sentiment the church can
reach by frank approach, and will
find 1t Just as ready means of turning
the thought of the alien to the princi-
pies Of American liberty-liberty of
selecting and Expressing himself re-
ligiously as well as to gain liberty of
his person.
1T is the duty of the church." said
DIR. DeBra, TO save the alien from
the worst form of American influences
and to bring to him the best. And it
Will find no reader pupil. The men
tai capacity of the pupil is well shown
in the splendid progress the children
make in the public schools
DR.. DeBra then explained the sys-
tenn Of day schools for religious in
struction recently founded in Gary,
where in seven schools this year there
were enrolled over 2,200 pupils, COM
ing two hours a week to receive def
mite instruction in the Bible and in
religious matters. Twenty-eight ma