The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-04-13
AS TO AMERICANS.

to stand up for ones own and Mr. Edward Box must
have forgotten that law. or else he must have
thought that to him only did its application belong
giving him every right to attack his adopted coun
try and its institutions and to speak in high praise
of the land Of the Netherlands. where he born.
but from which he emigrated this country because
OF reversed family fortunes
1t is very evident from article by Mr.. Box ap-
pearing in the Saturday Evening Post that the
or editor Of the Ladies' Home Journal considers him.
self self made. in every Of the word, and has
no intention whatever OF allowing anyone to sup
that he any special gratitude his adopted
country.
He shoulders through paragraph after paragraph at
the thriftessness the United States and its people
| He declares that of the lessons he learned at
school was that to save money to be looked upon
! as stingy; as young man he found that the Amer
lean disliked the word ECONOMY" Exclamatoriy he
says: 1T in this atmosphere of unyvise expen-
diture and waste that to practice thrift,
damental in fe And it is into this atmosphere that
4 the foreign-born comes now with every inducement
to spend and with encouragement to save. For
it was in the days of my boyhood. it is today
and worse" He declares 1.-The foreign-b born are
learning the habit of criminal waste as taught them
by the American"
He to tell the American people how far they
fail, when it comes to business methods how lax
they are, how careless; how quantity is placed above
his teacher that dates and should be written
i out in full-that Co" did not spell company or
Jan" spell January How that must have bruised
the spirit of the poor foreign boy What tragedy
of childhood
He declares that in the matter of education Amer
lea fell absolutely short with him. and emphasizes
this with the statement that inadequate and
incompetent method of teaching, he looks back
over years of attendance at three different
is
He says further: If there is thing that /, as
La foreign-born child. should have received care in
being taught it was the English language. 1t was
left to my father to teach in The evening for
lme}to dig it out for myself"
After telling of all of faults he blandly adj
mts his success. and assures that he succeeded
mot by reason of these shortcomings which he
found in the United States but in spite of them
That is how most people succeed in life-by over
coming. 1t is seldom the who has things made
easy for him all the way, who succeeds it is the
man who overcomes obstacles.
We take issue with Mr.. Box on every one of his
statements. If there is lack of thrift in the United
States. much of the thrftlessness has been intro
duced into this country by the same foregn-born.
Certainly could claim that the pioneers of
America thriftless.
He charges the United States with lack of thrift
with failure to practice economy; yet the business
men of this country had enterprise enough and acu-
men enough and generosity enough to finance the
countries of the world; and spite of the fact that
they abbreviate their dates and names of some of
their great enterprises they managed to feed only
the people of their country and to equip and
: feed great army. but to feed the people of other
nations and to aid in their equipment.
Men who know about these things better than
either the writer Mr. Box declare that the work OF
the United States during the great exceeded any
thing of the kind before dreamed of, in the
rapidity of assembling, equippng and transporting
the men and in the humanitarian work accomplished
Thrifty not thrifty, whether crossing It's"
dottins rs made good. And have always
made good. In spite Of and not because of those
who to profit and remain to criticise.
Mr.. Box declares that he spent seven years three
= different public schools in the United States. And
yet he has not one good word to say. for those
schools. What would Abraham Lincoln have giver
for those of schooling, wonders. And
one is also forced to wonder how they manage
h things in the Netherlands.
Let us suppse. for instance that an American boy
emigrates to a foreign country.-woud they, won
der give him special teacher. would they expect
him to get along best he could. until he had
Iquired the language of his adopted country?
But says Mr. Box. the sky is the limit to the for.
4 eign-born who comes to America imbued with hon
est endeavor, ceaseess industry and ability carry
lthrough-he might have added or be carried through
IL seems to US that any young man who has re-
ceived seven years schooling at the expense of The
: commonwealth, has been helped along on the up
. ward way to considerable extent. Not that, tn,
United States deserves any credit for it. however
Mr. Box is very careful about that: He saws How
Igood an American has the process of Americanza
: tion made me? That cannot say : - But as lool
round and have come to know as NV close friends
- the American born, wonder it, after all the foreign
born does not make in some sense a better Amer
lean"